Purim's coming: Saturday night March 15th and Sunday March 16th. It's going to be a blast of a party, which is a little weird. Why? Because there are 3 parties in the Book of Esther, and someone gets done in in each of them. 

The Book of Esther is like a modern sitcom -- all the men are fools except for the conniving Jew, Mordecai. In chapter 1 King Ahasuerus throws a 180 day drunken bash for his friends, lustilly calls for his curvaceous wife Vashti to come dance (some would say wearing only the royal diadem); and when she refuses, banishes her. The king's adviser, Memucan, pronounces that Vashti offended not only the king, but, megalomaniacally, "all the officials and against all of the peoples in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus." Why you ask? Because if the queen can refuse the king, every woman can refuse her husband's irrational, drunken demands, and then where would we be (think Florida here)? So Vashti is banished from the royal precincts (the midrash says she was killed) and the king searches for a new bride.

Chapter 2 begins with the king's remorse about what he had done in his stupor. Rashi comments that he was sad in remembering Vashti's beauty. Wow! Sounds like a frat party gone bad! After choosing Esther as his bride, the king feasts again (it's good to be king), and this time Mordecai overhears two of the king's eunuchs, Bigthan and Teresh, plotting against their boss. The eunuchs suffer an impaling experience, and Mordecai earned points with His Highness.

In chapter 7, Esther uses a party to undo Haman, the sycophantic, murderous enemy of the Jews. As a result of the party, Haman, too, ends up on the pointy end of a stake, hoisted on his own petard, and so the book ends triumphantly for the Jews, with so much blood that few can stomach the picture.

So the question: what do you imagine the book thinks of parties? Why, when there's lots of alcohol being consumed, does someone always end up dead? And why in the world do we Jews throw a party while listening to the Megillah?

What's your opinion?