ABSTRACT
Think of the book of Esther as a kind of palimpsest: a story is written, then erased, and then a new story is written over the old, erased one. The story of the other woman is written over by the story of the other Jew. Vashti is erased, and in different ways Esther and Mordecai will each occupy the blank spaces she leaves behind. Traces of the other woman will be legible on the other Jew. Vashti will survive her own end in the narrative. She will haunt the rest of the story. The story of Esther and Mordecai never shakes her memory.
