~~~SisterSea~~~

  Esther 1:1-2:1   Queen Vashti and Esther have often been contrasted with Vashti compared negatively with Esther.   Both women deserve to be viewed in a positive light.   However, I want to focus of Vashti.   Jewish feminist scholar, Tamar Kadari, provides a glimpse of the Midrashic handling of Vashti.   On the one hand, the Erez Israel Rabbis portray Vashti in a positive light but “ they find a flaw in her, for which she is punished by God and is deposed. They assert that Ahasuerus wanted to rebuild the Temple, but Vashti stayed his hand.“   On the other hand, Kadari states, “the Babylonian Rabbis tend to cast Vashti in an extremely negative light, as wicked, a Jew-hater and wanton.” [1]    Despite the rabbinical traditions, Vashti has become a symbol of integrity and strength for modern women of faith, Jewish and Christian.   Women can relate to Vashti because she, like many women who say ‘no’, to men in power, find themselves...

  Today is the feast of the Epiphany, which is one of the feasts where the readings are the same each year.   The word “ epiphany ” comes from the ancient Greek word, epiphaneia , which means “manifestation or striking appearance."   An epiphany is an experience of sudden and striking realization.   Although the term is generally used to describe scientific breakthroughs and religious or philosophical discoveries, it can also apply to any situation in which an enlightening realization allows a problem or situation to be understood from a new perspective.   For example, the pandemic, the police killings of George Floyd in the States, and Chantel Moore in Canada, revealed the cracks in our social fabric.   But along with these tragedies, social concern engendered heroic acts of compassion and collaboration in many individuals and groups.     In the second line of the Second Reading, the lectionary version says “… that the mystery was made know...