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I’m confounded by this verse (1:8):

גַּ֚ם וַשְׁתִּ֣י הַמַּלְכָּ֔ה עָשְׂתָ֖ה מִשְׁתֵּ֣ה נָשִׁ֑ים בֵּ֚ית הַמַּלְכ֔וּת אֲשֶׁ֖ר לַמֶּ֥לֶךְ אֲחַשְׁוֵרֽוֹשׁ׃

“Also, Queen Vashti made, from two women, the royal palace belonging to King Achasverosh.”

How did Queen Vashti build a palace out of people? The verse does not say the palace was built by 2 women, rather of two women. And if it’s allegorical, who are these mysterious two women?

This question is Purim Torah and is not intended to be taken completely seriously. See the Purim Torah policy.

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  • judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/89767/…
    – wfb
    Commented Feb 27, 2018 at 3:36
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    @wfb the verb clearly has Vashti as subject not object. Forgive me for being serious.
    – LN6595
    Commented Feb 27, 2018 at 4:36
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    It's interesting that the pasuk implies that someone else also made a palace out of two women but the megillah never tells us who.
    – Daniel
    Commented Feb 27, 2018 at 12:19

3 Answers 3

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Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim 630:12 rules clearly that you can make walls out of people. The real question is how Vashti made an entire palace out of only two people.

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The first part of the pasuk states that Vashti was cloned from two women so that she had two mothers and no father.

The second half of the pasuk deal with the concept that אשתו היא ביתו and that a wife is often called the man's house (בית). Thus, it is saying that as queen, Vashti was the בית of the king. She (as grand-daughter of Nevuchadnetzar) is what made Achashveros royal.

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The Megilla is speaking metaphorically here. The two women are Vashti herself and Esther. The point is that no man, even a man as powerful as Achashverosh who lives in a palace, can have a בית without a woman. Vashti and Esther were the king's wives and as such were the substance of his palace.

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