The Hermeneutics of Textual Exile: Comparing Rabbinic and Poststructuralist Readings of Esther

Abstract

This article falls into two main parts. The first reviews the debate over the nature of rabbinic exegesis and its comparison with post-structuralist reading strategies, especially as this has been fuelled by the work of Susan Handelman. The second section focuses on the Masoretic text of the Book of Esther in the light of that review, setting Timothy Beal's recent work on Esther alongside some features of its reception in rabbinic literature. Some potentially common interpretive ground can be identified, but in what sense the indeterminacy of meaning maintained by such contemporary readings can be considered “rabbinic” remains, itself, an open question.