A lesson from the Megillah

There are many lessons we learn from the Megillah.

One is from the treatment of Queen Vashti. The commentators consider her to have been a bit uppity in general and her refusal to appear before Achashverosh was not atypical behavior. Therefore the embarassed Persian monarch, at the instigation of Haman, enacted an irrevocable decree that women must be subservient to their husbands. Non-Jews follow this rule to this day, as any perusal of evangelical Christian internet sites proves. Because there is a Torah prohibition of following in the ways of the goyim (derived from Vayikra 18), it is therefore an ussur for a Jewish women to be subservient to her husband. Some authorities argue that the prohibition is rabbinic because the prohibition only specifically mentions Egypt and Canaan as nations we should not follow and the decree is from a Persian monarch; however, others point out that Achashverosh was also the ruler of Egypt and Canaan and therefore the prohibition has the status of a biblical prohibition.