Vashti: The Woman Who Said No

About twenty years ago, my 7 or 8 year old daughter and I were discussing Purim costumes. She said, "Mom, what's the difference between Vashti and Esther's costume? They were both queens." I was stumped.
 

by Anita Silvert, www.anita.silvert.wordpress.com

About twenty years ago, my older daughter and I were discussing Purim costumes. She was about 7 or 8. She said, "Mom, what's the difference between Vashti and Esther's costume? They were both queens." I was stumped, I had never thought of it before. My sister always liked to be Haman and I always wanted to be Esther. I didn't give Vashti much thought.

But that year, my daughter thought about Vashti. I couldn't imagine what her costume would look like. Costumes weren't my expertise anyway, so the only thing I could think of was to dress her like a queen, just like Esther, and add one thing: a cardboard sign around her neck, with a great big red circle and a line through it, and wrote "NO" on it. 

Vashti said, "No", I told her, and from then on, the entire Silvert family, which includes another daughter, a son, and a husband, has held Vashti in high esteem, because she's the woman who said, "No."