The book of Esther is many things, Professor Levenson points out. It is a tale of intrigue at court and of lethal danger to the Jews narrowly averted. It is a tale of the ascent of an orphan in exile to the rank of the most powerful woman in the empire. It is a tale of how a humiliated minority came to be respected and feared by the Gentile majority. It is the comical story of a pompous fool who does himself in.