J. T. Waldman

Wow! Lots of connections to people in the ancient past, also to two different Messiahs: Mashiach ben David and Mashiach ben Joseph, who connected to Mordechai and Esther, Saul, Joshua, Joseph, and Rachel and Jacob. Timna is an ancestor of Amalek and Haman according to the genealogy tree at the beginning of the book; she is in the wordless prologue, which concludes with a quote from Sanhedrin 99b in the Babylonian Talmud. (So we are initially responsible for Haman because our Patriarchs rejected her; just as, according to the Midrash, our being afflicted as slaves in Egypt is because Sarah afflicted Hagar. But I digress. As does Waldman.)
There are endnotes in the back: rabbinic citations* justifying Waldman's words and illustrations and also "The Mystery of the Lotus" notes with "clues towards uncovering more of the mystery surrounding the story of Esther." [p. 163] And halfway through the text, when the story becomes topsy-turvy and things start to turn in favor of the Jews, you have to turn the book upside down and start reading it from right to left. The side margins have page numbers as well as the chapter and verse of Megillat Esther.
It all feels a bit overwhelming and a little chaotic, a bit like a Megillah reading!

*Waldman explains that there is a long rabbinic tradition of citing one's sources and provides a source from Megillah 15a in the Babylonian Talmud: "R. Chanina said: 'Whoever repeats something in the name of one who said it brings redemption to the world.'" [p. 160; also see p. 157] I had always thought, and been amused by the fact that quoting your sources is based on an unattributed(!) verse in Pirke Avot, a book mostly about attributed quotes. (see Avot 6:6)… (mais)