Reviews

The paradigmatic Jewish king is David. Alongside him in the paradigmatic biblical throne room sits not any of David's own wives, colorfully individuated as some of them are, but Esther, of Purim fame. Kings and queens are political figures, and the stories of David and Esther inevitably if not unambiguously convey political visions, conceptions of the forms of political life that Judaism ought and ought not assume. Two recent books, one by Jacob Wright on David, and the other by Aaron Koller on Esther, explore these figures with an eye toward the political. In the spring of 2015, Wright and Koller visited the University of Notre Dame to speak about the other's book. The following review essays stem from that event.