A BANQUET — literally a DRINKING, from shatah, to drink. It is the structural unit of Esther: the book contains ten of them, arranged in pairs, and everything decisive happens at one — the king's two feasts here, Vashti's, the wedding feast, Esther's two banquets for the king and Haman, and finally the feasting of Purim itself. A book that never mentions prayer or sacrifice organizes itself entirely around meals. → first discussed at Esther 1:3