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Megillat Esther is all about fateful events: being in the right place at the right time (or in the wrong place at the wrong time), or being privy to information that might just save the king`s life and cause him to be indebted to you, the savior, (or incurring the wrath of a person both powerful and vindictive). At the end of the third chapter of the megilla we read of one such fateful event , one which could mean destruction for all of the Jews under Ahashverosh`s reign. Haman, with the king’s approval, sends out a letter to enact a murderous decree against the Jews:

...Haman sought to destroy all the Jews that were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahashverosh, the people of Mordechai. But it seemed contemptible in his eyes to lay hands on Mordechai alone; for they had made known to him the people of Mordechai; In the first month, which is the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of king Ahashverosh, they cast pur, that is, the lot, before Haman from day to day, and from month to month, to the twelfth month, which is the month Adar. And Haman said unto king Ahashverosh: 'There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom; and their laws are diverse from those of every people; neither do they keep the king's laws; therefore it would not profit the king to suffer them. And the king said to Haman: 'The silver is given to you, the people also, to do with them as it seem good to you.'

Esther 3:6-11 (JPS Translation)

וַיְבַקֵּשׁ הָמָן, לְהַשְׁמִיד אֶת-כָּל-הַיְּהוּדִים אֲשֶׁר בְּכָל-מַלְכוּת אֲחַשְׁוֵרוֹשׁ--עַם מָרְדֳּכָי. בַּחֹדֶשׁ הָרִאשׁוֹן, הוּא-חֹדֶשׁ נִיסָן, בִּשְׁנַת שְׁתֵּים עֶשְׂרֵה, לַמֶּלֶךְ אֲחַשְׁוֵרוֹשׁ:  הִפִּיל פּוּר הוּא הַגּוֹרָל לִפְנֵי הָמָן, מִיּוֹם לְיוֹם וּמֵחֹדֶשׁ לְחֹדֶשׁ שְׁנֵים-עָשָׂר--הוּא-חֹדֶשׁ אֲדָר. וַיֹּאמֶר הָמָן, לַמֶּלֶךְ אֲחַשְׁוֵרוֹשׁ--יֶשְׁנוֹ עַם-אֶחָד מְפֻזָּר וּמְפֹרָד בֵּין הָעַמִּים, בְּכֹל מְדִינוֹת מַלְכוּתֶךָ; וְדָתֵיהֶם שֹׁנוֹת מִכָּל-עָם, וְאֶת-דָּתֵי הַמֶּלֶךְ אֵינָם עֹשִׂים, וְלַמֶּלֶךְ אֵין-שֹׁוֶה, לְהַנִּיחָם.  אִם-עַל-הַמֶּלֶךְ טוֹב, יִכָּתֵב לְאַבְּדָם; וַעֲשֶׂרֶת אֲלָפִים כִּכַּר-כֶּסֶף, אֶשְׁקוֹל עַל-יְדֵי עֹשֵׂי הַמְּלָאכָה, לְהָבִיא, אֶל-גִּנְזֵי הַמֶּלֶךְ.  וַיָּסַר הַמֶּלֶךְ אֶת-טַבַּעְתּוֹ, מֵעַל יָדוֹ; וַיִּתְּנָהּ, לְהָמָן בֶּן-הַמְּדָתָא הָאֲגָגִי--צֹרֵר הַיְּהוּדִים.  וַיֹּאמֶר הַמֶּלֶךְ לְהָמָן, הַכֶּסֶף נָתוּן לָךְ; וְהָעָם, לַעֲשׂוֹת בּוֹ כַּטּוֹב בְּעֵינֶיךָ.

אסתר ג:ו-יא

In the following chapter, we find that Mordechai already knows the contents of the fateful letter written at the end of the third chapter. Mordechai therefore goes to Queen Esther to tell her to appeal to the king to annul the decree, but she refuses because she knows that King Ahashverosh had not recently called her into his chamber. Esther protests:  "כל-עבדי המלך ועם-מדינות המלך ידעים אשר כל-איש ואשה אשר יבוא-אל-המלך אל-החצר הפנימית אשר לא-יקרא אחת דתו להמית!" (ibid. 4:11)-'Everyone knows that he who comes into the king`s chamber without being called upon, his fate ('dato') is to be killed!'

The theme of determinism (dat i.e. law, or justice) appears throughout the book of Esther. Some examples among the many in the megilla are: when Queen Vashti refuses to appear before King Ahashverosh, the king wonders how to respond- “כדת מה לעשות במלכה ושתי, What shall we do unto the queen Vashti according to law” (1:15); When the king throws a grand party for the city of Shushan, the drinking is described as “והשתיה כדת, And the drinking was according to the law” (1:8);  in the king`s search for a new queen, each woman is brought to Ahashverosh after “מקץ היות לה כדת הנשים, after it had been done to her according to the law for the women” (2:12); when the decree against the Jews is written, the pasuk says “ והדת נתנה, בשושן הבירה, the decree was given out in Shushan the capital” (3:15), and that exact phrase is repeated when  the decree goes out for the Jews to avenge themselves against their attackers.

Dat is deterministic in the sense of 'this is how it is supposed to happen, and so it will be.' In a life according to dat, one conforms to reality for the sake of reality, just because that is how it is, and not necessarily because that reality was caused by a variety of factors. When Haman returns home “אבל וחפוי ראש, mourning and having his head covered” (6:12) his wife Zeresh says to him, “אם מזרע היהודים מרדכי אשר החלות לנפל לפניו לא-תוכל לו--כי-נפול תפול, לפניו, If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of the seed of the Jews, you shall not prevail against him, but shall surely fall before him”(6:13). Why? Because Zeresh accepts the principles of determinism (dat)-that is the way it is set to be, and you, Haman, cannot change your fate nor that of the Jews.

Esther rebels against the staunch determinism displayed by Haman and his wife Zeresh. Esther goes to Ahashverosh “אשר לא-כדת, not according to the law” (4:16). In doing this, Esther displays a non-deterministic worldview, and with the declaration “וכאשר אבדתי, אבדתי, if I perish, I perish,” (ibid.) she in effect says: 'I am ready for whatever comes, as I have seized my fate in my hands.' We see that Mordechai, too, is active in the face of an undesirable reality. For example, at the end of the megilla we read of how Mordechai co-opts the people of Persia`s paganistic mode of revelry with excessive food and drink among the wealthy, transforming their way of celebrating into one which includes a ritual act of matanot la-evyonim, giving to those who do not have. The poor do not have, but the act of charity is a statement that an individual has the power to change that reality by giving to them, and thus changing their fate.      

Megillat Esther is a story of fate, but it is also a story of the meeting of two opposite worldviews with their opposite reactions to fate, represented in the characters of Haman and Zeresh on the one hand, and Esther and Mordechai on the other. Haman and Zeresh live by goral, fate, assuming that once laws have been put in motion, no one can or should escape their consequences. Esther and Mordechai act against the accepted dat, taking their fate and the fate of their people into their own hands with the belief that a dire reality need not be accepted out of hand.

 Our sages (Talmud Yerushalmi, Megilla 1:5) teach that in the future, when all the books of the Bible will become invalid, Megillat Esther will remain valid.  Why is this so?  Megillat Esther will remain even after all other books are lost because its story is one which espouses non-determinism, and not accepting reality for reality's sake. As such, in the past and into the future, Megillat Esther will not be relegated to the rules of fate.