Purim Post: What's up with all of the feasting?

This idea was suggested by my Tanach chavruta (study-buddy) and I think it is an amazing idea. We are currently studying Esther at a snail's pace. We had previously concluded (this might be the subject of a future post; for now, take my word for it) that Achashverosh was reluctant to wipe out an entire nation from his empire, and was only convinced because of two things: 1. Haman's claim that these people were treacherous anarchists and a danger to the delicate balance and security of the empire. 2. More importantly, the promise of 10000 bars of silver. In light of this, we wondered: Why would Achashverosh join Haman in celebration via feast? Haman was celebrating his potential victory over the Jews. But what did Achashverosh have to celebrate? Money? Nu. He knew the money was coming out of a deal he was not 100% comfortable with.

Then my chavruta suggested this: Practically every time feasting is mentioned in Esther, it is in relation to the closing of a deal:

1. A grand feast for 180 days - the unification of the empire under Achashverosh (=he invites the most important people from all states under his rule) (as well as a follow-up feast for the people of Shushan).

2. A feast to mark Esther "accepting" his "marriage proposal" (and another one after the second round).

3. A feast to mark the deal between him and Haman, as mentioned above.

No wonder he was confused by Esther's feasts - he had no idea what deal was being celebrated. And no wonder why he was suspicious someone might have been planning to betray him. Perhaps Esther and Haman were celebrating their own deal of stabbing the king in the back, getting hitched and taking over the empire for themselves!

A quick rifle through the places in Tanach where feasts (משתה sing. or משתאות plu.) are mentioned and it certainly seems that this idea works pretty much everywhere (note, of course, that there are places in which this word is used to merely refer to beverages or such). Some examples:

1. For Yaakov's wedding, Lavan makes a feast (Beresheet 29:22)

2. When David and Avner reach an agreement, David makes a feast (Shmuel 2:3:20)

3. Shlomo makes a feast after his prophetic dream where Hashem tells him he will be blessed as long as he walks in the path of his father David, the path of righteousness (Melachim 1:3:15)

True, there are some places where it will take some deeper thought to try to explain them, but I believe that it would be possible with some brainstorming.

Lastly, we have the Jews feasting at the end of the book (Esther 8:17; 9:18-22). This particular feast may seem ambiguous at first, in light of this proposed idea, but then we may consider the gemara in Shabbat 88a:

"Rava said: Even so, they again accepted it [the Torah] willingly in the time of Ahasuerus, as it is written: “The Jews ordained, and took upon them, and upon their seed, and upon all such as joined themselves unto them” (Esther 9:27), and he taught: The Jews ordained what they had already taken upon themselves through coercion at Sinai."

In other words, we have here the Jews celebrating their renewed covenant with Hashem, their renewed acceptance of the Torah!