When Esther sought to deliver up Haman, she revealed her identity as a Jew in the act. The Rabbis were concerned about the question of Esthers marital status. In the Erez Israel tradition, she miscarried the fetus she bore in her womb (the offspring of Ahasuerus) (Esth. The beginning of the psalm: My God, my God, why have You abandoned me? is what Esther asks when she wants to know why the spirit of divine inspiration has left her: was this because she went to Ahasuerus of her own free will, or because she disparaged him, and called him a dog (following the text of the psalm)(BTMegillah15a)? Rachel was silent when she saw that Jacob married her sister instead of herself. a. Mordecai would walk about in front of the harem in order to rule for Esther regarding menstrual spotting; another exegetical exposition has Esther showing the spotting from her menstruation to theTorah she-bi-khetav: Lit. The Rabbis view this as self-sacrifice on Esthers part, since she was willing to die herself, provided that Haman would also perish; (4) Esther sought to turn Haman into her ally, so that he would not rebel against Ahasuerus the king (and thereby become even more dangerous); (5) Esther wanted to obscure her identity and prevent any suspicion of her being a Jew (since Haman was an antisemite); (6) Esther desired to arouse the Jews to pray and cry out to God, so they would not think that her presence in the royal palace sufficed to neutralize Hamans activity; (7) Esther sought to arouse Gods compassion, to show that the Jews did not oppose Haman, that no one stood in Hamans way, and therefore only He could deliver Israel; (8) Esther hoped that Ahasuerus, who was a capricious king, would change his opinion of Haman (BTMegillahloc. ), or her strength wanedPirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer[ed. Just as the myrtle is sweet-smelling but has a bitter taste, so Esther was sweet to Ahasuerus, but bitter to Haman (Esth. 100). As Tal Ilan has suggested, this moment is also crucial because it shows us that the decision to promote the book of Esther could well be associated with the coronation of Shelamzion Alexandria and that it may have been part of a larger literary campaign designed to promote the leadership of women through dialogue with other contemporary points of view which were hostile to the idea of women in power (as Josephus was, for example). Princess Elizabeth ascended to the throne on February 6, 1952, following the death of her father, King George VI. 7:5states: Thereupon King Ahasuerus demanded [va-yomerliterally, and he saidwritten twice in the verse] of Queen Esther, Who is he. The midrash is of the opinion that the verbva-yomeris repeated here because Ahasuerus initially spoke directly to Esther, but when he discovered that she was a Jew, he spoke to her through an interpreter. Solomon. All Her . The Jews, said Haman, must be eliminated for the good of the kingdom. The Talmud reveals that Esther's relationship with Ahasuerus wasn't a romantic one. During Jacob's stay, he fell in love with Rachel . Who is Jason crabb mother and where is she? She was a beautiful Jewish woman, the wife of the Persian king Ahasuerus (Xerxes I). Three ministering angels were appointed to aid her at that moment: one made her head erect, one endowed her with charm, and one stretched out the scepter(BTMegillah15b). She was 96 years old. Designation of the five scrolls of the Bible (Ruth, Song of Songs, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther). When word of the planned massacre reachedEsther, she risked her life by going uninvited to the king to suggest a banquet that Haman would attend. older than her (do the math a 37 year old king marrying a 14 year Most of the Jews preferred the comfortable life of the Persian Empire to an arduous life rebuilding their devastated homeland. Esther took her turn after 12 months of preparation, and she was chosen as queen: "She was taken to King Xerxes in the royal residence in the tenth month, the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign. A day was set aside for the slaughter, and a decree issued to every corner of the empire. Rabbah10:13). 2:7 ). They derive this from the various verses that reflect the thought of the characters, or that attest to actions of which a normal person could not be cognizant, such as Haman said to himself(Esth. , Rabbi Nathan states, In its season from Shabbat night to Shabbat night, the way [rains] fell in the days of Queen Shelamzion., Megillat Esther: A Godless and Assimilated Diaspora.. even met her a few times when He was a young boy. Esther asked Mordecai to fast for three days, even though the third day was the first day of the holiday ofA seven-day festival to commemorate the Exodus from Egypt (eight days outside Israel) beginning on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Nissan. Esther was born about 492BC and was 14 when she became Queen. Esth. Seeing the Letter Tet in a Dream: 9th Anniversary, Study the Torah with Academic Scholarship, By using this site you agree to our Terms of Use, Jewish Queens: From the Story of Esther to the History of Shelamzion, https://thetorah.com/article/jewish-queens-from-the-story-of-esther-to-the-history-of-shelamzion. The Book of Esther tells of Esther marrying King Ahasuerus of Persia and therefore becoming his queen. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. TheA type of non-halakhic literary activitiy of the Rabbis for interpreting non-legal material according to special principles of interpretation (hermeneutical rules).Midrash adds that Esthers father died during her mothers pregnancy, and the latter died during childbirth (Esth. The Queen was the oldest monarch to have reigned in Britain before she passed away in September 2022, aged 96. Queen Esther is an orphan raised by her uncle Mordecai and is eventually married to King Ahasuerus. Mordecais wife is never directly named, but it is presumed that she was originally from Susa, based on her residence in the city at the time of the story. Just as a wolf seizes its spoils, so did Esther seize the throne; similarly, Mordecai and Esther divided Hamans spoils among them (Gen. Rabbah[ed. She was placed with her adoptive family, the Kings, on the orders of Queen Esther of Persia, who held a grudge against all Jews. Theritualobservance of Purim begins with a day of fasting,Taanit Esther(Fast of Esther) on Adar 13, the day preceding the actual holiday, in honour of the fast Mordecai and the other Jews held on Esthers behalf when she went uninvited to the king. In the Book of Esther, Mordecai plays a major role in the events leading up to the deliverance of the Jewish people from their enemies. Rabbah6:4). In common parlance, the braided loaves blessed and eaten on the Sabbath and Festivals.hallah from dough,niddah, and the kindling of the Sabbath candle, even in the palace of Ahasuerus (Midrash Tehilim, onPs. This makes Esther 60 years younger than her cousin Mordecai. She greatly feared to appear before Ahasuerus. Hatach and Esther. Since the king had commanded Haman to have Mordecai dressed in the kings clothes, Esther ordered the bathing attendants not to work that day, so that Haman would be forced to serve Mordecai himself (Lev. Esther exposes Haman's evil plan. not tell how old she was, is certainly not historical and appears During the . Sort by: Most popular. On returning, he found Haman falling on the couch where Esther was. The king mistook Hamans frantic pleas for mercy as an attack upon the queen. Esther, the orphaned cousin and adopted daughter of Mordecai, won the kings devotion and was chosen to be the new queen; Mordecai had instructed her to not reveal that she was Jewish. 2:22): and Esther reported it to the king in Mordecais name, from which the Rabbis learned that whoever properly attributes a statement brings redemption to the world, since, by merit of this act, the king wished to give honor and advancement to Mordecai, which began Hamans downfall (Codification of basic Jewish Oral Law; edited and arranged by R. Judah ha-Nasi c. 200 C.E.Mishnah Avot6:6). The Feast of Purim was instituted to help the Jews remember their deliverance from Haman. Before she went to Ahasuerus, Esther uttered the prayer: O Lord, the God of Israel, who has reigned from days of yore and created the universe, help, please, Your handmaiden who has remained an orphan without father and mother, and who is compared to a pauper who begs from door to door. The Rabbis relate to Esther as the one responsible for the deliverance of Israel and compare her to the moon, which shone for Israel in the darkness of night. Esthers jar is a visual representation of her emotional turmoil and her suffering. Beautiful as the moon (Talmud, Megillah 13a).3) Esther comes from the Semitic root ath-tar, "morning star." The matter became known to Mordecai, who told Queen Esther, and Esther informed the king: Mordecai's attitude wasn't "I'm a Jewish man in exile under a pagan king, so I do not care if he is killed.". Ecbatana, located in what is now western Iran. Esther then initiated a covert plan to defeat Haman using her grace and beauty. According to other traditions, her bowels were loosened (BTMegillahloc. Save the flock of Your pasture from these foes who have arisen against us, for nothing prevents You from winning a victory by many or by few. A new decree to save the Jews. Instead, Haman was hanged, and the Jews were given permission to destroy their enemies. There is not one correct rendering of her name in any rabbinic manuscript (260). His father was Kish, who descended from the House of Benjamin. Verily, I seek Your mercy from window to window in the house of Ahasuerus. Though she may have been elderly at the time of her death, her legacy continues to live on. King Ahasuerus, named Darius, who became King Darius II. At the meal she pleaded for the Jews, thus revealing herself as Jewish, and accused thiswickedHaman of plotting the annihilation of her people. Designation of the five scrolls of the Bible (Ruth, Song of Songs, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther). In the biblical book named after her, Esther is a young Jewish woman living in the Persian diaspora who finds favor with the king, becomes queen, and risks her life to save the Jewish people from destruction when the court official Haman persuades the king to authorize a pogrom against all the Jews of the empire. In contrast, the BT also cites a tradition that Esther had a greenish [sallow] complexion, and therefore was called Hadassah; according to this tradition, Ahasuerus was drawn to her because she was endowed with great charm (BTMegillahloc. The ministering angels took action to inflame Ahasueruss wrath: they appeared as people cutting the trees in his garden, and when the king asked why they were doing this, they said that they were acting on Hamans orders. Esthers jar captures her willingness to stand up and fight against her oppressors, despite being completely alone and without support. He suggested that she might be Jewish, which implied some sort of relationship between them, since he was from the offspring of Amalek, the grandson of Esau (Jacobs brother) (Esth. In response, Esther tells him that, like him, she is the offspring of royalty (Midrash Abba Gurion, para. cit.). She should know better to try to fool God who said to her, "No, but you did laugh . If you need to flag this entry as abusive. As the Queen died on the Isle of Wight, her body was carried on board the HMY Alberta with several yachts taking the mourners and King Edward VII to Gosport in Hampshire and then by train to Victoria station in London. To hide her identity as a Jew, he tells her to go by the name of Esther. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. She is mentioned several times throughout the Book of Esther. Sometimes it was hard for Esther because the other Jews were treated badly. You are also agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Perhaps there is room for a role model of the leader who advocates peace, piety, and diplomacy as well. Esther despaired throughout her first six years in the palace. Esther was a good queen. Queen Shelamzion Alexandra reigned as queen of Judea from 76 to 67 BCE. cit.). The situation was even more serious according to the tradition that Esther was married to Mordecai (the Babylonian tradition), for then, as a married woman, she committed adultery. He deposed Queen Vashti in 483/482BC when he was 36 ( Esther 1:3 ). She was the last of the house of Hanover and . One of these officials was the biblical Mordecai. Esther: Nice Jewish Girl, Married to a Goy? [11] Elias J. Bickerman, The Colophon of the Greek Book of Esther,Journal of Biblical Literature63.4 (1944): 339-62. Esth. cit.). See Ilana Pardes,Countertraditions in the Bible: A Feminist Approach(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992), 126 ff. cit.). Yet another tradition maintains that she was eighty years of age(Gen. Rabbah39:13;MidrashAbba Gurion, para. My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me? Jesus or Esther? We can adjust the hypothetical ages and birth dates of Mordecai, Esther and their parents by a few years and still keep it . Estimates vary, but she was most likely between 50 and 60 years old when she died. The night of their union, Ahasuerus loved Esther "above all women" and made her the Persian Empire's Queen. Her jar represented her strength and her resilience and gives a powerful message of hope to all those facing oppression. [2] See Ilan,Integrating women, 127, commenting onJewish War1.71 andJewishAntiquities13.302. "Esther: Midrash and Aggadah." I'm also Bruce Feiler says in Where God was Born that Queen Amestris was Xerxes' only known wife, and that she remained queen long after the third year of his reign, when Vashti was supposedly deposed by Xerxes.The story of Queen Esther is demonstrably non-historical, but she is portrayed as saving the Jews of the Persian Empire from destruction. In their commentary on the Book of Esther, the Rabbis expand upon and add details to the Biblical narrative, relating to her lineage and history and to her relations with the other characters: Ahasuerus, Mordecai, and Haman. A few of them, such as Nehemiah, Mordecai and Daniel, rose to positions of prominence under the Babylonian kings.The last of the Prophets of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) were still living.King Cyrus had recently made his famous proclamation (2 Chronicles 36:22-23) allowing the Jews to resettle Judea (Israel), and some had gone up with Zerubavel, but the enemies of the Jews had then slandered them (Ezra ch.4), causing the Babylonian king to put a stop to the rebuilding and resettlement of Judea. Queen Elizabeth, who reigned for 70 years as Britain's monarch, died Thursday at Balmoral, her estate in the Scottish Highlands. They did not have the riches that Esther had. Rabbah6:11). This tradition results from the desire to equate Esthers age with that of Abraham when he left his native land forThe Land of IsraelErez Israel upon Gods command. [10] Frymer-Kensky,In the Wake of the Goddesses: Women, Culture, and the Biblical Transformation of Pagan Myth(Free Press, 1992), 130. As a result, the King promoted Mordechai to a high position in the court. Anyway, there's no record of whether Esther was 22:5). According to another tradition, he accompanied her to ensure that she did not suffer from sorcery (Esth. Persians are modern day Iranians and they are not Jews. 5). The King also issued a proclamation throughout the land to honor Mordecai. to be fictional. Similarly, her son Benjamin knew about the sale of Joseph, but remained silent and did not tell his father. She invited both Haman and Ahasuerus to a private banquet, stirring up jealousy in the King's mind. We rely on the support of readers like you. Rabbah6:5; BTLit. According to the Babylonian tradition, she saw menstrual blood (BT Megillah15a). holy Temple in Jersusalem. The Rabbis include Esther among the seven most beautiful women in the world (BT Megillah 15a). Another question that concerned the Rabbis was that of the children from the union of Esther and Ahasuerus. Menstruation; the menstruant woman; ritual status of the menstruant woman. Those were the good old days, the rabbis say, the days of Queen Shelamzion. Rabbah 6:5; BT. The Coronation of Queen Esther, from the 1617 Scroll of Esther from Ferrara, Italy. [12] Queen Shelamzion Alexandra certainly stood to benefit from Esthers precedent. She never forgot her cousin Mordecai and she never forgot that she was one of God's children. The Jews were well acquainted with the command of God, which stated that they must not bow down to false gods nor to those enemies of God who idolized them. Horev], chap. There was no King Ahasuerus of Persia, but many Bible commentaries observe that Ahasuerus is likely the Hebraicised version of King Xerxes, the Achaemenid leader who ruled from 486 to 465 BCE.Historians say that Queen Amestris was Xerxes' only known wife and was definitely still queen at the time the biblical account says that Xerxes married Esther, casting doubt on the biblical story. She ordered her uncle: "Go, gather together all the Jews and fast for me, and neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day." Taken to the palace of King Ahasuerus of Persia, she exposed the plot of the evil Haman, who had convinced the king to allow the annihilation of all the Jews in his extensive empire. [8]Once there, she does not plead for help but carefully petitions the king, setting in motion a plan to undermine Haman and save the Jewish people.[9]. May this man have mercy on me, for I fear him. Esther was a Jewish woman who lived in Persia during the period following the destruction of the First Holy Temple, when many Jews had been taken as slaves to Babylonia, which was subsequently overtaken by Persia. When she came into the palace, was she left on her own, or was she given whatever she needed to please the king and to become the queen? Although the Bible "order." In contrast with other women, whom Ahasuerus married without recording the nuptials or the date of the marriage, Esthers marriage was documented, and the date of her marriage was recorded (Pesikta de-Rav Kahana,Ha-Hodesh ha-Zeh["This monthEx. The jar symbolizes Esthers grief, fear, and pain, which stems from her captivity in King Xerxes harem. This meant the king was happy to see her and would not put her to death. Ahasuerus first tried to turn his face so that he would not look upon Esther, but the ministering angels forcibly turned his head, until he cried out. For the name of Esther, a number of etymologies are possible.1) Esther comes from the Persian "setareh," meaning "star".2) Esther comes from the Aramaic "istahar," meaning "moon."
