Esther told the king that her people were in danger. Theodor-Albeck], MS. Vatican, para. What is the moral of the story of Esther? Esther exposes Haman's evil plan. 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. Esthers jar captures her willingness to stand up and fight against her oppressors, despite being completely alone and without support. She was a beautiful Jewish woman, the wife of the Persian king Ahasuerus (Xerxes I). Rabbah30:4). Alexandra the Maccabee. 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. Queen Esther is the reluctant heroine of the Purim story. Esthers jar was a tangible expression of her emotional devastation, her loss of hope, and her feelings of utter helplessness. Like many Jews today, she had two names, one Hebrew and one Greek. It is believed that Mordecai was married before the events of the book, as the King of Persia issues a decree for all unmarried women to come to the palace for beautification treatments. Esther, on the other hand, was taken every day and, like them, she requested miracles. . The Rabbis include Esther among the seven most beautiful women in the world (BT Megillah 15a). Later, when Haman planned to hang Mordecai, the king found out that it was Mordecai who had uncovered a plot to assassinate him, so he reversed the orders, hanged Haman instead and gave Mordecai the harem. Esther is then remembered and celebrated in the annual festival of Purim. The two were very close and Mordecai was highly regarded and respected by both King Xerxes and the Jewish people. Their relationship was instrumental in saving the Jews from extermination and is one of the main themes of the Book of Esther. Mordecai was a trusted advisor to King Xerxes of Persia and Esther was his adopted daughter. Hatach and Esther. On March 30, 2002, the Queen Mother died aged 101 years and 238 days old. // Javascript URL redirection Rabbah6:9). He asked what she wanted. [5] Ilan discusses variants of the same traditions inSilencing the Queen, 35-42, drawing attention to how later rabbinic sources gradually eliminate Shelamzion from this tradition and replace her with her contemporary Shimon ben Shetach. Have an update or correction? She reigned in the first century BCE, sixty years after the Hasmoneans achieved independence from the Seleucid Empire and a few decades before King Herod. [3] if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'coalitionbrewing_com-large-mobile-banner-1','ezslot_10',152,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-coalitionbrewing_com-large-mobile-banner-1-0');Her true identity was kept hidden from everyone, until she was forced to reveal it in order to save her people from the decree of death from Persias ruling king. Instead, Haman was hanged on the gallows he had built for Mordecai, and the Jews were given permission to destroy their enemies. During the Temple period, the dough set aside to be given to the priests. Ahasueruss intimates attempted sorcery, so that her hands and feet would look like leather hides, but a miracle was performed for her and they began to shine like sapphires (Midrash Tehilim, onPs. Because of Haman's law, she and all the Jews in the kingdom would be killed. Mordecai then spoke these famous words, Do not think to yourself that in the kings palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your fathers house will perish. Queen Esther died in 473 BCE, so she was likely in her late fifties or early sixties at the time of her death. 25:49) because she was the niece of Mordecai and Israel was delivered through her (Esth. But she does not reveal her Jewish heritage to the king and learns of a plan to kill all Jews by the kings advisor, Haman. Queen Shelamzion Alexandra reigned as queen of Judea from 76 to 67 BCE. Esther invited Ahasuerus and Haman to a feast and the Rabbis ask: why did she invite Haman? [4] Tal Ilan devotes a chapter to discussing the name Shelamzion inSilencing the Queen, 259ff. One school of thought takes the numerical value ofHadassah= 74 (or 75, including the name itself as a unit) to determine Esthers age(Gen. Rabbah39:13; see below: Esthers Age). She was the second daughter of Laban, Rebekah's brother, making Jacob her first cousin. [6], Typical of his time period, Josephus was uncomfortable with the idea of a woman in charge of political affairs but admits that. When Esther's parents died, I adopted Esther and took care of her like she was my daughter. Esther herself observed the commandment of searching for thehamez(Esth. And You, O Lord, bring success to this, Your poor handmaiden. Esther would have been in her early to mid 60's when the The legal corpus of Jewish laws and observances as prescribed in the Torah and interpreted by rabbinic authorities, beginning with those of the Mishnah and Talmud. Esthers secret was that she was a Jew, which she was able to hide from her adoptive family and community. The Book ofEsther (2:11)relates that Mordecai would walk about in front of the court of the harem, to learn how Esther was faring. The Rabbis understood Mordecais escorting of Esther as his providing her withThe legal corpus of Jewish laws and observances as prescribed in the Torah and interpreted by rabbinic authorities, beginning with those of the Mishnah and Talmud.halakhic guidance, for he would rule for her in questions ofMenstruation; the menstruant woman; ritual status of the menstruant woman.niddah (the laws governing menstrual purity, and, more generally, family purity; see below: Esthers Personal Status"). We need to put the Book of Esther into an historical context to better understand Esther's choice. Historians say there never was a Queen Vashti of Persia. As early as 1215, Rabbi Menachem Ha-Hevroni wrote that while visiting the Galilee, he came across the tomb of Queen Esther, "who, during her lifetime, had instructed her son Cyrus to bring her there [for burial]". Queen Esther is an orphan raised by her uncle Mordecai and is eventually married to King Ahasuerus. One tradition states that she was served Jewish food in the harem, while another asserts that she was given chines of pork. Additional traditions maintain that not only did Esther become pregnant by Ahasuerus, but she was also the mother of the last Darius (idem) or of Cyrus (Kallah Rabbati2:15). According to the view that Esther was Hadassahs second name, the Rabbis explain that she was given this name because she concealed (histirah) her origins. 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 plea was turned down by her. 16 September 2012. We may assume, therefore, that she was about 14 years of age when she succeeded to the throne. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. The Jews honored God and knew that one should not bow down to Haman, or any of his gods, for it was a sign of idolatry and would directly break the command of God. Esther despaired throughout her first six years in the palace. Esth. This meant the king was happy to see her and would not put her to death. However, just because you don't know when The Rabbis then mention an additional argument that is raised by the people, that the writing of the Book of Esther will arouse the enmity of the non-Jewish nations. The Book of Esther relates that Esther told no one of her Jewish origins, as Mordecai had ordered her. The Talmud sees Haman's decree as a punishment from Heaven to these Jews. The Bible doesn't say how old Esther was when she married him, but if she was 17 this would make her born in 500BC. Gaalya Cornfeld, ed.,Josephus: The Jewish War; Zondervan Publishing House, 1982). She was in a foreign land without the protection and support of her people. It is a remarkable moment in Jewish history, in which we can see one of the times when Jews were connecting to each other from Jerusalem to the Diaspora and establishing the holidays that we take for granted today. Once upon a time a Jewish queen ruled the land. He wished Queen Vashti to be brought to the feast so that he may flaunt her wonderful beauty. 22:23). She notes that Josephus only knew this queen by her Greek name, Alexandra, while the Rabbis only knew her by her Semitic name. Esther had been made queen to save her people; her mission and her faith shaped her character and inspired her to act and succeed. Mordecai and Esther respond to this that the story in the Book of Esther was already recorded in the Annals of the Kings of Media and Persia(Esth. Esther took place or at the very least was too young to remember When Mordecai refused to bow down to Haman at the gate, Haman was extremely offended and sought to have Mordecai killed. As Ahasuerus enjoyed only 14 more years on the throne, we conclude that Esther was but 28 years. Princess Margaret, the Queen's younger sister, was born in 1930. These actions demonstrated the kings respect and admiration for Esther and earned her the loyalty of her people. All Her . Esther 5:2-3; 7:4-6 Image Esther Greenwood, the protagonist of Sylvia Plaths novel The Bell Jar, is believed to be a representation of the author herself. 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. When Esther sought to deliver up Haman, she revealed her identity as a Jew in the act. Mordecai was Esthers cousin and guardian, having adopted her as his daughter when her parents died. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. cit.). [1] As shall be discussed further below, much of what we know about Shelamzion Alexandra comes from Josephuss two accounts of her reign inJewish War1.107-119 andJewish Antiquities13.398-432.
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