Scott Mckay Tipping Point Podcast Today, Articles H

Daniel probably died shortly after Darius took the throne in 521 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. Nonetheless, in the very same document in which the rabbis rule out the possibility of Jewish queens, the rabbis remember Queen Shelamzion Alexandra quite favorably. In the midrashic reenactment, Esther sent a message to Mordecai in which she asked him whether Israel had transgressed one of the commandments of the Torah. Theodor-Albeck], MS. Vatican, para. Help JWA continue to lift up Jewish womens stories, this month and every month, by. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Esther-biblical-figure, McClintock and Strong Biblical Cyclopedia - Esther. 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. During Jacob's stay, he fell in love with Rachel . And You, O Lord, bring success to this, Your poor handmaiden. Once upon a time a Jewish queen ruled the land. 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. Plath famously battled depression and other mental illnesses, and the same is true of Esthers condition in the novel. However, just because you don't know when Another angel pushed Haman onto Esthers couch (BTMegillahloc. The BT lists a number of possible reasons: (1) she wanted Haman to be near her (so that she could say what she wanted about him at the appropriate moment); (2) she wanted to set a trap for him; (3) she planned to act toward Haman in a way that would lead Ahasuerus to suspect that she had engaged in an improper relationship with the former and thus cause the king to kill them both. Old Testament Stories: Queen Esther When she approached the king, he held out his scepter. What is the moral of the story of Esther? Another tradition has her becoming pregnant by Ahasuerus, but miscarrying (Esth. Esther exposes Haman's evil plan. King Xerxes: King Xerxes married Esther when he was 41 years old. 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. In spite of its origins it soon became the basis of the Jewish festival of Purim.According to the book, Vashti, Esther's predecessor as queen of Persia, was divorced by her husband, King Xerxes (Ahasuerus), who then sought a suitable virgin for his wife, finally choosing Esther. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. cit.). Yet another tradition maintains that she was eighty years of age(Gen. Rabbah39:13;MidrashAbba Gurion, para. It can also be assumed from the story that Mordecai was well aware that bowing to Haman may compromise his loyalty to the Jews and God, and thus put him in a dangerous situation. It is also thought that Mordecai may have had additional children, as it is not explicitly mentioned that Esther is his only child. Esther risked her life to save the Jews, thus, she became an example of unselfishness and faithfulness. As a result, the king reversed his decree and the Jews were saved from death. Instead, Haman was hanged, and the Jews were given permission to destroy their enemies. [10] Frymer-Kensky,In the Wake of the Goddesses: Women, Culture, and the Biblical Transformation of Pagan Myth(Free Press, 1992), 130. For an analysis of these sources and their reliability, see Tal Ilan,Integrating Women into Second Temple History(Tbingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1999), esp. Modesty and Sexuality in Halakhic Literature, What Queen Esther can teach us about intermarriage. Rabbah6:9). missed each other by at least 50 years. Her reign is famous as 'The Golden Age', for its . Their relationship was instrumental in saving the Jews from extermination and is one of the main themes of the Book of Esther. 49). Other problems that also call into question the story's reliability include Mordecai being identified as sent into exile by Nebuchadnezzar - an event that must have place over a century before Xerxes assumed power. [1] In preparation for Purim and the reading of Megillat Esther, the story of this forgotten Jewish queen is worth recounting. When events took a turn for the worst and Esther learned that Prime Minister Haman planned to kill all Jews in the Persian Empire, on a single day, she decided to act quickly to prevent the genocide. 22:16). Later pilgrims mentioned the site, and noted that special celebrations were held there on Shushan Purim. , 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.. Her thoughts are characterized by pressured speech, disorganized thought processes, confusion, and paranoia. Nonetheless, it is clear that Esthers mental state was severely compromised and debilitating. Esther illuminated Israel like the light of dawn, while this light itself was like darkness for the nations of the world (MidrashTehilim, onPs. a. The Book of Esther was probably written in the 2nd centurybce. The Rabbis perceived this going as having sexual connotations, which therefore had tragic consequences for Esther and for Mordecai(BTMegillah16a; see below: Esther Comes to the Rescue of Her People). The answer she gave was that anasmakhta(Scriptural support) for the writing of the Book of Esther is to be found in the verses mandating that the memory of Amalek be blotted out, with the explicit command(Ex. There is support for this too in the Talmud (Yoma 29a).4) Esther comes from the Median "astra," meaning "myrtle." I'm going to guess that he was born before 464 BC, so yes they Mordecai remained a close confidant to Esther and played a pivotal role in helping her save the Jewish people. Mordechai had a cousin named Esther, who was the daughter of Abihail, a Benjamite. She was expressing her inner strength and her ability to survive and even to thrive in difficult circumstances. Esther may or may not have reflected the historical reality of the Persian period, but her story provided a model for a new reality in Shelamzions lifetime. 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." According to one tradition, she was forty years old, while another places her age at seventy-four, which is the numerical value of the name Hadassah (Esthers second name), or, according to another calculation of this numerical value, seventy-five (see above). When we talk about Esther in the Book of Esther, we can't ignore many other characters in the book as they seem to play roles almost as important as hers. Esther Greenwood, the protagonist of Sylvia Plaths novel The Bell Jar, is believed to be a representation of the author herself. What did the Nazis begin using gas chambers instead of mobile killing units and shooting squads after a while? Though she may have been elderly at the time of her death, her legacy continues to live on. Nehemiah probably knew of Queen According to one tradition, he could not find a wet nurse and he himself miraculously had milk and nursed her(Gen. Rabbah30:8). Esther herself observed the commandment of searching for thehamez(Esth. In post-Temple times, a small piece of dough set aside and burnt. Laying the scene atSusa, a residential city of the Persian kings, the Book of Esther narrates thatKing Ahasuerus deposed his first wife, Queen Vashti, after she refused to display her beauty to the people and nobles at the kings feast. The more prevalent Rabbinic opinion is that Hadassah was Esthers second name, with a plethora of interpretations built on the similarity of the myrtle (hadas) to Esther: Esther was so called because she was righteous, and the righteous are called myrtles; she was of average height, like a myrtle, which is neither short nor long; she had a greenish (sallow) complexion, like a myrtle (BTMegillahloc. She had been suffering from a cold for the previous four months. Queen Esther and Bella Abzug: Costumes, Leadership, and Identity, The Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women, Copyright 19982023, Jewish Women's Archive. Lit. Mordecai argued that these three days fast happened to include the Passover night, which shouldn't be a night of fasting. Yes, Mordechai was indeed Esthers cousin. Then the king made a great feast of Esther, for all his . (Viewed on March 4, 2023) . Victoria, in full Alexandrina Victoria, (born May 24, 1819, Kensington Palace, London, Englanddied January 22, 1901, Osborne, near Cowes, Isle of Wight), queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1837-1901) and empress of India (1876-1901). But to approach the king without being summoned was not only illegal, but it could very well result in death for impertinence. How old was Queen Elizabeth II when she died? 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. Decades ago, the historian Elias Bickerman drew attention to a marvelous coincidence: a postscript in the Greek translation of Esther tells us that in 78 or 77 BCE, just one year before Queen Shelamzion began to rule by herself, Megillat Esther was translated into Greek and sent to the Jewish communities of ancient Alexandria. "scroll." Designation of the five scrolls of the Bible (Ruth, Song of Songs, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther). Rabbah5:3). Hatach and Esther. Queen Esther is an orphan raised by her uncle Mordecai and is eventually married to King Ahasuerus. Esther is then remembered and celebrated in the annual festival of Purim. May this man have mercy on me, for I fear him. Esther found favor in the eyes of everyone who gazed upon her; every person thought that she was one of the women of his nation, whom he found comely. Esther 4:11-16. Shelamzion became sole heir to the Hasmonean kingdom when her husband, King Alexander Janneaus (King Yannai in rabbinic sources), who reigned from 10376 BCE, died. Mordecais refusal to bow to Haman displayed his firm faith and commitment to his people and to the God of Israel. As a result of her mother's death . Like many Jews today, she had two names, one Hebrew and one Greek. Esther was a good queen. If you need to flag this entry as abusive. She understood why she had to suffer through her relationship with this irritable king. Esthers jar was a tangible expression of her emotional devastation, her loss of hope, and her feelings of utter helplessness. She died in her sleep at the Royal Lodge, Great Windsor Park, which is now the main residence of her grandson. To hide her identity as a Jew, he tells her to go by the name of Esther. That day, Esther told the king about Haman's plan to massacre all Jews in his kingdom, and she acknowledged her own Jewish ethnicity. "the written Torah." 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. 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. He was blinded, but when he looked in her direction his vision was restored and he extended his scepter (Midrash Panim Aherim, version B, para. Is the singer Avant and R Kelly brothers? We see, however, that this was a stratagem on Mordecais part, so that Esther would not be frequently summoned to the king. cit.). Have an update or correction? Esth. Rabbah26:8;Lam. Estimates vary, but she was most likely between 50 and 60 years old when she died. Esther before she died (I'm guessing she died in 464 BC) and maybe Esther eventually won the heart of the king and his servants, and she was selected to become the new queen of Persia. older than her (do the math a 37 year old king marrying a 14 year Throughout the book of Esther, Queen Esthers bravery and courage is seen as an example of how God can deliver and uses those who are willing to obey and trust Him. cit.). During the Temple period, the dough set aside to be given to the priests. cit.). How Can a Torah Commentary Be Source-Critical and Jewish? Darius must be 37 years old (62 minus 25) when he got married to Esther. 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.