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Esther was the chief character in the Book of Esther. She is counted among the prophetesses of Israel. Allusions in rabbinic literature to the Biblical story of Esther contain various expansions, elaborations and inferences beyond the text presented in the book of the Bible.
The following is briefly the story of Esther's life as elaborated by the various midrashim:
A foundling or an orphan, her father dying before her birth, her mother at her birth, Esther was reared in the house of Mordecai, her first cousin, to whom, according to some accounts, she was even married. Maharal of Prague says that the circumstances of her birth were not coincidental. Alienation and loneliness are tools like any others and are given in order to enable one to become who they can be. The Maharal points out that she had an inner strength. [1]
According to some sources, Esther was a descendant of Saul. This has special significance since Haman is descended from Agag, whom Saul temporarily spared from death against God's wishes.
Her original name was "Hadassah" (myrtle), that of "Esther" being given her by the star-worshipers, as reflecting her sweet character and the comeliness of her person.
In the Bible, King Ahasuersus of Persia banished Queen Vashti for having defied him. He then decreed that all beautiful young women be gathered to the palace from every province of his kingdom, that he might find a new wife and queen.
When the edict of the king was promulgated, and his eunuchs scoured the country in search of a new wife for the monarch, Esther hid herself so as not to be seen of men, and remained in seclusion for four years, until even God's voice urged her to repair to the king's palace, where her absence had been noticed. Her appearance among the candidates for the queen's vacant place causes a commotion, all feeling that with her charms none can compete; her rivals even make haste to adorn her. She spurned the usual resources for enhancing her beauty, so that the keeper of the harem becomes alarmed lest he be accused of neglect. He therefore showers attentions upon her, and places at her disposal riches never given to others. But she will not be tempted to use the king's goods, nor will she eat of the king's food, being a faithful Jewess; she continues her modest mode of living. When her turn comes to be ushered into the royal presence, Median and Persian women flank her on both sides, but her beauty is such that the decision in her favor is at once assured.
To the Rabbis, Esther was one of the most beautiful women ever created. [2] Another source says Esther was yerakroket, often translated as "greenish"; [3] but as classical Greek used the word chloros ("green") to refer to honey-like yellow and to human skin as well as what we call green, [4] the rabbis who lived in a Greek-influenced context may have intended that Esther's skin was a normal shade of yellow.
According to the Talmud, she had seven maids, which in order to remember when it was Shabbat, she named after the days of the week. Rather than use the dehumanizing "Monday", "Tuesday", etc., she named them after the order of creation. One was "Light", another "Transcendence", etc. They all ultimately converted to Judaism. [5]
The king has been in the habit of comparing the charms of the applicants with a picture of Vashti suspended over his couch, and up to the time when Esther approaches him none has eclipsed the beauty of his beheaded spouse. But at the sight of Esther he at once removes the picture. Esther, true to Mordecai's injunction, conceals her birth from her royal consort. Mordecai was prompted to give her this command by the desire not to win favors as Esther's cousin. The king, of course, is very desirous of learning all about her antecedents, but Esther, after vouchsafing him the information that she, too, is of princely blood, turns the conversation, by a few happy counter-questions regarding Vashti.
Mordecai's daily visits to the courtyard are for the purpose of ascertaining whether Esther has remained true to the precepts of her religion. She had not eaten forbidden food, preferring a diet of vegetables, and had otherwise scrupulously observed the Law. When the crisis came Mordecai—who had, by his refusal to bow to Haman or, rather, to the image of an idol ostentatiously displayed on his breast, [6] brought calamity upon the Jews—appeared in his mourning garments, and Esther, frightened, gave birth to a still-born child. To avoid gossip she sent Hatach instead of going herself to ascertain the cause of the trouble. This Hatach was afterward met by Haman and slain. Still Mordecai had been able to tell Hatach his dream, that Esther would be the little rill of water separating the two fighting monsters, and that the rill would grow to be a large stream flooding the earth.
The rabbis struggled with the idea of why God would allow Haman to threaten the Jews with destruction. R. Shimon b. Yohai said that it was because, unlike Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they had bowed down to Nebuchadnezzar's idol. However, he explained that since they did not mean to show devotion, but acted only for appearances sake, so God decreed only the apparent destruction of the Jews, but would not permit Haman to carry it out. [7]
A second reason draws a distinction between Daniel, who abstained from Nebuchadnezzar's table and the Jews (with the exception of Mordecai), who attended Ahasuerus' banquet in Chapter 1. [8]
Mordecai called upon her to pray for her people and then intercede with the king. Though Pesaḥ was near, and the provision of Megillat Ta'anit forbidding fasting during this time could not be observed without disregarding Mordecai's plea, she overcame her cousin's scruples by a very apt counter-question, and at her request all the Jews "that had on that day already partaken of food" observed a rigid fast, in spite of the feast-day, while Mordecai prayed and summoned the children and obliged even them to abstain from food. On the third day, with serene mien she passed on to the inner court, arraying herself in her best, and taking her two maids, upon one of whom, according to court etiquette, she leaned, while the other carried her train. Ahasuerus attempted to ignore her, and turned his face away, but an angel forced him to look at her. She, however, fainted at the sight of his flushed face and burning eyes, and leaned her head on her handmaid, expecting to hear her doom pronounced; but God increased her beauty to such an extent that Ahasuerus could not resist. Why Haman was invited the Rabbis explain in various ways. She desired to make the king jealous by playing the lover to Haman, which she did at the feast, planning to have him killed even though she should share his fate. At the supreme moment, when she denounced Haman, it was an angel that threw Haman on the couch, though he intended to kneel before the queen; so that the king, suspecting an attempt upon the virtue and life of his queen, forthwith ordered him to be hanged.
She remained eternally young; when she married Ahasuerus she was at least forty years of age, or even, according to some, eighty years based on the numerical value of Hadassah, her Hebrew name. She is also counted among the prophetesses of Israel.
The story of Esther—typical in many regards of the perennial fate of the Jews, and recalled even more vividly by their daily experience than by the annual reading of the Megillah at Purim—invited, both by the brevity of some parts of the narrative and by the associations of its events with the bitter lot of Israel, amplifications readily supplied by popular fancy and the artificial interpretation of Biblical verse. [9] The rabbis saw the story off Esther as yet another retelling of the abiding conflict between Israel and Amalek, and in that way found it canonical. [10]
The following post-Biblical writings have to be considered:
The Book of Esther, also known in Hebrew as "the Scroll", is a book in the third section of the Hebrew Bible. It is one of the Five Scrolls in the Hebrew Bible and later became part of the Christian Old Testament. The book relates the story of a Jewish woman in Persia, born as Hadassah but known as Esther, who becomes queen of Persia and thwarts a genocide of her people.
Esther, originally Hadassah, is the eponymous heroine of the Book of Esther in the Hebrew Bible. According to the biblical narrative, which is set in the Achaemenid Empire, the Persian king Ahasuerus falls in love with Esther and marries her. His grand vizier Haman is offended by Esther's cousin and guardian Mordecai because of his refusal to bow before him; bowing in front of another person was a prominent gesture of respect in Persian society, but deemed unacceptable by Mordecai, who believes that a Jew should only express submissiveness to God. Consequently, Haman plots to have all of Persia's Jews killed, and eventually convinces Ahasuerus to permit him to do so. However, Esther foils the plan by revealing and decrying Haman's plans to Ahasuerus, who then has Haman executed and grants permission to the Jews to take up arms against their enemies; Esther is hailed for her courage and for working to save the Jewish nation from eradication.
Ahasuerus is a name applied in the Hebrew Bible to three rulers of Ancient Persia and to a Babylonian official first appearing in the Tanach in the Book of Esther and later in the Christian Book of Tobit. It is a transliteration of either Xerxes I or Artaxerxes; both are names of multiple Achaemenid dynasty Persian kings.
Mordecai is one of the main personalities in the Book of Esther in the Hebrew Bible. He is described in Tanna Devei Eliyahu as being the son of Jair, of the tribe of Benjamin and member of the Sanhedrin. Mordecai was also the cousin and guardian of Esther, who became queen of Persia under the reign of Ahasuerus. Mordecai's loyalty and bravery are highlighted in the story as he helps Esther foil the plot of Haman, the king's Vizier, to exterminate the Jewish people. His story is celebrated in the Jewish holiday of Purim, which commemorates his victory. However, since the 1890s, some academics have suggested that Purim originated from a Babylonian or Persian myth or festival, noting the lack of overt religious elements in the story, with a hypothesis that “[The Book of] Esther [is] a historicized myth or ritual”.
Purim is a Jewish holiday that commemorates the saving of the Jewish people from annihilation at the hands of an official of the Achaemenid Empire named Haman, as it is recounted in the Book of Esther.
Vashti was a queen of Persia and the first wife of Persian king Ahasuerus in the Book of Esther, a book included within the Tanakh and the Old Testament which is read on the Jewish holiday of Purim. She was either executed or banished for her refusal to appear at the king's banquet to show her beauty as Ahasuerus wished, and was succeeded as queen by Esther, a Jew. That refusal might be better understood via the Jewish tradition that she was ordered to appear naked. In the Midrash, Vashti is described as wicked and vain; she is viewed as an independent-minded heroine in feminist theological interpretations of the Purim story.
Haman is the main antagonist in the Book of Esther, who according to the Hebrew Bible was an official in the court of the Persian empire under King Ahasuerus, commonly identified as Xerxes I but traditionally equated with Artaxerxes I or Artaxerxes II. As his epithet Agagite indicates, Haman was a descendant of Agag, the king of the Amalekites. Some commentators interpret this descent to be symbolic, due to his similar personality.
Esther is an oratorio by George Frideric Handel. It is generally acknowledged to be the first English oratorio. Handel set a libretto after the Old Testament drama by Jean Racine. The work was originally composed in 1718, but was heavily revised into a full oratorio in 1732.
According to the biblical book of Esther, Memucan was one of the seven vice-regents of the Persian King Ahasuerus.
Allusions in rabbinic literature to the Biblical character of Haman, the anti-Jewish villain of the Book of Esther, contain various expansions, elaborations and inferences beyond what is presented in the text of the Bible itself.
Esther is a play in three acts written in 1689 by the French dramatist, Jean Racine. It was premièred on January 26, 1689, performed by the pupils of the Maison royale de Saint-Louis, an educational institute for young girls of noble birth. The subject is taken from the biblical Book of Esther.
Rachel was a Biblical figure, the favorite of Jacob's two wives, and the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, two of the twelve progenitors of the tribes of Israel. Rachel's father was Laban. Her older sister was Leah, Jacob's first wife. Her aunt Rebecca was Jacob's mother.
Esther is an American opera in 3 acts composed by Hugo Weisgall, with a libretto by Charles Kondek. Esther was premiered by the New York City Opera in October 1993. The opera is about Esther's struggle as she becomes the queen of Persia, and her heroic triumph over the evil Prime Minister Haman and his plot of exterminating the Jews.
Esther, also known as The Bible: Esther, is a 1999 American-Italian-German television film based on the Book of Esther, directed by Raffaele Mertes and starring Louise Lombard as Queen Esther, F. Murray Abraham as Mordechai, Jürgen Prochnow as Haman, Thomas Kretschmann as King Achashverosh and Ornella Muti as Vashti.
One Night with the King is a 2006 American religious epic film produced by Matt Crouch and Laurie Crouch of Gener8Xion Entertainment, directed by Michael O. Sajbel, and starring Peter O'Toole, Tiffany Dupont, John Rhys-Davies, and Luke Goss.
The Book of Esther is a 2013 American biblical-drama film directed by David A. R. White and starring Jen Lilley as Esther. The film portrays a Jewish girl, Esther, who is chosen as the new queen consort to King Xerxes I of Persia and her efforts to stop evil Lord Haman's plot to exterminate the Jews. The film is loosely based on the biblical tale of the Book of Esther. It was released on June 11, 2013, in the United States as a direct-to-TV special.
Life of Esther or Scenes from the Story of Esther is the title of a series of six panel paintings by Sandro Botticelli and Filippino Lippi, showing scenes from the story of Esther and produced in the 1470s. They originally decorated the sides of a pair of cassoni or marriage chests, the two long panels on the fronts, and the smaller ones on the ends. They are now split between five museums in Europe and Canada.
Esther 5 is the fifth chapter of the Book of Esther in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible, The author of the book is unknown and modern scholars have established that the final stage of the Hebrew text would have been formed by the second century BCE. Chapters 3 to 8 contain the nine scenes that form the complication in the book. This chapter records that Esther's risky behavior to appear uninvited before the king Ahasuerus is richly rewarded, because the king generously offers to give her whatever she wants, 'even to the half of my kingdom', but Esther cleverly asks for nothing more than an opportunity to entertain her husband and his chief officer, Haman. Both men were pleased at her hospitality, but when the king again offers her half the empire, this time she requests only a second banquet. While Haman was happy to have been entertained by the queen, he became intensely distressed when Mordecai once more refused to bow down before him. Haman's wife, Zeresh, advised him to erect a monumental gallows intended for Mordecai, and only then Haman felt happy again to look forward to Esther's second banquet.
Das Buch Esther is a German silent historical film from 1919, set in the time of biblical antiquity. The direction and script are by Uwe Jens Krafft and Ernst Reicher. Reicher and Stella Harf, who played the main roles, were married at the time.
The Targum Rishon, also known as the First Targum of Esther in the Hebrew, is an Aramaic translation (targum) and elaboration of the Book of Esther. Much less apocryphal material is used to embellish its account compared with Targum Sheni, and it is also significantly shorter, as Targum Sheni is two and a half times its length. Neither should be confused with another targum of Esther mentioned by tractate Megillah of the Talmud, which is an earlier but now lost text. Targum Rishon is dated approximately between 500 and 700, and is of Palestinian provenance. It postdates the Babylonian Talmud. One recent analysis, though the conclusion remains tentative, places both targums no later than the early seventh century and in Palestine, composed roughly in the same period; furthermore, it proposes that both derive from an earlier rabbinic text known as Esther Rabbati.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "Esther". The Jewish Encyclopedia . New York: Funk & Wagnalls.
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