We rely on the support of readers like you. Queen Shelamzion Alexandra reigned as queen of Judea from 76 to 67 BCE. Menstruation; the menstruant woman; ritual status of the menstruant woman. Do you, or does someone you know, demonstrate the same total commitment to a mission, even at the cost of sacrificing personal happiness? (Viewed on March 4, 2023) . By entering your email and clicking Sign Up, you're agreeing to let us send you customized marketing messages about us and our advertising partners. One advantage to welcoming Shelamzion back into Jewish memory is making space for a role model of diplomacy and peace. "scroll." 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. 9:23): The Jews accordingly assumed an obligation [ve-kibel] that which they had begun to practice.Ve-kibelis written in the singular, thus alluding to God(Ruth Rabbah4:1; BT Megillah 7a). She was compared to the dawn, for just as the dawn breaks at the end of each night, so, too, Esther [i.e., the miraculous delivery of the Jews] came after there had been no miracles [during the period of exile and darkness](BTYoma29a). 100-105 and 127-154. Ultimately, Mordecais wife remains an unknown figure in the story, but her role in supporting her husband and protecting the Jewish people demonstrates her dedication and strength. The Bible depicts Esther as an orphan who was raised in the house of her uncle Mordecai ( Esth. This understanding of the Book of Esther is linked to the perception of Esther as a prophet: she is included in the list of seven women prophets(BTMegillah14a; Seder Olam Rabbah21). 20). Esther would then be aged18 when she wins the beauty contest, 22 when she becomes queen (Esther 2:16-17), and 27 when she helps to defeat Haman's genocide scheme. if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[336,280],'coalitionbrewing_com-box-4','ezslot_5',147,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-coalitionbrewing_com-box-4-0');In the biblical book of Esther, Queen Esther is a young Jewish woman who becomes queen of the Persian Empire, thanks to the intervention of King Ahasuerus advisor, Mordecai. According to the second direction, Esther was her real name, and she is so named throughout the Book of Esther; accordingly, the name Hadassah needs further explanation. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. All Her . Esther probably didn't live to see the events of the book of 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. The midrash compares Esther to a hind and to the dawn, based onPs. Rabbah5:3). Help JWA continue to lift up Jewish womens stories, this month and every month, by. The Jewish festival of Purim celebrates this event. At that banquet, she heightened the tension between the two by inviting both men to a second banquet. She she fasts for three days, she goes to the king, enduring many obstacles while traveling through the palace but protected by angels. Then the king made a great feast of Esther, for all his . Horev], chap. Esther herself observed the commandment of searching for thehamez(Esth. The grave of Mordecai and Esther still stands in Hamadan; and the Jews of Iran, to this day, are referred to as "the children of Esther.". 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. Another tradition has Esther reciting this psalm during the three days of fasting that preceded her going to Ahasuerus: My God on the first day, my God on the second day, and why have You abandoned me? on the third. Esther replaced Queen Vashti, who had been sentenced to death because she had refused to display her beauty to the King's feast attendants. She never forgot her cousin Mordecai and she never forgot that she was one of God's children. The Rabbis include Esther among the seven most beautiful women in the world (BT Megillah 15a). Esther before she died (I'm guessing she died in 464 BC) and maybe She was compared to a hind, for just as a hind has a narrow womb and is as desirable to her mate at all times as at the first time, so, too, was Esther as desirable to Ahasuerus at all times as at the first time. Upon realizing this, Mordecai subdued the enemy and turned the wickedness of Haman back onto himself and his family. The midrash relates that Esther asked theTorahscholars to Write of me for all time. The Rabbis replied that it is forbidden to add to what is written in the Torah, and it is not possible to include another book in Scripture, or to establish a new holiday. Until Esther was chosen, no woman could compare with Vashti in beauty. Esther had Mordecai was an important figure in the Book of Esther in the Hebrew Bible. Plath famously battled depression and other mental illnesses, and the same is true of Esthers condition in the novel. missed each other by at least 50 years. point). Whereas her husband had persecuted the Pharisees, in her reign as solitary queen, Shelamzion was particularly supportive of the Pharisees, promoting their vision of Judaism and perhaps ensuring their popularity for generations to come (Josephus, Jewish War 1:110). When Esther's words were reported to Mordecai, he sent back this answer: "Do not think that because you are in the king's house you alone of all the Jews will escape. The Queen was the oldest monarch to have reigned in Britain before she passed away in September 2022, aged 96. brought him up to be favorable to the Jews and he later rebuilt the Esther exposes Haman's evil plan. Esther is then remembered and celebrated in the annual festival of Purim. does not give many details of Esther's life, Persian records do. Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women. someone died doesn't mean they didn't exist. Nehemiah probably knew of Queen The outraged king ordered that Haman be hanged on the gallows built for Mordecai and that Mordecai be named to fill Hamans position. Instead, Haman was hanged, and the Jews were given permission to destroy their enemies. The king was humiliated and enraged, and he banished Vashti. Her reign is famous as 'The Golden Age', for its . Mordecai is mentioned inEsth. "scroll." Jacob had traveled a great distance to find Laban. Mordecai did not bow to Haman because he was a Jew and Haman was an Agagite, the enemies of Gods chosen people. 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. Lit. Josephus final words about Shelamzion are that despite her deviation from proper feminine behavior, she had kept the nation at peace (Jewish Antiquities 13:432). Esther turns in prayer to God and compares the situation of the Jews of Persia to that of the Jews in Egypt: in Egypt the Jews cried out and were answered; and in Persia, they fasted, prayed and cried out over their tribulation and the decree that was harsher than that during the time of the Egyptian servitude. older than her (do the math a 37 year old king marrying a 14 year However, later scribes, as the manuscript evidence suggests, no longer understood it. He wished Queen Vashti to be brought to the feast so that he may flaunt her wonderful beauty. 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). They married in 478 BC after the former queen, Vashti, was banished for being unable to fulfill her husband's demands. With great courage, Esther fasts for three days, arranges a banquet with the king and Haman, then pleads with the king to save the Jews. How can we explain Esther's abrupt change in behavior from deep despair to determined action and from passiveness to leadership? Jewish and Persian 2023 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. When Esther is chosen as the queen, unknown to her, Mordecai discovers a plan by the kings wicked advisor, Haman, to kill all the Jews. As a result, the King promoted Mordechai to a high position in the court. Queen Esther is an orphan raised by her uncle Mordecai and is eventually married to King Ahasuerus. cit.). She was married to King Achashverosh, whom some identify as Artaxerxes (), 1 king of Persia. 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). She And lest you think I am making an argument about gendered skills (i.e., what women do vs. what men do), the following from the late biblical scholar Tikva Frymer-Kensky is noteworthy: With these two queens, the Torah and Jewish history model another way of being successful in the world, both for men and women. Esther stood in the middle of the fourth department; the guards of the first department could no longer touch her, while those of the last department could not yet approach her. Rabbah6:9). How old was King Xerxes when he married Esther? We may assume, therefore, that she was about 14 years of age when she succeeded to the throne. As Esther poured her tears and anguish into the jar, it became a bridge between her innermost feelings and the outside world. Queen Esther died in 473 BCE, so she was likely in her late fifties or early sixties at the time of her death. cit.). Honor the king. Another tradition has Mordecais wife nursing the infant (Midrash Tehilim, onPs. Ahasuerus consulted with Mordecai how to discover Esthers secret, and Mordecai advised him to arouse Esthers jealousy by inviting other women to him, thus motivating her to disclose her secret (BT Megillah 13a). House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ordered flags at the Capitol to be flown at half-staff following the queen's death. Features thousands of biographic and thematic essays on Jewish women around the world. Haman, too, was troubled by the question of Esthers origins. What is a reason a mathematical model can fail? [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. The story of Esther happened after Cyrus, the first Persian King, called for all deported Jews to return to Jerusalem to build the House of God (538 B.C., Ezra 1:2). She oversaw a peaceful and prosperous period. Ultimately, the jar became a symbol of Esthers courage and determination. Ahasuerus promised Esther that he would grant her request, even to half the kingdom(Esth. She became the new wife of the king when his . There is support for this too in the Talmud (Yoma 29a).4) Esther comes from the Median "astra," meaning "myrtle." The King of Persia, Ahasuerus, had appointed Haman to be his prime minister and a decree was issued ordering the annihilation of all Jews. The Rabbis describe at length Esthers activities after she learned of Hamans decree against the Jews. The Feast of Purim was instituted to help the Jews remember their deliverance from Haman. Read the entire Scripture account of the life of Queen Esther in the Bible verses below and use the articles and videos to understand the meaning of this teachable event in the Bible:. Esther 7:1-6, 9-10. He married Esther in 479BC (Esther 2:16), when he was 40. . TheTorah.com is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.We rely on the support of readers like you. Her death is believed to have been around the age of 57. She understood that she had a mission and that she could shape reality rather than passively suffer through it. Wake up to the day's most important news. 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. What is the labour of cable stayed bridges? She also exhibits symptoms of agoraphobia, suicidal ideation, and feelings of overwhelming guilt and worthlessness. The. What is the answer punchline algebra 15.1 why dose a chicken coop have only two doors? 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). Estimates vary, but she was most likely between 50 and 60 years old when she died. 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). The Scroll of Esther is read on Purim from a parchment scroll.Megillah13a). Designation of the five scrolls of the Bible (Ruth, Song of Songs, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther). Vashti (Hebrew: , romanized: Vat; Koin Greek: , romanized: Astn; Modern Persian: , romanized: Vti) 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 . She succeeded in remaining concealed for four years but was eventually found and brought to the royal palace. 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. Nehemiah, unless she survived the assassination, in which case she Designation of the five scrolls of the Bible (Ruth, Song of Songs, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther).