This follows the approach of the talmud, which states that the book of esther is referenced in the torah in the verse and i shall surely hide in hebrew, haster astir, related to esther my face from them on that day. The original text of the megillah book of esther with a running commentary culled from the talmud and midrash, the great torah commentators and the. The fall and rise of joseph, daniel, and estherpart 2. The book of esther has a james bondish, tickingtimebomb plot. The scroll is a comedy, a book whose goal is to amuse and arouse. In the jewish tradition, this consists of three groups of books. And perhaps this is why yhvh is absent in esther and so prevalent in exodus. Of the two heroes in the book of esther, mordecai is the dominant actor and the more sterling paragon, but esther emerges as the most distinct and memorable character, the one with whom the reader can most naturally identify.
The scriptures that we use in services are written on parchment scrolls. The book of esther is part of a special list of five rollsscrolls called the megilloth. According to the torah, god makes all josephs work successful and gives him dream interpretations that are true prophecies. A brilliant satire of israeldiaspora relations today. The book of esther serves as the authorizing document for purim, a holiday that is not mentioned in the torah. Esther is the most secular of the biblical books, making no reference to gods name, to the temple, to prayer, or to distinctive jewish practices such as kashrut keeping kosher. The scroll of esther, which tells the purim story, is chanted in synagogue twice on purim. The most surprising parts are the large sections of the greek text known. The book has a long and complex history, but its final form is probably due to a priestly redaction i. The rest of the chapters of esther is a significant portion of scripture in the septuagint, being six entire chapters of collected texts of the book of esther 10. Of the two heroes in the book of esther, mordecai is the dominant actor and the more sterling paragon.
In the story of esther, youll meet a beautiful, young queen who risked her life to serve god and save her people. Because she would force jewish girls to undress, and work on the sabbath, it was decreed that she should be stripped naked on the sabbath. Of these, esther is the only one to be commonly read from a handwritten parchment scroll. A sefer doesnt tell us the story of yesteryear, it tells us the perennial story of jewish destiny.
What is the difference between the torah and the old. The book of esther the artscroll tanach series artscroll, meir zlotowitz, nosson scherman on. The torah, judaisms most important text, consists of the first five books of the tanakh also known as the pentateuch or the five books of moses, the hebrew bible. And it came to pass when nebuchadnezzar died, that his son, evilmerodach, claimed the kingdom. But the megillahs mandate differs from the torah s in one crucial respect. The book of esther and purim secrecy and hiding god. How do you deal with someones insidious plot to murder you and everybody like you. In the qumran community the scroll of esther was not part of the canon. See the fall and rise of joseph, daniel, and estherpart 1. This shows that her selection was part of the divine plan.
One question was about the tradition of dressing up or wearing costumes. Studies and resources on purim feast of lots in the book of esther february 28th, 2015 question. The purpose of the book of esther is to demonstrate to jews living in exile that it is possible to achieve success in the country of ones exile without giving up ones identity as a jew. In the first torah portion devoted to joseph, vayeishev, josephs ten older brothers can hardly stand him.
Messianic symbols, message in the book of esther hallel. All this agrees with the theory of a late origin for the book, as it is known, for example, from ecclesiastes, that the religious spirit had degenerated even in judea in the greek period, to which esther, like daniel, in all probability belongs. Jeremy prepared several questions that tend to be controversial about this feast of the people. But to push esther out of the limelight is to underestimate the power of the story. Book of esther dramatic reading for purim available for download april 26th, 2009 esthers legacy a historical look at numerous assaults against jews and the response from bystanders march 15th, 2009. The book of numbers is the fourth book of the torah. Other rabbis believed that the esther incident happened, but they were not so sure that the esther scroll belonged as part of the hebrew bible.
The only allusion in esther to religion is the mention of fasting iv. As queen, esther hides her religious identity and maintains her jewish practices keeping kosher and observing the laws of shabbat and family purity in secret. Of course, thats not the only reason to study themalthough god clearly means for us both men and women to pay attention to the crucial role of women in the big story of redemption. In their commentary on the book of esther, the rabbis expand upon and add. The book of esther reflects this idea, by referring to vashti as queen vashti 1. In 2012, a graphic adaptation of the book of esther was illustrated by j. The book of esther is a 20 movie starring jen lilley as queen esther and joel smallbone as king xerxes. Behold, once before was thy father removed from the vicinity of human beings and compelled to eat herbs and grass like the beasts of the field for seven years. Five things about esther that nobody talks about jews. The books also relate the history of the jewish nation from its earliest stage, through the giving of the law at.
Ironically, despite being the namesake of the book, esther s a. The megillah reads more like a political thriller than a historical record or even a religious tale. We will celebrate the feast of purim on march 14, 2006. Jun 18, 2019 the book of esther is one of only two books in the bible named for women. Excerpts from the creation gospel workbook four, the scarlet harlot, and the crimson thread establish the pattern of righteous women whose identity was. The kingdom of persia the book of esther the israel bible. So this month i am writing a series of posts comparing seven dramatic themes in josephs story, the book of daniel, and. The megillah of esther megillah means scroll in hebrew is one of the five megillahs that are included in the biblical canon. The rabbis stated that the reason for this is their importance. Professor mauro perani announced that radiocarbon tests showed that the torah scroll was about 800 years old, dating between 1155 and 1225. Purim, rooted in the book of esther, celebrates the exceptional theme of secrecy and hiding. If there is no such scroll available, the congregation may read the book of esther.
This follows the approach of the talmud, which states that the book of esther is referenced in the torah in the verse and i shall surely hide. What is book of esther about and why should i care. Book of esther, in the hebrew bible and the christian old testament. The book of esther is a hodgepodge of different genres. We analyzed rashis approach to this issue and the many lessons we may derive from his approach. This novelsimultaneously a steampunk joan of arc and a genrebending tale of a counterfactual jewish state by a writer who invents worlds out of calvino or borges the. The difference between a sefer a book and a chronicle. The book of esther threw down the gauntlet, challenging jews to consider. In this, the book of esther is similar to books such as daniel or tobit, or, in fact, to the historical character nehemiah.
Rabbi gottlieb demonstrates gods involvement in every aspect of the purim story, focusing on the kings insecurity. It seems that even some early rabbis werent entirely convinced that esther was much more than a jewish legendary tale. Costumes and masks hide or conceal what is underneath. Using memory, megillat esther confronts the jewish. Today, that query may not loom quite as large in america, but it definitely does in many other places throughout the world the middle east, burma, the congoand about a dozen or more. Apart from the fact that gods name does not occur in esther 1 a quality the apocryphal book shares only with the song of solomon the purim story is used as a prime example of how god operates in a concealed manner to perform miracles on behalf of the jewish people. According to the book of esther and its commentaries achashverosh, kingof persia, announces his search for a new queen in the third year of his. The scroll of esthera historical romance daat emet. Mordecais character forms a solid setting for the finely executed depiction of. In their simplest form, the twentyfour books of the jewish bible the tanach present a history of the first 3500 years from creation until the building of the second temple in jerusalem.
But the people refused to anoint him as ruler, and they said to him. The book of esther, also known in hebrew as the scroll megillah, is a book in the third section. Instead, like purim itself, it takes aim at established pieties and deflates them. Judaism is the essence of esther and she has no desire to live under further duress by having to maintain her jewish observance in secret, as wife of achashverosh. It is careful not to say that god commanded the observance of purim. Prophecies behind the veil identifies the torah foundation of the promise and traces it forward to the book of esther. How are the main people in the book of esther also thematically tied to other people in the bible.
It also contains praises said at home in the morning. A common theme in the book of esther is hidden motives, hidden identities, and even a hidden god yhwhs name doesnt appear in the esther even though his divine providence is seen throughout the book. The book of esther described part of the jewish diaspora that stayed behind in persia and did not return to jerusalem during the restoration. We can imagine an ancient reader smiling, thinking, of course these are. These five small booksruth, ecclesiastes, song of songs, lamentations and estherare part of the writings section of the hebrew canon. In addition, according to one opinion esther is already married to mordechai, himself a righteous jew, a prophet and the leader of his generation. The socalled old testament is a christian reference to the jewish sacred scriptures, referred to by jews by its acronym as tanakh. Rosha hashana sheli motzay 5774 20 uman breslov kloyz dancing with rav elazar kenig of tzfat 3 duration. Book of esther megillat esther hebrew prayers learning. Jerome moved out of sequence, put together as 6 distinct chapters, and placed at the end of the book of esther in his latin vulgate translation of the bible. The story of joseph begins in this weeks torah portion, vayeishev and he stayed, and continues through three more weekly portions. Its also heavy on action, drama, and game of thronesstyle intrigue, while being notably lacking in legal codes, commandments, theologyall that kind of thing. The dvd and study booklet set of esthers mysteries behind the mask. Jun 14, 2016 the book of esther is a profound saga of war, technology, mysticism, power, and faith.
The composition history of the book of esther, known in jewish circles as the megillah the scroll, is a matter of scholarly debate. The megillah is read from a parchment scroll that is written the same way a torah is written by hand, with a goose quill. Add to that a flavor of steampunk youve likely never tried before, blend it all up but keep it kosher. Jun 24, 2014 this article is part of the why study the book. It is where the events of the book of esther took place. Book of esther megillat esther contains the complete magillah in hpls tripletier format.
But threequarters of the christian holy bible read around the globe in over 500 languages is in fact the hebrew bible, in its old testament form. The song of songs shir hashirim, ruth, lamentations eicha, ecclesiastes kohelet and esther. The heroine of the book named for her, esther is a young jewish woman living in exile in the persian lit. Yet esther, of all the biblical books outside of the torah, is the only one that addresses the origin of a new festival. Jewish holiday calendar shabbat rosh hashanah yom kippur sukkot simchat torah hanukkah tu. The book of esther is a profound saga of war, technology, mysticism, power, and faith. Waldman and appeared in volume one of the graphic canon, edited by russ kick and published by seven stories press. What do costumes have to do with the book of esther. These five bookswhich include the 6 commandments mitzvot and the ten commandmentsalso comprise the first five books of the christian bible. Esther week 2, chapter 1 chapter 1 of esther is not part of the main plot. The name of the book comes from the two censuses taken of the israelites. This holiday, based on the biblical book of esther, is an appointed time to remember the victory of the jewish people in persia over the wicked haman during the babylonian captivity. Recently, i participated in a table topics discussion with jeremy legatzke on hebraic roots network.
Keep the coal of your hearts fire burning long for the kingdom of god march 23rd, 2019. Pondering this question caused me to dig for an answer. These books are all relatively short and are part of ketuvim the writings portion of the torah that comes after the pentateuch and the prophets. The book of esther provides one possible answer to that question, tough cookie though it is. Instead, we often pit good versus evil mordecai versus haman and treat esther like the cute jewish cheerleader on the sidelines. The land of israel was part of achashveiroshs kingdom. Dec, 2015 the king loved esther more than all the other women and he put a crown of royalty on her head, and he made her queen instead of vashti. It is probably that following their fathers death, these ten sons commanded his armies which attacked the jews. This novelsimultaneously a steampunk joan of arc and a genrebending tale of a counterfactual jewish state by a writer who invents worlds out of calvino or borges the new yorker is a stunning achievement. Includes the blessings before and after the megillah is read. Despite the clear historical setting, historians have found no evidence of the people or the events. The book is the source of purim or the festival of lots.
The jewish community, and its areas of residence, outside erez israel. This is where the paths of the book of esther and the teachings of kabbalah intersect, for the aim of kabbalistic consciousness is to illuminate the hidden element of divine grace that is inherent in creation despite gods apparent withdrawal from our immediate plane of experience. The book of esther is one of only two books in the bible named for women. It was the last few years of the 70 years between the destruction of the first temple 422 bce 3338 and the building of the second. Megillat esther, the book of esther in the form that we have it in the hebrew bible. Why is the book of esther named after queen esther instead of the. The artscroll series presents the comments of the classic giants of ancient and contemporary times in a logical. The scroll of esther the book that tells of the miracle of purim has the distinction of being the only book of the bible that does not mention the name of god. They take the family flocks to dotan, about a hundred miles away from their home. It was also where nechemiah lived before going to the land of israel nehemiah 1. In esther 9, the names of the 10 sons are listed, each name larger than the text size of the rest of the book. The book of esther contains the story of the jewish holiday of purim, and that is when there is a mitzva commandment to read the scroll in public the setting for the story was the persian empire. After all, this is a story, told by an expert story. A first book of hebrew prayer contains songs and praises recited by children during the synagogue service on shabbat.
In fact, part of the books brilliance is to make us grin at these recognizable stereotypes, seeing a bit of ourselves in its caricatures. In 20, a torah scroll from the university of bologna in italy made international news as it was deemed to be the worlds oldest torah this is technically true as it is the oldest complete torah scroll. Mar 28, 2006 shalom mishpochah family, esther, the hidden one. The book of esther contains the story of the jewish holiday of purim, and that is when there is a mitzva commandment to read the scroll in public.
Yhvhs message is that you do not have to become part of and play a role in unjust systems and structures and in fact, you should not. Prophecies in the book of esther hatikva ministries. Divine providence is hidden throughout the entire book of esther. Purim book of esther tells a neverold tale of hatred against gods blessed servants march 14th, 2009. As a person deeply connected to god she wonders, as does mordechai, why she has been placed in such a difficult situation. Some may respond that the book can be true even if it is not historically accurate. Dec 28, 2015 divine providence is hidden throughout the entire book of esther.
26 636 1096 1168 1652 1120 778 521 1601 1628 1491 920 473 607 148 117 1362 1034 545 1152 1412 500 1195 1417 533 965 595