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Purim Guide for the Perplexed 2022 | The Jewish Press - JewishPress com | Yoram Ettinger | 14 Adar II 5782 – March 16, 2022
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4. Queen Esther is the heroine of Purim.
The Scroll of Esther is one of the five Biblical scrolls, which are highlighted during Jewish holidays. Esther was Mordechai’s niece, and demonstrated the centrality of women in Judaism, as did Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah (the Matriarchs), Miriam (Moses’ older sister), Batyah (who saved Moses’ life), Deborah (the prophetess, judge, and military leader), Hannah (Samuel’s mother), and Yael (who killed Sisera, the Canaanite general).
Esther was one of the seven Biblical Jewish prophetesses: Sarah, Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, Abigail, Huldah, and Esther (
Megillah tractate of the Mishnah, 14:71). The name Esther was a derivative of Ishtar, the Mesopotamian goddess of beauty and fertility, as well as Stara, the Persian morning star, which shifts darkness into light, thus becoming a symbol of deliverance. The Hebrew name of Esther was Hadassah, whose root is Hadass, which is the Hebrew word for the myrtle tree. The myrtle tree features
Purim’s historical background. The 586 BCE destruction of the 1st Jewish Temple and the expulsion of Jews from Judea and Samaria – by the Babylonian Emperor, Nebuchadnezzar – triggered a wave of Jewish emigration to Babylon and Persia. The latter replaced Babylon as the leading regional power.
In 538 BCE, Xerxes the Great, Persia’s King Ahasuerus, the successor of Darius the Great, proclaimed his support for the reconstruction of the Jewish Temple and the resurrection of national Jewish life in the Land of Israel, recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish Homeland. In 499-449 BCE, Ahasuerus established a coalition of countries – from India to Ethiopia – which launched the Greco-Persian Wars, attempting to expand the Persian Empire westward. However, Persia was resoundingly defeated (e.g., the 490 BCE and 480 BCE battles of Marathon and Salamis), and Ahasuerus’ authority in Persia was gravely eroded.
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