Esther's Religious Identity/2

Esther's Religious Identity

Exegetical Approaches

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Overview

The vast majority of commentators assume that Esther was a religiously observant Jew.  They claim, that, though not explicitly mentioned in the text, she managed to keep Torah laws in the palace, and the hiding of her identity emanated not from shame but from an attempt to maintain her observance.  The Megillah tells the story of how a righteous heroine saves her people from disaster.

A minority opinion suggests, in contrast, that Esther had assimilated into Persian society as evidenced by her Persian name, Esther = Ishtar.  The absence of religion in the scroll might reflect her own lack of observance. The events of the story teach that assimilation does not protect one from antisemitism and tell a tale of Esther's reconnecting to her Jewish roots.

Observant Jewess

Sources:SeptuagintEsther 2:20Esther section C, vss. 12-30About the Septuagint, Targum PeshittaTargum Peshitta Esther 2:20, Bavli Megillah13a13b14aAbout the Bavli, First Targum of Megillat Esther2:92:20About First Targum of Megillat Esther, Second Targum of Megillat Esther2:9About Second Targum of Megillat Esther, Esther Rabbah6:88:7About Esther Rabbah, Kohelet Rabbah8:1:5About Kohelet Rabbah, Midrash Tehillim22:16About Midrash Tehillim, Midrash Panim AcherotVersion B Parashah 2About Midrash Panim Acherot, Otzar HaMidrashim(Eisenstein, p.60)About Otzar HaMidrashim, R. Saadia GaonEsther 2:20Esther 3:5About R. Saadia Gaon, Lekach TovEsther 2:10Esther 2:20About R. Toviah b. Eliezer, R. Yosef KaraEsther Version A 2:8-9Esther Version A 2:8-9About R. Yosef Kara, Ibn EzraEsther Version A 2:9Esther Version A 4:16Esther Version A 5:8Esther Version B 2:8Esther Version B 2:8Esther Version B 2:10About R. Avraham ibn Ezra, R. Elazar HaRokeachEsther 2:10Esther 3:134:16About R. Elazar HaRokeach, Tosafot HaShalemEsther 2:10:1About Ba'alei HaTosafot, R. Avraham SabaR. Avraham Saba Eshkol HaKopher Esther 2:5-7

Keeping Mitzvot:

• Esther kept Mitzvot – While many of these commentators¹ say explicitly that Esther kept all the Mitzvot, the others only mention specific commandments that she observed such as Shabbat, kashrut, family purity, and eliminating leavened bread before Pesach.²
• Esther was forced not to – RashiMegillah 13a s.v. כתליAbout R. Shelomo Yitzchaki³ claims that Esther was compelled not to keep Mitzvot in the palace, but apparently assumes that when she was in Mordechai's house she kept everything.

How did Esther keep Mitzvot:

• Shabbat
• Hid the fact – Rava in Bavli Megillah13a says that Esther was able to keep Shabbat because she had seven maidservants, one for each day of the week. One explanation of his words is that the seventh woman was not suspicious of Esther's behavior on Shabbat, being unaware that it was different from the way she acted all week long.⁴
• Others kept her secret – Esther might have revealed her observance to Hegai or her servants, but they kept it to themselves.  According to some they did so because Hegai himself was Jewish and the seven maidens had been converted by Esther.⁵
• Kashrut – Rav and R. Yochanan in the Bavli Megillah13a13b14a assert that Hegai gave Esther kosher food.  R. Avigdor Kohen Zedek explains that Hegai believed that non-kosher food was a cause of brazenness and therefore refrained from serving it.⁶  Alternatively, as above, Hegai and the maids might have been Jewish and kept Esther's secret.

Marrying Achashverosh – See the various justifications for Esther's marrying a non-Jew in Esther's Relations with Achashverosh.  According to some commentators⁷ the ends justified the means, while others⁸ propose that Esther's actions were under duress.

Esther's name – Ibn Ezra suggests that Esther is the Persian translation of the Hebrew name  Hadassah.  It is the predominant name in the Megillah because this was the name she was known by in the palace.  It is likely that she chose to be so called as part of her attempts to hide her Jewish identity.⁹

Concealing identity – Ibn Ezra suggests Mordechai's commandment was meant to ease Esther's keeping of commandments.  Had Achashverosh known her Jewish identity he would have watched carefully and forced her not to.  See Why Conceal Esther's Religious Identity? for elaboration and additional opinions.

Religious identity of the whole nation – Esther Rabbah 7:12 and 7:13 present two contradictory portraits of the nation:

• According to 7:12, Esther was representative of a similarly observant nation.  When Haman complained to Achashverosh about the Jews being different, he was referring to their keeping of Shabbat and holidays.

• Esther Rabbah 7:13, in contrast, suggests that the Jews were hedonistic like their Persian neighbors, joining in Achashverosh's party and forgetting about their religion.

Absence of Hashem in the Megillah – The absence of Hashem's name does not connote a lack of religiosity, but might rather be an attempt to prevent desecration of Hashem's name.¹⁰

Biblical parallels – This position views Esther as similar to Daniel.  He too was placed in a position of power in exile, and is explicitly described as observing Hashem's commandments even at the potential cost of death.

Assimilated Persian

Sources:R. Y"S Reggio,Esther pp. 6-8Esther pp. 15-16About R. Yitzchak Shemuel Reggio¹¹ R. Yaacov Medan¹²

Keeping Mitzvot – According to this approach, Esther was not a particularly  observant Jew.  R. Reggio points out that there is no evidence in the Megillah of her attempting to keep any of the commandments, and by hiding her identity she just made it harder to do so.¹³  In addition, the Megillah does not mention that Mordechai warned Esther before he separated from her not to betray her faith, as one would have expected of a religious Jew.

Marrying Achashverosh – Esther might have had no problem marrying Achashverosh and even desired the glory of being chosen as queen.¹⁴

Esther's name – The name Esther is the name of a Persian god.¹⁵ It is possible that Esther changed her original name, Hadassah, to the more Persian name either because she was ashamed of her Judaism, or simply to fit better into Persian society.  In contrast to Yosef (Bereshit 41:45) and Daniel (Daniel 1:7), who are given their second names by Paroh or the minister, Esther seems to already have had her second name, for the text simply states, "הֲדַסָּה הִיא אֶסְתֵּר" (Esther 2:7).

Concealing identity – R. Reggio says Mordechai thought that revealing her religion (which was degraded in the eyes of the Persians) would hinder her chances of becoming queen.  Alternatively, R. Medan suggests Esther was embarrassed by her Jewish identity and wanted to conceal it.

Religious identity of the whole nation – R. Medan points out that the people of Persia at the time of the story were people who had the opportunity to return to Israel with the proclamation of Cyrus, but decided not to.  This, perhaps, suggests that they were not the most committed of Jews.

Absence of Hashem in the Megillah – This position might suggest that the absence of Hashem's name in the scroll reflects the absence of Hashem in Esther and the nation's lives.

Biblical parallels – One might suggest that Esther is very similar to Yosef.¹⁶  Both were important figures in a foreign palace who might have originally attempted to deny their Jewish roots,¹⁷ but eventually had to face their true identities and return to their nations.

Evaluation of Esther
– R. Medan points out that Esther should be evaluated based not on her early deeds but her final actions. Though she might have been assimilated, at the crucial moment she returned to her Jewish roots and helped save her nation.

Purpose of the Megillah – One of the lessons of the Megillah might be that assimilation does not prevent antisemitism; it does not distinguish between observant and less observant Jews.

¹ See the Septuagint, Peshitta, First Targum of Megillat Esther, Midrash Tehillim, R. Saadia, Lekach Tov, Ibn Ezra, and R"A Saba.

² The Rokeach says that Esther requested that the nation fast for three days so that she could atone for her three sins, sleeping with Achashverosh, causing Hatakh to be killed, and eating non-kosher foods.  The assumption is that these were her only sins, and otherwise she observed the commandments.

³ Rashi says this regarding Shemuel's statement in the Bavli that Hegai fed Esther pig. Rashi assumes that Esther was forced to eat it and therefore she wasn't punished. This is not the only way to understand Shemuel's comment. Tosafot, for example, maintains that Esther was fed pig but she didn't eat it, and an opinion cited in the Arukh suggests that "קדלי דחזירי" refers not to pig but to a vegetable.

⁴ Alternatively, Rava is simply saying that having different servants enabled Esther to keep track of the day of the week so she would know when it was Shabbat.

⁵ See Otzar HaMidrashim(Eisenstein, p.60)About Otzar HaMidrashim. R. Eliezer AshkenaziEsther 2:9About R. Eliezer Ashkenazi  brings evidence that the maids were Jewish from Esther 4:16 which mentions that they also participated in Esther's three day fast. If they had been Gentiles why would they be fasting for the saving of Jews? As opposed to Otzar Midrashim, he maintains that they were born Jewish and not that they had been converted.

⁶ R. Eliezer of Worms suggests that she herself requested kosher food, but it wasn't seen as suspicious because she feared that non-Jews might poison her food out of jealousy while the Jews who had never been considered for the position of queen would not.

⁷ See the commentary attributed to Rambam, Ralbag, R. Yosef Chayyun and R. Reggio.

⁸ See Bavli Megillah, Second Targum of Megillat Esther, R. Saadia, Ibn Ezra, and R"A Saba who take this position.

⁹ R. Yosef Kara explains differently, suggesting that Hadassah was the way to refer to a "נַעֲרָה" in Shushan, and Esther was her original and only name.  It is possible that he prefers not to explain like Ibn Ezra because he views taking on a secular name as negative. If (according to the Midrash) the Children of Israel in Egypt merited redemption for not changing their names, Esther should not have changed hers either.

¹⁰ See R. Saadia in his introduction to the Megillah, who asserts that Esther and Mordechai knew that the scroll was going to be stored in the royal archives and if Hashem's name was mentioned, the Persians would have replaced all occurrences with the names of their gods. Esther and Mordechai, thus, decided to leave Hashem's name out entirely.

¹¹ R. Reggio is not explicit, but his comments lead in this direction.  He seems to say that all Mordechai cared about was that Esther become queen, even at the expense of her observance.  Moreover, he notes that Mordechai and Esther didn't announce their Judaism with pride, as did Yonah and Daniel.  At the same time, he does not say that they were totally assimilated, and it might be more accurate to suggest that he viewed them as "עמי הארץ", Jews who were somewhat ignorant and who did not prioritize their observance.

¹² See his article, "ומרדכי לא יכרע ולא ישתחוה" – מדוע?", in הדסה היא אסתר, (Jerusalem, 1997): 151-171.

¹³ Had she announced her religion, as Daniel did, then she would have been able to ask for kosher food.

¹⁴ See Radak in Esther's Relations with Achashverosh who similarly suggests that Esther went willingly to the king. Esther's actions are even more glaring when contrasted with Yosef who refused to sleep with Mrs. Potiphar.

¹⁵ Mordechai name also parallels the name of a Babylonian god, Marduk.

¹⁶ Just as with Esther, the verses allow for contrasting portraits of Yosef.  As presented here, he might have assimilated into Egyptian culture.  Alternatively, as many suggest, he maintained his faith and observance even in exile.  For elaboration see A Portrait of Yosef.

¹⁷ Yosef calls his son Menasheh because "Hashem has made me forget... my parental home."  In addition, he originally tries to disguise himself from his brothers, disassociating himself from the family.