by Rena Goldzweig
.jpg) [Esther
and Mordechai] who were descended from King Saul defied the evil Haman
who was descended from King Agag of Amalek and together they thwarted
his evil decree. [Manot Halevi]
Their Persian names
"Where is Esther alluded to in the Torah? 'I [G-d] will conceal
My Face' (in Hebrew, Anochi hasteir astir panai; the word "astir"
meaning "concealment" is spelled almost exactly the same as
Esther's name)"(Deut. 31:18),
"Where is Mordechai alluded to in the Torah? As it says, 'Pure myrrh',
which translates [in Aramaic to] mara dachia [the consonants of
which together spell Mordechai]. (Ex. 30:23) (Sefer HaKaneh - "Sod
Sheloach HaKen")
Esther and Mordechai are Persian names, reflective of the times they
lived in. She was both motherless and fatherless, descended from King
Saul and alone in the Persian exile. He was her cousin, the head of the
Sanhedrin, the Torah leader of the generation, who took responsibility
to raise her from infancy. He continued to advise her even after she was
crowned Persia's queen.
The Midrash says that the Jews merited their first redemption from Egypt
despite the fact that they didn't keep the commandments of the Torah and
practiced idol-worship just like their Egyptian neighbors, in the merit
of their distinctive names, mode of dress, and language.
Why then are our Purim heroes known to all expressly by their Persian
names? Esther's Hebrew name, Hadassah, is mentioned in the Megilla only
once and Mordechai's not at all. The Maharsha asks if so, how it is that
they merited salvation, especially in a time of Divine concealment, outside
of the land of Israel, and in the period of time when the Holy Temple
- the seat of Divine presence in this world- was not even standing?
Therefore, Rabbi Nechunya found sources for these names in the Torah
to show the names' integral holiness, as well as what they teach us about
each person's main characteristic:
Esther's secretiveness, as well as the hidden hand directing the events
of her life, as described in the verse hinting at her name in the Book
of Deuteronomy, indicating that after the destruction of the First Temple
G-d will conceal His involvement with existence and interact with the
world in a hidden manner.
Mordechai's righteousness and leadership qualities are indicated by "mara
dachya", which means the scent of musk, as Rashi explains: "The
pure myrrh is referred to in this verse as 'the head of all spices.' The
righteous Men of the Great Assembly are compared to fragrant spices, and
their leader at that time was Mordechai."
The virtue of secrecy
Once ensconced in the palace, Esther continued to remain silent about
her familial origins, as her humble forebear Saul had (originally) kept
silent about being crowned as the first Jewish king.
She is compared by the Sages to the morning star ("ayelet hashachar")
which rises ever so slowly in the darkest of the night, before the dawn's
first light. So too the Purim miracle was slow in unfolding and took place
in the depths of exile.
However, she was not silent in prayer:
"My Lord, my Lord, why have you forsaken me? My Lord [capable of
such miracles such as] at the [splitting of] the sea, my Lord at Sinai,
why have you forsaken me? Why has the order of the world changed concerning
me? The order of the mothers? With regard to our mother Sarah, she was
held captive by Pharaoh one night and he and his whole household were
struck with a plague ... but I have been placed in the bosom of this wicked
man all these years, for me you do no miracles. My Lord, my Lord, why
have you forsaken me?" (Midrash Tehilim Buber, 22:16)
Obviously, G-d was with her the whole time, though Esther couldn't see
Him at all, as indeed hinted at in her very name.
Appealing to the King
Mordechai convinces her that her mission was to appeal to the king to
overturn the evil decree and she requests a 3-day fast:
[Esther said,] "And fast for me for three days, the 13th, 14th and
15th of Nissan." Mordechai said to her, "But the third day is
Passover! She said to him, "Holy man of Israel, if there is no Israel,
why do we need Passover?" ... And Mordechai went and abolished (for
that year) the first day of Passover and made it into a fast. (Otzar
Midrashim Eisenstein page 51)
Esther then enclothed herself with ruach hakodesh (divine inspiration)
preparatory to approaching the king. However, the sole passageway leading
to the throne room was lined end to end with idols and therefore she felt
the divine inspiration leave her as she reached it. She cried out: "My
G-d! My G-d! Why have You abandoned me?"
While she apparently appealed to King Achashverus, in reality she directed
her prayers to G-d, "nochach hamelech" literally meaning
opposite the king, but also indicating opposite the [place of the] Holy
Temple .(Zohar)
The Tikunei Zohar, explaining that Yom Kipurim, the Day of Atonement,
literally means "a day like Purim", and point out striking parallels
between Esther's approach to Achashverus and the High Priest's service
in the Temple on Yom Kippur: the fasting Queen Esther, dressed in special
garments, entered the King's inner chamber at the risk of her life in
order to bring salvation to the Jewish people and the fasting High Priest,
dressed in special white vestments, entered the normally off-limits inner
sanctum of the Temple also at the risk of his life to pray for the people's
forgiveness (Tikun 21).
Salvation
By virtue of her selflessness and thorough devotion to G-d, she found
favor in the Almighty's eyes and was granted salvation for herself and
the entire Jewish nation, even in the darkness of exile and with no other
merit for the people than their very clinging to the Jewish faith.
The miracle of Purim was a miracle cloaked in nature where G-d's involvement
was not obvious, and this seems to be the theme threaded thru much of
Esther's personal life as well, as evidenced by her very name.
Epilogue
King Cyrus had allowed the rebuilding of the Holy Temple years before
the Purim story, but the edict was rescinded due to the complaints of
the Samarians.
According to some sources, although Esther dreaded having a son with
Achashverus and did everything in her power to prevent it, by Divine Providence
she had a son named Darius, who was crowned years later as the king and
eventually allowed the Jews to resume the building of the 2nd Temple in
Jerusalem.
Rena Goldzweig, a long-time resident of Tsfat, is the technical editor
of KabbalaOnline.
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