Esther the Heroine

Esther was a queen of ancient Persia in the mid-5th century BC, a beautiful, kind, and courageous Jewish heroine. She belonged to the tribe of Benjamin and her original name was Hadassah (meaning “myrtle” or “guava”). Because her parents died, her cousin Mordecai adopted her, and she was renamed “Esther” (meaning “star”).

To save the lives of the Jewish people throughout Persia, Esther, using her wisdom, exposed the wicked plot of her enemy Haman before King Ahasuerus. Haman ultimately met his end by being hanged (on the very gallows Haman had prepared to hang Mordecai, Esther’s adoptive father), thwarting Haman’s evil plan to exterminate the Jews in the Persian Empire.

To celebrate Queen Esther’s bravery and to commemorate the survival of the ancient Jewish people scattered across the Persian Empire from annihilation, the Jews thereafter established the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar as a festival. On these two days, Jews hold feasts to celebrate their victory. Based on the name of the lot, “Pur,” these two days are called Purim. This festival commemorates how God, through Esther and Mordecai, “rescued them from the hand of those who hated them,” turning their sorrow into joy and their mourning into celebration, allowing them to enjoy the “rest” that victory brought.