What with Purim coming up shortly and the fact that Women’s History Month just kicked off, we thought it would be a good time for a Tuesday TorahTutors tidbit about Esther – sharing some real Torah from real TorahTutors sessions about this famous heroine of Jewish history.
What is it that makes Esther a heroine?
Well, there’s the obvious – the fact that she got her courage and brains together to face the king and Haman with a careful strategy to save her people.
It took faith, too, if you read carefully.
But what sort of person was she, who managed such a feat?
Surprisingly, not the extroverted go-getter one might expect.
In fact, the Megillah tells us very little about her character – though the ancient Rabbis pulled out threads of hints in the text.
For instance, they note the convenient number of maids who were given to her in the palace – “the seven maids who were suitable for her” (2:9) and suggest these seven were perfectly suited for Esther because she was able to place them on a rotation that helped her keep track of the days of the week and observe Shabbat (Gemara Megillah 13a; see Rashi and Maharsha).
(One might wonder whether she was able to fully observe the holy day, living in fear for her life as a secret Jew in the Persian harem – but as the famous line goes, simply knowing what day it is is half the battle.)
We also see in the text that, in direct contrast to that image of a strong-willed go-getter we might expect, Esther was in fact strong-willed in much more quiet, steadfast way, consistently refusing to reveal her origins. The Gemara even sees hints in the text to tremendous pressure from Achashverosh to reveal her secret – but Esther held firm.
There are many other clues to who Esther was – both in the clues uncovered by the midrashim and other commentators, and in our own careful reading of the text. Delving into them helps build a picture of one type of strong female hero of our history, who we can be proud to honor.
