Of remarkable beauty, she was selected by Ahasuerus to replace his rejected queen, Vashti, in his palace in Shushan (i.e., Susa). When the king’s vizier, Haman, sought to destroy all the Jews in the kingdom, Esther’s uncle, Mordecai, enlisted her in a scheme to foil Haman’s plan.
She had not made her origin known but Mordecai warned her that her fate would be no different from that of the other Jews. Esther invited the king and Haman to a banquet at which she requested that the king deliver her people and herself from the ordained destruction. In response to the king’s question as to who had plotted such a deed, she accused Haman. Ahasuerus left the feast in anger and when he returned, Haman was lying on Esther’s couch, leading the king to suspect that he was about to ravish the queen. He immediately ordered Haman’s execution on the gallows that Haman had prepared for Mordecai. At Esther’s request, the king also quashed Haman’s anti-Jewish orders and gave all Haman’s property to Esther.
Esther and Mordecai ordained the anniversary of this deliverance as the feast of Purim. The previous day is observed as the Fast of Esther in Jewish tradition, but this was a much later institution and is not connected with Esther’s request that the Jews of Shushan observe a fast while she prepared to appear before Ahasuerus to plead for her people. On the annual Purim festival, the scroll of Esther is read in the synagogues and the children dress up, many of the girls as Queen Esther, one of the best-loved women in Jewish history. The story of Esther has received no confirmation from other sources and scholars are divided concerning its historicity. Esther’s Hebrew name was Hadassah (myrtle); the rabbis explained that just as the myrtle spreads fragrance, so Esther spread good deeds throughout the land.
Quotes from others about the person
Esther was a captive in a strange land and yet she, a weak, trembling girl, was the savior, the benefactor of thousands: and her name has come down through a thousand ages, wreathed with the admiring love of that very people whose ancestors she saved.
Grace Aguilar in "The Women of Israel", 1872.
