Esther אסתר
The scroll of the rescue of Persian Jewry, in which God's name never appears.
Megillat Esther is the only book of the Tanakh in which God's name never appears—and that is its point: the miracle is hidden inside a chain of coincidences. A king quarrels with his queen; the choice falls on a Jewish girl; Mordechai happens to overhear a plot; the king happens not to sleep and calls for the chronicles; Haman comes to ask for an execution and walks into his own trap.
The story unfolds in Shushan under Achashverosh. The decree to destroy every Jew in a single day cannot be revoked, so rescue comes through a second decree granting the right to resist. The turning point is a three-day fast and Esther's "if I perish, I perish".
The scroll is read twice on Purim, with noise at Haman's name, and brings with it gifts to friends and to the poor.
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Tanakh
- Megillat Esther 1–10 — the scroll itself
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Megillah 7a — the dispute over including Esther in the canon
- Megillah 13b–16b — the exposition of the scroll folio by folio
- Chullin 139b — the hints of Esther, Haman and Mordechai in the Torah
Basis: tradition.