Book of Esther

Isaiah	Yeshayahu
Jeremiah	Yirmeyahu
Ezekiel	Yekhezqel

Joshua	Yehoshua
Judges	Shofetim
Samuel	Shemuel
Kings	Melakhim

Genesis	Bereshit
Exodus	Shemot
Leviticus	Wayiqra
Numbers	Bemidbar
Deuteronomy	Devarim

The Book of Esther (Hebrew: מְגִלַּת אֶסְתֵּר, romanized: Megillat Ester; Greek: Ἐσθήρ; Latin: Liber Esther), also known in Hebrew as "the Scroll" ("the Megillah"), is a book in the third section (Ketuvim, כְּתוּבִים "Writings") of the Hebrew Bible. It is one of the Five Scrolls (Megillot) in the Hebrew Bible and later became part of the Christian Old Testament. The book relates the story of a Jewish woman in Persia, born as Hadassah but known as Esther, who becomes queen of Persia and thwarts a genocide of her people.

The story takes place during the reign of King Ahasuerus in the First Persian Empire. Queen Vashti, the wife of King Ahasuerus, is banished from the court for disobeying the king's orders. A beauty pageant is held to find a new queen, and Esther, a young Jewish woman living in Persia, is chosen as the new queen. Esther's cousin Mordecai, who is a Jewish leader, discovers a plot to kill all of the Jews in the empire by Haman, one of the king's advisors. Mordecai urges Esther to use her position as queen to intervene and save their people. Esther reveals her Jewish identity to the king and begs for mercy for her people. She exposes Haman's plot and convinces the king to spare the Jews. The Jewish festival of Purim is established to celebrate the victory of the Jews of the First Persian Empire over their enemies, and Esther becomes a heroine of the Jewish people.

The books of Esther and Song of Songs are the only books in the Hebrew Bible that do not mention God explicitly.^[2] Traditional Judaism views the absence of God's overt intervention in the story as an example of how God can work through seemingly coincidental events and the actions of individuals.^{[citation needed]}

The book is at the center of the Jewish festival of Purim and is read aloud twice from a handwritten scroll, usually in a synagogue, during the holiday: once in the evening and again the following morning. The distribution of charity to those in need and the exchange of gifts of foods are also practices observed on the holiday that are mandated in the book. According to biblical scholars, the narrative of Esther was written to provide an etiology for Purim’s origin.^[3]

^ Rossel, Seymour (2007). The Torah: Portion by Portion. Los Angeles: Torah Aura Productions. p. 212. ISBN 978-1-891662-94-2.
^ Blumenthal, David R. "Where God is Not: The Book of Esther and Song of Songs". Archived from the original on January 17, 2019. Retrieved April 19, 2016.
^ Browning, W. R. F., ed. (2009). "Ahasuerus". A Dictionary of the Bible (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 7. doi:10.1093/acref/9780199543984.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-954398-4. Archived from the original on 2020-09-03. Retrieved 2020-04-17. The story is fictitious and written to provide an account of the origin of the feast of Purim.

[RosselTorah212-1] Rossel, Seymour (2007). The Torah: Portion by Portion. Los Angeles: Torah Aura Productions. p. 212. ISBN 978-1-891662-94-2.

[2] Blumenthal, David R. "Where God is Not: The Book of Esther and Song of Songs". Archived from the original on January 17, 2019. Retrieved April 19, 2016.

[3] Browning, W. R. F., ed. (2009). "Ahasuerus". A Dictionary of the Bible (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 7. doi:10.1093/acref/9780199543984.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-954398-4. Archived from the original on 2020-09-03. Retrieved 2020-04-17. The story is fictitious and written to provide an account of the origin of the feast of Purim.

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