Book of Esther מגילת אסתר
About this item: This manuscript is part of the Ancient, Medieval, and Renaissance Eastern and Western Manuscript Collection.
This copy of the Book of Esther is a scroll, used in synagogue service. The text in Hebrew is written on vellum, rolled around a single wooden roller.
- Date Created:
- unknown
- Format:
- Text
- Genre:
- manuscripts (documents)
- Extent / Dimensions:
- 25.8 x 6.0 inches
Megillat Esther, in English The Book of Esther, is one of the twenty-four books of the Hebrew Bible, Tanakh תנ”ך. It is one of the five megillot מגילות of the Tanakh's third section, Writings כתובים—the other four being Song of Songs, the Book of Ruth, the Book of Lamentations, and Ecclesiastes—read in specific times of the Hebrew year. The Book of Esther tells the story of the young Jewish woman, Esther, chosen to be the wife of the King of Persia, Ahasuerus—in stead of the former, defiant queen Vashti. Esther hid her Jewish origin from Ahasuerus, however, when her uncle, Mordecai, informed her that Haman, the prime minister, was planning to annihilate all the Jews of the empire, she pleaded with the king to save her people. Ordered by Ahasuerus, Haman was impaled on the stick he had erected to execute Mordecai for refusing to bow to him. Moreover, to revenge of the plans Haman harbored, his sons were killed as well, and Jews all over the empire were given the royal permission to kill all their enemies throughout two days: the thirteenth and the fourteenth day of the Hebrew month of Adar. They killed “seventy-five thousand of their foes; but they did not lay hands on the spoil” (Esther 9:16).
To remember the deliverance from death, Esther and Mordecai made Adar 14th and 15th a holiday, “to observe them as days of feasting and merrymaking, and as an occasion for sending gifts to one another and presents to the poor” (Esther 9:22). Also on these days, the Scroll of Esther is read at the synagogue.
The text explains why the holiday commemorating and celebrating that the fate of the Jews has changed and that they overcome their enemies is called Purim: “For Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the foe of all the Jews, had plotted to destroy the Jews, and had cast pur—that is, the lot—with intent to crush and exterminate them” (Esther 9:24). Purim is the Feast of Lots when fear of death was replaced by merrymaking over survival.
The first two chapters of Tractate Megillah in Seder Moed of the Talmud prescribe when and how the scroll of Esther should be read as part of the Purim celebration.
(Citations are from the Jewish Publication Society translation on Sefaria.org.)