Jeremy Rosen
Queen Esther: #MeToo
Summary
In preparation for Purim, Jeremy Rosen discusses the “Book of Esther” and the big question as to whether or not it really happened. Was it really history even though the background fits to some extent? But more instinctively, how do we understand the message?
Jeremy Rosen
Manchester-born Jeremy Rosen was educated at Cambridge University England and Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem. He has practiced as an orthodox rabbi, as principal of Carmel College in the UK, and as professor at the Faculty for Comparative Religion in Antwerp, Belgium. He has written and lectured extensively in the UK and the US, where he now resides and was the rabbi of the Persian-Jewish community in Manhattan.
Yes, there is indeed, just as there’s a connection between Mordecai and Marduk. They adopted Persian names which showed the acculturation of them at the time.
Well, Hadassah literally means willow. The willow trees that we take on Passover are called the hadassim. And that’s why we say that she was called Hadassah ‘cause it’s like the mouth, the willow leaf is like a mouth. She spoke gently, she spoke kindly. She was pliant, flexible like the hadassim, like the willows that draw, live by the book.