Poor Esther | Imamother

amother

Crimson

Thu, Mar 01 2018, 12:45 pm

I wonder if this bothers anyone else....
Esther is the heroine of the story and many little girls dress up like her.
But poor Esther was forcibly separated from her family (and possibly husband), forced to marry this maniac antisemitic king and forced to spend the rest of her life with him. She mothered his kid (daryavesh) etc. And raised to to be Persian king.
She had the most depressimg, horrible life. Even though she was able to save her people, don't we feel bad for her?

Raisin

Thu, Mar 01 2018, 1:41 pm

Every Purim I thank Hashem that I was born in the 20th century and not at a time when most men treated women little better then barbie dolls.

Not just Esther, all the other maidens - they spent the rest of their life in the harem.

amother

Yellow

Thu, Mar 01 2018, 1:54 pm

amother wrote:

This bothers me too. How could Mordechai ask her to give up so much for klal Yisrael. She was an incredible person to do this selflessly.

Rubber Ducky

Thu, Mar 01 2018, 1:58 pm

Yes, sure I feel bad for Esther. But I do admire her for doing what needed to be done in difficult circumstances. And her son Daryavesh allowed the rebuilding of the Second temple.

cozyblanket

Thu, Mar 01 2018, 2:04 pm

I hear you loud and clear.

However, this is not a nechama, just a thought... She has a place in Jewish history like no other.

cozyblanket

Thu, Mar 01 2018, 2:10 pm

I thought about it more.

It was clearly her tafkid. It was a hard one, no doubt. But when a neshama accomplishes its tafkid, it is a wonderful thing. But it surely was a very big nisayon for her.

amother

Pewter

Thu, Mar 01 2018, 3:02 pm

amother wrote:

Moral of the story: You don't get to be a heroine by eating holipshkes!

b

Thanks, I needed a good laugh

Cmon be nice

Thu, Mar 01 2018, 3:32 pm

And Moshe Rabbinu had to permanently separate from Tziporah, as this was his tafkid in life. Hard to understand, too. Yet he is the greatest man in history

amother

Tan

Thu, Mar 01 2018, 4:08 pm

happyone wrote:

Our Avos and Imahos all struggled.
Then again,

WHO DOESN'T??

This. I often think about this concept. As children and young people we are given a very rose colored picture of what the world is supposed to be like. Or we don't really understand just how difficult life can be.

Small kids just learn that Esther was a Queen who saved the Jews. We dress up as her, feeling proud and happy. We don't learn about things like the hardships of Esther's life until we are older. Then when we learn about it we a clouded by our earlier view - oh yes, she was a Queen. It is only when we experience life's hardships first hand that we come to understand just how difficult life is. But that's when we can look more deeply at our heroes and understand exactly this. Life is hard for everyone.

amother

Saddlebrown

Thu, Mar 01 2018, 4:57 pm

amother wrote:

Moral of the story: You don't get to be a heroine by eating holipshkes!

I actually got homemade holipshkes for the first time this Purim. The woman who offered it to me was so apologetic that the are not the way she used to make them. I totally get the big deal now. They are yum!!!!

Woman who gave it to me, if you are on imamother, thank you!!!!

P.s. For context, I met her in the Bikur Cholim room at maimo.

TranquilityAndPeace

Thu, Mar 01 2018, 5:32 pm

Here's a question.

Would you marry a Nazi and give up your future in this world in order to prevent the Holocaust and save 6 million Jews?

leah233

Thu, Mar 01 2018, 5:41 pm

TranquilityAndPeace wrote:

Here's a question.

Would you marry a Nazi and give up your future in this world in order to prevent the Holocaust and save 6 million Jews?

Yes.

Or at least I would like to think so.

cnc

Thu, Mar 01 2018, 5:54 pm

amother wrote:

Of course, we feel bad for her. It was here on Imamother that I learned how tragic the story of Purim actually is in a sense. (They censor the story in our BY schools. )And my respect and admiration for Esther Hamalkah increased tremendously and she became an even greater heroine in my eyes.

octopus

Thu, Mar 01 2018, 6:25 pm

Yes, Esther made a tremendous sacrifice. In a sense her physical continuity was lost to the Jewish people, because even though her kids were Jewish, they were raised as persians. I feel like she alludes to this when she says "If I am lost, then I am lost." But she left an unbelievable spiritual legacy. And she singlehandedly saved the physical existence of the Jewish people people. Every single Jew can attribute their being alive today to Esther. You have to remember this was galus bavel, so the Jewish people were not all spread out all over the place.

octopus

Thu, Mar 01 2018, 6:27 pm

Achashveirosh was such a pig, he took all the single, pretty girls in all the 127 lands. There must have been a shortage of jewish girls to marry. So this was not only Esther's tragedy, this was a tragedy for Jewish women. And I think this is why women are mechuyav in the mitzvos of the day.