What is one quality of Esther Queen of Persia?

Answer 1

The story of Esther holds a very important role in the teachings of Judaism. Contrary to what many people mistakenly believe, she was not the most beautiful woman, rather, the reason she was chosen by King Achashveros was because of her modesty. The king provided the best of garments, jewels, perfumes, etc to the women participating in the beauty contest, however, Esther eschewed these gifts and chose to dress very modestly without jewels, etc.

In all of her actions, Esther was motivated by pure love for both HaShem (The Creator) and her fellow Jews. Despite her situation (thinking she was going to lose her place in the world to come), she never lost faith or hope. Esther had a pure mind.

Answer 2

A possible quality of Queen Esther is her non-existence. Biblical scholars have long regarded the Book of Esther as not based on history, and in fact historians say there never was a Queen Esther of Persia. Leonard J Greenspoon (The Oxford History of the Biblical World, Between Alexandria and Antioch: Jews and Judaism in the Hellenistic Period, p322) says that at least in its finished form, the Book of Esther is a Jewish novel, much like the Book of Daniel.

If, in fact, Esther was a real person, two of her qualities would have been her beauty and her loyalty to the Jewish people.

Answer 3

Perseverance and piety.

More information:

Esther was the heroine and central figure in the Biblical book of Esther. She was crowned about 55 years after the destruction of the First Temple, and fifteen years before the Second Temple was built. The Jews were in the Babylonian exile. A few of them, such as Nehemiah, Mordecai and Daniel, rose to positions of prominence under the Babylonian kings.
The last of the Prophets of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) were still living.
King Cyrus had recently made his famous proclamation (2 Chronicles 36:22-23) allowing the Jews to resettle Judea (Israel), and some had gone up with Zerubavel, but the enemies of the Jews had then slandered them (Ezra ch.4), causing the Babylonian king to put a stop to the rebuilding and resettlement of Judea. This last event was around the same time that Esther became Queen.

When she became orphaned, she was adopted by her cousin Mordecai.

Later, when Queen Vashti refused to appear before Ahasuerus (in Esther ch.1), Memuchan, a Persian royal adviser, advised King Ahasuerus (Xerxes I) to remove Vashti from being Queen of Persia, and King Ahasuerus agreed to his advice.

In Esther Chapter 2, royal eunuchs advised Ahasuerus to look for a new queen. Esther was the best-looking woman, and Ahasuerus picked her to replace Vashti as Queen.

Esther and her cousin Mordecai (who had once saved the king's life) later persuaded the king to cancel an order for the extermination of the Jews in his vast realm, which had been plotted by the king's chief minister, Haman. Instead, Haman was hanged on the gallows he had built for Mordecai, and the Jews were given permission to destroy their enemies. The Jewish festival of Purim celebrates this event.

According to tradition, the book of Esther was written in the mid-4th century BCE, and was made part of the canon which was sealed a couple of decades after.

Esther was queen for about 11 years.
The name of Mordecai is the Judaised pronunciation of Marduka, which is attested in the Persepolis Texts as the name of officials in the Persian court during the period of Xerxes I. One of these officials was the biblical Mordecai.

The grave of Mordecai and Esther still stands in Hamadan; and the Jews of Iran, to this day, are referred to as "the children of Esther."

For the name of Esther, a number of etymologies are possible.
1) Esther comes from the Persian "setareh," meaning "star".
2) Esther comes from the Aramaic "istahar," meaning "moon." Beautiful as the moon (Talmud, Megillah 13a).
3) Esther comes from the Semitic root ath-tar, "morning star." There is support for this too in the Talmud (Yoma 29a).
4) Esther comes from the Median "astra," meaning "myrtle." The book of Esther (2:7) states that she had both names, Esther and Myrtle (Hadassah in Hebrew).

See also:

Why was Esther chosen as Queen?

More about the Hebrew Bible

Jewish history timeline