Who was Esther and why is she important?

Answer 1

Because she, according to tradition, saved the Jewish people from annihilation.

Esther was the heroine and central figure in the Biblical book of Esther. She was a beautiful Jewish woman, the wife of the Persian king Ahasuerus (Xerxes I). She and her cousin Mordecai persuaded the king to cancel an order for the extermination of the Jews in his wide realm, 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 4th century BCE.

Additional information: Esther was a Jewess, who lived during the Babylonian exile. When Queen Vashti refused to go to Ahasuerus (in Chapter 1), Memucan, a Persian wise man, advised King Ahasuerus 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, a virgin. Esther was the best looking one, and Ahasuerus picked her to replace Vashti. When Esther was orphaned, she was then adopted by her cousin Mordecai, who became her foster father.

Answer 2

The Book of Esther tells the story of the salvation of Jewish community in Persia, and begins with Esther, the cousin and adopted daughter of Mordecai the Jew, becoming Xerxes' new wife. The Book of Esther says that King Xerxes chose Esther from all the most beautiful virgins in the empire, after he divorced his first wife, Vashti. However, there is no historical record of either Vashti or Esther, and Queen Amestris is accepted by historians as Xerxes' only wife for the first several years of his reign.

Fundamental problems in the story call into question its reliability - for example, Mordecai is identified as having been sent into exile by Nebuchadnezzar, who ruled Babylon more than a century before Xerxes assumed power. Ancient Jewish sages actually argued against its inclusion in The Bible. The story of Esther has cultural significance for Jews, but is of no historical significance.

Significantly for the Reformation, Martin Luther opposed its inclusion in his Bible and said that he wished the book did not exist. This is partly because there is no mention of God anywhere in the story, which has no theological significance or moral value.

Jewish Answer

From the Jewish perspective, the Book of Esther religiously significant which is why it was included in the Tanach (Jewish Bible). The story of Esther teaches us the joy of love of HaShem (The Creator) and the concept of repentance born of love.

Taken from Aish.com on an article about the significance of Purim (I'll attach a link to the complete article):

"The Talmudic teaching that in the future, when all other holidays are forgotten, Purim will remain, takes on new importance in light of its message of love. Purim is the holiday which reveals the hidden, the essence of Judaism: the love of God and love of man."

Esther was the heroine and central figure in the Biblical book of Esther. She was a beautiful Jewish woman, the wife of the Persian king Ahasuerus (Xerxes I). She and her cousin Mordecai persuaded the king to cancel an order for the extermination of the Jews in his wide realm, 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 4th century BCE.

Additional facts: Esther was a Jewess, who lived during the Babylonian exile. When Queen Vashti refused to go to Ahasuerus (in Chapter 1), Memucan, a Persian wise man, advised King Ahasuerus 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, a virgin. Esther was the best looking one, and Ahasuerus picked her to replace Vashti. When Esther was orphaned, she was then adopted by her cousin Mordecai, who became her foster father.

For the source and more detailed information, click on the related links section below.

According to Jewish tradition, Esther was queen for about 11 years.

The Book of Esther makes it clear that this was not in the early part of Xerxes's reign.

The name of Mordechai is considered identical to the name Marduka, which is attested as the name of officials in the Persian court in the Persepolis Texts from the period of Xerxes I. One of these officials might very well be 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."

Answer 3

Esther and her cousin Mordecai (who had once saved the king's life) 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.

More background:

Esther was the heroine and central figure in the Biblical book of Esther, which is the source of the Jewish festival of Purim. 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.

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 festivals