Esther As A Bat Mitzvah Analysis

I am approaching the age of twelve and I will soon become a Bat Mitzvah. I will take my place in the Jewish community and take on the rights and obligations of a Jewish adult. I am writing this article to tell the community of whom I intend to be when I enter the Jewish community. I inspire to be like the women of the Tanaka, as they are role models for young women today. Through their actions, they inspire me to defy the gender role in our society and become a strong and independent woman.

A role model is a person looked to by others as an example to be imitated, for me that is Esther. I will soon be becoming a Bat Mitzvah and when I enter adulthood I inspire to be like Esther. For hundreds of years Esther’s has been seen as a heroine, but

She has been seen as a woman who follows the patriarchal system and a woman whose only power was her beauty. However, many people have overlooked the great courage, heroism and intelligence that Esther possesses. Despite Esther not being recognized for her bravery, these actions are highly relevant to young Jewish woman today as Esther's characteristics can inspire young women to be fearless and stand up for what they believe.

Esther: More than a pretty face

In the Book of Esther, Esther’s role and power in the saving of the Jews is undervalued. In the story, Esther is brave and clever and shows great strength, however, these characteristics are unnoticed. This is due the to the time period in which women were only seen by men for their beauty. Through historical criticism, the text is accurate, with regard to male sensuality over female intellect (K.Beal, 1997). In a traditional commentary, Lewis B. Paton, a scholar of the early twentieth century, viewed Esther as remarkable for her looks rather than for any abilities. As that Mordecai “supplied the brains while Esther simply followed his directions”. Furthermore, through text criticism, it is seen that Esther’s role has also been degraded early in the book through

This interpretation is seen through the way in which the author has used Esther to show the ideology of gender and power. This is emphasised in the text through the way in which Esther embodies the patriarchal values through her beauty and obedience (Hancock, 2012). This belief existed largely in the Tanaka, as the first book states that men were created first and women second, which set up a patriarchal view for the rest of the books. From this setup, many scholars say that although the book of Esther is named after the primary female character, it is “told by a man’s world, but also for a man’s world. That these are not stories of women, but stories of female role models determined and fostered by the strongly developed patriarchal ideology.” (Fuch, 1999 ). Through the way in which Esther embodies these values, she is seen as a woman who can only follow orders. Scholar Bea Wyler state sthat “Queen Esther remains bound to the decrees of men... She has no influence to bring to bear on this state of affairs for herself or for other women, due to her blindness about her situation as a woman; at the single moment when power is concentrated in her feminine hand, she hands it all over to Mordecai (Brenner-Idan, 1995). Through this Esther is not seen as a role model as she doesn’t stand up against the patriarchal