WHERE IS GOD’S NAME IN MEGILLAT ESTHER? – A PURIM TASTER
By Raphael ben Levi
Purim is just over one week away! Most people think that The Book of Esther is the only one in the Bible where the name of God is missing. But is this really true? Well, yes and no. Certainly in all the English translations, the answer would be ‘yes’. But, when the story is read in the original Hebrew, one could answer, ‘no’. This is not because translators lacked in integrity or wrongly interpreted the text.So then what?
Judaism does not prohibit the writing of God’s name but only erasing or defacing it. However, due to the risk that the written Name might be accidentally blemished or distorted there evolved the practice to use other written representations. Consequently, in the Hebrew Bible we find the name of “Yahweh” being written as “YHVH” (Hebrew: יהוה). For example:
“God said further to Moshe, “Say this to the people of Isra’el: ‘Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh [Adonai], the God of your fathers, the God of Avraham, the God of Yitz’chak and the God of Ya‘akov, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever; this is how I am to be remembered generation after generation.” (Ex. 3:15)
The Bible frequently used the form of acrostics in poetry where the initial letter of each line spells out a word, and it is here that we see the name of God found in the story of Esther. Here are a few out of several examples (cf. APPENDIX 60 ‘The Companion Bible’ – E.W. Bullinger pages 85-86):
Esther 1:20 “all the wives shall give”
הִ֑]יא [וְ] כָל־[הַ] נָּשִׁ֗ים [יִ]תְּנ֤וּ] Spoken by Memucan. Y-H-V-H
Esther 5:13 “this avails me nothing”
[זֶ֕[ה] אֵינֶ֥נּ [וּ] שׁוֶֹ֖[ה] ל[י Spoken by Haman. Y-H-V-H
Esther 7:7 “that evil was determined against him”
[כִּֽ[י]־כָלְתָ֥[ה] אֵלָ֛י[ו] הָרָעָ֖[ה Spoken by the author. Y-H-V-H
Although the hearers of the Word would not have understood the hidden references to the names of God, the reader would most certainly have done so since in an acrostic the relevant letters or characters were written in bold or aligned, so they stood out clearly on the scroll. The reader would have recognised this and brought it to the attention of the listeners.
The story of Purim is unique in that although His Name is hidden, His hand is clearly visible behind the scenes at every twist and turn. Sometimes, certain things in our lives may appear hidden yet God encourages us to actively explore His mysteries that we might learn to read between the lines of our lives, while still acknowledging His right to keep things concealed whenever He chooses.
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