At our Purim services I do not have the opportunity to comment in a serious way about the text of the Book of Esther. At those services we become fully focused on fun. The Esther story does provide many opportunities for serious study and interpretation.
In Esther 2:10 we read, “Now Esther had not made known her kindred or her people, as Mor'decai had charged her. ” Esther hides her Jewish identity from her husband, the king. Esther is not this young woman's real name. Esther is her Persian name. A name she uses to blend in. Her real name is Hadassah. She does not tell the king her name is Hadassah. In her encounters with the Persian palace, she goes by her Persian name.
The rabbis imagine this woman lived a double life. She was Esther and she was Hadassah. To the king she was Esther, his Persian queen. But in private she was Hadassah, secretly living a Jewish life. The rabbis imagine that Hadassah kept Kashrut and Shabbat.
On Purim we recall Hadassah's masquerade as Esther by dressing in costume and pretending to be someone else. Most of us do not lead secret lives. We are not secret agents. But most of us do have more than one aspect to lives, more than one name. There are ways in which we each are Hadassah and ways in which we each are Esther. We face the challenge of maintaining a balance between our Hadassah selves and our Esther selves.
