NEW YORK — Some little-known but fascinating facts about Queen Esther have come to light in time for this year’s celebration of Purim..
Documents spanning centuries, just released by SHLEP (the Shushan Historical and Literary Esther Project), highlight such revelations as the Jewish heroine’s role in the queenly wave … the discovery of a widely popular synthetic fabric… sure-fire advice for older women seeking marriage, and much more.
First, the queenly wave…The introduction of a stiff-wristed, seemingly reluctant sign of acknowledgment is generally attributed to Britain’s current monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. But it predates her by centuries. It was first employed by none other than Queen Esther, whose traumatized wrist was wracked with arthritic pain from mixing batter for countless rugelach, kreplach..and hamantashen. (The latter, named for the three-cornered shape of the villain Haman’s hat. suffered a shocking myth-busting revelation last year, when a group of historians claimed that his hat was not triangular, but round. This panicked hamantashen bakers and sellers. But the theory was never proven and three-cornered hats and baked goods still prevail).
In any event, the queenly wave became so popular with her subjects, that Queen Esther kept using it long after the pain in her wrist subsided and eventually was gone.
It’s been known for many years that Esther’s Hebrew name was Hadassah,– to this day the name of the renowned worldwide organization and the great Israeli hospital. When, as a good-deed project, Esther decided to sponsor low-budget, affordable vacations for low- and middle-income subjects, she named each building “Casa Hadassah.” With their introduction, there was some media criticism that she was profiting from her royal status, but she quieted critics by announcing that all profits would be donated to charities.
She was also very family-oriented. As students of the Purim story know very well, as a young orphan Esther and her uncle Mordecai were very close. Reminiscing as a mature woman, Esther wrote in her diary: “We have special days to honor mothers, fathers, grandparents. But aunts and uncles, who often are especially dear to us, have no day reserved for their tribute. So, with the power granted to me as queen, I hereby proclaim National Uncles and Aunts Day.” And because of her very close kinship with her uncle Mordecai, she established a national Uncle Morty’s Day.
Nor did she forget the needs of so-called “older women,” in their mid- to late 20s, who were still single, though they earnestly sought marriage. For them, Esther established classes that offered grooming tips, gave dancing lessons (both exotic solos and dignified group varieties), suggested conversational gambits (although there was emphasis on “not speaking until encouraged to”), along with intriguing story-telling. It was recommended that such personal details as ethnicity and age should not be revealed too soon in the budding relationship, an object lesson from Esther’s own life.
An almost saintly, forgiving woman, Esther kindly authorized a “First Wives Club Recognition Day,” and had the royal (brand) writer issue a proclamation honoring Leah and even Vashti, Queen Esther’s predecessor wife of Ahashueros, for founding the international self-help organization.
Esther was not without a practical side. And so, despite her natural disinclination for personal publicity, she decided that, based on the popularity of local Queen Esther pageants, a national contest would annually be part of the culture.
And, as a natural outgrowth of the word “lottery” that Purim invoked, she believed Persia should hold an annual national lottery to help balance its treasury.
As meaningful as all these accomplishments of Queen Esther are, one of the least known and perhaps most important was her role in the discovery, development, and perfection of the synthetic material, polyester.
Back to antiquity, pet parrots have been named Polly (in Persia, the word had just one “l.” ) When Queen Esther’s favorite bird passed away, she allowed budding taxidermists to study the bird’s skin for the sake of scientific knowledge. Accidentally, they discovered its almost-magical properties, and began to develop a fabric that featured them.
Some scientists scoffed at the claims made for the late Polly, but the queen was convinced of its fabric’s durability and likely service to mankind, To quiet the scoffers, she gave her permission to use a shortened form of Esther, as part of the new material’s name.
The name was attached, “polyester has become the miracle fabric’s name for generations.”
Thus polyester thrives.
For this alone, not to mention your part in the liberation of the Jewish people in Persia, and so many other wonderful divinely inspired accomplishments, we are forever in your debt, Queen Esther.
Thank you, Queen Esther.
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Those unfamiliar with Joel H. Cohen’s “Just Kidding” columns are assured that they are satire and should not be taken seriously.