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Article: Where God is not: the book of Esther and Song of Songs.
- Article from:
- Judaism
- Article date:
- January 1, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1995 American Jewish Congress. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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But that which is edifying is so only because it already conforms . . . the plain sense is always dependent on the understanding of larger wholes and on changing custom and authority. . . .(2)
The Teaching that Wasn't There
The name of God, in all its variations, does not occur in the Book of Esther. This strange phenomenon was discerned, and corrected, very early. Already the Septuagint, the Targumim, and the apocryphal Book of Esther inserted one or more of the names of God into the text.(3) This lacuna was also recognized by the rabbis of the Talmud who, in seeking adumbrations in the Torah for the characters in the Book of Esther, asked: "Where does one ...