Эстер 2:7 Комментарий: Tze'enah Ure'enah, Rashi & Ohr Chadash

“He was foster-father to Hadassah, that is, Esther” [2:7]. Mordecai raised Esther. She was an orphan; her father and mother had died. Mordecai was her uncle and Mordecai named her Esther. Her name was originally Hadassah, which is a Jewish name. Mordecai was afraid that Ahasuerus would discover that she was of Jewish descent. Therefore, he named her Esther, which was the same in their language as Hadassah. Here one asks a question. It says that she had no father and mother and immediately says that she was beautiful and afterwards again begins that her father and mother died and Mordecai took her as a daughter. The explanation is that Scripture tells us that Mordecai was a righteous man who did not touch the maiden Esther. Therefore, Scripture says that the maiden was very beautiful and that her father and mother died. Then Mordecai took her as a daughter. That is to say, the practice is that when a person raises an orphan in his house, it is very nice that later one has no Evil Inclination to have relations with her. When someone lives with one when they are young, then it is despicable and his Evil Inclination does not exist for that person. Therefore, Scripture says here that the maiden Esther was very beautiful before she came to Mordecai.

“He was foster-father to Hadassah” [2:7]. The Yalkut in the portion on Noah said: Esther was very young and Mordecai sought someone to nurse Esther, but he could not find any woman. Mordecai took his own breast and gave it to Esther to nurse and raised her with his milk.²⁴Yalkut Shimoni, Noah, Remez, 49. The Evil Inclination used to be within the same person. When the maiden came into the house, he considered her a daughter. That is to say, Mordecai had no Evil Inclination to Esther.

As a daughter. Our Rabbis explained, “for a house” [i.e., לְבַת=לְבַיִת, meaning, as a wife.⁸Maseches Megillah 13a. Apparently בת here does not mean [lit.] daughter, because Esther was not his child.