Esther S Sacrifice

This monograph treats the biblical figure of Esther and her reception in nineteenth-century American literature. After providing an understanding of the Book of Esther in the Hebrew Bible and its contested acceptance over centuries in various scriptural canons, the work focuses on the reception of the Esther text in America.

This interdisciplinary commentary ranges from early midrashic interpretation to contemporary rewritings introducing interpretations of the only biblical book not to mention God. Unearths a wealth of neglected rewritings inspired by the story’s relevance to themes of nationhood, rebellion, providence, revenge, female heroism, Jewish identity, exile, genocide and ‘multiculturalism’ Reveals the various struggles and strategies used by religious commentators to make sense of this only biblical book that does not mention God Asks why Esther is underestimated by contemporary feminist scholars despite a long history of subversive rewritings Compares the most influential Jewish and Christian interpretations and interpreters Includes an introduction to the book’s myriad representations in literature, music, and art Published in the reception-history series, Blackwell Bible Commentaries

Are you looking for ways to engage in Prayer and fasting more effectively? In this guide, Dr. Pauline Walley-Daniels reveals how Esther led people in an effective prayer fast that changed their circumstances for life. She explains how to fast and provides important prayer points that are applicable to any situation. Every year, Walley-Daniels's home church and its affiliates set themselves apart to perform a progressive prayer fast based on Esther's encounter. Queen Esther declared the fast when she discovered that Haman, the enemy of the Jews, was plotting to destroy her people. It was a time when all came before God, fasting and crying to Him for family members and for breakthrough and deliverance from any Hamanic decrees enacted against them and their lives. Building on that model, this guide is a song of inspiration, an encouragement through each season of the fast. The insights and practical guidelines it offers enable each of us to break through the challenges and difficulties that confront our environment and our spiritual lives. "Dr. Pauline Walley-Daniels fights a good fight of spiritual warfare. ... She presents powerful, effective prayers that are specific to the challenges individuals may face in fulfilling their destiny." -Susan Slusher, Dean, Christian International Equipping Network

THE book of Esther contains principles of great value at all times, but especially at the present one, when some who delve very little into the word of God are liable to wonder at some of His ways, and grow discouraged in the path of obedience.It is needful therefore, that such, and all of us, should have detailed before us the fact that "obedience is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams." May God richly bless your effort to bring to the surface what His Spirit has laid up for us in this little book.Yours affectionately in Christ,PAUL J. LOIZEAUX.

This guidebook examines Dickens' novel within its literary and cultural contexts providing an ideal orientation in the novel, its reception history and the critical material which surrounds it.

'...From out of a world of death and destruction, extermination camps, ghettos, starvation and disease, there rises the figure of the woman in the Holocaust... the core of the fascinating studies in this collection. The importance of these research essays is, above all, their historical documentation of situations and events related to women in the Holocaust...'....In the face of imminent death, there was kindness to be seen, self-sacrifice, and the saving of another's life. And from a world that had lost all semblance of humanity came a sense of independence that welled up in the survivors, infusing them with the spirit of life as they emerged from the inferno. 'And what is for me the most moving, the most exciting thing of all, is the ability of those who endured to climb to their feet and shake themselves free of the killing fields, to begin a new life, to start a family....' Ayala Procaccia, Israel Supreme Court Justice'The book contains articles by some of the most prominent scholars in the field... They tell the stories of women who were humiliated, tortured and murdered; their eternally etched-in-the-memory stories of struggle and survival. 'This collection of articles is based on two international conferences on women in the Holocaust, held in recent years at Beit Berl Academic College, Beit Theresienstadt, and the Ghetto Fighters' House in Israel. Hertzog is a daughter of Holocaust survivors, who never spoke about the subject at home. She discovered a feminist perspective on the Holocaust at a conference at Oxford she attended, almost by chance, seven years ago. That experience motivated her to speak with her mother and document their conversations in the article that appears herein.'Ruth Sinai ('"Their heroism was never acknowledged')Haaretz