Jerusalem Maiden by Talia Carner

Author:Talia Carner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins US

Aunt Tova was furious to learn that Esther’s trousseau had long been reassigned to Hanna, leaving the bride as empty-handed as the poorest of their relations. “A shandeh un a charpeh,” Tova muttered, her lips tightening. “A disgrace to my poor sister’s memory, may her soul rest in peace.”

A few hours later, Aba brought home a large sack of goose down. In the kitchen yard, stuffing a handful into a cotton duvet casing, Esther watched a fine feather carried away by a passing wind. As the wind tired of it, the feather dropped into the gutter, where it was sucked in by murky water. Just like her.

She was surprised to see Aba standing beside her. “Esther appears in the story of Purim as a woman of deep faith, courage and patriotism, a woman willing to risk her life for her uncle, Mordecai, who was like a father to her, and for the Jewish people,” Aba said, as if continuing a Dvar Torah he had been elucidating.

Esther hardly listened to his words. It was Tuesday, an opportune day to get married, even if the home she and Asher would create was a sham. Now with the scorn on Aba’s face gone, the day was turning doubly good. God must be looking down on her with favor.

She had asked herself whether Nathan’s hand in returning Naftali had been God’s message to marry the foreigner. But God wouldn’t have sent Asher to propose, and then Mlle Thibaux to support his offer. God wouldn’t want her to marry outside the klal. Anyway, she and Asher couldn’t go to Europe as long as it was engulfed in war. In the meantime, being married, she would become a seamstress in God’s city.

Aba went on, “That is why I named you Esther. I’ve always had great hopes for you and for your role in the salvation of our people.”

Esther batted away loose feathers that clung along her braid. Soon she would be parting with it. On Sunday, when Asher sneaked by their kitchen yard, she publicly disregarded tzni’ut and delivered her order: he must tell his mother that he forbade his bride’s head to be shaved. Short hair should do, he had agreed. Whatever she wanted was fine.

Aba leaned over her worktable for support. His injured back did not permit him to straighten up fully. “Why was Esther, one virgin among many in the kingdom of Persia, chosen by King Ahasuerus? Where did she get the courage to approach the king, risking death, to invite him to a banquet in her quarters? Because she was an instrument in the hand of Hashem to avert the massacre of the Jewish people, to afford them protection and peace in their captivity. The lesson can be applied to a much smaller universe—”

The little sermon had nothing to do with her, Esther thought. Their klal was not living in captivity. The only captives were its girls, Jerusalem maidens like her. But she wasn’t going to argue with Aba today. Naftali was

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