The political role of the Jewish woman in the Diaspora - Queen Esther and Shoshandoct as a model

Abstract

The Jewish political thought dealt with the issue of women in a way that varied between acceptance and rejection. It determined the role of women in Judaism according to several factors, including: the Torah, oral Jewish law, and customs, and although the Old Testament included a small number of women now that their mention came when they rose In spite of the fact that the Old Testament has degraded the status and value of women throughout the ages and times, for example, the Jewish women’s share of education was limited, and the Jewish women learned how to read and write and how to do housework, and the Jewish women received some teachings The Jewish law, which was necessary in daily life, such as the method of cooking kosher (halal) food, as the Jewish law imposed on the woman strict laws, that if her husband died, she must remain confined to the house and imprisoned for her husband even after his death. She gave birth to a child from his brother, and he is attached to her deceased husband, not to his father.                            

Despite, as we have indicated, the strict laws, what the Old Testament mentioned about outstanding female personalities indicates that these women have a prominent role in Jewish political and religious life and that they broke the restrictions of Sharia to become a symbol that is passed down from generation to generation.

In our research, we will address two Jewish female personalities who played a prominent political role and deserved to include a complete book in the Old Testament in the name of one of them and to perpetuate Jewish history in the other, even though they lived far from the stronghold of Judaism, where they became queens with a crown and a throne and saved their compatriots from certain extermination, namely Queen Esther and Queen Shoshandoct .