Esther Morningstar

For the conductor; upon the morning star (Ayelet ha-Shahar), a Psalm of David.                    Psalms 22:1

Our Sages [Babylonian Talmud Yoma 29a] understood “Ayelet haShahar” as a reference to Queen Esther:

Said Rabbi Assi: why is Esther compared to the morning star? To tell you that just as the morning star is the end of the entire night, so too Esther is the end of all miracles.

[Indeed, based upon the Talmud’s association of Esther with “Ayelet haShahar,” the tradition of the Gaon of Vilna is that this chapter is recited as the daily Psalm on Purim.]

Perhaps we can understand Rabbi Assi’s comment to refer not to the temporal end of miracles, but rather to the purposeful end. That is, Esther is the end, the goal of all miracles. The miracle of Purim is a miracle through nature, involving no overt Divine intervention.

The late Lubavitcher Rebbi comments: “An open miracle is somewhat of a disappointment for God. Once all is said and done, He got His way only by ignoring the norms of our lower world, by breaking His own rules.  If He can perform miracles only by bullying Nature, He may as well concede that our world is a place the Infinite Light does not belong. So He also makes another sort of miracle-the sort that blends seamlessly into the order of things below. These are impossible miracles: They break no rules, but change everything. In truth, they are the most awesome of miracles-these that reveal the Infinite unrestrained within the nature of everyday things.”

In this sense, Esther indeed represents the purpose of miracles.

In truth, miracles did not end with Esther, as the Talmud itself queries: “what about Hanukka?

In fact, we live in times of miracles as well. No less a person than David ben Gurion (who could not be considered a traditionally observant Jew) commented that in Israel, one who does not believe in miracles is not a realist. My father wrote numerous times that he believes that the miracles to which his generation (and ours) are witness are as great as or even greater than the miracles our ancestors experienced.