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From: mfrid@hpdlso1.cup.hp.com (Marcos Frid)
Subject: Re: What is Purim about anyway (and Krishna)?
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Date: Thu, 23 Mar 1995 21:04:40 GMT
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solomon taibi (taibi91@matrix.newpaltz.edu) wrote:
[deletions...]
: the Babylonian diety "Ishtar".  Yet I know that in Hebrew
: "Esther" is "Hadassah".  So how did we get from "Hadassah"
: to "Esther" in English, and does the name "Hadassah" have a
: literal meaning in Hebrew?

Esther is not the English translation of Hadassha.  Read the whole Megillah;
Hadassah's Persian (civil, common, what-have-you) name was Esther.
It is quite common for Jews to have these dual namings.  My Hebrew name
is Moshe Meir (Moshe=Moses, Meir=shining), and my civil name is Marcos, which
has no relation to either except for the "M" sound at the beginning.
Esther's Hebrew name is a flower, I think (sorry, my Hebrew dictionary is at
home).

The second question is too speculative and irrelevant to Judaism to answer.

Shalom,

Marcos Frid
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