Hamadan, Iran – Iran registers the Mausoleum of Esther and Mordecai, a holy shrine in Jewish belief, in the western city of Hamadan in its National Heritage List.
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Given the great historical link between Persian and Jewish people, the two heroes are of great respect among the Jewish people.
A queen of the Persian Empire in the Hebrew Bible, Esther is a heroine of the Biblical Book of Esther which is named after her.
The mausoleum, which is visited by Jewish pilgrims from all over the world, is a brick construction that shelters two tombs of Esther and Mordecai.
Adorned with some Hebrew inscription, the structure is the resting-place of Esther, the Achaemenian Queen and wife of King Xerxes who ruled Persia from 486 to 465 B.C.E. and her uncle, Mardocai.
I’m surprised the Iranians are not denying the Megillah!!!
Do they count the years backwards in Persia ? So it seems
you would think that after what the purim story stands for they would not want it to be part of their heritage.
486 BCE was before 465 BCE. So its correct to say “from 486 BCE to 465 BCE”
The tomb (k’vorim) of Esther and Mordechai is in the city of Hamadan, the site of Megillat Esther’s Shushan, about halfway between Teheran and Iran’s western border with Iraq, Hamadan is in the west of Iran. The city used to have a large population of Jews, so that the Bazaar was known as “the Jewish market”.
The main reason for the Jewish presence in Hamadan is the tomb of Esther and Mordechai, which historically has been a gathering point for many Jewish people.
In the past the city had five Synagogues, but some of them are now being used by Moslems. Some famous doctors and artists of the Iranian Jewish community are from this city.
Nowadays there are a few Jewish families living in Hamadan. However, many Iranian Jews from other cities of Iran come during the year to visit the tombs, specially on Purim to read the Megila, the scroll of Esther.
Going to visit the tomb, one had to bow low to go inside its entrance, assuring that a pilgrim entered with an attitude of respect. Pilgrims would pray while walking around two large, ornately carved trunks, before they would back out of the tomb. By backing out, the pilgrims avoided showing disrespect to the great personages buried inside.
The burial sites of Mordechai and Esther are said to be in the cellar below, in the exact locations where the two trunks are placed on the floor above.
Architect Yassi Gabbay, who renovated the tomb about 25 years ago, said pilgrims used to light candles in an antechamber before entering the main room of the tomb, but said that custom was stopped as a result of a fire. Candles were particularly dangerous in the main room, he added, because of the pilgrims’ custom of draping the ornately carved trunks with cloths as a remembrance of their visit.
The tomb itself dates back only to the 16th or 17th century, built over a deep pit in which the original burials are believed to have taken place.
To see photos and original source, go to…
http://www.gush-etzion.org.il/newsletter/2008/march21.htm
Although the small Jewish community of Hamadan has mostly emigrated since the Islamic revolution, the tomb remains well cared for by the Islamic Revolutionary authorities.
There is a question about how it happened that Esther’s and Mordechai’s tomb is in Hamadan, rather than in Persepolis, which was the ancient capital of Persia (Iran).The answer is that after King Ahashuerus died, there was a king who did not know Esther.
Hamadan, which has far cooler temperatures than the desert city of Persepolis, was the summer capital of Persia. A story has it that Esther and Mordechai removed themselves from the palace to the summer resort, where they spent their final years.
In the shrine-and-pilgrimage-focused Middle East, Jews would often make the trek to pray at the tombs of Esther and Mordechai.
To # 4
“There is a question about how it happened that Esther’s and Mordechai’s tomb is in Hamadan, rather than in Persepolis, which was the ancient capital of Persia (Iran).The answer is that after King Ahashuerus died, there was a king who did not know Esther.”
This statement is blatantly false. Achashveiroish was succeeded by his son with Esther Hamalka named Darius (I’m quite sure he knew his mother!). See Masechta Megilla dafim 12-13 and Masechta Avoda Zara daf 9a.
#6 , You must mean CE not AD. AD has christological connotations.
Yeshiva educated and proud.
in kfar chalav is isreal there is a few stones which are mentioned is seforim that that is the keforim of mrdche and ester
I am surprised that the radical Islamics who run Iran have not already declared the tomb a “Muslim holy site” and converting it to a mosque by retroactively claiming Mordechi and Esther as “Muslim prophets” — just like they did by building mosques up on Har HaBayis, trying to claim exclusive domain over the Cave of Machpela and destroying Kever Yosef (they justify such actions by claiming the Jewish religious figures associated with these places, as well as all other significan Biblical Jewish personalities to have really been Muslim “prophets” — Abrahaam becomes “Ibrihim,” Moses is “Musa”, David is
Daud”, etc. They also do this with the major figures of the Christian religion as well, even claiming that the Christian “messiah” (cv’s) is “Isa,” — naturally, a Muslim prophet who worshipped Allah, believed in the Koran, which would not be written until 600 years after his death, and gladly acknowledged his role in the Next World as a lowly servant of Muhammed, as they tell the story. A little tidbit of information to astonish your Christian friends with nextime they start to go soft and wobbly on the need to challenge and defeat the Islamics.
I wonder if the NK nutballs who went to Tehrab for Achmadinejad’s phony Holocaust “scholarship (read: DENIAL) conference even bothered to make a pilgrimage to this kever.
Why is Esther buried with Mordechai? As the Queen, wouldn’t she be buried with the King? Even if he died first, why would they allow her to be buried with someone other than her husband? (yes, I know the story, but seriously, did the Persian burial society?) I suspect that this is not a historically accurate site.
There is a grave of Mordechai and Esther just outside Kfar Baram, Israel (in the north), and to this day no one really knows which one is the real one–especially since there is a gemara that says that Mordechai lived in Eretz Yisroel after the Purim story, which may indicate that he was buried there too.
At one time there was disagreement which of two sites was the real kever shmuel hanavi.
The tour operators solved the problem by explaining that one was shmuel aleph and one was shmuel bais.
Esther was allowed to be buried according to her minhag. Her son was the king at the time of her passing.
Esther and Mordechai are buried in Northern Israel location is “Gush Challav”