The Hadassah Collection.
This unique collection is easily identified by the delicate "wings" adorning the pieces. This collection is the second collection created by the artisan, Yolanda Gunter.
Inspired by the Bible's Book Of Esther and the Fast of Purim when Queen Esther called all Jews to join her for three (3) full days of fasting as petitioning (praying) before our God Jehovah to intervene and He did.
The story begins in the Book of Esther 2:7 New International Version (NIV)- Mordecai had a cousin named Hadassah, whom he had brought up because she had neither father nor mother. This young woman, who was also known as Esther, had a lovely figure and was beautiful. Mordecai had taken her as his own daughter when her father and mother died.
The specific part where the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous person comes in is in the truest form of self-denial through fasting. It isn't clearly communicated that Hadassah and the Jews "prayed" but it is written, "In every province to which the edict and order of the king came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping and wailing" (Esther 4:3 NIV).
I encourage you to read the entire Book of Esther for the full context of how Hadassah is exemplified as a praying woman but the following biblical excerpt depicts the heroic heart of the young woman whom this collection is affectionately named after.
Esther 4:5-16 (NIV)
5 Then Esther summoned Hathak, one of the king’s eunuchs assigned to attend her, and ordered him to find out what was troubling Mordecai and why. 6 So Hathak went out to Mordecai in the open square of the city in front of the king’s gate.
7 Mordecai told him everything that had happened to him, including the exact amount of money Haman had promised to pay into the royal treasury for the destruction of the Jews. 8 He also gave him a copy of the text of the edict for their annihilation, which had been published in Susa, to show to Esther and explain it to her, and he told him to instruct her to go into the king’s presence to beg for mercy and plead with him for her people.
9 Hathak went back and reported to Esther what Mordecai had said. 10 Then she instructed him to say to Mordecai, 11 “All the king’s officials and the people of the royal provinces know that for any man or woman who approaches the king in the inner court without being summoned the king has but one law: that they be put to death unless the king extends the gold scepter to them and spares their lives. But thirty days have passed since I was called to go to the king.”
12 When Esther’s words were reported to Mordecai, 13 he sent back this answer: “Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. 14 For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”
15 Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: 16“Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.”