Ishtar Goddess

Esther (Zada) Weingarten

My mother was born on an unknown date in Shiraz, Persia. We estimate it was around 1927, close to the Jewish New Year. Her mother passed away during childbirth, so there are no photographic records from her early years. Unfortunately, she didn't have fond memories of Persia. One story she often repeated was of when she fell and “hit her head,” with no one there to comfort her. Her father was a merchant and was often away, while her stepmother wasn’t emotionally available for her. My mother was kept out of school to help with housework, and in a way, this “saved” her from teenage marriage, though she always felt the missed opportunity of an education. She immigrated to Israel in 1950 and married my father, a Holocaust survivor, in 1957.

My mother is my inspiration in so many ways. She was the wisest person I knew—resilient, hardworking, dedicated, loving, strict, meticulous, witty, funny, nurturing, an amazing cook, an exceptional hostess, and astute. She accomplished so much with her own hands, together with my father.

My sister, brother, and I were their whole world. She held three values above all: education, cleanliness, and, true to her Persian roots… fresh food every day—healthy and abundant (to the point that health itself might be questionable). From a young age, I helped her with all the housework, including picking vegetables, shopping at the market, prepping for cooking, baking, embroidery, knitting, sewing, and more.

The one thing I could not bear was buying fish and preparing meat, and only at my Bat Mitzvah did I find the courage to tell her I was going vegetarian—a commitment I still honor to this day. On November 1, 2010, my mother passed away. The pain of loss struck me once again. It felt as though a door had closed on a place of comfort and refuge. As I prepared for my daughter Ofri’s Bat Mitzvah celebration, I decided that the upcoming exhibition on Rosh Hashanah would be dedicated to my mother, Esther—she was born around Rosh Hashanah and passed away just after.

At the end of August, a month before the exhibit, I traveled to London with Ofri as a Bat Mitzvah gift. Over the weekend, we went to the Portobello antique market, where I met Persian antique dealers. Out of curiosity, I asked them what the name “Nosrat” meant in Persian—the name of my grandmother, who had passed away when my mother was born, and for whom I was named Osnat. To my surprise, they replied, “Victoria.” It had never occurred to me to ask my mother about this. I purchased three ancient Persian rings from the Sassanian Empire, dating back to the 7th century, made of bronze, and had them replicated in 22-carat gold. I also acquired hand-carved gemstones—carnelian, agate, lapis lazuli, and more—from Afghanistan.

For me, my mother was the Queen Esther of Persia. I read and discovered that the inspiration for the Book of Esther is the mythical figure Ishtar, and these are the words I wrote for the “Transitions” exhibit on Rosh Hashanah 2011, where I introduced the Ishtar Collection.

Ishtar, the goddess of love, fertility, sexuality, and war, was one of the chief deities in the Akkadian, Sumerian (where she was called Inanna), and Babylonian pantheons. She was the consort of the god Dumuzi (Tammuz) and is also mentioned in the Epic of Gilgamesh.

The ritual of the “Sacred Marriage” was centered around her in Sumerian worship. Ishtar’s main temple was in Uruk, but many temples were built in her honor across major Mesopotamian cities. Her symbol was a star with eight points. The goddess Astarte, one of the primary goddesses in Canaanite and Phoenician mythology, is identified with Ishtar, as is the goddess Asherah in Canaanite worship.

According to Akkadian, Sumerian, and Babylonian mythology, the queen of the underworld, Ereshkigal, captured Tammuz, Ishtar’s beloved, and imprisoned him in her palace. With Tammuz’s death, the vegetation on earth withered, so Ishtar descended to the underworld to retrieve him. After a struggle, a compromise was reached between the goddesses, allowing Tammuz to spend half the year with Ereshkigal in the underworld and half with Ishtar on earth.

This myth, reflecting the cyclical nature of life and death in nature, has parallels in other cultures, such as the abduction of Persephone by Hades in Greek mythology. Even the name of Queen Esther in the Book of Esther, whose Hebrew name was Hadassah, is derived from the goddess Ishtar.

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