The National Library of Israel in Jerusalem has been gifted one of the world’s oldest copies of The Book of Esther.
CBN News reports The Book of Esther is read every year by Jews around the world during the holiday of Purim.
Purim, which falls on Feb 25-28 this year, commemorates when God used Queen Esther to save the Jewish people from destruction at the hands of the Persian Empire.
Scholars say the new Esther scroll received by the National Library of Israel dates back to the Iberian Peninsula around the year 1465 [before Jews were expelled from Spain and Portugal at the end of the fifteenth century].
Experts say this scroll is precious because only a handful of Esther scrolls used by Jews before they were driven out of Spain and Portugal are known to exist.
The scroll was donated to the National Library of Israel by a private family and is available for online viewing.
