Hot answers tagged megillat-esther
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Here are a couple:
The very fact that the Megillah introduces him as איש, and takes the trouble to tell us his lineage and background, indicates that he was a person of importance. (It is true that איש can mean simply "a man," but quite often in Tanach, when a person is introduced with this term, it bears the connotation of "a prominent person" - one ...
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R' Yonasan Eibeschutz explains as follows:
When Esther entered Achashverosh's throne room, a place full of idols, the Divine Presence left her (Megillah 15b). She realized, then, that such a place is not suitable for a miracle to take place. So she was going to have to get Achashverosh someplace where none of these would be present in order to be successful ...
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I once heard an explanation - will have to see if I can find the source - that these other servants (Jews, presumably) held with the opinion later expressed by Rambam (Hil. Yesodei Hatorah 5:1,4) that one who risks his life to keep mitzvos when not required to do so (i.e., when it's not one of the "big three," the non-Jew is doing it for his own benefit, ...
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I just want to point out that the Midrashic tradition of Mordechai being even originally a righteous individual is not completely unsupported by the text. Most (some would argue: all) midrashic material is inspired by textual subtleties and allusions, no matter how non-explicit.
From Esther Rabba (6:3)
ושמו מרדכי. הרשעים קודמין לשמן. "נבל שמו", " שבע בן ...
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As I understand it, Charvonah is the linchpin of the Megilah, the meeting of two separate plots.
Without Charvonah, Mordechai's rescue of King Achashverosh ends with his pony ride around Shushan. And without Charvonah, Esther's plea for her nation might have fallen on deaf ears; Achashverosh might well have decided to side with his chief advisor, who had ...
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Bartenura (to Megillah 1:1) says that it is associated with Yehoshua because he was the first to wage war against Amalek. Indeed, G-d directs Moshe there to "write this as a memorial in the book and place it in the ears of Yehoshua" - the Gemara (Megillah 7a and 18a) explains that this phrase refers, among other things, to the Megillah.
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It was the same person.
Many times we find people in Tanach mentioned in different places with their names spelled differently. Like Chizkiyahu sometimes has a yud in front of his name making it Yechizkiyahu, or Tzidkiyahu is sometimes Tzidkiyah without a vav at the end. In Megillas Esther, we find Bigsan becomes Bigsana later, or as you pointed out, ...
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זכריה ח כג
אמר יהוה צבאות בימים ההמה אשר יחזיקו עשרה אנשים מכל לשנות הגוים והחזיקו בכנף איש יהודי לאמר נלכה עמכם כי שמענו אלהים עמכם
Yalkut Shimoni on Esther:אסתר - פרק ב - רמז תתרנג
דבר אחר איש יהודי עליו נאמר מה שהיה הוא שיהיה, מה הגדולה נעשית על ידי איש יהודי, אף גאולה לעתיד כך, שנאמר בימים ההם אשר יחזיקו עשרה אנשים מכל לשונות הגוים והחזיקו בכנף איש ...
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The Talmud in Megillah 16b expounds the verse (Esther 8:16) in the following way:
לַיְּהוּדִים, הָיְתָה אוֹרָה וְשִׂמְחָה, וְשָׂשֹׂן, וִיקָר
The Jews had light and gladness, and joy and honour
Light = Torah
Gladness = Holidays
Joy = Brit Milah
Honor = Tefillin
From this the Maharil (as quoted in the Darkei Moshe OC 693 sk 4) says that one should ...
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I saw in the Meam Loez that she meant to tell Achashveirosh that he shouldn't kill the Jews since he would lose out. Had the Jews been sold as slaves, Achashveirosh could have always changed his mind later on (once realized how useful the Jews are). However, once they would be dead, he couldn't have done anything.
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The Gemara (Megillah 13a, bottom), cited by Rashi to the verse in Esther, says that this was Achashverosh's last-ditch attempt to get Esther to reveal her origins, since otherwise she might be replaced as queen.
(It says that this was done at Mordechai's advice; thus the juxtaposition that "Mordechai was sitting at the king's gate." Me'am Loez adds - I ...
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Alshich (to 5:5-8) says that indeed she didn't eat at the first feast. Among many other things, this explains why the first one is just described as "the party which Esther made" (5:5), while to the second one Achashverosh and Haman came "to drink with Queen Esther" (7:1).
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I'm fascinated by the midrashic answers presented for this! Are there more?
From a scholarly perspective, the increased use of the participle in place of the narrative waw-consecutive imperfect (wayiqtol) form is a classic feature of Late Biblical Hebrew (LBH).
To unpack that a bit... What Modern Hebrew treats as the "present tense" (words like molekh, ...
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After the fact:
Unless the interruption was halachically mandated (eg: he needs to use the facilities), no time or speech interruption affects the validity of your megilla reading (SA OC 690:5).
An interruption between the bracha and the beginning of reading does affect the validity of the bracha-mitzva connection. (MB 692:9, also see footnote 12 in ...
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Megilla 13b says that Ester would "rise from the bosom of Achashverosh and immerse herself and sit in the bosom of Mordechai". Tosfos Harosh asks how this was permitted due to the law of "havchana" (the requirement for a women to abstain from relations for three months between husbands to identify the father), and explains that she utilized ...
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Here's something I wrote about that very question a couple of years ago:
The reading of the Megillah is capped off by the singing of the joyous poem "Shoshanas Yaakov." It ends with the words "vegam Charvonah zachur latov," so too Charvonah (is blessed)... So what was so great about Charvonah that merited his placement in this song - and the "good side" of ...
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Some of the various reasons given in the g'mara for Ester's inviting Haman, such as to make sure the Jews not depend on her being their friend in high places and cease praying, to appear to be befriending Haman so as to get him killed, and that pride comes before a fall, are strengthened by her giving two parties rather than one. (No source.)
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דניאל ג:יב
איתי גברין יהודאין די מנית יתהון על עבידת מדינת בבל שדרך מישך ועבד נגו גבריא אלך לא שמו עליך עלך מלכא טעם לאלהיך לאלהך לא פלחין ולצלם דהבא די הקימת לא סגדין:
It's in Aramaic, but I think it still counts.
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Gen. 1:5 states:
ויקרא א-להים לאור יום, ולחשך קרא לילה
"G-d called the light 'day', and the darkness He called 'night.'"
So the name of Hashem is omitted in the second half of the verse. This leads R. Elazar to comment (Bereishis Rabbah 3:6) that "G-d does not associate His name with evil, only with good."
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There was Nechemia 7:7 Which lists Mordechai amongst the leaders of Israel. And also Ezra 2:2 Which does likewise.
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Since Mordechai did not tell the King himself, Achashveirosh felt beholden to Esther for saving his life, and in addition Hashem put into the mind of Achashveirosh not to pay Mordechai right away in order to save it for later when it was needed.
...
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About the second part of the question: Yalkut Shimoni (to Esther 4:16) says that he limited the fast to those "found in Shushan" because they were the ones who had eaten at Achashverosh's feast. The Jews in the rest of the empire weren't guilty of that.
[That they too were in danger is attributed by R. Shimon bar Yochai (Megillah 12a) to their having bowed ...
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I can tell you what I do with my own Megillah, although it's relatively small - 11" tall and 48" wide - so YMMV if you have a large one.
It has ten columns (all the same width except for the last, which is a little narrower). I fold it 3-4-3 (there's no requirement that each fold be the same width), and crease the folds a little so that it naturally bends ...
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How did Achashverosh not think that Mordechai would be disturbed by the decree to kill all the Jews?
2 potential answers, neither of which has been researched.
First, psychological:
Achashverosh didn't want to owe anyone anything. He didn't actually care about Mordechai or his people; he cared about his record (the potentially public knowledge that he doesn't repay his debts).
Second, textual:
As far as I can tell, Haman never identifies his ...
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According to this commentary, Haman symbolizes the Yetzer Harah (evil inclination), and his ten sons allude to its ten bad character traits. Their death brought about by Mordechai and Esther represents the nullification of such evil traits by being overpowered by the Yetzer Tov (good inclination). He goes through the ten sons, and explains the meaning ...
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I just found this answer:
The mitzvah of reading the Megillah applies to both men and women. Optimally, the reading should be done in the presence of a minyan (a quorum of ten men), in the synagogue. Even if one has a minyan in his home, it is still preferable to go to the synagogue for the Megillah reading since, as the verse says (Proverbs, 14:28):"The ...
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The verse actually describes the second party as meant "for all those present in Shushan Habirah." Given that various commentaries distinguish between this and plain Shushan, it's indeed quite likely that people from many different countries in the empire would have been attracted to jobs at the palace.
Though then the question might be what the difference ...
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Me'am Loez (citing Menos Halevi) says that the fact that they both equal 95 is exactly the reason why the name was changed, so as not to associate the tzaddik Daniel with the rasha Haman.
(I had incorrectly remembered it as Daniel himself deciding to do so. However, I see that Menos Halevi says שינו את שמו בהזכירו אותו במקום הרשע, which sounds like ...
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The Malbim on Megillas Esther (2:23, page 61 in the aforelinked book) asks this question, and concludes that this is one of the numerous miracles surrounding the story of Esther's ascent to power. It would have been much more normal for the debt to have been paid off immediately, and his not doing so is simply an act of G-d.
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