Esther: From Passive to Active | Rabbi James Kennard

What I'm going to do today, I want to do two things. Uh the first is slightly different from the star that I usually employ, which is to look at how Maporim understand the text and how Maporim understand each other. We're not going to do that today. We're going to do what's sometimes called close reading and concentrate on the text itself. Um and see what we can derive from the text itself. I overheard some of the previous Shia and I understand some of the in the sh what was in the sh before that and I there will be some overlap with what we just heard but I suppose that's good because we can always learn more Torah and find out more from the Torah. Um what I want to do is look at chapter 4 and in particular look at what a pivot moment it is in the context of the McGiller and there's a very dramatic change that we will come across and then I want to explain why that's bad methodology and inappropriate in this particular case. So the first half of the year will be finding the result and the second half of the share will be why that's not a good method and I will explain So chapter four of the migilla follows on from chapter three which follows on from chapter two which follows on from chapter one. Chapter one is when Akadro has a party and Vashi disobys him and he gets rid of Vashi. Chapter two is when he finds a new queen and it turns out to be Esther. Chapter three is when Hammon comes to Akash and says I've got a good idea. Let's kill all the Jews. And this brings us to chapter four. And we read as follows. Morai knew all that was done. And Morai tore his clothes and he adorned himself in sackcloth and ashes and he went out in the midst of the city and he cried a loud and bitter cry. So what is all that has happened? Makai knows all that has happened. So some of it is public in the fact that the order to kill the Jews on Yudgimal Adar has been promagated. It's been sent by the scribes throughout 127 provinces. There is more backstory which we will see that Morai is aware of that might not have been public. Where did he get that information from? Either his network of spies or Ruakodesesh or a bit of both. and he wears sackcloth and ashes. And as we will see the the garment, the attire is a very important part of this story. And it's a very important part of the migilla. Um when Morai is finally appointed to be whatever you call it, prime minister, he goes out in the city wearing the malut, wearing the king's robes of kingship. When he's paraded on the horse, he's ra wearing the king's clothes. There's a lot of clothes in the migilla. And right now he decides to wear sackloth and ashes sack apher and he goes out where does he go in the midst of the city. He doesn't go to where the palace is where Esther is. And by the way at this point I want to say that this chapter is basically a dialogue between Modai and Esther. It's the only chapter in the McGill like this. It doesn't involve Akash. It doesn't involve Ham. It doesn't involve Persian people. It just involves Morai and Esther having a dialogue. Interestingly, they don't meet. The dialogue is conducted either in sign language or through an intermediary. They don't meet and we'll see very soon why they don't meet. Esther is in the palace. Esther is the queen. She's living the life of the queen. And Morai is outside the palace. And he stays outside the palace as we can see in Pasukb. Shamel. He came up to the gate of the king, but not through the gate of the king, not into the palace grounds, not into where the court is. Why does he only go up to the gate of the king? It is inappropriate. So then the question arises why does he wear sackloth? If he wants to go to the does he want to go to the gate of the king? Does he not want to go to the gate of the king? He wants to go up to the gate of the king but he can't go any further because he's wearing sackloth. Now if he has something to do which is going to involve the palace which he is and the involvement of the palace is the fact that he's trying to communicate with Esther. One might ask why he's wearing sacloth. if he knows that because he's wearing sackloth he can't go into the palace, why is he wearing sackloth? So bear that question in mind. We're going to pile up a few questions and then hopefully find a particular way of answering them. It's worth stressing, I said at the beginning, I'm not going to go through lots of different opinions. One certainly can learn the McGiller with many, many, many different commentaries and many many different ideas for each part, each episode, each word. We're not going to do that. But we're going to keep to one particular way of thinking about it which I hope will be an answer to some of the questions that emerge gimmel and in all the provinces the places where the king's word just just by the way the word dat which we use today with such familiarity to mean religion dati religious occurs first of all in the migilla where it doesn't actually quite have that same meaning. It means law. But it's interesting that it emerges um in a book which describes the Jews in exile. They no longer are defined by nationality. They're defined by religion. And we find the word dart appearing in the migilla. Anyway, so all the places where the king's uh rule reached there was great mourning for the Jews. But and there was fasting and there was crying and there was lamentation and sacloaf and ashes was spread out was provided either for the uh elite ranks or for the majority or for the masses. So everywhere where the king's rit reaches, the Jews are crying. Except there's one Jew who's not crying, Esther. And this peric, and again, I hope I'm not giving away too much at this stage, talks about the distance Esther has from the rest of the Jewish world. Esther is in the palace. She is not crying. She is not fasting. We'll see why in a moment, and we'll see, we'll discuss further the implications of that. But gimmel emphasizes that everybody else is overcome by mourning which leads to the corollery that there's one person who is not who is now going to be mentioned. Number four dala there's two there's a so we'll read it asa and Esther's maid servants and Esther's servants unics came and they told her it's not clear at this point what they told her but we'll find out very soon and she the word means she was ill she was shocked or even there's implications in the word that she had a visceral reaction in her own body and and she reacted in a particular way. She's very very shocked. The queen is very very shocked. And she sent clothes to wear for to wear and to remove the sackcloth from him and he did not accept. Why does she send clothes? Why does she send clothes? And why does he not accept the clothes? This is a remarkable little mini episode. Now, you might say, and some do, she sent clothes so that he could come into the gate of the king and then he could communicate with her. In which case, what's she missing? She's missing what I asked earlier. If he wants to come into the king's gate, he should put on a nice suit like uh like the White House discussed recently. And if he wants to wear sackloth, he obviously doesn't want to come into the king's gate. So she is doing something which doesn't make sense by sending him clothes. She's saying, "Well, you must have put on the wrong clothes this morning. Here's the right clothes." Or or to deny reality to put it in a bigger slightly more macro way. He represents what the entire Jewish world is doing, fasting and crying. and she sees this as just a peripheral problem, a surface issue that he hasn't got the right clothes. And the problem can be solved by sending him the right clothes and she doesn't accept. And that's part of the communication as it were. I said the communication starts off with symbolic language. The symbolic language is he's there wearing these sacloaf and ashes and she sees the problem as the fact that he's wearing the wrong clothes. And so she sends him the right clothes, but he doesn't accept it. Now, by the way, I can see one, two, three hands. And I'd love this year to be interactive. So, I'm going to throw out questions and please throw out suggested answers. But I do have a timet. We have min at 20 1. And I have to stay in control of the ship. So, please excuse me if I say we can't take every question at every time. But, okay. You said visceral reaction. Is that not a gut a gut intuitive feeling? Well, okay. What I Okay, I I thought I would avoid what I I would allude to what suggested because it's really not very nice. Um, one suggestion of tital is she lost control of her vowels. Uh, and another suggestion is she started menstruating and I didn't really want to say either of those, but now I did for the sake of for the sake of uh sake of learning Torah. Okay. Uh there was a question over I just you said she lost touch and brought him um different clothes. So I don't see the connection between bringing him different clothes and a visceral reaction. No, I'm saying she was very shocked. She was very shocked. Point that she had a visceral reaction. Exactly. But she didn't know what was going on. But she didn't know what was going on. Now you might read it as the the servants came and told her about the decree of Hammon, but it's clear as you will see in the next passage that she didn't know about it. So that's not what they told her and it's not what she had the reaction to. Um what she had the reaction to was the message that your uncle stroke cousin stroke husband whatever it is is out there wearing the wrong clothes. And that's what she's shocked by. She doesn't know about the decree. that's going to be clear of the next person. So her shock, her what I politely called her visceral reaction or her illness is because her cousin uncle is wearing the wrong clothes. And she doesn't understand why he's wearing the wrong clothes. And she thinks that the clothes problem can be sorted by sending him new clothes. As I said, to me, that is absurd. There there's something missing there because if he's wearing the wrong clothes, why is he wearing the wrong clothes? And why does she think that he can now swap the wrong clothes for the right clothes? That's what doesn't make sense. And indeed, Morai shows it doesn't make sense by not accepting the clothes. So that's the next part of the dialogue. You send me clothes, I don't accept those clothes. That is not the solution to the problem at hand. Even though she doesn't yet know the problem at hand. There was a hand over there. Yes. and he is responding by his reaction to come out. Okay. Um at this point a little bit speculation. I don't know if she can come out. Um I think part of the tragedy of Esther is she's locked in the palace or she's locked in the harim with all the other women who didn't quite make it to queen, but they're still there. Um, and I I think this this per says a few things about Esther, but it really reinforces the tragedy that she is she's lost all agency. She is basically a prisoner in the palace at the king's pleasure. Not a good place to be in at all. So, I suggest, and I've got no proof of this, that it wasn't an option for her to come out and walk the streets. But maybe, maybe there was a question here. Let's keep the one question. Okay. Give me the best shot. It's not really good for what's I I I'm not aware of such an opinion and I I can't get to him. Okay. I don't think that's I I'm not aware of such an opinion. There may be, as I say, there are literally hundreds of explanations of the McGiller. Um, but it seems to me from what's coming next, she doesn't know. Okay. Um, by the way, and we'll come back to this. I actually was just learning this this morning and with the aid of a shiv that I saw from somebody else. Um, she's called in Posdaled Hamala. Throughout the entire McGill, she is called Esther or Esther Hamala. There are only two places where she's called Hamala without the Esther. One is when Akash sorry when Hammon falls to his knees and tries to plead for his mercy with um Esther and Akasher in chapter 7 Akash is just before Hammon's going to be killed Akash uh says are you going to you're going to force the queen with me in the house and that makes sense because Akasher is focusing on the fact that she's the queen and it looks perhaps mistakenly that Harmon is trying to have his way with the queen. Um here however there isn't such a neat explanation. Here we have Esther and Morai part starting their dialogue and at the moment still symbolic and she's not called Esther and she's not called Esther Hamala she's called Hala and maybe there's a significance in that which I will come back to hey she called who is hatch so hat plays a significant role in taking messages back and forth between Esther Morai until he disappears from the story or from the narrative. Anyway, Esther is sorry, Hatak is one of the servants stroke Unix of the kingd whom he the king may stand before her. In other words, Hatak is Akash's um man who is Esther's servant al-Modai. and she commanded him about Morai to know what is this and what is this all about. So now she doesn't understand what Morai is doing. She doesn't understand why he's wearing the sackloth and refuses to accept the clothes that she sends him and she wants to know what's going on. goes out to Morai to the wide space street of the city where which was before the gate of the king. So again we're reminded what we learned in Pac alith and in Pak uh bet that Mori has not come into the palace. He can't come into the palace because he's wearing the wrong clothes but that's his choice. So Modi is not going through the gate of the king. He's standing out there outside in the street. And the the McGiller seems to be emphasizing this location. And what's perhaps what's going on here? Let me let me start to unravel a little bit of this. He is pointing out the distance between himself and Esther. Esther is in the palace. I'm out there in the street. Uh perhaps you could say like I'm out there with the masses, with the with the people. Um I'm where you're not. And I'm not going to come into the palace to get closer to your life and your regal and your pomp and your circumstance. I'm out there in the streets. Doesn't quite say I'm with the masses. Perhaps that's the implication. But I'm certainly not in the palace. And the migill emphasizes that Morai is not in the palace. Soak goes to Morai. Morai told him that's all that had happened. In other words, all the meetings between Morai sorry between Akushes and Hamatv the story of the money. What's the money? So when Akashes when Ham said to Ashes, "Let's kill all the Jews." He offered him a vast bribe, maybe even more than a bribe, to seal the deal. Um, one idea is that he offered him, he said, "Look, if you kill all the Jews, you're going to lose the income, the tax that you get from the Jews. So, I will make good the difference. I'll replenish the coffers." And the king said, "No thanks. I don't need your money. I just want to kill the Jews anyway." And that is part of the story which Morai repeats to Esther. Now, that might not have been public. The fact that there was a plan to kill the Jews, that was certainly public because it had been displayed on every notice board throughout 127 provinces. The details of the fact that Hammon had offered such a bribe or such a replenishment that probably was not public and maybe Morai had his own sources as I said earlier uh some sort of prophetic spirit to know about that. And he tells that to Esther, not just that the Jews are going to be killed, but he specifically mentions and the McGillah mentions that he mentioned the parashat. And I suggest to show that how real this threat is. It's something that Modi and Akashes have both invested a lot in a sorry Hammon Akash, thank you. Hammon is prepared to give over all this money. Akashes is prepared to forego all this money. That's how serious they are about wanting to kill the Jews. So to finish the puk um that Ham was prepared to literally weigh out the money into the treasury of the kingim for the Jews Abdan to destroy them. The word abadan is the word often used when we're talking about Hammon's plan to make the Jews disappear, to make the Jews be lost, which is a cruel way of saying to utterly destroy them. Remember that word because it will come back. Thank you. It will come back, but we're not there yet. Um and then number eight and the copy of the text of the lawan which was put out in hashm to destroy them. Not quite the same word as abd. Abdan is more harsh actually. It means to negate them to cancel them out as if they never existed to be lost. Lashidame is to destroy them. Natan at Esther. He gave it to him to show to Esther and to tell her and to command her to go to the king and to plead with him to implore him and to request from him for her people. So now we get to the nitty-gritty of what Morai's message is. Morai wearing sackcloth, not going into the palace, staying outside the palace, sends a message via hat to Estov. After the message of not accepting the nice clothes, the next message is we're all going to die. And it's now a requirement. He commands her, he gives her a command that she's got to do something. She's got to go to the king to plead for her people. And that is the message that Morai wanted to get to her. And now he sends it to Hatak. And now she receives the message. And what does she say? Came and told to Esther the words of Morai and Esther said to Hatak and commanded him to go back to Morai. So Morai commands her, she commands Hatakh, but to send a command to Morai. And the message is all the servants of the king and the people of the provinces of the king yim they all know. Notice that yodim was there in Alfai Morai knew what had happened. Esther saying I'll tell you what everyone knows. And by the way, that means you should know as well that every man and woman who goes to the king into the inner courtyard who has not been called. There's one rule. They're going to get killed. Sorry. except for those to whom the king extends the golden scepter. The word your appears here nowhere else in and then they will live and and I haven't been called to the king for 30 days. Okay, let's quickly deal with the 30 days because I saw there's there's two nice explanations and there's very many more. One is she's saying that I haven't been called for 30 days. I'm sure the king misses me. I'm sure he's going to call me soon. So, I'll wait until he calls me or he hasn't called me for 30 days. He obviously doesn't like me anymore. Uh, and he's probably not going to call me again. Either way, if I go now, I will be killed. And that is why I can't act. Now, there is a huge logical conundrum in Esther's words. Esther, Morai has said, "There's bad news, Esther. All the Jews are going to be killed." Esther says, "Well, it's all very well asking me to go to the king, but there is a slight technical problem. If I go to the king without being invited, he'll kill me." What's the What's the puzzle here? She's going to be killed anyway. She's going to be killed anyway. This is the absurdity of her response. She's going to be killed anyway. So what does it matter if I get killed by Haman on the day of everyone's death or if I die trying to replicate it? Either way I'm going to die. Or put another way, if you do the risk management here, you make a risk assessment, there's a possibility that the king will accept the scepter and therefore she'll live and therefore she'll be able to intercede for the people. It may be that the king doesn't ex extend the scepter and she'll be dead, but she'll be no worse off than if she doesn't do anything because she'll be dead anyway. Okay. He Okay. Right. Okay. By the way, by the way, um I always get to this point when giving this and I don't normally get such a tolerant of people shouting at me, but you know, I'm getting used to how the OU works. Um, there is the story. Modai told her not to reveal her people. This has always been a bit problematic to me because what must have been known is there's a connection between Morai and Esther. And Morai is certainly known to be the Jew. He's always identified as Morai. So how exactly Esther what exactly it means that Esther kept her identity secret is not clear. One answer is yes. she didn't admit she was Jewish and nobody knew she was Jewish. Um, which doesn't actually change the point I'm about to get to. It only actually reinforces it. Um, there is a suggestion. Rashi says that when it says not to tell her peoplehood, it means not to tell her royal lineage that she was a descendant of King Sha. And by the way, I don't want to get down all these different sidtracks, but I'll just mention uh that there's a lot of logic to that. The Midrash says that was not of royal blood himself. He was a stable lad who married Vashi who was the granddaughter of Nebu Kadetsa and that was way the way that Akasher became king. He just married into the family. Um and that was why Vashi was a threat to him because she was more royal than him and he got rid of her and he he wanted to replace her with somebody who comes with no royal baggage herself. He wants to replace her with a nobody. And so Morai says, "Don't let Morai say to Esther, don't let um Akash know that you're a descendant of King Sha." Um and that comes into other parts of the story as well, but we won't get into that right now. So that's one possibility. Another possibility is what he meant was don't let people know the connection between Morai and Esther which either was he was her uncle or was he was a cousin or maybe he was her husband which puts a different picture on her relationship and and that creates all sorts of other uh issues. Um, so it could be, but it it wasn't such a secret that she was Jewish. Or maybe we'll go back to the standard version that nobody knew she was Jewish. And therefore, she is saying that could answer what I call this logical conundrum. She is saying, um, nobody knows I'm Jewish. So if I do nothing, I won't die. All the other Jews will, but I won't. Uh, and if I do something, I might get killed by the king for not being invited into a meeting with him. That make that does make a little bit of sense. But now we get to the nub of the issue. And now I'd like to go back to the issue of the clothes and suggest what's really going on between Morai and Esther is Morai has taken off the Persian clothes. How do I know he's taken off the Persian clothes? The clothes he's now wearing keep him excluded from the court. That's why it's significant that the clothes he's chosen to wear are the clothes that despar him from being up there with Akasherish and the curteers and where the power is and where the epicenter of Persian non-Jewish life is. What's he wearing? Whose clothes is he wearing? The clothes of the Jewish people. Because we saw in Pastor Gimmel all the Jews are wearing sackcloth. That puts Morai's dress choice into a certain perspective into a certain context. Morai sounds like when you read Alf Morai is saying I'm going to wear sackloth. This is my statement. When you read past Gimmel, you find out that Morai is just doing what all the Jews are doing. It's the background. Yep. And Morai now now we can understand better. Morai is wearing the clothes that that separate him from the royal court because he is separating himself from the royal court and he is identifying as a Jew. And now I want to say something which is a bit radical um but I remember I learned this from my teacher Rab Bravo many many years ago so I feel it's worth repeating. What's what's what's the visceral reaction? Why is Esther so upset when she hears that Morai is wearing sackloth? We all have somewhere in our family that annoying uncle who's really embarrassing who turns up at family simas and pinches our cheek and says something which is a little bit strange or unfiltered and we just have to sort of make uh talk around the problem. You know, we all have that. Or maybe it's just my Esther has that. Who's the annoying uncle who turns up looking Jewish? She He's looking Jewish. She is being dragged away from that. She is locked up in the palace. She's called queen because now she's focusing on being queen. And why does she send the clothes to Mori to get it back into shape, but to get to remove the embarrassment to herself? I Esther have a problem with you Mori wearing these clothes. you're looking too Jewish and you're embarrassing me. And that's why she sends the clothes. And what is his response? He doesn't accept the clothes. Why doesn't he accept the clothes? Because he's going to stay looking Jewish. She might have forgotten her roots, but he certainly hasn't. So, it's not just a technical problem. I'm wearing these clothes. I can't get into the king's gate. He's choosing not to get into the king's gate. He's choosing to wear the clothes that the entire Jewish people is wearing at this time because he's choosing to identify as remember he was up there at court as well. He's sitting in the king's gate. He's sending messages. He's identifying plots to kill the king and sending messages to the king to have these big tan and terrorish dealt with. He's right up there in Persian society until this moment. Until this moment, he's choosing to be distant from the king, distant from the court, and distant from Esther and wearing the Jewish clothes. And now we can see now maybe I don't want to be too uh cruel to Esther who was in Nia who was a sedic. So I'm careful of what I say. And maybe what I'm about to say is Morai's interpretation of Esther's words. And maybe it's not Esther's actual meaning. Doesn't matter actually for the context for how the story progresses. But Mor Esther says how can we resolve this logical conundrum which I said Esther seems to miss the point. If she goes to the king and he doesn't accept the scepter, she's dead. If she doesn't go to the king, she's dead anyway because all the Jews are going to be killed. Morai thinks that Esther thinks she's not one of those Jews. Now, either you can say that she kept her identity a secret, but the result is the same. The result is she doesn't feel that she's included in the in in the decree. I would also say, and I'm very careful about saying this because I'm not necessarily saying about Esther herself, but we all know and we see around us today more than ever those Jews who say I'm one of the good Jews. I'm not like one of those Zionists who is committing those crimes. I'm one of the good Jews. I'll put my adverts in the paper in and I'll sign a petition to say I'm one of the good Jews. If you want to get the Jews, get the bad Jews. Those guys over there, the Zionists. I'm not like that. Unfortunately, that is very much a feature of our time. Um, and it's tragic. And maybe one could without saying Esther feels the same, but there's the same sort of atmosphere of Esther saying, "I'm in the palace. I'm safe." And we know that Morai is about to say, "You're not safe in the palace." Which is why it gives strength also to this this interpretation. Morai is about to say that don't think you'll be safe in the palace. Which implies she does think she'll be safe in the palace. She thinks I won't be rounded up like the rest of the Jews. And that now makes sense for her response to Modi. Now we can understand. Now there's a logic to it. If I don't go to the king, I'll stay alive because I'm not like those Jews. If I do go to the king, he might not extend his scepter, in which case I'll die. So it's better off that I do nothing. It only makes sense if she feels she's not included in the decree. So either you could explain that as nobody knows she's Jewish. That's fine. Or you could explain that as she feels she's no longer one of those Jews who's in the decree. She's now a court Jew. C O U R T and C A U G-H I suppose. She's now a Jew in the palace and she's going to be okay. Sorry. Yes. Wait, just just one moment. This has been our problem. I I I watched the play called the occult where people made a lot of effort to convert and whatever ended up being sent to the concentration camp like everybody else and the fact that the Jews are so fragmented if they would all band together and be strong and identify themselves. Plus the idea of the bushim was also like garments of the soul. So I always thought of it as was more like Moshe. He was ready to go out and be with the people even though he had a false connection. And Esther was ready to be removed. Whether she was coerced in being removed or not, she saw it as a superficial problem. She didn't realize that her wearing those queenly garments was really a separation of who she was supposed to be. Yeah. I mean, or you could all but you could interpret it slightly stronger that she deliberately likes wearing the the queenly garments because now she's the queen and yes, didn't you say that she didn't know because she's but she knows now. She knows now because by in Zion Morai sent the message of everything that's happening. So that's the transition. That's why I said at the beginning and answered your earlier point she didn't know. Um, and she asks she goes asks Katak to find out Maz what's going on. And Morai tells her. So now she does know. So now we come to Morai's response. Interesting enough, and I'm not going to go on this because I'm not sure I understand the implications of it, but disappears at this point. Hatak who was the intermediary in Pak Zion and Paket and Paket. Now it's just they anonymous they reported what was going on between sorry they reported the words of Esther to Modai responds to Esther don't think for yourself that you will be you will escape bame house of the kingim from all the Jews And I'm now I can sort of work backwards. This was the point that I think leads credence to everything I've said up till now. Morai actually hits the nail on the head and accuses her of thinking that she'll be safe. Now just just by the way is missing the word missing the letter B should say Betamela in the house of the king. Don't think you'll be safe in the house of the king. So either you can say the bet should be there and it's missed out from time to time. There are many examples in Tanakh where that happens. Or you can say it's not just the physical palace. It's the whole setup of being the part of the king's h household. The fact that you are the king's wife, the fact that you are part of the king's court, that's what you think is going to keep you safe. So Morai is very, very harsh. Very harsh. And I think everything's been building up to Puky Gimmel and especially Pasukal. Morai has refused to close. He turns up in the sackcloth. That's the first part of the message to Esther. She sends him clothes. He refuses the clothes. Then he tells her what's going on and at the same time tells her in the same breath what you've got to do. He doesn't say, interesting enough, uh, we're all going to die and perhaps you can help us, Esther. Any ideas? He says, there's only one message, a single message there in Puket. We're all going to die and you, I'm commanding you, have got to go to the king. And she refuses. I mean, she's got a reason. She doesn't want to get killed. And she says, "Everyone knows that um including you, Morai, you should know." She says, "Don't make a silly request. Don't don't ask me to do something that's impossible. Everyone knows that if you go to the king unannounced, you'll probably get killed." And Morai says, Morai takes this as a refusal to help, a refusal to help the Jews. And as I said, uh it only makes sense, Esther's logic only makes sense if she thinks she's not going to get caught up in the decree. So Morai says to her, Don't think for yourself that you will escape in the house of the king or because of the king's household from amongst all the Jews. Why? You are amongst the Jews. You think maybe you think you're not but you are amongst the Jews. And now comes Pasukdal. I have to take a breath before posal because it's such a which point did uh well he was he was there in poset um when uh yeah he was there in Puk Morai sends messages to Esther to tell what about the decree and Esther uh sends to Katak to go back to Morai and say um I haven't been called to the king and it's a bit risky if I go to the king without being announced. And so he's there in Piket sorry pos but in Pikudet he's not there and the um the words to Esther's words go to Morai viau they said plural so we don't know who they are. So now I'm taking a deep breath before pas yodala because pas yodala to me is quintessential at this moment of the of the migilla. It's the quintessential pos of the story and of the Jewish experience. Look what he says. If you are silent, very silent at this time, relief and salvation will stand for the Jews from another place. What's the other place? So a lot we often say this is an illusion to Hashem. Hashem's name doesn't appear in the migilla famously, but there are illusions. And this is the clearest. Modai says Rebalah will come from another place. It might be he's referring directly to Hashem or he's saying just as I I wanted you to intervene and if you like through human hands as mysteries of Hakaresh Barak solve the problem maybe somebody else will come and solve the problem under Hashem's guidance. But he doesn't say maybe. Sorry I just put in the word maybe. He doesn't say maybe. He says something very very profound before he gets to the next line. He says it will definitely happen that we'll be saved. We will be saved. The maybe I put in was not a deliberate mistake, but it was a sort of Freudian slip. He doesn't say maybe. He says it will come. We will be so saved. You know why? Because we're the Jewish people. And the Jewish people carries on. And it might be that we lose many members along the way, as has been our fate throughout history. But miraculously and astonishingly, we're still here. We today in our in 5785, we're still here. And in those days also, Morai is saying the same thing to Esther. We're still here and we always will be. And the promise that Hashem made to the Jewish people at Sinai will always last. It's a brit. It's a covenant. It will never be violated. It will never be voided. We will always be here. So when I see there's a petition, there's a pashen, there's a instruction, kill all the Jews, I know with certainty it won't happen. Some Jews might die, but the Jewish people as an entity I know will carry on. And that's what I mean about this verse saying something so profound about the Jewish story. Morai's message, apart until we get to the next line, which is about Esther. But Morai's first part of his message is we don't need to worry about the Jewish people because we know that salvation will come from somewhere. The only question is where will it come from you or will it come from someone else? So it will definitely come. So he says uh I'm 14 number 14 I'll go back to the beginning. But if we don't use you, that reveratal comes from somewhere else. You and your father's house will be more than destroyed, will be lost, will be negated, will be cancelled. And who knows if it was for this moment that you became queen? Who knows? again she Modai knew what was going on in Pas Alf in Pak yud Alf uh Esther says everyone knows the rule about going to the king Modai says who knows if this you became queen for this moment so let's unpack that pastor Dal so we started with the first bit but Modi is saying there will definitely be salvation I'm not worried about that the only question is whether the salvation will come via you or via someone else in other words there will definitely be a book written about this event. There will definitely be a McGiller. The question is, will it be McGill Esther? That's your choice, Esther. Will you rise to the occasion and reconnect to the Jewish people? Will you take that responsibility or will you leave it to someone else? In which case, you will be wiped out and your father's house. By the way, who's her father's house? Well, Sha, if you go back exactly Morai Morai is the same. Well, she's a descendant of King Shaw and Shabban. Maybe she bam. It could be or maybe the descendants of Sha or maybe just the sort of more localized Morai. So, we're in it together because we're all part of the same family. But you will be destroyed. Your family will be destroyed. But the Jewish people will carry on. There will be salvation from somewhere else. And then he says, "Who knows if it's for this moment that you became queen." Now, what does this imply? This implies there must have been a great wonderment in the household of Morai and Esther when Esther is picked to be queen. She's just this little girl from the back of beyond. Not a girl. Maybe she's not a girl. Maybe she's quite old, but she's from the back of beyond. She's nothing special. And suddenly she's queen. And it might have been a moment when they say, "Why has this happened?" And Morai sort of refers back to that that wonderment that must have occurred. Maybe we now understand the answer. But I think he's saying something else as well. He's saying you're enjoying being queen. You don't see a purpose in your being queen except for you to be queen. Now I'm telling you there's a purpose for you in your being queen, which is to save your people, the Jews. Everything that Mori says in this dialogue is about reconnecting Esther to the Jewish people. Just just one moment. Morai himself is demonstrating that he is avoiding the court and standing outside in the wide spaces of the city wearing the same sackcloth that all the Jews are wearing. So Mori about Morai is saying I am a Jew. Mori is saying to Esther, "You are a Jew, too. There's a decree and I'm telling you about the decree. I'm sending you a copy of it that all the Jews are going to be killed." She says, "Uh, I'm not sure if I can help." And he says, "Don't think that you will be saved. You won't be saved. I.e. don't think that somehow you're not Jewish. You're just a queen. You only became queen for this purpose. This purpose is to disconnect you from your queenship and to reconnect you to your Jewishness. Yes. I have a question about one word. Okay. Which doesn't quite fit in with what I'm hearing, which is the word. Now, why did he put Oh, the last bit he's saying me, you dare. Who would know? So, I I I took out maybe because that Don't say maybe if it fits into his whole scenario then then would say this is yeah I I hear I hear that's a good perhaps it's a good question but but I think perhaps the answer is perhaps the answer is he can't speak for uh it reminds me sometimes people are a little bit too quick to say I know that this terrible thing happened because of that particular transgression doing it to all the other No he's not he's not he's not he's not second guessing hakesh he's not saying hashem has acted in this way because and I know why and that's what he would be doing if he said definitely you became queen for this purpose so I think everything else he's saying you are a Jew and that's a fact but to say you became queen for this purpose he hasn't quite got the authority to do that yeah but he's saying you will be killed you will this will yeah that he does know there's a he knows you will be decreed because you will be killed there's a the public the sorry the copy of the decree is on every lampost on every street corner it says kill the Jews on the 13th of Ada so he says there's no escape from that um but the bit about why did something happened in the past that I think he's reticent to claim that he knows the absolute reason for that okay let's move on what's Esther's response going to be Morai says to Esther reconnect to your people act even risk your life for what's necess neessary for you to do. 15 Esther says to respond to again no not quite sure how this message gets across and she says in number 16 go together all the Jews who are found in that and they should fast for me and they should not eat and they should not drink. I saw a suggestion that that's also a breaking away from Persian custom not to drink Ishim for three days night and day and also I and my servants will fast similarly. What's she doing? She's reconnecting to the Jewish people. She says I'm going to do this. That that's the next line. I think you knew that was going to come. She says, "I'm going to do this, but I need help." From whom do I need the help? From the Jewish people. I need them to do something for me if I'm going to now be their representative. So, I need them all to fast. And then she says, "I'm going to fast, too." Now, that might have seemed like an innocent, almost irrelevant comment. Of course, she's going to join in. It would be, you know, would be a bit strange to tell everyone else to fast, and she doesn't fast. Mind you, it just occurs to me. It just occurs to me she's got a good reason for not fasting because when she goes to the king she wants to look as pretty as and as attractive as possible and fasting for three days is not necessarily the best preparation for you dressing yourself up to meet your husband but anyway um but I think it's based on the approach that I've taken I think those words I will fast also are very very significant fasting for three days a night is the exact epitome of living in the luxury and the opulence of the palace I'm going to divest myself of all the gratifications that I'm used to and I'm going to do what I'm asking the Jewish people to do. They're going to have to undertake this hard fast. I'm going to have to undertake this hard fast because you know why? Because I am a Jew. And what the Jewish people go through, I will now go through and I'm prepared to take the lead like Morai said. pain and thus I will go to the king which is against the rules a amongst the most poignant words in the Tanakh amongst the most poignant words in Jewish history. I now understand what Mori was telling me that what if I do nothing I will be lost. Same word as a that Hmon keeps using when he wants to lose, deny, negate, cancel out all the Jews. same word. And she says, "I'll take it upon myself. If that is to be my fate, like it is for all my fellow Jews, then yes, it will be my fate." Now, I suggested that this is the pivot point. This is the pivot point in many respects in that well, Esther has now been transformed. Esther who was the one who was unwilling to help or let's just say nervous about putting herself forward to help. Esther is the one who according to this approach was disconnecting. I'll say that rather than disconnected, but disconnecting from her Jewish roots and she's now been brought back to her Jewish roots. But there's more than that. Esther until this moment, if you look carefully through the migilla, has always been passive. She's had things done to her. She was taken from her house to be part of the so-called beauty contest. She was given six months in oil and six months in my or whatever all those things that happened. Incredibly long preparation process. But again, she wasn't active. She's chosen to be queen. She's not active. If something is done to her and she is at the beginning of this chapter disconnected, she's stuck away in the palace. She doesn't even know what's going on. Now she takes the initiative to use the modern phrase she takes back agency. And now whereas Mori was issuing instructions to her, she is issuing instructions to him. She says you've now I'm telling you what's going to happen. You've got to go and make sure that all the Jews gathered together and fast in Shushan. And now the last verse suddenly becomes much much more significant. The last verse you might have seen as just a sort of addendum sort of yes it sort of happened but look carefully in morai past there's a discussion what that means but not for us today he did everything that Esther had commanded him who's in charge. Esther is giving out the instructions. Morai who's been nudging her and more than nudging her and castigating her, almost chastising her. She's now calling the shots. Well, I would put it slightly differently. I would say now now the book is going to be called now the book is called McGillis Esther. And this is the moment where it all changes. And Esther goes to the king and we'll see what happens in a minute. And now Esther is taking charge. The book is called Mcilla Esther. The Jews are on the path to salvation. And that is my anal my analysis of Peric Dal. But what did I promise you at the beginning? Just a problem. I'm going to disconnect from that. Okay. So, this says Esther Perrick. I want to share with you a little hobby horse of mine. Um, which bothers me a lot. We often talk about the the chapters of uh Esther, numbers 1 to 10. 10 is a good number. It's a nice round number. I've seen some people want to create a sort of kayastic structure that one corresponds to 10 and two corresponds to nine. And uh we often give sharim on a particular chapter of Esther like actually we might do about a particular chapter of Tanakh and we forget an important thing. The chapters are not Jewish. The chapter divisions are not Jewish. They were put there by the Christians in the Middle Ages. There's a particular name which is associated with the process. I don't know if he was the only one or he led a school who did this. It was called Ste somebody called Steven Lankton who was the Archbishop of Canterbury in the first half of the 13th century. A great hater of Jews by the way. Interesting story in terms of the uh machinations that were going on between the king of England and the pope at the time. Um but that's certainly not our issue. Steven Langton is the creator of the chapter divisions in the Tanakh. Again, I don't know if he did every one, but we ascribe the the process to him. And they are not Jewish. We have our own chapter divisions. What are they? So, if you look in a safety Torah or in a migill, you will find sometimes spaces. Sometimes you'll find a space within on one line. Um there's words before, there's a space, and there's words after. And that marks the end of what's called a para stuma. stuma for for closed because the space is closed on both sides. Sometimes you get a space in the Torah which starts in the middle of the line and goes to the end of the line. That is called a para open para because the space is all the way to the end. It's there in a safer Torah. It's there in a migilla. It's there in the coron which is one of the great things about the Quran. I was the first one to do it. Now I think the stone Tanakh does it as well. Um but you can look at the page and you can see clearly where the spaces are in an older style of Tanakh which is still published. They don't want to waste space on the pages of the Tanakh. So they put a pay where there is a para and they put a suk where there is a para stomach and roughly speaking the para stumba which is a less of a break is like a paragraph break and the para is like a chapter break. Those are our chapters, the Jewish ones. Okay, I'll tell you. I'll come back in a minute. Um, and when God gave the Torah, it had those spaces in. So those spaces come from God. The chapter divisions come from the Galak Lang. Um the story is I'm not entirely convinced by this because it seems the story is that when the Christians in the middle ages debated with the Jews about was their god the Messiah or not and there were these debates um the Christians would quote literally chapter and verse. They quote the chapter and they quote the verse. So the Jews had to learn what the chapters and what the verses so they could take part in such interactions. It sort of caught on. Um, I'd love to, it seems to me what would be much better is we could have instead of chapters we had our pared etc. And the average para is about 100 to 120% long. So we would have parak 78 that would be our way of referring to it. But I think we're sort of stuck. We're sort of stuck because we have adopted the non-Jewish chapter divisions. I gave a share on per dullard um and everyone expected knew what I was talking about. I I I think it's too late to revert but I wish we could. Now if you look in the migilla interesting enough in the migill there was no para there are only a para stom there are the clo close breaks but you will see that chapter four and chapter five constitute one single unit. Chapter four and chapter five constitute one single unit. Um there's no break at all. There's a break at the beginning of chapter four. There's a break at the end of chapter 5. There's no break between them. So when I give a shir on peral and I say look we've reached the climax at the end. Esther is commanding Morai. That's only the middle of the para because the para carries on without a break. So what we really need to do is not look at peric dalard on its own and say ah I can see the progression from the beginning to the end of peral but we need to look at peral hay as a single unit. And what do we find when we have peric dull hair as a single unit? So it starts with the first half is is this. I won't go through this all over again. Then Esther goes to see the king and the Jewish world must have been very excited that it seems that the Jews of Shushan who've been fasting for three days know why why they're fasting. Esther's going to see the king and she'll go and see the king and she'll say, "Please, Mr. King, save all the Jews and everyone will be happy." And she goes to see the king. She's waited three days. The entire Jewish population has fasted for this moment. And she says to the king, "Come to a party and you and Hummer." And what would have been the the message to the people outside? By the way, it's a great question of why did she go through this business of the parties? And one answer is she wanted to get the Jews to do by making them realize that they had no other salvation that it wasn't all about her asking the king to save the Jews. So she deliberately, according to this idea, goes off on a different tangent so the Jews will realize that their hope is not in Esther. Or perhaps she had some clever idea of making the king paranoid about what Esther and Hammon were getting up to. There's lots of explanations, but what doesn't happen is the Jews are not saved. Sorry, it doesn't happen that the Jews are saved. And in fact, let's go on through perk. Hey, they have the first party. And at the first party, the king says to Esther, "Tell me what's really really on your mind. Really, really what you want?" And Esther says, "I want you to come to another party." And Hmon leaves the the first party to happy and a good heart and he's so excited that he decides, you know what? I'm not going to wait till the 13th of Ada to kill Morai. I want him killed now. And I'm going to go to the king in the middle of the night. I'm going to go to the king in the morning and ask him to kill Morai. Now, is this a good state for the Jews? No. I would suggest that chapter the unit four five, chapter 4 and chapter 5 together is a tremendous anti-limax. So, yes, Morai persuades Esther to assume the responsibility and go and plead for her people. She doesn't do that. And at the end of chapter 5, which is this one single unit, things are looking really, really bad. Esther's busy working out seating plans for parties. Hmon's happier than ever before. The gallows on which he plans to hang Hmon, hang Morai has been erected in his back garden. Things could not be worse. That's the end of the chapter 45 unit. So the next words at the beginning of chapter 6 is the king's sleep was disturbed. And from that moment things go in the other direction. The king decides he has to honor Morai. Hmon turns up in the palace in the middle of the night thinking that he's going to get the honor but in fact he has to leave the horse and then at the very next moment Hmon's dead. So it's the end of chapter 5, the beginning of chapter 6 is really I think the pivot point and that is reflected if you look in the text there's a space the end of chapter 5 we take a breath and then chapter six starts. So chapter 4 and chapter 5 should not be seen in in their own a separate parakim. And I it really does actually bother me when I I I I hear people talk about let's look at chapter four, let's look at chapter five, let's match up chapter five, chapter six, etc. because they're not using God's parot, they're using Archbishop of Canterbury, Steven Lankton's parott. And that's a mistake. So if you looked at chapter four and chapter five as one unique, you actually get a very different picture. So, I I I did chapter four because I love it and I I find I think it's so much it's so rich. It's so so much to talk about. But I have to be intellectually honest and say chapter 4 is just the first half of the unit. The second half is nothing gets better. Nothing gets better. It actually gets worse. So really, if you're asking where is the pivot point, it's not here. It's not at the end of chapter 4, which is the middle of the chapter 45 unit. It's at the end of chapter 5 before the beginning of chapter 6. By the end of chapter five, things could not get worse. In chapter six, things get better. That's the pivot point. Yes. The markings of the where the chapters are according to Jewish wasn't given by God. Yeah. True. True. It was given by God. Yeah. I I actually Okay, we'll we'll we'll accept that. Yes. Okay. I wish you all a happy Purim.