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Esther: From Passive to Active | Rabbi James Kennard
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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.