The Genius of Queen Esther - Rabbi YY Jacobson

dedicated graciously by Sara Malka Simon commemorating the yard site of her dear husband Reb Yitzchak Yaakov ben Reb Moishe, also known as Jerry Simon the famous legendary Brooklyn caterer on the occasion of his yard site today on the fourth day of Adar Ta'anit Masei Tzura but Tzurat HaChaim and may his uh soul continue to be a source of inspiration and love for his family and the community and the entire Jewish people and for all of the family l'arichus yamim v'shanim tovim l'toch menuchas hanefesh, also dedicated as a for a complete and speedy recovery to Yosef ben Rishah and to Shmuel Bracha ben Tirtza for refuah krovah u'refuah shleimah l'arichus yamim v'shanim tovim and for all of our hostages, of course and for all of the soldiers and all of their families and all of our brothers and sisters in the holy land. Next week be ezrat Hashem there's also going to be a class next Tuesday. It will also be a Purim class. So today we're actually going to focus, you know, sometimes you can focus on an entire story sometimes you could focus on a sentence, a chapter or a sentence, a paragraph, a paragraph or a sentence sometimes on part of a sentence and sometimes on a word, just one word. But today we're not even going to do that. Today we're going to focus on the order of two words and the order keeps on changing back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. It would seem that in terms of theme and message it's identical. But when one sees this ever in Chumash or in Tanakh it always ought to trigger curiosity. What happened? Why did you just change the order of things? Now these are things that people read every single year, they've learned it, they read it but these are things that are so easy to miss and gloss over cuz it doesn't seem like it makes a big difference. But today be ezrat Hashem we'll learn how these are seemingly uh not so relevant or thematic change really sheds light on an entire layer of the story that one can easily miss. So we're going to be looking into the first chapter of Megillas Esther today which of course this is the month to learn Megillas Esther and on Purim there's a mitzvah to read the Megillah and hear the Megillah twice at night and at by day. It's one of the four unique mitzvahs of Purim together with Shalach Manos and charity for the poor and the feast, the meal of Purim is Mikra Megillah hearing the whole story of the Megillah and the halacha is that we read the entire Megillah, all the 10 chapters. The first the first chapter just seems like complete the historical context and introduction which doesn't really seem to be part of the story and in fact there were those who believed there were sages who believed that you don't have to read it even on Purim because it's just it's an interesting introduction but it's not really the story and yet the halacha is k'charyas kulah that we read the entire Megillah including chapter one and if we miss out chapter one, if we want to start later in the story it's actually if not fulfilling the mitzvah. How does chapter one of the Megillah begin? So you have it in your source sheet and by the way we post all the source sheets on the value shiva.net together with the class so you can retrieve it later for those who are watching online or listening. So the opening of Esther is, everybody knows Vayehi bimei Achashverosh. It's good you're not fasting so you could listen with calmness. I hope you're not fasting. Who Achashverosh? HaMelech Melech Hodu v'Chush b'shishim u'meah medinah. It was in the days of Achashverosh. Who's Achashverosh? He is the Achashverosh who reigned from a country called Hodu till a country called Kush. Some translated as India till Ethiopia over 127 states or provinces. Biyemei Achashverosh hu Melech Achashverosh al kisei malchuto as he sat on his as he sat on his throne which was situated in the capital of the Persian Empire called Shushan a city that's still identifiable and in fact in the late 18 in the 1890s a French researcher did excavations and discovered the palaces of the Persian Empire during this time under the ground and an expert then wrote, whoever wrote the Megillah knew exactly what they were talking about because it's a perfect perfect perfectly choreographed and designed consistent exactly what was revealed in the excavations, parenthetically. So with the third year of his reign he makes a huge feast for whom? For all of his ministers, all of his servants and all of the ministers that are in charge of the 127 provinces. He brings them all together to the capital to celebrate for 180 days which is of course a half a year. And when he finishes with that party, he hasn't had enough. So now begins a seven-day party for everybody who lives in Shushan. All of his subjects, all of the people who live in Shushan are now invited to a feast in the palace of the king. And the Megillah goes on to describe exactly what the feast looked like. What was served, what type of goblets were used, the decorations, the designs, even the fabrics the fabric that was used to design the palace are somehow important to appreciate the story. Then we come to verse nine, pasuk tes. The second paragraph in your source sheet and suddenly the story shifts to the queen of the Persian Empire who of course her name is Vashti. Until from chapter from verse nine till the end of chapter one is completely dedicated to the Vashti saga. What happens? So let's see. Gam Vashti haMalka or in the trop, in the musical cantillation, so gam Vashti haMalka asasa mishteh nashim b'veit ha'malchut asher l'melech Achashverosh. Also interesting way of starting a sentence. Also Vashti the queen makes a feast for the women. Where? B'veit ha'malchut in the royal palace that belongs to the king Achashverosh and of course bayom hashvi'i k'tov lev ha'melech bayayin. It's the seventh day of the party, the last day and the heart of the king is merry with wine. He has had a lot to drink and he's feeling merry and joyous and happy and you could say drunken and inebriated and he asks his servants, seven people Mumuchan, Biztha, Charvona, Bigtha, Abagtha, Zethar and Carkas, shivas hasarisim seven sarisim. You know the word sarisim means sarisim means servants but you know what it really means? A saris is somebody whose fertility was eliminated, castrated. Why are they called sarisim? The ancient kings would do this to all the people that they hired to work with their women with their queens, this is what they would do to them. That's why they're called sarisim. This is what they would do to all the men who were working with their wives, queens and women in the palace. Yes, they would castrate them. That's why they were called sarisim. And he sends them l'havias Vashti haMalka lifnei ha'melech b'chaser ha'malchut as she was commanded to come. Bring Vashti the queen to the king in her crown. Why? Why? To show all the nations and all the ministers, meaning the people from all the different nations and ministers, her beauty. Ki tovah mar'eha as the Megillah says, Vashti indeed was gorgeous. We know what happens next. Vashti lo vad'var ha'melech asher b'yad hasarisim. She refuses to come and follow the word of the king that he sent through these seven servants and what happens? Vayichtzaf ha'melech vayecher chamaso bo. He's burning from anger. Vayichtzaf means he becomes wrathful, he's angry. Vachamaso, his wrath, his anger bo'er esh burning boy inside of him. It's not just a public anger that he displays even even deeper is the anger inside. And what happens in pasuk gimel? He speaks to all of his servants, he speaks to the servants, to the seven people that he consults and he asks them, tasvu k'das mah la'asot b'Vashti haMalka. What should be done with this queen Vashti who disobeyed the instruction of the king Achashverosh. And Mumuchan, one of the seven stands up and says, "Oh, this wasn't a crime only against you by Vashti the queen. No, no, no. This was a crime against the Persian Empire. This is going to create disarray and chaos everywhere. Why? Suddenly women were going to start revolting against their husbands. Great topic for a women's class, no? The women will finally take Vashti as a living example and say, "This is how you treat your husband." He says, "Come." And you say, "Absolutely not." And Mumuchan says "We're done. We're done. You could send the males to Antarctica. We're done. We have nothing left. They're all going to learn how to denigrate, embarrass, lahavzois, humiliate their husbands because even the queen who was told by the king to come doesn't listen, who should? Who should feel any sense of duty and loyalty to their spouse and this will be an embarrassment forever. And therefore I say that the king must give a decree, take a look in pasuk yud ches asher lo shavah Vashti lifnei ha melech Achashverosh. Vashti should not appear anymore before the king and let her malchus, let her royalty be given to somebody better. And everybody will hear the news and the women will learn to honor their husbands, whether they're big or small, honor their husbands. Chafal vayitav hadavar lifnei ha melech v'hasarim. The king and the ministers appreciate these words and they follow through and they send out books and letters to all the provinces in all different languages. And what's the message? Every man has the right to rule in his own home. Okay. That's the end of the story. That's how chapter one finishes. Chapter two is the king sobers up. Mm, and he's like, "Mm." That was not such a good idea. That was not such a good idea. He's now longing for Vashti. He remembers her. And that's when his ministers come and say it's time to search for a new queen and the search begins and ultimately we know the continuation of the story. Esther is taken and becomes the new queen of Achashverosh. But this is the end of the first chapter of the megillah. And by the way, the Gemara says in tractate Megillah Rabbah says that these letters that the king sent out after Vashti was removed and eliminated actually saved the day. Because when people got these letters, they're like, "What type of crazy king do we have? He's a meshugana. He's a nut job." So later, years later, when they got the letters that everybody should kill every single Jew, they said, "Ah, the meshugana came out with a second set of letters." So it was the first letter that actually saved the day that nobody took him that seriously when they got the second letters, the decree of Haman to eliminate all the Jewish people. That's parenthetically. Now, I'm going to get very, very technical now and very granular. But to make it a little easier, I underlined my issues. Is that a good line in English? I underlined my issues. Okay. Underlined my issues. It's good for all of us to sometimes underline our issues with the right people. Take a look, pasuk tes. Okay, take a look, second paragraph in your sources. Gam Vashti ha malkah Vashti comes before malkah, right? Vashti, the queen, makes a party for the women. Okay. The king on the seventh day, he's drunk and he tells his seven ministers who are working with the women in the palace, who are working with his queen, they are servants of his queen. Yud aleph, lahavi es Vashti ha malkah. Bring Vashti the queen. Okay, nice. Now take a look at the next pasuk, vatema'en. What does it say? What would you expect? What should have it said written? Vatema'en. Vashti ha malkah. He changes. Vatema'en ha malkah Vashti. The queen Vashti refused. Why the change? You say, "What's the difference? What's the difference? Vashti the queen, the queen Vashti." I get it, but why the first two times does it say Vashti ha malkah and suddenly it's ha malkah Vashti? Okay? Now you look in pasuk tes vav. After she refuses, he consults. He consults his seven advisers, kidash malachav. You see? It's emphasized, you see? What is it now? Ba malkah Vashti. With the queen Vashti. Now Memuchan responds the next time and he says it wasn't only against the king, if so, af so, VASHTI HA MALKAH. BACK TO VASHTI THE queen the queen. AND AGAIN HE SAYS, "Everybody is going to learn a lesson when the king said lahavi es Vashti ha malkah." Again Vashti ha malkah. And then finally when he wants to give out the edict that Vashti should be eliminated, what's the word? Asher lo shavah Vashti. Vashti, just Vashti. So first it's Vashti ha malkah, then it's Vashti ha malkah, then it's ha malkah Vashti, then it's ba malkah Vashti. It's back to Vashti ha malkah, Vashti ha malkah and then just Vashti. What is going on? First of all, once you called her the queen the first time, we know who she is, you don't have to say queen every single time. He repeats queen every single time besides the last. If you don't need it the last time, you don't need it the other times. We already know who Vashti is. E- even if you want to say it, maybe to honor her or whatever reason, that's how you call a queen, you just don't so say the name. But why is he changing? First Vashti the queen, then Vashti the queen, then the queen Vashti, then the queen Vashti, then Vashti the queen, then Vashti the queen. So it's a few times this way, a few times that way and then Vashti without any name. Whenever you see such a thing in Tanakh, it's not a mistake. This wasn't just let's just change it around to make it exciting. People are hungry, they're thirsty, they want to get home already, they have shalach manos to pack. The costume is really, really warm and hot, so let's just get it over with, so we'll change it up a little bit. But rather, there's profound significance here. Now the truth is that in Hebrew, what would be more appropriate? Vashti ha malkah or malkah Vashti? If you're familiar with Hebrew grammar, unlike English. In English, what do we say first? Queen, right? Queen Elizabeth. Yes? Queen Esther. L'havdil, I should say. Right? We say King David. King Saul. But in Hebrew, we don't do that. In Hebrew, you say David ha melech. First the name, then king. Saul ha melech. And the truth is, it's in everything that way. In English, if you want to say a large table, you say a large table. How do you say that in Hebrew? Shulchan gadol. Which actually makes sense. First you describe the noun and then you give us the adjective if it's large. The same as right for in Hebrew makes more sense. Shulchan. And it's a shulchan gadol. In English, we don't do that. We don't do table large, a large table, right? Even if you want to say somebody is very smart, right? How do you say that in Hebrew? Chacham me'od. You see, smart very. Chacham gadol. We don't say gadol chacham. Which actually makes sense. First tell me that he's smart and then describe to me the depth of his wisdom or the magnitude of his wisdom. And the same is true in everything, right? If you want to say good morning, how do you say it in English? Good morning. What do you do in Hebrew? Boker tov. Right? No, you should say tov boker. Nobody does that, right? And actually makes more sense because first you're describing the reality itself and then you get into the details, the various adjectives. So Vashti ha malkah in Hebrew actually makes a lot of sense. Vashti, the queen. So that's why that makes sense. But suddenly he changes it. He goes to malkah Vashti, which is similar to the English language and some others that use first the adjective of the queen and then the name. So that just intensifies the fact that the grammar was changed there, inconsistent with the laws of lashon kodesh, with dikduk of lashon kodesh, that it's certainly telling us something. You probably know that when we read the megillah, you know, there's a musical a musical rhythm in which the megillah is read. How does the person reading the megillah know this? The megillah doesn't have any vowels or what's called cantillations or in Yiddish it's called trop or ta'amei hamikra. But this is memorized. When the Tanakh, just like the Chumash itself, was given, we also given a music how to read it. That was not written inside the sefer Torah. It's printed today in the Chumash. This was part of the tradition of Torah shebaal peh. And that's why the baal korei has to memorize. People don't realize, he's not just reading the words inside, he has to memorize the musical note for every single word and it's different for every word. And these are called the trop, the ta'amei hamikra. In Chumash, it's one type of music. In Nevi'im and Ketuvim, it's a different type of music. Megillah has its type of music. Tehillim has its type of music. Much of it is not known today because a lot of it was forgotten. Chumash we still have. Megillah we still have. We have it in Eichah Tish'a B'Av when Eichah is read. So every word has a different musical cantillation. That's not coincidental. It's not like just let's you know do the music. It's it's it's it's connected to the word. In fact, the Vilna they say in the name of the Vilna Gaon that he once said that even if he didn't have the text of Chumash and he just heard the music of the words, he would be able to reconstruct the text based on the music. Which is pretty pretty intense because it's like da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da Okay, now you go figure out the words. But the truth is, when your husband comes home, you could probably hear from the sing-song of his words what he's feeling, what he's not feeling, where he is, etc. And when you tell it to him, he may not like it, but if you know how to listen to music, you can hear the words behind the music. Each time it says here Vashti ha malkah, there's a different musical cantillation. The first time it's gam Vashti ha malkah asah mishteh nashim. That's called Vashti ha malkah. If you'll see the signs, I put here the signs. It's called zakaf katan. In the ta'amei mikra, it's called zakaf katan. Okay? Next, pasuk yud aleph. Es Vashti ha malkah. It's called darga segol. Vashti is called darga in the names of the of the cantillations of the musical notes. And ha malkah is, if you see the sign under the word, it's called segol. Okay? Then you have the next one, if you see pasuk tes vav, kidash malachav ba Vashti, b'Malchut Vashti. Oh, sorry. Sorry, you had base. Right, you had base. V'timain ha'Malchut Vashti. That's called munach revi'i. Okay? Then pasuk Tetzaveh is called b'Malchut Vashti kedas malchus b'Malchut Vashti, b'Malchut Vashti. And that is called tipcha es nachta. Tipcha es nachta. Okay? And then you have the next one. You see the next one? Lo ila ha'Melech l'vado. Lo ila ha'Melech l'vado of Vashti ha'Malchut. This is called munach es nachta. The next one is Vashti ha'Malchut. We already had it. It's darga segol Vashti ha'Malchut. And then you have Vashti. That's called revi'i. So, it's fascinating. Now, here we're going to learn that the exact order of her name and the music that is used is actually telling a story behind the story. So, there's a plot, there's a subplot, and there's a sub subplot. The way Torah was written is there was the story that you can hear with the words. But there's another story that you're going to hear through the music. And there's another story that you're going to hear through the way it's written. For example, the change of order. Why do you have all these ways? Cuz that's the most profound way of giving over a story with many different layers without it filling up 100,000 books. So, one sentence can be given over with one sentence, but that one sentence has layers and layers and layers and layers. And it's all communicated through different methods. One is through the actual meaning, one is through the music, one is through the order of the words. Like what we spoke in parshas Mishpatim, if you remember, about the word yazid. Right? Nazid adashim. That wasn't something that was explicit in the pasuk. You had to say, "Oh, asher lo yazid means he didn't do it willingly." And that's found by Esau cook Jacob cooking up the lentils. But it's giving you another layer of meaning. And here, too, that's what we experience here. What would be the layer of meaning here? What's missing? Why do you need all of this? There's an obvious question. Why did Vashti not want to come? The Megillah doesn't say why she didn't want to come. It just says she refused. So, one can speculate different things. What happened here? Okay. Another very interesting thing is Vashti is introduced as a queen every single time. When Achashverosh is introduced the first time, he's not introduced as a king. Isn't that interesting? The opening of the Megillah is Vayehi bimei Achashverosh. One second. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Vayehi bimei ha'Melech Achashverosh. No, he's not a king. Vayehi bimei Achashverosh hu Achashverosh ha'Melech. Oh, he is a king. No, we're just telling you that he reigned, but he's not called a king. Where is he called a king the first time? Pasuk base. Bayamim ha'eim k'sheves ha'Melech Achashverosh. Oh, suddenly he became a king. After 3 years, he became a king. The first time you don't introduce him as a king. Vashti right away. Gam Vashti ha'Malchut. You don't say Vashti became a queen. She's right away introduced as a queen. Mm. What does that tell us? Now, these are things you can easily gloss over. What's the difference? Melech Achashverosh, not Melech Achashverosh. No. No. No. This omission is the core of the story. This is the issue of the story. There is a silent war between Achashverosh and Vashti. Their relationship is not only far from ideal, to put it mildly, but there's actually something that sits in the heart of Achashverosh that is very, very complex. And at this point, after all this honor and all the feasting, and he's had 187 days of the nation in awe of him, there's one nut that he did not crack yet. Right? The frustration of many a man in this world. He may have 3,000 employees, and they're all bowing down right? And when he comes home, it's like, "You forgot the wine. You are so disorganized, and you're late, and I've been waiting for you, and the garbage needs to be taken out." It's called an identity crisis. One second. His mother His mother thinks he's God's gift to humanity, which only intensifies it. You see where this class is going, don't you? Huh? Yes. Yes. Yes. So, this is something This is something that's interesting. You know, Achashverosh is a king 187 days, and you see how much glory and how much royalty and how much wealth and how much affluence this man has. But there's one thing that he did not deal with, and that sits at him, and that's the last thing at the end. 187 days drunk. You know, but but but they, you know, the drunkenness brings out everything, and finally, boom. So, he brings Vashti He wants to bring Vashti. Vashti ha'Malchut. She has her whole party, and he tells these seven people, "Go bring Vashti." And the Megillah says why. She's a beautiful, and he wants to display his beauty. He wants to show every everybody, as he says, her beauty. She refuses to come. Va'tima'en ha'Malchut. But why does she refuse? The Megillah does not say clearly. It just says that the king goes crazy from anger. Why? Why? Vayiktzof ha'Melech m'od. Vayiktzof ha'Melech means he's angry. It's not just he's angry. M'od. He's seething. The anger is simmering. And if that's not enough, barah. There's like a fire inside of him more than anybody imagines. He was just triggered in unimaginable way. Something really, really happened. This guy has lost it. What happened? Let's say she doesn't want to come. Whatever. Maybe she's tired. Maybe she's exhausted. Fine, you're upset. But what is this level of anger? And the Megillah doesn't say it to us. The midrashim talk about this because there's a gap. Like, what happened here? There's a gap. But it turns out that the Megillah does tell it to us. It just doesn't say it with words. It tells it to us with the change of words. It tells us to us with the music. So, let's understand what's happening. When we look at Rashi, take a look at Rashi, okay? Rashi always wants to explain the basic meaning. So, Rashi says Va'tima'en ha'Malchut Vashti. Next source. Rabbi Seinu Amru, our teachers taught. And this is from tractate Megillah daf yud base, page 12. L'fi sheparcha batzar'as. Basically, Vashti grew a leprosy. She grew a leprosy, and therefore, she did not want to show up because, as Rashi is intimating, Achashverosh didn't just want her to show up completely covered. Achashverosh wanted her to show up without clothes. And she was horribly humiliated. She would have been humiliated because of this leprosy. And that's why she refuses. It's interesting. And Rashi says, "L'fi she'asum afshitas b'nos Yisrael arumos v'eisav b'malchus b'Shabbos, nigzar aleha shetipashet aruma b'Shabbos." She was quite a cruel woman, and she would strip Jewish girls from their clothes and have them work on Shabbos. And therefore, this is what happens to her. Her husband wants her to remove her clothes, and this is all on Shabbos cuz it's the seventh day, and the seventh day means not only the seventh day of the party, but the seventh day of the week cuz the party began on Sunday and ends on Shabbos. Okay. But now there's another question. So, if Vashti should have sent him a message and said, "Achashverosh, you really don't want me to show up this way cuz this is going to be not k'shmak, not only for me, but also for you. I have a tzara'as. I have whatever you want to call it, a leprosy, a skin deformity, and it's not going to be k'shmak." Why is he so angry? So, Rashi says Vayiktzof shesholcha lo divrei ginai. She didn't only say no. She really went into him. She sent him words that shamed him. Rashi doesn't say what. So, we go to the source of Rashi, meseches Megillah. Megillah daf yud base, the next source. Vayiktzof ha'Melech m'od. Amay dolka b'chula hai? You have it ALSO IN ENGLISH. WHY WAS HIS anger burning? Dolka is from the word leika. Why was his ANGER LIKE A FIRE? Why was he so angry? Even if she's not coming, explain yourself. Especially if she has a very good reason. It's actually going to save him from disgrace. You know, he's He's trying to show off the queen, and it's not going to work. So, why is he so angry? Amay Rava. Rava says we have a tradition. Sholcha lei. She sent him a message. Bar ahurei yorei d'aba. Ahurei yorei is the Aramaic word for a guy who runs a stable of horses. She says, "You are basically a stable man. You belong with horses." My father Vashti had a father whose name was Balshatzar. He was one of the monarchs of the Babylonian Empire. Vashti was a great granddaughter of Nevuchadnetzar. Nevuchadnetzar had a son. Nevuchadnetzar destroyed the first Beis Hamikdash. He was the king of Babylonia, present-day Iraq. The Babylonian Empire was mighty and ferocious. He came and destroyed the first base of English exile the Jewish people from Judea. That's why they were in Persia. And Nebuchadnezzar had a son Evil Merodach. Then there was Belshazzar. Vashti was a son of Belshazzar. Khash worked as a stableman who took care of the horses in the stable of her father. So, she calls him bar ahuriyare the Abba. You're basically my father's stableman. That's who you are. Let's remember. That was the message back. But that's not enough. First of all, she tells him his yichus. But now she says, let me tell you something else about you. You know the difference between my father and you? Abba, my father, la kavil alpa in front of a thousand people, khamra shasi, he could drink wine, the lo yira vey. And he did not go crazy. He didn't become an inebriated. Hahu gavra, this man, referring to her husband, he doesn't She doesn't want to say you. THIS DRUNKARD, ISHTATE B'KHAMRA, YOU BECOME A SHAITA when you drink wine. We spoke last week about a shaita, shtus, right? That's a shaitim. Two types of insanity. You become insane when you're drunk. That's the difference. My father knew how to hold his liquor. He knew how to hold his vodka. He knew how to hold his scotch. A thousand people were there. He drank and he was a man. And you, you're a shaita. You're not a man. You belong in a horse stable. Get drunk with the horses. Miad v'khamasa bar abay. When he heard this, he really lost it. Now he really lost it. Interesting. But now the question is, where did the khazal see this in the story? It just says she refused. Yeah, they were bothered by something. Why did he get angry? But none of this says in the Megillah. It's interesting. The Megillah doesn't tell us why she refused. The Megillah doesn't say that she insulted him. It like apparently deletes all of these details which are essential to the story. And why now does Vashti decide to talk to him about the fact that he ran the horse stable of her father? I mean, he just asked her to come. Obviously, she was hearing something. Why now? I mean, you want to have a conversation with your husband. You can go to a therapist. I don't know if they had therapists in Iran. I don't know if that what they do today in Iran when you want to confront the president. But why did she feel right here the need to tell him what a drunkard nutjob he is? There was something sitting in her as well. What is that? And then there's another question which has been raised over the years. Why is this entire story relevant to Megillat Esther? It's certainly an interesting story. It certainly gives us the historical background why the king was looking for a new queen, why Esther came in. But if you really want to give us the whole historical backdrop, you should go back. Tell us why Ahasuerus became a king. How did he become a king? The answer is you're not telling us the whole story. You're not telling us where he was born and how he was raised and how he ended up becoming a king. You're zooming in on the Purim story. You could say he had a queen Vashti. He got rid of her. He needed a new queen. The whole first chapter of the Megillah seems superfluous in in the context of the bigger story here, which is the story of Purim. The Jewish people were saved from Haman's decree. It's certainly a very interesting story, but it seems like to be in the genre of history rather than in the genre of Tanakh, which is telling you a unique story of providence and the Jewish people. And it's an entire chapter all the way till the end of perek aleph. It's not even one or two one or two verses. Another very interesting thing is the Megillah refuses to say that Ahasuerus killed Vashti. Although everybody says the story that way, that doesn't say anywhere in the Megillah. It doesn't say he killed Vashti. It doesn't even say that Memuchan said to kill Vashti. If you take a look at the words that are used and you'll take a look in pasuk yud tes im al ha melech tov yetzei dvar malchut milfanei v'yikasev b'dat paras u'madai v'lo ya'avor. There should be a rule asher lo savai Vashti lifnei ha melech Ahasuerus. She should not come before the king. That's the rule. That's the edict. She should not come and her position should be given to somebody else. So, the usual interpretation is she's not coming. What they do with her? They killed her. But it's so interesting. The Megillah is not afraid of the word killing. Later we're going to have Bigthan and Teresh being killed, executed, hung. Haman is going to be hung. The ten sons of Haman are going to be hung. The The 75 Amalekites to 75,000 anti-Semites who tried to kill Jews are going to be killed. It's all very explicit in the Megillah. 500 people in Shushan. But with Vashti, he stays away from using that word. She shouldn't come. And we have to intimate she was eliminated. Obviously, she was eliminated because if she wasn't executed, Ahasuerus could have just brought her back when he was upset. But it's interesting the Megillah does not say any of this. Because Vashti So, here we have the following interpretation that I'm going to share with you. Comes from There's a commentary of the Maharal. My commentary by the Maharal of Prague on Megillah. It's called Or Chadash, a new light, written by the Maharal. And the first chapter of the Megillah he develops this point. Also, Rabbi Moshe Alshich. These are all 16th century sages. Rabbi Moshe Maharal was of course Prague. Rabbi Moshe Alshich was in Safed. He wrote a commentary on the Megillah called Maasai Moshe. His name was Moshe. And he's buried near the Arizal. If you go to the old cemetery in Safed, you have those blue graves. He's one of them. Rabbi Moshe Alshich wrote an amazing commentary on Tanakh and Megillah also. He develops this. And finally, the Vilna Gaon in his commentary on Megillah develops this as well and brings it to the musical dimension as well. Ahasuerus is not introduced as a king because indeed the dynasty of kingship did not belong to him. Vashti was a grand great granddaughter of Nebuchadnezzar. She grew up in a house of royalty, aristocracy. Ahasuerus becomes the king because he marries Vashti. That's what gives him the push, the braid kites, and the ability to ultimately be able to do whatever he did in order to acquire this unique position. Because of that in in in the 1970s, there were two psychologists who named a very famous phrase called imposter syndrome. You know what imposter syndrome is? Imposter syndrome is more common than most people imagine. It's people who reach great levels of success, but deep down feel undeserving of it. They can't tell that to anybody because they're enjoying their success. They don't even tell it to themselves. But they know that after every successful event, there's something inside of them that's eating up on them. There is a void. There's a torturous void. They usually numb it. Everyone has their own ways of numbing it. One great way of numbing it is looking for more compliments, more validation, which only intensifies the void. What is this void? The void is that they feel that it doesn't really belong to them, the success. And if people would know who they really are, they would laugh them off and throw them off stage. This is more frequent than people imagine. A lot of very wealthy people suffer from this, but they can't tell anybody because they're khashuv. A lot of actors, celebrities, artists, musicians, orators, rabbis, clergymen, leaders, speakers, and very talented people in different fields of success. In whatever area is, they often experience this and they don't even know about it because it's not something that's easy to have a conscious conversation with yourself about it. But it sits. It sits deep in them. And they really really feel I'm stealing. I'm constantly stealing. And they have to they have to constantly silence that in very very creative and usually dysfunctional ways. The origin of the imposter Anybody suffers from this? You don't have to raise your hand. But if whenever you finish a successful experience, you're feeling something, a void instead of gratitude and appreciation, this this may be something to look into. Ahasuerus is the poster boy for this. Deep deep down, he's insecure about his position for two reasons. First of all, he's an insecure man. He's paranoid. Which is why he drinks a lot. Second of all, he knows that he got this all because of Vashti. So, both his disposition nature and the fact that he has this ambivalence because of his insecurity, the Megillah begins the story not calling him the king. Vayehi bimei Ahasuerus. That's why it says in the second pasuk, bayamim haheim kishiveto ha melech Ahasuerus. When he sat on the throne. It wasn't after three years. So, the Gemara says in Maseches Megillah, it was only after three years that he felt somewhat settled and that's when he gets the title king. Vashti is the opposite. She feels it's all her. She owns it. She's very comfortable with it. It comes from her father, her grandfather, her great grandfather. She was made to rule. You know, she was born with richness. Born into it. This is mine. It's my inheritance. You're You're You're the imposter. I'm the person. As long as Ahasuerus, as long as you remember this, you're good. But you don't forget why you're here, Ahasuerus. So, of course, Ahasuerus is throwing a party. Vashti is like, what? I'm chopped liver? What What am I? I'm just your mashares? I'm just here to bring the cholent to the table. I'm just here to make the Yerushalmi kugel and bring it to you or the Persian kugel and bring it to you. To make the Iranian cholip sauce, that's not me. Of course she makes a party. On the seventh day Ahasuerus wants to show off Vashti. She's so beautiful. Vashti whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa. You're crossing borders Ahasuerus here. You want to get drunk with your drunk men, gezunta height. But I'm not part of your party. So, the pesukim Vashti Hamalka, she's Vashti the queen. And he says lahavias Vashti Hamalka, bring Vashti the queen. When she refuses Hamalka Vashti. Suddenly the order changes. This order is actually capturing Vashti's feelings and her response to Ahasuerus. Why? Because really Vashti is the reason that he becomes a king. She is the cover. She is the justification for Ahasuerus to fill the shoes ultimately of Nebuchadnezzar because she is the fourth generation of Nebuchadnezzar. When Ahasuerus summons her, he calls her Vashti Hamalka. She's Vashti. She's a regular woman, Vashti. Because she's in my palace, she's the queen. When she refuses Vatemain Hamalka Vashti. No no no no no. I'm a queen. Before everything. I'm a queen before you were born. I have royal blood. I have aristocratic blood. The name Vashti, which was the name apparently that Ahasuerus gave to her, this happens after I was a queen. I didn't become a queen. Vashti in Persian means beautiful. So, Ahasuerus gives her this name Vashti. He says, "Then you became A QUEEN." NO NO NO no no. I was a queen before you before you ever gave me my name Vashti. Vatemain Hamalka Vashti and you're sending messengers? Asher you're sending messengers to call me? So, the very change of the order already demonstrates that Vashti was basically telling Ahasuerus who she is. When Rava says she told him you're a horse stableman, he wasn't just imposing new words. He saw it in the Megillah. HE'S LIKE, "REMEMBER WHERE YOU COME FROM. I TAUGHT YOU EVERYTHING you know about royalty. You're a peasant." YOU MAY BE GOOD AT YOUR COWBOY. GO with your horses, gezunta height. But you're essentially a peasant. And remember in that generation, class was absolute. This is before Abraham Lincoln's civil rights, huh? When you have a boy hanging out in the stable of horses and you have a girl who's lonely, you never read any literature? I have to share this with you? I mean, you come from a generation where they used to read these stuff in school. Right? Looks like it. You look young, but still I can imagine you come from a generation when they still read these stories. I know today these things never happen. So, that's how it happens. But Vashti is like atkan. Like, okay, I get this. You know? But you have to know your boundaries. Now Ahasuerus is so his he's burning up in anger inside. It could have said what's the Hamasei Bar Aboy. The Vilna Gaon says the anger was deeper than what he could have communicated. And I would add it's deeper than what he could communicate to himself. It's Bar Aboy. It touched his subconscious insecurity. Sometimes you get triggered in life and you don't know what just happened. Your husband said something or did something. Your child said something or did something or didn't do something. Your friend, your mother, your sister-in-law, your brother-in-law, your sibling, your neighbor, your partner, whatever it is. And you're not just upset. Okay, you're upset. Something happened inside. You're not just angry the Hamasei Bar Aboy. Now it's time to become curious. It's not so easy to become curious because sometimes our entire life we were avoiding looking at this dark wound that was just triggered. But if it's triggered, pause, breathe, zoom in and like, "Wow." And before you respond by screaming, hollering, and killing people like Ahasuerus did. Although you want to. You want to. This is an opportunity for tremendous awareness. This was if I was Ahasuerus' therapist, but he didn't hire me. I'm not sure why. But if I was his therapist, I would say this is a great moment. It's a great moment. Let's go into another room. Okay, you're on a trip now. I get it. But this is your moment. You'll Let's Let's rebirth you. YOU'RE DEALING WITH A LOT OF SHAME, AHASUERUS. I GET IT. RIGHT. That's why he didn't invite me. I'm just joking. Right? The Megillah wants us to understand this. When you read the Gemara, Rava said, "Oh, you were just He She told HIM YOU JUST BELONG in horses." Like, where did he get THIS FROM? THE CHAZAL, I TOLD you many times, Midrash is like the harmony to a song. You know, you could sing a song da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da with your piano da da da da da da da and then you could do na na na na na na na na na na na. It's the harmony. The harmony doesn't substitute the notes that constitute the ballad itself, but they give it the music, the resonance. It's the resonance of it. When the Gemara the Midrash discusses the pesukim, they're not adding stories like we spoke here remember about Batya extending her arm and suddenly the arm gets long. I would run away. If my arm extended 100 ft, I would call Hatzalah and Miss Askem and 911 and chaveirim of course and run for my life. I would not deal with baskets if my hand just came 100 ft. Sorry. And Batya was not Eliyahu Hanavi. She was a a human being, a princess. Like, what are you doing? Obviously Chazal are telling you the music of the story. Her goal was something that's not within reach. Don't take a Jewish boy home to Hitler. He's going to kill him and kill you, shaita. That's called a shaita. But Batya was stus the kedusha. You remember? Holy insanity. So, you extend your arm and then there's an invisible arm of Hashem that extends it beyond your reach and she saves Moshe. Every time you see these stories in Midrash and Gemara, they're not just let's put in another story so the kids can have a coloring book and paint an arm that's 50 ft with orange or yellow or whatever their imagination tells them. So, we have something to do Friday morning. There's a depth here. They're trying to tell you the story that you could miss. Rava is telling you the story. Vashti understood this is a moment of confrontation. She would not let it go. And she she punc- punctured not his ego, his insecurity. If he would have had a healthy ego, he would have been fine. But the impostor, when somebody calls you out on being an impostor and that's what you were trying to bury your whole life. Who makes a party for 187 days? Let me tell you. Even those of you who spent time in college or university in the '60s or '70s and you knew how to party, so how long did the party go? Woodstock went for how long? Months, but not 187 days. Okay, almost almost, right? So, they were getting close to that. I don't know if it was Woodstock or Yidstock, but uh this guy, what was he doing on the 87 days? He was trying to become beloved by the people. It's called validation. But the last person he needed to give him validation was not ready to do it. It usually always happens with men. They build careers and build empires, but all they're looking for is one person to give them real validation. And it's very very difficult. Sometimes she doesn't do it because of her stuff. And sometimes she doesn't do it because of his stuff. And usually she doesn't do it because of both of their stuff together. And they get entangled with each other's traumas. But the bottom line is inside he's miserable. That's why a lot of marriages don't last because instead of people identifying their own wounds, they just project their wounds on the other person and that's it. And it's true, the other person may be suffering and may have their wounds. Nobody's perfect. But when the Baal Shem Tov said what you see in other people is a mirror, he wasn't just saying this cute little thing, you know, learn and then work on yourself. This is one of the most accurate descriptions and profound descriptions in life for people who want to really really grow and work on themselves and become the person they need to become in life to really fulfill the mission of their soul. It's really always going inward and saying, "What just happened inside of me?" The Hamasei Bar Aboy. There was something in his unconscious that was so intensely triggered by this. Because he understood exactly what Vashti is coming from. She's like, "If anything, you come to me. I don't come to you. And if you want to I should come to you, you come yourself." And you don't send seven people, shamashim, gaboyim. I don't deal with gaboyim. You come yourself. And this brought home everything that he was struggling with for so many years from the beginning. That's why he's not not called Hamalka the first time. So, he wants you to be Vashti Hamalka. You became Hamalka after Vashti and she's like, "No no no. Hamalka Vashti. Respect, Ahasuerus. Respect." It's interesting the Gemara says in Maseches Yevamos and it's a law in Rambam and Shulchan Aruch, the sages said she adam ishto gufo umchabda yoser migufai. Every husband is a needs to love should love his wife like he loves himself and respect her more than he respects himself. That's a very interesting description. I understand you say love the other person, love your spouse like you love yourself. Be as considerate and as sensitive and as giving and as generous as you would be with yourself and have that feeling of affection cuz it's really part of you. It's It's two halves of one soul. But when it comes to respect, respect her more than you respect yourself. Vashti never learned that Gemara and also didn't and maybe he didn't deserve it or whatever the case is and as a result of this they have this confrontation. Okay. Now comes Ahasuerus is consulting the people what to do. Now here he has a major problem. On one hand Vashti just disgraced him in public. On the other hand he knows if he gets rid of Vashti, what are people going to say? You don't have a right to be a king anymore. You're out. THERE MAY BE A MASS REBELLION AGAINST HIM. So he's stuck between a rock and a hard ball. If he eliminates Vashti, he may be eliminating himself and his entire dynasty. If he doesn't eliminate Vashti, he remains the real loser and nerd and schlemazel and nebbish case. So he has a serious issue what to do. Okay. So on one hand he wants to confront the situation, but he wants the advisors to find a way of him climbing down from a tree. He's on a tall tall tree. You know what they say, give him an opportunity to climb down. So therefore when he he thinks this is this is a this is what this is this is a sly way of dealing with it. Ahasuerus says, you know what, I'm going to make a big fuss. We're going to take Vashti to a court. It's going to be a kangaroo court, you know, like Stalin's courts in in in communist Russia. Okay. So it's going to like this won't pass easily so people see I'm a man. I need there. As they say in Hebrew, I need I'm no pushover. You know what is? Okay. I'm no pushover, but on the other hand I want them to have and realize don't get rid of Vashti. So when he presents the case to them, he's showing them why they should really exonerate her. So take a look at what tomorrow in Vashti. He repeats those words. What to do with the Queen Vashti? I shall says why does he repeat the whole story here? He could say what she did she didn't DO WHAT I SAID. Basically first of all, she was a queen before. Second of all, I was sent this message through seven people. I didn't tell it to her directly. You see is giving them a way to help him get over the tree and say, you know what, she's a queen. You only sent messengers. Maybe she didn't Whatever it is, get him off the hook that way. His respect is maintained. It was a court case. This was serious. IT WASN'T JUST IGNORED. AND ON THE OTHER HAND, he doesn't kill her and lose his own license and ticket into aristocracy. Comes and says lawyer of a mocker. Who's officially the friend here says, no no no no no, she's Vashti a mocker. Women have no rights at this time. SHE'S A SIMPLE WOMAN NAMED VASHTI. YOU MADE HER A QUEEN. And she's going to set a precedent. And nobody's going to say, oh, she's great granddaughter. They're going TO SAY A WIFE REBELLED AGAINST A husband and a king. You're done. All men in this empire are done. And you will be known in history as the man who created the absolute revolution of feminism. Where women need men like fish need bicycles to quote I think Gloria Steinem or one of them. Women need men like fish need bicycles one of the most brilliant and stupid things that was said in the history of humanity. You will be the one. You will be You think Jewish women will create feminism? The Persian monarch is to be the one who generated feminism. Suddenly he says Vashti A MOCKER. NO NO, SHE WAS NO MOCKER. SHE WAS A WOMAN. YOU MADE HER THE QUEEN. It's a man's It's a man's world. It's not a female's world. This is who the Gemara says was also a man. This is a male world. This is not a female world. She's Vashti a mocker. And then he says again, I'M GOING TO VASHTI A MOCKER. HE DIDN'T SAY TO BRING A QUEEN. HE SAID TO BRING VASHTI AND SHE DIDN'T LISTEN. And then he says what we need is Vashti. Now it's not even a queen. Now once she disobeyed you, she doesn't even have a right to be a queen. Done. She's just a Vashti. Get rid of her. SO THIS ORDER of Vashti a mocker mocker of Vashti is exactly telling the story. Now take a look at the music. That's a That means erect. That means small. Ahasuerus was basically saying she was small. I made her stand tall. It stands tall. So you can see from them. So you can see I took a I took a little girl and I turned her into a queen. That's what Ahasuerus said. The next Vashti means means a level a step means broken. Basically what he's trying to do is he is trying to break her stubborn resistance to surrender to her. Vashti means broken. He's going to take her her level her stature and break it. Vashti a mocker. You can even hear IN THE MUSIC. VASHTI REALLY? A mocker. Perspective. What does she say? That a mocker Vashti. Monarch review. What's monarch review? Monarch review means I'm the fourth generation of Nebuchadnezzar. A mocker Vashti. Vashti came after a mocker. I was a queen before you knew me. Before you were born. AFTERWARDS I BECAME VASHTI. MONARCH REVIEW. I'M THE FOURTH GENERATION. LAID OUT FROM NEBUCHADNEZZAR. But there's also a deeper level. Monarch. She doesn't know by these words monarch review the fourth generation is monarch is about to be laid down and eliminated, but she doesn't KNOW THIS YET. NOW VASHTI A MOCKER VASHTI. YOU HEAR THE tune the music? Vashti deliberation. Patience. The trap is called Vashti tip of a snifter. A snifter from the word monarch. Do this with patience with tip of a snifter. Tip of a monarch. DON'T IMPULSIVELY RUSH AND KILL HER. In the olden days when you disobeyed a king it was no question. Boom. You went out with a head shorter. No question. This is not democracies. The king was absolute. He says, but here a snifter. Da da da da da da da dum. Don't be impulsive. Tip of a snifter. Monarch. Why? Cuz he knows he's in a bind. If she gets killed, there could be a rebellion against him. ON THE OTHER HAND HE CAN'T LET IT GO. SO tip of a snifter. That's called tip of a snifter. Do it with a dash. Huh? Of course, because they're used to these words. They're used for these words. Haman says, no no no no no. Lawyer of a mocker. Vashti a mocker. NOT TIP OF A SNIFTER. MONARCH SNIFTER. LET GO OF YOUR SNIFTER. NO DELIBERATION. SHE IS A REBEL. She is dangerous. She is A CANCER IN THIS SOCIETY. MONARCH SNIFTER. ENOUGH WITH YOUR DELIBERATION. Not tip of a snifter. Monarch snifter. That's what he wants. Because you said lawyer of Vashti a mocker. Yeah. You needed to break her and she did not. And therefore I shall Vashti. That's it. We're getting rid of. The last one is lawyer of and you can SEE I SHALL VASHTI. WHAT is that trap? That trap is and review. I shall is lawyer of Vashti is review. I shall Vashti. Lawyer review is basically saying take the review. Take the fourth generation of and get rid of her. As long as means LET HER GET OUT OF HERE. Let her go. Let her go away. I didn't leave it out because was explaining to Ahasuerus the depth of her crime. So to summarize it starts with Ahasuerus said I make I made a small girl stand so erect. Vashti a mocker he tried breaking her elevated self appreciation and level. A mocker Vashti is munach revi'i, she's like I'm the fourth generation of Nevuchadnetzar, I'm not coming to you. But in that process she was also munach revi'i, she was eliminating the revi'i later. By Malko Vashti tipchas nachda, do this with a tipcha menucha, do it with serenity, don't do it impulsively. Vashti a malka in pasuk, the next one, tazayin is munach es nachda, get rid of YOUR ES NACHDA, GET RID of your serenity. And eliminator, Vashti a malka again darga severe, you were trying to break her and she was not broken. And then asher lo asav Vashti kadma v'azla revi'i, let this fourth generation kadma get her out of here, v'azla let her move away, which means get rid of Vashti. So everything that went on between these two is all intimated in the music and in the order of the psukim, which also explains to us what happens here. Because what happens here is now we understand after she is killed he never dealt with the imposter syndrome, he never dealt with his insecurity. He couldn't, he just eliminated her, they never can have another conversation. She was gone. She was gone. And this is my own thought that came in and I don't think it's for me, I just want This is like she's gone. Physically she was gone, but emotionally what she said stayed there. So she wasn't there anymore. But she stayed, she It lived in him. And that's why that's why his second queen he doesn't give her permission to come in without permission. Esther tells Mordechai, if I go in and he doesn't extend his scepter and I walk in without permission, what happens? He kills me. What you kill your wife for walking in to your chamber without permission, b'simcha but now you see how paranoid this man is? His paranoia became worse and worse. Big Son and Seresh tried to assassinate him. He executed them. So now he's living with daily paranoia that everybody wants to kill him. Inside he doesn't feel like a king, on the outside he thinks nobody thinks he's a king. This man is now completely completely paranoid, that's why Esther knows if she walks in without permission she is dead to This man thinks everybody's about to kill him, poison him. Your own queen is going to kill you. He thought he killed his first queen, maybe his second queen is going to kill him. And this is what this man is now living with. It's why he hires Memuchan Haman to be his closest his closest man because Haman to Achashveirosh is what those who know communist history, what Beria was to Stalin. Stalin was one of the most insecure people in history and Beria was the head of the cave and the brilliance of Esther. Esther understood all of this. And she knew she took the insecurity of her husband, his imposter syndrome and used that to save the Jewish people. How? By making him suspicious of the man who was supposed to be his biggest protector. This was her brilliance. When she's inviting Haman and him to two parties, once maila and a second time there's something going on. Right? And then when Achashveirosh goes to the garden he comes back and who does he see on the bed? He sees Esther and Haman. This was Esther's genius, the genius of this woman. She took that very insecurity of Achashveirosh and used it against him by exposing Haman to be his greatest threat. He's like, oh my god. There's nobody I could trust. Haman is going to take my wife from me? She gets rid of Haman. And now Esther could run the show and save save the day. So the whole story with Vashti is not just a mistake, it's not just a nice introduction. It gives you the complete understanding of the Esther's brilliant psychology into her husband, Achashveirosh, exactly what he was dealing with so that she could use that very trait to save the world from the darkness. She wasn't sure. He wasn't sure. He was just very suspicious. Says after the first party by layla who noded shna malcho, he couldn't sleep. Why not? Doesn't say in the megillah. The real reason is he thought that somebody is taking his wife and he started to think Haman and Esther are going to plot together to kill him. Haman will marry Esther and take over the empire. That's what he was thinking. You understand? Of course he didn't sleep that night. Esther was using all of this to create a web to show that Haman is the man. And when Esther tells Achashveirosh there's a man here who wants to destroy my people. The first time she says my people. It's like, ooh, Haman wants to kill Esther. In other words, the last thing that Haman wants to get rid of Every He has He has access to the king completely. Haman is the man, he's the boss, everybody's bowing down to him, the king needs him. But there's one thing standing in his way, the king's wife. He's now trying to kill Esther together with all the Jews and suddenly his best friend Haman is his greatest enemy. And then when he sees Haman on the same bed with Esther, he says lichboish es ha'malka imi babayis, you're going to conquer the queen? You're done. And his anger again goes crazy, the same level of before because again that same insecurity is triggered. And that's when Esther knows carpe diem, seize the day, charveini es I think we should hang this monster. Achashveirosh says a brilliant brilliant idea. And now finally he realizes it was Haman who manipulated him all these years and that's exactly the position Esther needed to start knocking sense into Achashveirosh and saying you were used and used and used by everybody from day one and I'm actually the best thing that ever happened in your life cuz I'm a normal, confident, secure, emotionally healthy woman. And I'll actually help you become a sane human being and you won't have to drink every single night. Now, yeah. Oh, yeah. I said What is this? She She She She put herself at risk, absolutely. She already put herself at risk the first time when she went into him and asked him to make a party and she told Mordechai if he doesn't stretch out his scepter I'm going to die and that's why she didn't want to do it. Exactly. Of course this was a major major risk. But the brilliance of her was that she put the whole story together. This doesn't say explicitly in the megillah cuz this wasn't said, this was all in Esther's heart. The moment Mordechai said go in, first she said I can't, then he said without this this is the moment and from now she takes over. Nobody Nobody does anything afterwards. Now everything is in her and it's all in her mind cuz she's not allowed to tell this to anybody. And when she invites her husband to the party with her and Haman right? She says something incredible. She says yavo Let me I just want to uh Is there a blue Could you give me a blue chamish in the back over there? Huh? Yeah, I just want to point something out very very interesting. Oh, he says Oh. Thank you. Oh, gevaldik. Wow. The Gemara says that when she invited her husband and Haman to the party the Jewish people found out about it and they knew Esther was Jewish. Remember, he didn't know but they knew. And they thought to themselves what a disgraceful Jewish woman. She makes a party and she invites her husband and and and and and Goebbels and Himmler and Eichmann to the party. Even if you want to go out with your husband, you have no choice. What are you inviting Haman? This is what a Jewish woman does? So Esther became the the disgrace of the Jewish people. Nobody could have imagined what this woman was concocting in her mind. So she was like People were like they were so disappointed like how much did she sell her soul? Like fine, you went to the palace but you sold your soul so badly. But I want to show you something fascinating and that is when Esther comes into the king and she says to the king right away she comes in and he says what do you want? And she said yavo hamelach v'Haman hayom el hamishte. The king and Haman should come today to a feast that I made, asher asisi lo. Yavo hamelach v'Haman hayom el hamishte asher asisi lo. To the feast that I made for him, for the king. So she's asking the king to come with Haman to a feast. Beautiful. Interesting. The Arizal says yavo hamelach v'Haman hayom is yud, hei, vav and hei. Hashem's name, Yud Kei Vav Kei. Where does Yud Kei Vav Kei come in here? You can't get further from God's name. She's inviting one drunk and another anti-Semite and both anti-Semites to a party. Great. Yud Kei yavo hamelach v'Haman hayom. Yud Kei Vav Kei. Interesting. So the the king says, okay, let's do it. He told her he'll do whatever she wants, ad chatzi hamalchus. Now if you were Achashveirosh, I just want you to think. Your queen just came in. It was an intimate moment. You say, "What do you want, Esther? What do you want?" A tennis bracelet? No. No. Okay. You want to go to Cozumel for 3 weeks? No. You want You want to go on a pri- What do you want? And she says, "I want you to come to a party with Haman." It's very weird. Why with Haman? If you If you told your husband you want to have a moment with your husband, you're going out, you're making a whole mishta. It's for him. This already triggers him crazy. Now they're at the party. He's drunk, of course, a lot of wine. He's always drunk. That's what, you know, insecure people need numbers, whatever it is. Either you drink or you're a binge drinker or you're phone You're doing something. And what happens at the party, he says, "What do you want?" And everybody says, "Why didn't she just tell him at this point what's going on?" She waited for a second party. Very good. Cuz he was not yet insecure enough. She needed to build up She was a brilliant brilliant person, Esther. She understood everybody here in a most profound way. People just think she had courage. She wasn't as courageous. She was a gona goina. She got it all. She understood what happened with Vashti. She got the whole The whole story with Vashti is just the introduction to understand Esther. To understand what Ahasuerus was suffering from. So, she knew at this point his paranoia is big, but it's not big enough to change history. We need to get him over the top. We need to get him to the same breaking point that caused him to kill his first wife. That's what we need. To a point where he loses it, where he's facing his abyss without knowing it, cuz he never dealt with himself. So, now she says, "Come to a second party." Now, when she says, "Come to the second party," and here you see, and it's really incredible. The first time she says, Yavoy Hamelach v'Haman Hayayim el Hamishta asher asisi loy. Let the king and Haman come to the feast that I made for him. For who? For the king. The second time she says, Yavoy Hamelach v'Haman el Hamishta asher asa lahem. "Come to the party that I'm making for both of you." Whoa. Whoa. The first time at least she said it was for me. Now, it's for both. It's for everybody. It's for me and him. What do you think now he was thinking? He's like, "This does not smell good." So, it could be Maybe it could be Maybe what's happening is Haman and her are plotting to kill me and get married. Maybe Maybe she just really really likes him. And there's a secret thing going on. Maybe there's something else. I don't know. But one second, Haman is the one who was always warning me that everybody wants to kill me. If he's in love with Esther, and he's asked to get rid of me, so that means my greatest nemesis, my greatest threat is the man who's my closest confidant, who's betraying me in the most intimate way with my wife. JUST THE BETRAYAL is enough. Never mind that there's a plot to kill. That's why the night before he could That's why the night That's why what happens, Haman goes home. Balayla nodeda shnas Hamelach. He's not sleeping. Of course he's not sleeping. People say, "Why is he not sleeping?" Cuz no man sleeps when this is happening. He doesn't know what his wife is up to. He doesn't know what his confidant is up to. He is completely panicking and anxious. Okay, now they read from the book that Mordecai saved his life from Bigthan and Teresh. Haman comes in asking to execute Mordecai. Ahasuerus is not feeling so good about Haman these past few days. So, he's like really really not excited about Haman. And he tells Haman, "Go lead Mordecai around the streets on the horse." People just think it was just a moment of grace. No. He had issues with Haman right now. Haman comes home from Mordecai and he's being rushed to the party. Esther comes into the party. She gets her husband drunk again. And she can smell that things are working out. He does not like Haman. He does NOT LIKE HAMAN. NOW, WHEN AHASUERUS SAYS TO HER, Malach Esther Hamalka, "What do you want?" Now, all the pieces were set up. She says, "I have a problem. The problem is there's somebody who decided to murder me. There's somebody who decided to murder me and kill all my people." So, he says, "Who? Who? Who is the man who wants you dead? Who?" And she points Haman. Ah. This was the moment. After everything he's been suspecting, Haman is the one who wants to get rid of Esther. So, this whole relationship that Haman has with Esther, and Esther has with Haman, it's not Esther's fault. Haman actually wants to murder Esther. He wants There should be no buffer zone between him and the king. He is the only only man. By the way, Stalin killed his own wife. She officially died in bed. And that's when Beria had complete access to Stalin, cuz there was nobody there. That's just a modern-day version of this. So, you can get rid of Esther, YOU'RE GOOD. NOW there's nobody left that can even begin to get close to the king without you. This is what ESTHER NEEDED. ISHTA V'HAMAN RAGZA. HAMAN is frightened. The king is furious. V'YICHMA HAMELACH AL HAMASA. THAT SAME ANGER THAT HE HAD with Vashti, the same Hamasa, the same word, it was TRIGGERED AGAIN. THIS LOWLIFE IN MY own circle. THE MOST POWERFUL MAN. I GAVE HIM ALL OF HIS POWER, AND now it's all used against me to kill my queen. And Ahasuerus was in awe of Esther. He loved Esther. He was completely enthralled by her, the Megillah says. This is all part of it. He goes to the garden to relax. Haman goes to Esther to start pleading for his life. The king comes back from the garden, and Haman is on the bed where Esther is, because he's pleading with her. And the king says, Lichboish es Hamalka imi babayis. "You're going to conquer the queen with me in the house." And Haman realizes this is really not good. And that's when Charvina says, "Why don't we hang him on the gallows? There's a tree that he prepared for Mordecai. Mordecai is the man who saved you from Bigthan and Teresh. He now wants to execute Mordecai. So, who is your friend? Who's your enemy? He wants to get rid of the people who tried saving you. He wants to get rid of Esther." Ahasuerus is like, "Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow." At this moment, he gets rid of Haman. V'chamasa Hamelach shachacha. Once again, his anger is relieved. That same story that happened again, Esther repeats. But this time she's not the victim. Hitler is the victim. Haman Harasha is the victim. And this was all in Esther's mind. And that's how she did it. And that's why you see, the first time it says, Yavoy Hamelach v'Haman Hayayim, is Yud and Hey and Vav and Hey. Right? We said Yud Kay Vav Kay. Because as she's doing this, she has one intention. And that is Ein Hashem shalem v'ein hakiseh shalem ad sheyimacha shmo shel Amalek. Hashem's name is incomplete till Amalek's name is not erased. Yud Kay Vav Kay is now going to be complete when the king and Haman come today to the party. Yavoy Hamelach Of course it's Yud Kay Vav Kay. Everybody thinks she's selling her soul to the devil. She's not selling her soul to the devil. She's making sure that God's truth and reality will remain eternal, because Amalek and Haman in that generation is going to be eliminated. Now, it's interesting. The second time she says to come, the second time when she asks uh um She says, Yavoy Hamelach v'Haman el Hamishta asher asa lahem. The first time it's Yavoy Hamelach v'Haman Hayayim. Yavoy Hamelach v'Haman Hayayim. So, that's Yud Kay Vav Kay. Yavoy Hamelach v'Haman Hayayim. The second time it's Yavoy Hamelach v'Haman el Hamishta. So, it's Yud Kay Vav el Hamishta. Between the last Hey and the Yud Hey Vav, there's a separation. She separates God's name the second time. What happened? Yavoy Hamelach v'Haman Hayayim is Yud Kay Vav Kay. The second time it's Yavoy Hamelach v'Haman el Hamishta. She separated the last Hey. The Zohar says, "Woe unto the person who gets in between the lion and the lioness. When the lion and the lioness are together, if you get in between them, I feel bad for you." All Esther was trying to do is she wanted to make Ahasuerus feel that Haman came in between the lion and the lioness. He was the one creating this gulf in the marriage, the separateness in the marriage. Either by killing Esther or by killing Ahasuerus, but he is destroying this marriage. Spiritually, there's Yud and Hey and Vav and Hey. Yud and Hey Vav are the masculine energy. Hey is the Shechinah Malchus, that's feminine. So, the second time there's a separation between Yud, Hey, Vav, and Hey. Basically, Amalek Haman is coming in between the relationship of Hashem and the Jewish people. That's the second time. Yavoy Hamelech v'Haman el hamishteh. The last Hey is being torn away from Yud, Hey, and Vav, the first letters. Spiritually and physically, they're paralleling each other, and that's when Achashverosh goes crazy. Because everything in the Megillah is also a metaphor on a spiritual level. So, now now we can appreciate why it's called Megillas Esther. We would think the name should be Megillas Esther or Mordechai, Megillas Mordechai or Esther. I mean, Mordechai played a major role, but the name is Megillas Esther, only Esther. Because the real story happened in such a deep place in Esther's heart that nobody knew about it. Even Mordechai couldn't suspect any of this. She couldn't share this with a soul. This was only Esther who knew Achashverosh better than anybody, who knew Haman better than anybody, who understood what happened with Vashti better than anybody. She is the one who were in her mind and heart can bring all of this together and use the very insecurity and craziness and fear and imposter syndrome of her husband, and instead of becoming a victim of it, she used that itself in order to transform. That's why it's all v'nahafoch It's not just v'nahafoch that the decree was transformed. The whole Purim is a transformation. It's deeper. She took the very She took the very imposter syndrome quality of her husband, her his addiction, his fear, the insecurity he was running away from, and that itself became the liberating the liberating experience. That itself v'nahafoch. Yavoy Hamelech v'Haman hayom is chapter five. Perek Hey pasuk dalet, chapter five verse six. And the second one is a few pesukim later, the same chapter. Chapter five, perek Hey pasuk ches, Yavoy Hamelech v'Haman el hamishteh asher asah lahem. And when she went from you to them, the party that I made for you to the party that I made to both of you, this was bad news. So, you look at one word in the Megillah, nobody would even notice the difference. But that difference, Achashverosh, who was so paranoid Paranoid people pick up everything. You know that. Somebody once said, "Just because I'm paranoid, it doesn't mean the whole world is not chasing me." So, paranoid people, you know, when you're in the middle of the night walking and a leaf a leaf shakes and you're terrified, you hear every sound. You hear every rustle, you hear everything. Achashverosh was so paranoid when when Vashti changed the word, "The party for you" to "The party for both of you," he went crazy. Because that's what the way you speak to a king. Also, the first time she said loy, she didn't say to you, l'cha, she said to him. Because that's how you speak to a king in third person. So, the first time she said "Amishteh asher asisi loy," like "Your Honor," "The party I made for him, which is you, Your Honor." And the second time, lahem, "for them." But it wasn't anymore for for him, it was for them. It meaning, Haman is an equal partner. Suddenly, she elevated Haman. She elevated Haman to the highest place, and from there he can fall. And here, in conclu- yeah. The first one was pasuk dalet. Pasuk dalet, not six. Perek Hey pasuk dalet is the first one. The second one is perek Hey pasuk ches. And that explains why she didn't do this at the first party. Only when Haman is brought up to the highest level and he's now an equal with Achashverosh, does he fall. As long as Haman is seen as a bodyguard, as my confidant, as my advisor, as my protector, I love him. That's why the king has everybody bowing down to him. Why does he want everybody to bow down to Haman? Because if Haman is the biggest guy, then he is secure. Because Haman is the guy who killed Vashti. He's protecting him from everybody that wants to assassinate him. He's feeding into Achashverosh's insecurity. Haman is a smart guy. And he knows how insecure the king is, and therefore every day he's sell- selling him stories. What do these people do? They cut off the king from the masses, so they don't have access. So, he's telling him every day stories, "This one wants to kill you, I got rid of him. This one wants to kill you, I got rid of him. Everybody wants to kill you, but I'm here, don't worry. We're protected." He builds up Achashverosh, makes him completely crazy and insane, and he is the man who's responsible for everything. Everybody's bowing down to him. That's beautiful. What Esther does is she understands she has to bring Haman even higher to the point that Achashverosh should feel that Haman sees himself as an equal. And then he loses the plot. And here the spiritual masters the Mitteler Rebbe, the son of the Baal Tanya, writes in a discourse that this whole thing is also expressing a deep spiritual truth. And this is what we'll we'll we'll finish with this, another three minutes, and bring it be'ezras Hashem full circle. What do we see from this whole story in terms of us? First of all, it gives you a certain respect and appreciation for Esther. That's number one. But this tells us something else. When people are not ready to face their own stuff, it creates disasters and disasters and more disasters. What happens with Vashti and Achashverosh is a classic scene of a conflict in a marriage where instead of looking inward and seeing where I have been wounded and what I'm carrying, I feel that by eliminating the external opposition, I will be fine. Vashti never disappears from Achashverosh's consciousness, because what she triggered, he never ever healed from. Haman became now the new Vashti in the sense that he used himself to protect him, but really became his competitor like Vashti was. When people avoid facing the stuff that we run away from our entire life, and it makes sense we run away from it. What is the ultimate healing for the imposter? The healing for the imposter is not to drink more. It's not to get another job. It's not to get more compliments. It's actually to face it, to face it, to look at it. What does it actually look like? It's to go in go down that cliff. It's to go into that abyss that I am so afraid of. And facing it. Because that's when the truth comes out, and that's when your true strength comes out. You see, whenever my strength exists only because I avoid my weakness, my strength is as strong as my power of avoidance. Did you hear what I just said? Whenever your strength comes from avoiding and repressing your weakness, your strength is only as powerful as your power of avoidance, which means deep down you know how weak you are. Only when I can face that weakness, I'll have a real strength that emerges from my true core and not from my forged core, which was simply ignoring and avoiding reality. And as a result of that, Achashverosh's entire identity is so bruised. Now, take a look at Haman. When Haman is brought higher and higher and higher to the point that he and Achashverosh become equal, that's exactly when he falls. What does this mean? It means when you take evil and you actually bring it up, and you look at it in the face, and you think, "No, no, no, I can't do that." That's exactly when Haman loses everything. The power of all evil and lies is the darkness. It's the fact that it lives in hidden places. Demons love closets. Ghosts love darkness. What do they call it? Skeletons in the closet. When you open the closet door and you LOOK AT IT, MY WHOLE LIFE I SPENT ENERGY TO LEAVE THE CLOSET DOOR CLOSED. DON'T OPEN IT. OPEN IT. Because when Haman is brought up up up up up, he won't Whoops. Well, Wow, very good timing. When Haman is brought up up up up up, and that buzz that buzz is overwhelming, it's over. It's over. Have a beautiful week. Thank you. That was a great That was a great uh horror movie, right? And you wake up. Yes. When to say it. She waited. Okay, we'll have to uh get to it. We'll see. We'll Yeah. Oh, amazing. Wow. Amazing. Oh, wow. Okay, wow. Thank you. Okay, my boy. Wow. Okay, welcome. Thank you. Oh, wow. That's happening. Okay, wow. Amazing. Welcome. Wow, welcome Antwerp. Welcome Bnei Brak. Wow. Welcome Bnei Brak, too. Oh, somebody's calling you. You could send it to me or send it to my wife. Yeah. Please, yeah. You were there on Sunday? So, you'll send it to me. You sent me something, no? No, no. I Better email. Could you send it by email? Just easier for me. Okay, excellent. Yeah, just give me a second. Let me just shut 1 sec.