Megilat Esther - Part 3 - Chapter 3 - Verse 7-15

[Music] in today's class we're going to go inside the third chapter of Nagila s-sir looking at the seeking 7 through 15 and today we're going to be discussing that casting of the lots and in the last class we discussed the wicked come on and how he you rose to power along with his original ong with the war against Tom elec we also discuss the real essence of the war between Merle hay and Tom on where the midrash Springs in all these different stories of hammam being morning highs slave just reflecting this superiority that Mordechai had as a Benjamites over home on the Amalekites both Mordecai and Esther possessed a spiritual spiritual overhands against him on because they both came from venya mean the eleven of the tribes had bowed down before a soft when yakima a Sauve when he returned to Kanaan but not been you mean because an amine was not yet born the acts of our forefathers paved the way for their descendants then you mean was the only one that never bowed before a person let alone a sub and Mordecai tapped into that spiritual essence that rippled into the generations that followed he had an upper hand he wasn't going to pal this stirred the anger upon and when someone pointed out to him that this Jew was it bowing to him it was more than he could take my mom didn't notice at first it had to be pointed out to him because he was so arrogant then everybody was bowing didn't he just be walking around with his head up I even looking down at them and so he didn't notice at first and the other servants they didn't tell on Mordecai to begin with because they thought he wasn't bowing only because of an honor issue and the understood it being an honor issue because they the one that fell down to home on either they new home on didn't this position but when Mordecai finally told him the reason that he wasn't bowing down was because he was a Jew this shirred their anti-semitism and that's when they went to inform him on that Mordecai wasn't bowing because he was a Jew they wanted more like hide to be their test case if Mordechai wasn't punished then perhaps they thought bowing as well and if Mordecai was punished well who cares it was only issue and that was what they thought the anti-semitism of that generation ran very deep and Herman decided that it wasn't enough to punish one person alone because even if Mordecai was gone it was nation of Mordecai's and arm or the high and another one would just arise and they were all the same and her mom decided that this cannot endure and he came up with a plot to get rid of this nation of mortal eyes so let's continue where we left off and chapter 3 verse 7 in the first month which is the month of Nisan in a twelfth year of King Ashish barrows poor that was law that is the lots was cast in the presence of home on from day to day and from month to month to the twelfth month which is the month of Adar there are many things to say about this PASOK alone first off twelfth year of ox Pharaohs this book started in the third year of ox barouche as she was chosen Queen in the seventh year of ox barouche five years have passed since Esther has been made Queen five years have gone by where she had to hide her identity from the King because she was married to five years she was wondering why Hashem even put her into the situation here she was an adult woman actually married Tamura hi forest into this relation will Anjou forest having to conceal her heritage five years of not making a sound five years of secrecy five years of waiting praying wondering why why she touched him had put her into this position and what was going to come from this and yet she remains silence she remained devoted to Hashem she remained pure and she was not shaken the next thing that we know this and the pus sick is that says one the cast locked before home on one pass the lot but doesn't say who didn't say whether it was the servant his wife his partner-in-crime who casts a lot before month Russia comments saying whoever cast the Lots cast the verse doesn't specifically say Hugh and this is a epolitical first one could presume was a servant of come on yet if so the Megillah has no previous issues identifying the servants the wives and later on Hmong's friends - even though this person who cast the Lots it could easily have been and probably wasn't one of those above it doesn't really matter because even though they were the one who cast a lot they worked with the ones who cast the Lots the person who thought they were randomly pulling a date that was going to be the extermination of the Jewish people but in truth they weren't even this random outcome was divinely orchestrated by Hashem the thing about Moloch is that they believe everything is coincidence everything is happenstance there's no ha ha ha crack seeds no divine providence the whole world knew what was going to happen what happens in a jobs how God had smite them that's how our world feared the mighty of the God of the Jews mites all but one oh man occurred but he believed nothing was the vine what had happened there oh the plague of the locust get those off for you several years we could play the locust here too and the deaths of the firstborn perhaps they all just ate something maybe they were is just some virus going a lot around and there's just happened to be the first for him but there was nothing divine about that either the wild beast that came in something probably just chased them out of their habitat imma luck believed nothing was divine that this was just the series of unfortunate events and it all came down to luck to the Missoula and the MS all of the Egyptians were just really bad that year their stars were all in the wrong place and maybe Moshe saw that those stars are in the wrong place and he decides he was gonna use that but it was always just the luck was Alma's all and that's kind of what they just all happened the way it did and taking this frame of mind Herman had the Lots began to be cast because he thought with the great fun to destroy nation his religious beliefs were shrouded with an ode Malvado there's no other power but shun it's just the chance state but the one cast thing the day wasn't the one casting the day Hashem he knows the energies are very um what energies are present in which time of the year or which times a month which day he's the one who chose this day and he made sure that this a lucky draw was going to land on the dates and no other dates malbim comments that's coming with always cast lots this aside his course of action he wanted to take revenge against the jews as quickly as possible so he cast thoughts for the very next day the 14th of Nisan but that day proved to be in the specialist even knock me off she writes that he didn't want to stop there he wanted to be benefit Jews as quickly as possible she cast another lot for the 15th of Nisan in the 16th the 17th the 18th the 19th all the way to the end of the month of Nisan trying to find which day the closest day that would be a specialist but none proved to be therefore after the month of Nisan it turned out really to be a flop he tried with every successive month just trying to figure out what should be the best day until he came to the very last month the chunk month the month of Adar and when he reached he been a door he started stretching the days and then he got to 13th of Adar and that was his answer moems states that come on he should have realized that his numerous failed attempts as he went through every single month was and the reason he was kept getting negative responses was because God's will was to allow the Jews to be redeemed and therefore the pest sick literally says with Nahum on literally before him on this lot was prepared before come on rather than for the Jews because it was going to result in his own destruction the Vilna go and comment saying that Herman could not have drawn lots to determine Israel's unlucky day and there's a known fact the Jewish people would be aren't governed by MS all luck constellations rather Hmong's casting of the lot was to determine his own luck when his own luck was the best and where his own luck was the worst and therefore the leaf Nahum on leaf neha mom before him on it was all about him he thought he was casting it for the Jews but he was casting it all about himself yeah mom didn't see it that way when he found the month of Adar come on rejoice saying that he was going to succeed because this is the month that Moshe passed away in Adar and come on thought this has to be an unlucky month for the Jewish people because they lost their great leader who led them out of Egypt during this month although he did not know that those true Moshe Rabbeinu passed away on the seventh of Adar Moshe Rabbeinu also was born on the seventh of Adar so why add our is it only because Moshe our brain is birthdays and the month what makes a dar so special according to the artists all every month corresponds to a specific part of the head and the month of Adar is related to the nose the sense of smell smell is a lofty sense it's the only sense that was not involved in or influenced by the sin of Adam the relationship between a dar and sense has even demonstrated in the names of our heroes of Purim the Talmud states that the name Mordecai relates to more drawer meaning pure musk and Esther's other name Hadassah means Myrtle and both of them are connected to scent there's an article on the Chabad website that perfectly paints a picture of what makes a dar so special and why Hashem chose to let all of this the perm story to fall out on this month and the article writes that a dar is under the constellation of the fish a month saw nothing particularly lucky about the fish and the thing was really beneficial about the constellation of the fish and here he was threatening to swallow up the Jewish people's like how a fish swallows up its food or swallows up a smaller fish but he didn't see that there's an even bigger fish behind him but that he would be swallowed up by himself and just says the larger fish small swallows up a smaller fish so the tragedy of Moshe his passing was also swallowed up by that of his birth for that joy it was greater than the sadness of his mourning and how do we know this as so the pedometer Rebbe points that a person's soul shines stronger on his or her birthday the aspect of the soul that is contained within a person is actually the spark of the person's root neshama which states above that this neshama that is above that earthly mission is called Mazel a person is resolved is stronger on his birthday because the masala which drips vitally into the soul and the soul are in perfect alignment coming up and down on that day and even though we all have individually our own birthdays most shaves birthday is like a collective birthday of the entire Jewish people how is this so because the leader of the Jewish people is equal to the Jewish people collectively says in numbers 21 21 was Russia's comment every generation has a spark of the soul of moshe his birthday is also the birth of the essence of the souls of the jewish people this is why the mazaa of the jewish people are stronger on the month of Adar Adar is also the month of completion rectifying the lunar year to the silver year and ready ready us for the revelation in leap years there are two adores and in such a year what is incomplete reaches full potential just as the Jewish people are frequently compared to the moon a jar isn't a suspicious time to reach one's spiritual potential also the two adores together have 60 days if and then kosher liquid falls into hip-hop the mixture can still be considered kosher if the part is unless in the ratio of one sixtieth the 60 days of these two months reflect the ability of this number to nullify a negativity but the sages have said the Jews are beyond miss all there's no constellation that is associated with them and this is why the Jewish people are able to show such self-sacrifice on Purim and that all times the capacity of self-sacrifice is beyond logic and the greatness is hinted in the name of Adar we should spell that within olive adalat and their age they olive represents the power of God which may seem to be separate from everyday existence the dollar and the race form the word dar which means to dwell the olive our God's unlimited power aims to create a dwelling place in this limited world mostly tried to accomplish this in the last seven days of Adar when he worked to build a tabernacle the Mishkan the Shakima wasn't revealed in the tabernacle so he kept rearranging and we're building the tabernacle until the Shekinah was finally revealed on the last day within the Mishkan the last seven days of Adar which Moshe a spent building the tabernacle correspond to the seven generations during which this came out was not revealed God's intention was that he should have a dwelling place in this world and this was one being accomplished at the end of it our Hmong's mistake in thinking that Moe Shea's passing ruined the month of Adar for the Jewish people was actually to our benefit he chose to set the decree and the month of the greatest mazaa for the Jewish people this teaches us that Adar is a repetitious month for protection for improving ourselves and for joy which reaches greater and greater levels as you progress through the two Attar's this continued chapter 3 verse 8 then Hamas said the King Ashish barouche there's a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples and all the provinces of your realm their laws are different from every other peoples and they do not observe the Kings laws therefore it's not befitting for the King to tolerate them there's never a slanderer a skillful and cunning as the wicked Haman Kazaa brings various interpretations of what went down between hamana NOx Pharaohs her mom refers to people or in Hebrew as an Omaha this one people it just says there and um or the high everyone's the same everyone's just as rebellious as the next and these Jews they're spread out throughout the kingdom their hands are on everything affecting everything with their corrupted ideology their anomic HOD United together and even though they're dispersed they keep their own laws above yours chaos ferocious they aren't loyal to you they don't eat your food they don't intermarry they eat and drink without fear while they despise the throne one of examples Azov gives is that himand hold ox brooch that if a flight falls into his glass of wine what did you do they take out the flight and they continue eating the drinking the wine but if you even touch the glass they were part of the entire glass of wine and won't even drink it the fly to them is better than you are c'mon worked in sight ox rose more and more against the Jewish people while painting them at the same time as easy targets these people were separate they were scattered so don't think you're gonna know make a void in your kingdom if you destroy them because they're not concentrated in one area but they're scattered their separate throughout the provinces so there's not gonna be any great loss in any given area and the malbim describes that saying that they are scattered and so far that they're not settled in one province and they're separate and all these different provinces not settled in one place but since they're separate from one another and there with everybody else yet they're in Alma College so they're United but separate they're gonna be as to everyone all around is gonna be affected by these people come on continues on when he mentions the Kings laws and Rashi understands this as taxes that they don't pay their work tax they excuse themselves from work saying today's the Sabbath I don't I'm not gonna work or today's Passover I'm not gonna work in these saying they aren't doing their share it's like more and more to try that and say Oscar oh Sh and another example brought it out as come on set socks Roche that they did not observe the Kings laws they don't observe the pagan holidays the ones that the entire nation we celebrate they won't celebrate them in Hakodesh barafu like response to him and as they're about saying evil one you're casting i'm hara on their festivals behold i will make you fall before them now give them an additional festival in commemoration of your downfall yeah the estaba also tells us oscar OSHA's response so when the hammam came to Ostrow saying come whose destroy israel ox Pharrell's replied you're not gonna succeed because their God does not abandon them see what he did to the earlier Kings that stretched out their hands against the Jews all those kings are crazier and stronger than I anyone who attempted to destroy the Jews we held counsel against them was destroyed then became an object of ridicule for all who dwell on the earth how much more so if us we should not come near them speak no more of us matter nevertheless the wicked come on with trouble occifer al-shabaab that time to time you continuously give an evil advice about Israel has sick mine if it pleases the king now that we recorded that they'd be destroyed I will pay ten thousand silver talents into the hands of those perform the duties for a deposit in the Kings Treasuries hammam wanted this so bad she was willing to pay to get it done Hamas felt that giving away huge sum of money was a quote that was equal to the value of the entire nation he would assume that you know if he did this his prey wasn't gonna escape his clutches Rach look he said that it was revealed before he who said that the world come into existence that Haman was going to count chuckling shakaal aim for the right to destroy Israel therefore god anticipated this was gonna happen so he first negated that by having Israel give a column for a holy purpose that was when the Israelites had left me trying as the Mishna says on the 1st of Adar the announcement is made that the scallion must be given according to Josephus the hashed column given by the 600,000 adult Jewish males after the exodus from each ryeom are equal to the 10,000 silver talents this calculation however is difficult because one talent equals 3,000 scallion and the 600,000 hash Kaleem given by the 600,000 Jews equal 300,000 scallion which is only 100 talents to resolve this difficulty torta Mema says that we must look at that the copyist and they're misunderstood when he was transcribing to-- suppose when Josephus wrote the abbreviation catche in the copyist assumed that it was heads a shekel half a shekel in reality the tow suppose Mets Rights Commission column referring to 50 shackle that the 50 Chekov al uation ascribed to an adult male and Leviticus by Egret 27 a 6-3 if so that 50 ish column value valuation per person of the 600,000 people comes out to be 30 million Colleen was just exactly equal to the 10,000 silver talents given Oxbridge by home on Miami Lewis says that the 10,000 silver talents correspond to the 10,000 Jewish leaders exiled by Nebuchadnezzar himand fest reminded ox roach the fact that nebuchadnezzar he found it necessary to exile the jews which proves that they're worthy of destruction and one talent contains three thousand skilling as we've seen 30 exodus 35:2 20 for a shekel contains approximately point 80 ounces of silver thus a talent of silver is equal to 2400 ounces the price c'mon was ready to pay when the right to exterminate the Jews was ten thousand talents which was 24 million ounces or 750 tens of silver even in today's inflationary terms this is a huge fortune so we can only begin to imagine how huge of a fortune that must have been an ancient standards if this is a fortune in today's standards the Vilna going says that he also told the King not to be concerned if any loss of taxes revenues that the Jews destruction was going to bring his home on was gonna more than compensate for his with his large bribe ten um perfect ten and eleven so the King removed his signet ring from his hands and gave it to her man son of Hamad otha that aggragate enemy of the Jews then the king said to him on the silver is given to you the people also to do with as you see fit after all this talk about how much Oman was willing to like financial disincentive and over the king in the end he says in pastic eleven the silver is yours keep the silver the 750 $0.10 however keep this over ash Burroughs was happy with Hmong's arguments Fazal says oxford rose hated the Jews even more than the wicked Haman when the hammam offered the huge sum of money for the privilege of the showing the Jews throughout the Persian Empire this was exactly what Oxford had hoped for they bring a comparison saying that it was like two men one has a mound in his field and the other one has a hole in this field and the one who has the hole in the field goes to the one with the mound and says sell me your mounds and the one in the mountains like it's just this big lump in my field it's I don't want it in my field to begin must just take it for free like you do what you're doing all the work you're still you know just go and do it and the in that way they both benefit without having to pay without having to lose anything and that's how Oxford felt that he had the Jewish people were just this and one wants a mound in this field and here was somebody who is willing to do all the work and everything this mound without ox rows having to lift a finger to do any work Yakutia mone brains now the car brings down this conversation aux Roche said to Hammond I shall not tell you the Jews because they've been entrusted to my care and I'm afraid of their God was gonna he's gonna do to me as he did to see Helen and a god an oak to 31 kings of Kanaan to Sisera jobim and to send that Arab I remember what he did to Nebuchadnezzar he destroyed his house and placed it among the cattle and the beasts likewise to Belshazzar for me too it is difficult and Haman replied all of those things occurred when the temple was in existence but now their God is angry with them an ox rosh says they've been entrusted into my hands I will not sell them to you but to honor you I will agree to this caste laws and let's see what happens if you know if they come up into your hands and if they come up in your hands and the money in my hands I will sell them to you and the people came up and Hmong's hands and the King saw that hammam felt bad about the money he was paying and the King asked them do you feel bad about the money the King asked and the King said be silver the silver is given to you and the people for just do with as you see fit but the verse doesn't say to them in peski 11 he doesn't say do to them as you see fit says do to him as you see fit and he's not coming to the king about Mordecai he's coming to him about them a nation about the arm and as if this is to say that's Ludington you're attacking not dumb but you're attacking him you're attacking none other than hakodesh bara ho it's continued esic 1214 the king scribes were summoned on the 13th day of the first month that is everything that was written exactly as Hamas has dictated to the King satraps so the governors who are over every province to the officials of every people to each province in his own scripts and to each people in his own language and his rights in the name of King Oscar oh Sh and it was filled or the Kings signet ring letters were sent out by courier to all the provinces of the King to destroy to slay and to exterminate all the Jews from young to all children and woman and one day the 13th of the 12th month which is a month of Adar to plunder their possessions copies of the documents or to be pro pro me Prommy move gates it in every province and be published all the peoples for them to be prepared on that day copies were published to all the peoples who mom was afraid to publicly decree this annihilation of the entire Jewish people it was a confidential decree first to the sat traps the governors and high officials that clearly spelled out that the purpose was to enter li destroy the Jews on the 13th of Adar on the documents display publicly however in the town squares in every city for the rest of the people it was only written that on the 13th of Adar there they need to be prepared for military action whose nature would soon be revealed that's why in the next verse it's going to say that the City of Shushan was bewildered for no one knew what was going to be involved in this action Targum gives us an example of what the text documents said to the officials and he says that this was what was written the decree for me a king ox rosh to all the nations that dwell in their lands may your peace multiply i hereby inform you the man who is not from our land has come to join us and help us overcome our enemies we have investigated him with his name come on a descendent of the king of agog a descendant of the great armlock the center of renewal the son of eliphaz the first born of a sob this son of princes which is money and land has made one minor request for me he told me about the Jews their religion and their evil deeds and he said they went out from Egypt remembered 600,000 and I will give you six hundred thousand shekels of silver one for each man I took money from him and delivered this nation to him for slaughter and now eat and drink like me for I am eating and shrinking rejoicing let heaven holds a sword hold a sword and go to out and overpower them on the 13th of the month of Adar have no mercy on the wirless or on their old or young but slay them and take their money as you please therefore in every city where Jewish slave is found its princess shall be slain and explained in the city's gates because they have not fulfilled the decree akeem akio SHhhh he does not want a single Jew to be found in my entire kingdom persik 15 the courier's went forth hurriedly by order of the king and edict was distributed and she's shown the Capitol the king and Helen sat down to drink but the kid City of Shushan was bewildered that day sent in haste because Hammond was afraid Oxford was gonna change his mind or that he might remember more like hi the Jew who was sitting at the Kings gate who is in the Kings good favour he really didn't want the King to step back and think for a moment he had riled the King up and they stood in unison for the mark of the death in the distraction and the King didn't need ask anybody elses advice for this decree that he could just send it out instantly the King was pretty fickle and he could easily have a change of heart the man was afraid of that another opinions at home on he wanted to prolong the agony of the Jewish people that they would quickly learn of this coming demise it wasn't that no one would know what was gonna happen the elite they would new and naturally this information starts up here and it just starts trickling down where it's slowly slowly throughout rumors and rumors were stopped flooding the city and was gonna haunt the Jewish people for the coming months until the 13th of Adar would come mam Aloha is comment saying that the deep reason like but Hashem wanted the letter sent out so quickly because Hashem wanted to give the Jewish people every extra moment that they could do to Shuba he wanted them to utilize that time take that time to do the Shiva and she repents the person even says that her mom and ox Faraj they sat down to drink was this a sublet or a drink her mom may have told Oscar Rocha that was but according to the Midrash himand deliberately wanted to intoxicate the king because he was afraid that this the king was going to reconsider his entire act and miss evict before the courier's we're sent out and they were securely on their way to all the different provinces in their next class we're going to start chapter 4 and we're going to see how the Jews and the inhabitants of Shushan responds to this news as it shrink 'old down its from its high sources God didn't want this edik to go through naturally the world would not remain if there are no Jews as the Jews sustain the world with Torah and mitzvot but the generation was slipping they took part of the feast has celebrated the destruction of the temple God wasn't happy he wanted the people to wake up from the spiritual slumber and yeah Shem he sees the beginning he sees the end and so before he had her mom put into place he already had everything put into place to counter Hmong's decree asher was already queen mordecai are they said that the king's gates mordecai had saved the King's life the king had made that decree that he didn't neither ask anybody's advice all these different things ring pen to place and everything was ready now now her mom could be empowered now home on could make this is a crazy because everything was in place to take him down so here e so here we are the 12th year of king ox 409 years have passed since Vashti was killed step-by-step Hashem was just laying the groundwork during these years to fix and stop what was about to come when Hashem works in the world or in their lives the changes may be so gradual that we may not notice them until retrospect looking back at their lives saying where God's hand was guiding it all of us along the way may give you a barakah that may we all have our eyes open and see where God is working in their lives where he is touching things he is guiding and may our trust in him grow immensely as we know that in the matter what hardship that we go through God he already first saw this and he already has the remedy created the remedy was created before the hardship came and it's already there and may we all internalize this as we grow closer to Hashem and see him in their lives [Music]