Yosef’s Role in Megillat Esther & Economic Interpretation of Megillat Esther by Rabbi Hershel Billet

all right so I think I'm going to try to start on time I think that the people who come on time deserve that respect and so start of I'm going to introduce myself since I didn't want somebody to introduce me my name is heshi Billet I used to be a rabbi in America I retired and I now I live in Israel that's the introduction okay all right about rabbis in America by the way it is said so take that any way you want okay uh so you have a a page in front of you I put it there because I thought it would be easier than making you I don't know if they had kashim with migil sester and they make you turn this page and that page and make you crazy turning Pages what I I I don't know where the pages are I have no idea where they are I think they were at the entrance I'll bring more the I'll bring you know it's the OU they they they do not do enough KRA supervision here so they could only afford to make a few pages they the OU is the Au is short on money in from the New York City bard of bed it's very don't laugh I come from I come from New York city so uh B of all there in the in the New York City public school system very pro-israel uh very Pro but they don't have you have to you have to look at people you have to look at people through rose-colored glasses right you know they really well they they they you know they're you know I support the occupation and the uh the all the war crimes that are committed by Israel and pro Biden they were not I'm not making any political comments I'm not telling you my preferences that Hillary Clinton has been very supportive of Israel in this operation and so has Biden until recently I know until recently yeah that that's amazing you know now he's beginning to read the propaganda and and fall into the Trap so what can you do whatever anyway it it doesn't it doesn't oh I can't believe you here okay so um this this class um is I called it I think yose and migil eser so I want to start with a um a mid rush in estaba and it says I hope you don't mind my but I I I speak a fluent Hebrew spit but I can't learn init I can only learn in ashis it's just a matter of uh what you're used to what I'm used to so the children of Rael their miracles are equal their great their their greatness is equal and the two children of Raa that we refer to the B are Y and and Es right and were from the tribe of right andum eser likely was from the same tribe and ysf um was the um the uh son of Rael so ysf and mor and Esther have some I mean Esther and ysf have something in common and that is that they are descendants of Rael yose an immediate son and mor and eser generations later morim Bish is Right a man of Benjamin so the the the the the greatest bulk of this class uh I thought was original um when I prepared a Kish class in my synagogue in the Young Israel vmir it had hit me that the story of Yosef had the SAR SAR maskim and the sarim the two officers of of parro who had been accused of uh disloyalty to the king as you know uh one of them uh the sarim the but the baker was hanged and the butler uh was spared and then you know and then I was thinking AOS had two big son and SES and then I was thinking that right after the story of uh of uh of the Butler and the baker in the parro story you know parro is dreaming right and he parro had difficulty falling asleep he fell asleep rather but he was troubled by his dreams and I was thinking that in the Mig has trouble sleeping and he needs bedtime stories to help put him back to sleep he could have used a rabbi sermon it would have worked a lot quicker but uh uh in any event so I said Gee you know these stories are are interesting my wife uh rookie uh when she was in uh she went to Brooklyn College and uh they had a special program at tiw led by Rabbi Filson zon uh teachers Institute uh and it was at Stern College uh and she did not go to stern but she did go to the to TI in TI there was a gentleman who helped run the program in TI his name was Gabby Kon right Dr Gabby Kone Rabbi Dr Gabby con and I came across a monograph an article written by Gabby Con in which what I thought were my original ideas I mean in my mind they were original but Gabby K wrote a whole article about this years before uh I came up with this genius uh uh uh comparison thanful there's nothing are you sure you think a really great you think anyone KN I had I thought was amazing and my father said it's from the I'm like okay well I'll tell you I had a Reby in BTA Yesa University High School for boys in Brooklyn R Shalom and you know I would have said that Albert Einstein was the one who came up with the idea of e equal mc² the rabbi said no no kazal knew all that kazal knew everything uh you know kazal I asked him did Kaz did kazal know how to make an airplane he said sure So I said so why didn't they he said because they knew it wasn't the right time yet that was that was Rabbi Rabbi dck by the way had a tremendous influence on us he had a bigger influence on my wife than he had on me but he was a he he was a a wonderful teacher okay so let's get to the class so on the right side of the line you have the the yoseph story and on the left side of the line you have the story so it's so I start with exactly what I mentioned before on the right side the um the the Butler and the baker committed some sort of sin to the king of Egypt right um gets uh angry at his two Unix right a lot of the sis is often the the assistant to a King but in the in the kings in the a in the year in the Reigns of the kings of those days a lot of their Associates were Unix and he gets angry at them but for whatever reason the uh and they and they have they have they have dreams and Ys tells them that the Sim is going to be the the butler is going to be restored to his position and the baker is going to be hanged and sure enough the the the baker is hanged okay if you look to the left again you have something similar again two two Unix big son and and they are plotting to harm the uh the king and in those days harming meant to assassinate the king in the end what happens to big son like the and the if you if you pursue this a little bit further the analogy is not just of two servants bigson and sish were the B and the butler you look at the in underneath this this is the story of when finds that there are seever several young Lads from the Exile of Jerusalem in in his court and he pays attention to them and this is of course the beginning of the story of Daniel of Daniel says right he gets them and Rashi says what's b b he says is so what's big son big son is the guy who makes the PO he is the baker right that's what big son is B son right Bain he gives bread to the king all right what's t t Ro is wine it's it's made out of grapes so bigon equals Sim and SES equals the man who gives the tyos to the King theim right I think it's a a reasonable um not not an incredible Kish by the way Gabi Kon does not have this in the article so this this part is actually original big son and sarish being equal to to the Sim and the SIM okay then we go back we go to item number two on the right side there it says right he's standing by the Riverside he sees the seven fat cows the seven lean cows the seven fat sheep and seven lean sheaves and he sees the every the lean things swallowing the fat things right as it turns out it was a nightmare he's very frightened you know there you have a lot of Rabin Dres as why he was very frightened you know the the the he's the fat he's the fat cow and you know the lean lean cow are the people of Egypt and fat cows can be swallowed by lean cows but the point is that he was affected by The Dream you know he's he's shaking and um you look to the left the King was having difficulty sleeping and he had these dreams he had these dreams and he was he was he was also troubled by them look at item number two item number three right and and what happens um the the King has um uh uh the right and by and continuing down further number four said to them on the the third day and and um you have that by y you have the the third day mentioned and number number five you have the story of um the wife of potifa who is says to Ys yum yum she she keeps repeating to yose day after day she's trying to she's trying to seduce him right so you look here um at item number three across by Esther the same phrase right and um so you have the and the the anger of the king is about the and is is aroused and then it says in the third day you have the Third Day by Esther like you had the Third Day by Ys and then love y y this is about and M everyone they're telling M again and again to Bam and when did they tell it to him y y right and so you have you have something similar again you have the the the um the wife of potifar repeating day after day trying to seduce Yosef and he doesn't listen to her he runs away and you have the U the people trying to persuade morai that he should bow to ham and he didn't listen to them okay go to the next next thing ultimately parro is very impressed by yosef's ability to interpret dreams isab he removes his ring and he gives it to the to the hand of Y and what does it say when he makes the the viy he takes off the the ring and what what does he do with it he gives it to Mor right and when Ys is made the Viceroy he's put into a a chariot and what do they call right of and what is the Chariot called Next item eight The Chariot of the vice Roy right and what do they what happens with with yose right same phrase [Music] uh is taking M through the street remember the the the King has trouble sleeping hamon walks in the king the and uh and the King asks hamon what what should I do with somebody that I want to honor and hamon thinks it's him and so he says that you should put the man you should dress the man in Royal clothing and put him on the horse of the king and let and let him be taken through the street and let the guy taking him through the street should say this is what should be done to the man that the king wants to give him honor all right and so but again again this was what what happened instead was that hamon had to lead through the street all right but but anyway and what happens in the end Yosef is put in the mar that's the the The Chariot of the Viceroy in other words the King has apparently I would say a a more fancy uh carriage and the vice Roy has um you know the King has a Lincoln Continental and the vicroy has an oldmobile you know nice oldmobile car uh and and and uh what what is what do it what does it say at the end of the Milla that was Mish a the Jew was the vice Roy of the king aash okay item nine what did parro do parro made a mish there was M it was a party and what did a do that's how the Mig begins made a party later on he makes another party for Esther but they both these Kings like to make parties look at item number 10 there are several points in time when Yakov has to Rend his clothing you know for example what he hears about what happened to yose you know the brothers tell him that t y so Yakov RS his clothing and if you look across Esther dalid peric alif renss his clothing right at what time when he's when he's beginning to fast over the the decree of hamon and M is very very concerned about what is going to happen to the Jewish people so he renss his clothing what do we read about Yosef item number 11 Ys was toar Ys was a very handsome um man and what do we read about Esther and the the the the woman the was the young woman was a was also of of great Beauty item number 12 m right is jakov loved yose from all of his children he loved yose more than anyone and what do we read about the king and Esther right across the king loved Esther all right so again something very another similarity you look at item number 133 so um what says to Esther you know uh you got to you got to understand one thing the life of the Jewish people are are on the line you you became a king perhaps for this reason you have to see the hash prce over here and you have to go to the king even though he didn't call you right Esther said you don't you don't go to the king unless the king calls you and I haven't been called To The King and uh you know and the rule is in in in in in the court ofos if you're not called to go to the king you you you put to death so says you have to go and so Esther says I'm gonna go and I me I mean I mean excuse me I I am sorry es says I'm sorry and yov when he's persuaded by his children to send Benyamin down to uh MIT on their second trip because this this tyrant in Egypt had demanded that if they wanted food to save them from the famine they should not come again without their younger brother and uh and yob says to to his to his sons okay I'm going to let him go and I lost one son I might lose another son and if and Shimon by the way already Shimon taken shim as a as a hostage so what could I do but it's a similar phrase 14 um Yehuda so now Yehuda who took responsibility for bamin and Y accuses accuses of stealing his magic Cup right and it's found into in the um in the U luggage of Benyamin it was put there it was planted there and so um um UDA has to stand up for bamin so love right and he tells a story about the fact that his father lost one child and and and and uh and he he can't let the you know he's said I'll I'll go instead of this child but I says how can I go back to my father lest I see the bad situation that my father will be in I can't I just I I I I just can't do it I I I I and what is and what does Esther say um to so she comes to finally after the H incident when he goes on the couch and and and she makes the the you know the couch that Esther was sitting on and she makes the plea you know we've been sold Etc it's the same phrase so again the same kind of phrase now when uh Yakov dies so he's inbombed right he's inbombed uh they have to carry him back to Earth Canan and there's going to be 70 the Jews don't have much Choice over there there's going to be 70 days of mourning in Egypt and the body can't composed so for is embed and it says it took them I think 30 days was the number in there in the that's the amount of days it takes for the embalming process to be uh completed in Egypt and in the Esther story you know Esther is you know they there's the the contest the the beauty contest in which uh aash fos is going to pick the the queen right Queen for for Life uh and uh they're they're given um you know certain you know same phrase May yoseph when he gives U when he gives advice uh to um parro about what to do you know to expl he explains the dreams seven lean years seven fat years and in the seven fat years you have to collect all the the wheat and and make Egypt the um the the warehouse of all the wheat that is uh in Egypt and so that the nation people from all over could come you make the country Rich so he says right think he should appoint uh officers theu is called they should take all the the food of the seven of the of the seven fat years prosperous years and parro liked the idea and when a after AOS was missing Vash right after he had vashi executed right um and he's depressed and he wants another he wants another queen so um his advisers tell him he should appoint officers and they're going to do a search all over his 127 provinces for the most beautiful women to bring to the king they should gather all the women and the thing found favor the idea found favor in the king's eyes so and if you look in the mill there are more examples there are many examples of where um uh the story of yose and the story of Mor and Esther are are parallel to each other um just by the text of the Bible and one of the things that you know I learned um uh from raidan and rol benun and Yoni Gman and several of the teachers inat Haron in the Herzog Institute is that you should pay attention to phrases in the Bible and when you have Bible phras phrases in the Bible that seemed to be lifted you know I and I would suggest that when morai and Esther sat down to write the mcgilla they didn't put these phrases in by accident uh they they lifted the phrases out of the yose story and they they were they were they were they were giving a message they were telling us something you know and the question is what are they telling us so in yo it says Karem that's the next item there um is crying crying for a children she she won't be comforted right and you know your children will return to the land right that's what your says um um all right and um so what what what what what what what is the point of that ra so what what is what is the role of Rael in the tanak so you might recall that Rael dies and yakob buries her um on the road wherever that may be you so there K in B there's another place north of Jerusalem where there is a reference made to to by Schmo that that you you're going to see two guys at at at kevel in someplace north of uh north of Jerusalem the question is how you read that P but the location of K let's say is in the tanak it's not 100% clear exactly where it is uh but there but there's K and and and you see the truth is that Kev Rael being where it's located I once heard a a sheer I think by ran also many years ago but you know you understand Kev the the the idea of Kev ra being at a certain place so what does the med say that when the children of Israel go into the diaspora they should pass by the grave of Rael and and pray but where did they go to the diaspora they went to B which direction is B it's north so mean that forced them out of the land of Israel put them in Exile said okay but I'll let you go south for you know by by foot for a couple for a day or two and you go pray at Kev then you're going to Babel or is it more likely that he took them North and Kel actually is north of Jerusalem and that's where they prayed if if if that medish works out because it's a little bit difficult to see Kev being in the South where it is where where it is I'm not saying by the way that ke is not that that's not ke that that's that place that we all go D to was a very special place obviously Jews have been praying there for a couple of thousand years but I'm just anyway uh so um so what's the role of Rael Rael worries about the Jewish people in the diaspora and one might suggest that that is the role of the children of Rael that is the Legacy that they got from their mother so think about Yosef for a second ysf is in MIM and ysf tells his brothers at the end after yob dies he said he tell he he says it several times he tells them listen it's not you didn't do anything wrong God God God God put me here to play the role and I'm able to rescue the family that's the role Yosef plays but Yosef also plays another role and it's the most a very significant role at the end of yosef's life he calls in his brothers and he makes them swear right he also says also says you know understand that God is taking you out of Egypt right God is taking you out of Egypt and you have you you you you you you have to believe that you know you can't you can't enter into this however long we're going to be stuck in this land without the belief that you have something to look forward to there's there you have freedom and you know that when God the the medish had we were told that the the Jewish people took the atmos y the the remains of Y maybe all the other with them and the what did the when when the sea split what did it see it's all the the med says the remains of Ys Ys Ys was the inspiration of the Jewish people to leave Egypt what did God say to Moshe when in part of his long uh uh set of instructions to Moshe and the debate back and forth whether Moshe was going to take them out God says to Moshe I remember and the I think it's Rashia the ran Who quotes the medish that ysf gave the Jewish people a slogan whoever I want you to remember one thing that when the Redeemer will come whoever that Redeemer will be he will say po code he will say the and and the it's rash the ran who says it was the slogan the Jewish people were waiting for someone to come and say pood pood that is what U what was happening over there and so God says to MOS and Moshe comes and he says this is what God told me and the Jewish people understood they knew now that the Redeemer had come so yoseph uh understood what his role was his role was to make sure that the Jewish people would go out of Egypt that's why he was sent to Egypt it wasn't only to feed the Jewish people when there was a famine in the land and they would come to Egypt and they would be they would they would live in the five towns right in erit Goan they would live in Lawrence back Lawrence and they would live in the best the best or they live in Savon theyd live in the best neighborhoods and and and and and see I didn't say great Nick I was being polite uh but they would be living in the they they they lived in that's that that's only part of the story the real part of the story is that ysep was the one who was the inspiration for Redemption and if you understand that if you understand that and you understand that is right so says in the one opinion is his father was sh his father was from sh is from Yehuda but that's his mother but he was from sh B and um and uh Rin says right his mother and father he was totally from sh on both sides of the family and he was called Yi right because he denied idol worship so what the med means that the role of the children of Rael is to worry about the Jewish people in the diaspora that's the role of the children of Rael and that's the role that yose the son of Rael assumed and that's the role that b of bamin assumed in shushan habir that the role of the children of Rael and that's why Rael is because Rael is the one who will not be comforted until the Jewish people are taken out of the diaspora so that's one thought when you when you see when you read the Milla carefully and you note and I'm telling you there are more examples uh the the the parallel texts between these two stories it means you know from my perspective that morai and Yosef then Mori and Esther looked at the yosf story and they wrote the mcgilla with a message for the Jewish people for all time I want to say something else about the mcgilla just for a few more minutes um about the last peric in the mcgilla and the last peric in the mcgilla you know the Milla ultimately it's a story that we read because it has a a message for us and all the information in the Milla is part of that story so you have to read the whole story The the king the the parties vashi Esther Hama you know harona whatever whatever you read in the it's all part of that that narrative what is very perplexing to me is the last peric in the Milla right the king Levy taxes on the land and on the islands you know all of his provinces and then the Miga says um and the the rest of the uh the the the greatness of M hello what is the point of that chapter what is the point of the chapter and there words the the whole story the story ends in perest you know they H was hang the Jewish people celebrate you know the you know the all all the the wonderful things about PM why why what what's the message for us in the in the in the story about aash vish's tax policy who kiss so I would like to suggest that it's a it's a very important part of the story of the mcgilla because the story can't end unless we understand what the root cause of what happened and how the Jewish people almost were eradicated by aash at the advice of ham so how does the story begin the story of the Milla begins with aish making a party right and if you read the Milla you know the the beautiful Banquet Hall beautiful golden goblets wine you know the best wine of sagot of Carmel of ofila whatever you like the best wine of par a party for everyone in in in all 27 provinces a party that lasts forever and ever and ever and then another party for a week for the people of shushan habira right that's what happens now if you know a little if you we don't know exactly which Persian king aashish was you know whether he was Xerxes a Xerxes but we know that the Persian kings during the time of the Persian Empire he he we told he ruled over 127 provinces how did he rule over 127 provinces how did he get so big there were a lot of Wars right he he fought a lot of Wars the Persians were were conquerors but Wars are not cheap Wars are are are very very uh expensive right you know you gota you got to feed I don't know if he paid his his troops any salaries but you got to feed the troops right uh you have to make sure that they have weapons you have to make the weapons you have to mine you know they made the weapons out of out of steel they have to mine The Ore uh you have to have you have to have boats that that travel great distances you have to you know it's a it's it's a it's an expensive it's an expensive thing so in the second par in in when hamon when hamon U comes uh uh becomes the Viceroy of the King right ham ham goes to the king and hamon is is very very troubled by the fact that morai won't bow him it bothers him so much so Haman comes up with an idea that he wants to kill all the Jews men women and children everyone now even to a you know whatever kind of King AOS was whether he was a m or M it's very very hard even for the biggest of anti-semites the worst of anti-semites want to destroy men women children so we talk about Hitler and the Nazis or you talk about they want to they don't care like they want to behead children they want to kill everybody but your average anti-semite doesn't doesn't like Jews for whatever reason Jew you know I wouldn't remember I'm on a plane and I'm sitting next to a guy and some K Jew gets on the plane and walks to the back and the man I was wearing a baseball hat the man next to me says you he says you know those Jews I could smell them a mile away I said really I said you smell anything said you smell anything he says no Then I take off my hat I said you see I'm a Jew so you can't smell all of us a mile away away you know it just you know there's a certain there's a certain thing about anti-semites yeah I don't think that that man would ever think of murdering Jews and committing genocide there are a lot of anti-semites in the world they don't like us you know I mean but you know even they don't it's generally not a a a a policy to commit genocide you know you have people like Stalin and you have people like bdan kitki you have those kind of people who are prepared to kill Jews you know if kiski had had his way you know kiski during the 1648 and 1649 KAC Rebellion there are estimates that he may have killed up to a million Jews and imagine if that I they might be exaggerated those estimates but he killed a good 100,000 Jews and you just they didn't have gas Chambers they didn't have trains they did it with their swords I mean you know it's incredible there are people like that but most average anti-semites they'll persecute Jews they'll make rules against the Jews they'll make life difficult they'll put attacks on the Jews whatever they're going to do they'll put the Jews in ghettos so was was such an anti-site comes to him and he says the king always pop out you got to be killing kidding you want me to commit genocide so someone has a his trump card was in his back pocket to put in the now we're talking AOS is bankrupt he makes parties he makes the party for Esther he makes the party for many day he's he's fighting Wars he has no money he's bankrupt he is bankrupt now hamama is going to get him tons of gold from all the Jews you look what the Nazis did right the Nazis they they they melted teeth into gold bar they you know look what they did they they they plundered all the property they they all the art you know you know the many stories about all the art that the Nazis stole they were making themselves rich off of the Jews faros desperately needed the money agrees and he gives hamon the The Authority so when morai becomes so morai and Esther are successful in foiling the the plot of hamon and getting hamon killed and allowing the Jews to rise up against hamon's allies and to to to fight whatever battles and to take revenge but the question is that enough to end the story or do you have to do one other thing you have to know what the possibilities are so we now have a new possibility a reason to kill Jews is for their money because the the the kingdom is bankrupt and so even if you don't want to kill them you want their money and so you'll take an excuse to kill them so when morai becomes Vice Roy prime minister of shirai wants to know that at least when he leaves the world he's going to leave the the uh the treasure chest of the King full so they won't have that excuse who gave him that advice the greatness of Mor said okay we're going to have a tax policy Levy taxes fill the coffers of your kingdom with money so the excuse that you'll get the money from the Jews you have to kill the Jews to get the money that excuse will be gone finished that's why we have the last chapter of the Milla has to finish the job the job isn't wasn't done only killing hamon and his allies the job has to be done that at least when I leave this world I have done the maximum to make sure that the excuse the the that hon had to persuade the king to murder the Jews will be absent