Rav Brevda
Part 1
The Megillah starts off by telling us that Achashverosh was king “HaMolich” the word HaMolich means that he became king on his own. (According to this, he did not become king because he married Vashti, he became king by buying it.) Achashverosh started as the stable boy for Avil Murdach. Since he used to be a stable boy he wants other to forget about his passed and he constantly looks for honor, and he is very careful about his honor. For this reason he did not really know how to be king and he did things that a normal king wold not have done.
Due to his hunger for honor, Achashverosh wanted to build a throne that would be an exact replica of the throne of Shlomo. He search throughout his kingdom for a person who could build such a throne. The only person he could find who could do it was a man who lived in Shushan. After the person finished it it was too heavy to be brought to the capital city of Achashverosh, therefore Achashverosh moved his capital city to Shushan. If he would have been a knowledgeable king he would never have moved his capital just for a throne, rather he would have built a castle in Shushan and he would go there a few times a year to sit on the throne and get honor from the people he invited to see him there. But since he started off as a normal person he moved his whole kingdom there so that he could always be near his throne, because he thought that a place can honor a person. This all happened from heaven because Mordechia lived in Shushan.# Then Achashverosh decided to marry Vashti, the daughter of the previous king to get more honor.
In the third year of his rule, after the throne was finally complete, he moved his kingdom to Shushan. Since he was new to Shushan, and the people did not know him, he wanted to buy the hearts of the people. First, he had a party for the important people that lived far away. He realized that the people of his generation considered money to be the most important thing. So he threw a party to show off his riches, and by this he would show how important of a person he is.
When Nevuchadnetzar was king he collected all of the riches of the world. He did not want anyone to get pleasure from the treasures, even his own son. So he built two large bronze boats on land and placed all of his treasure on it. Then he made the Tigris River flow to the place where the boats were and the boats sank into the river and no one could find them. When Koresh was king and he declared that the Beit Hamidash should be built, Hashem revealed to him the treasures of Nevuchadnetzar, which totalled 1080. These treasures got passed down to Achadashverosh when he became king. These are the riches that he showed the officers during their 180 day party. On each day they only looked at six, as the pasuk says “1) Osher 2) Kavod 3) Malchuto v’et 4) Yakar 5) Tiferet 6) Gidulato.”# During the days of the party Achashverosh became very haughty because everyone praised him for how rich he was.
After that party he had a party for the people of Shushan. To win their love he had to show them that he was a kind person with a good heart. So he had a party for the entire nation from big to small. Even simple people who would not normally be invited to the king’s house got to come, each person in a place fit for them, and he made a beautiful party, where the floor had nice stones in it, and every person drank from golden cups, and after they drank from the cup once they were immediately given another one. Finally, the king commanded that the will of every man should be done.
Vashti, who was actually from the royal line, had to prove nothing to anyone. She also knew that all of the connection that Achashverosh has to the kingdom is through her. Hashem made it that Vashti did not want Achashverosh to get honor. He made it that she could not stand it when Achashverosh looked good. In a normal scenario, it would have been good for her if her husband got honor, but she did not like it, because Hashem gave her haughtiness. She had gone the first 186 days of the party with no issues. Then, on the last day, she made her own party. She had it in the Beit Malchut, a room made by Achashverosh, specifically for him, where no one else could walk into it. She brought all of the women there, just so that she could show that she was the real leader. It just so happened that this room was located right next to the room that Achashverosh was having his party. When the men in the party heard the voices of the women from the other side of the walk they began to discuss who the best looking women were. Some said the Persians were the best looking while others said that the Midian women were the best looking. Achashverosh heard this conversation, and seeing it as another opportunity to show off, said that his wife was better looking than everyone else. So the men said that she should be brought out wearing only a crown. Normally, he would never have aloud this, but since the whole point of the party was to show that he was the richest and the most important, if he would not bring her out everyone would think that he was lying and it would ruin of the whole point of the party. Also, he said that he would do anything that anyone asked, so he had to delivery. But he knew that Vashti was the one who held all of the power so when he sent the people he said “Vashti the queen” putting Vashti before queen, to say that all of the kingdom was from him. But when she sent a message back the messenger said “the queen, Vashti” meaning that she was the true royal line and that he was nothing without her. Normally, she would have been glad to go in front of everyone naked, but since the whole reason for her party was to show that she was the one who was the true ruler she would not go out, and she sent a message to him that he was a stable boy, and that after drinking a little got drunk, but her father, a real king drank much more without getting drunk.
After hearing Vashti’s comment Achashverosh screamed a lot and his anger remained in him. Normally, when a person is mad he says what he is angry about and he is already slightly less upset.# But in this case, even though he screamed he was still very angry. The reason was because he could not say why he was angry. The entire purpose for his party was to show how great he was. So if he would have said that Vashti called him a stable boy it would have ruined everything. So he bottled up his anger.
Achashverosh wanted to punish Vashti for what she did, but he did not want to kill her. In Shushan there were two court systems, the first which ruled according to the laws of the land, the second was more flexible and took other considerations into account, even if it was against the letter of the law. The second court was called the “Yodei Ha’itim” because they knew when to be strict and when to be lenient. Achashverosh specifically picked this court to judge so that they would know that he wanted a lenient ruling. There was a rule in the kingdom that anything that involved the king personally could not be judged by him, so that nobles would not get killed every time he got angry. When the case went to the court Achashverosh strongly hinted to them to let her off easy. It was very important for him that she be kept alive. Normally, the court would be leniet in these types of cases, but Hashem made it that just a few days earlier Haman, the seventh member of this court, would get fed up with his wife who was Persian and was unwilling to speak to him in his native tongue, Amaleki. He wanted to force her to speak to him according to the way he wanted to speak so he judged the case of Vashti so that it would effect his wife as well. Right as the court case started Haman jumped up and told his ruling and everyone else agreed.
Haman realized that if he allowed the others to speak that the case would end leniently so he said that the law that the king could not judge his own cases should be eliminated, because there was nothing that was a personal case of the king that was not a national decision. So even though the case of Vashti was only a personal matter, a law should be passed that effects everyone in the kingdom, that all wives must listen to their husbands.
So the law was past that now the king could judge on his own even for cases that were personal matters. For the case of Vashti, Haman did not want it that the judgement should be direct death, because Haman could not have his wife, Zerash killed for not listening to him. So he made it that only in the case of the king would the ruling be that Vashti could not appear before the king again, which would lead to her death, because a queen who cannot come before her husband has no other use. So now if Zerash did not listen Haman he could say that she could not appear before him anymore. Then Haman said that Achashverosh would find someone else to be his queen, who also had royal blood, who was better looking than Vashti, and this would lead to the kings power being greater than ever before, because now he can judge even in personal cases, and now everyone would fear him. Normally, something like this would never have happened.
The fact that this law was changed would end up giving Achashverosh the power later to hang Haman. Achashverosh later thought that Haman was trying to take Ester away from him. Before now, this case could not have been judged by Achashverosh, but due to the fact that Haman changed the law, it would now be possible. If the old laws would still be in affect Haman would not have been hanged because the case would have gone to the court who were friends of Haman, so he would not have been judged strictly, and eventually the king would have forgiven him. It was only because Haman changed the law at the beginning of the megillah that allowed the king to judge his case alone, which led to Haman’s death. Haman was the cause of his own death.
Even though the whole story of the megillah seems to be natural, if we look carefully we can see how Hashem caused everyone to act out of nature which led to our salvation. If we put all of our faith in Him, He will make sure everything works out well for us.
Part 2
After finally getting over his anger, Achashverosh remembers Vashti. But, he didn’t remember her for her blood line, he remembered her for her beauty. After he had calmed down, the servants of the king, not the nobles were the ones who advised him to get a new wife. Why would Achasherosh be advise by the butlers, chefs and bathroom attendants on such an important matter? Since Haman had passed the law that the king can now rule on any person matter on his own all of the noblemen were afraid to walk into the palace while Achashverosh was still angry. But the servants of the palace had no choice but to be therre all day long even if they were afraid that Achashverosh may kill them. Every day the nobles would come to the servants to see if Achashverosh’s anger had subsided.
One day the servants walked in and saw the Achashversoh was not mad anymore but that he was sad because he missed the beauty of Vashti. The nobles did not get into the palace to advise the king because they were waiting to hear from the servants the Achashverosh was not angry anymore. So the servants thought of how they can cheer the king up from his problem. So since they were not so smart and did not think it was important for the queen to have a lineage they advised that he should look for a girl just based on her beauty.
So basically, they advised Achashverosh to have a giant beauty contest, minus the question round, of course, in order to pick the next queen. There were no requirements except beauty. This was a miracle because now Hashem can place Ester into power. This would never have been possible normally because the other nations hate Jews, in fact even Achashverosh himself hated Jews, and he would never have willingly married a Jewish girl.
If Achashverosh would have waited to take his advise from nobles this would never have happened. Each girl would have had a thorough background check for intelligence and lineage before even getting close to the king.
So once the girls got the the house that they had to wait in before meeting the king the nobles asked them for the basic information. But Ester chose not to tell them, and since the only requirement was beauty they could not stop her from meeting with the king. When Achashverosh met her he did not think about her family or her intelligence all he cared about was her beauty. So it was all because of Haman’s advise to the king to change the law about the king’s personal trials that aloud all of this to happen.
Later, when Achashverosh wakes up in the middle of the night, to think of what to do for Mordechai for saving his life he looks for people to advise him. The people who answer are the same servants who had helped Achashverosh earlier with how to choose his wife. Yet, this time after they advise him, he did not listen. Rather, he looked for a noble, because only a noble can know what honor is. Now isn’t it weird that when it came to choosing his own wife he took their advise, but now, to show honor to someone else, he did not. The reason is because normally a king would never take from servants and the only reason why he took their advise before was due to his sadness. But now, he was not sad so when he heard their advise he did not listen. This is yet another example of how Hashem controlled everything behind the scenes.
Part 3
The Jews did two sins that were the cause for the whole story of Purim. One, they bowed down to the statue of Nevuchadnetzer, and two, they got pleasure from Achashvarosh's party. Since there were two sins there needed to be two saviors, Ester and Mordechai . Ester was for the party and Mordechai was for bowing to the idol. This is why when everyone bowed down to Haman Mordechai did not, because he had to be mitakain for the sin of bowing down to the idol. Not only did Mordechai not bow down, he did not even tremble when Haman past by him, because he had gotten rid of all emotions except for fear of Hashem.
When the Jews went to the party Mordechai told them not to but they did not listen to him. Therefore whenever Mordechai told Ester to do or not to do something the Megillah goes out of its way to say that she listened to him completely. Also, this is the reason why only the people of Shushan had to fast, because they were the only ones that went to the party.
The Gemara says that Ester was green. The Vilna Goan wants to know how it can be that the Megillah says that she was beautiful but yet it says that she was green. He answers that at the beginning of the story she was very beautiful. But, when she got the to the palace were all of the maidens were kept before meeting the king she got very sick. This was not a normal sickness, it happened because her total essence was spiritual, therefore, anything not spiritual was actually bad for her health, for example, the oils and perfumes that they gave her. Then it says she did not want any of the perfumes. The reason for the was because she was doing a tikun for the sin when the Jews got pleasure from the kings party. It then says that when it was her turn to go the king “they brought her before the king.” The Gra says on this phrase that it means that it was against her will, they literally had to drag her to the king. Again the Jews went to the party on their own free will so she, being metakain for them, was force to go to the king. Then it says “she was made queen” again against her will, another tikun.
After Achashvarosh made Ester queen he wanted to find out her lineage, but she would not tell him. The pasuk says “he made a big party for all of his officials and officers in Ester’s honor. Then he gave every country a tax deduction and gave all of them presents.” Why? He hoped that by making the party in her honor she would tell him her lineage. When that did not work he gave the tax deduction hoping she would thank him for lowering the taxes of her country. When that also failed, he gave presents hoping she would thank him for the presents he gave her country. But none of that worked so he asked Mordechai what to do. Mordechai told him to have relations with all of the the women that were in the palace that he had kept after the “contest” to see who would be his wife. So Achashvarosh did that and that is what the pasuk means when it says “he gathered the virgins a second time.” After all of this the pasuk says “and still Ester listened to the word of Mordechai,” again tikun for the sin.
The next thing Rav Brevda does in the sefer is prove that Hashem did not save us in the time of Purim because of our hishtadlut but rather because of our prayers. The pasuk says “Mordechai went out in to the town wearing sackcloth and screamed.” If anyone did this nowadays the newspapers would say “Crazy Man Screams in the Street” but for Mordechai it led to all of the Jews doing teshuva. Why did this work? Since all Mordechai wanted to do after finding out that Haman was trying to kill all of the Jews was to go to every country and tell the Jews to do teshuva he realized that all he could was go out in sackcloth and scream. Since he did the most he could do Hashem made it that that was enough.
The next pasuk says “Ester sent him clothes to put on but he would not take them.” Ester had lived in his house for most of her life and he taught her everything she knew, didn’t she think that Mordechai knew what he was doing? Really, she knew what he was doing but she wanted to talk to him. The problem was that no one could go into the palace wearing sackcloth. So she told him to change for a few minutes and then change back. But he would not change out of the sackcloth even for a second, so she sent a messenger to him since she had no other choice. He sent back the messenger saying to go to speak to the king. She responded that all of the Jews of Shushan should fast, to be mitakain for the sin of the party for three days and she would also fast.
It just so happens that the time when she went to Achashvarosh he was not in his normal place, the court room, instead he was in the castle, why? So he would be able see her earlier. Usually when someone fasts for three days they don’t look verey good, but even though Ester went to Achashvarosh looking very sick a miracle happened. The Gemara explains that at that time three angels came, one to lift her head because she was weak from the fasting, a second to make her look beautiful to Achashvarosh (by passing a string of chesed in front of her face), and three to stretch out his scepter. What caused these angels to come, was it hishtadlut or prayer?! Ester then invited Achashverosh and Haman to a party.
Later that night, Haman’s wife told him to go to Achashvarosh to tell him to kill Mordechai. It so happened that that night Achashvarosh could not sleep, he was up thinking about if there was anyone he had forgotten to pay back. The reason why this happened was because he was trying to figure out why Ester would have invited Haman to the party. Maybe it was a plot to try to kill him. If this was true why hadn’t anyone come to try to save him? Maybe it was because someone had previously save him but did not get a reward for it. So Achashverosh decided, if there is such a person then he will be honored greatly then if there would be any plots on his life people would want to tell him. So he got his scribe. Shimshi, who just happened to be one of Haman’s sons to read from his book. After Shimshi had written down the story of Mordechai way back when it happened he erased it. The Gemara says that an angel came and rewrote it. Then it says that Shimshi did not read that part of the book so what happened? The book started reading itself. What caused these miracles, histadlut or the tefillah of the Jews?! Then when Haman got there to tell Achashvarosh to kill Mordechai the first thing Achashvarosh asked him was “what should be done to give a man honor?” This question is a little different than the one he asked the young men. He asked them what he should do for Mordechai. Since this time when he asked Haman he did not say Mordechai’s name Haman was sure that Acha'ashvarosh was talking about honoring Haman.
Later, when Haman went to the party with Achashvarosh and Ester, Ester told Achashvarosh about what Haman was trying to do. Achashvarosh got so upset he was about to kill Haman, but he did not want to kill him so he went outside to his garden. When he got there he saw three angels disguised as men uprooting his trees. He asks them what they are doing and they said that Haman told them to uproot trees from Achashvarosh’s garden, this made Achashvarosh even angrier. What caused these angels to come, hishtadlut or tefillah?!
Then, in his anger Achashvarosh goes back to the party and the pasuk says “Haman was falling on top of Ester” falling is in present tense. The Gemara says there was an angel that kept on pushing Haman down onto Ester. What caused this angel to come…? At that moment Achashvarosh got so angry he had no choice but to kill Haman. From the very beginning of the story Haman was the cause of every event leading directly to his own death and Mordechai’s rise in power. What a Purim miracle!
May we have miracles in our days and may all evil be destroyed leading to Mashiach!