The Book of Esther Part 1 - Rabbi Dovid Gottleib

words of introduction different in the in the M the tradition different books get a different amount of attention of course the gets the D share of the attention more commentaries are written on it than anything else for PES hundreds of commentaries that are written G is up there a lot of commentaries um partly because the story is so open this the surface of the story and it's so riveting so dramatic and it captures people's imaginations also capture the interest of a lot of a lot of commentaries I'm giving the sh not because I have stud all the commentaries or half of the commentaries or 10% of the commentaries I have certain um subjects that are of interest to me and those are the ones that I've invested in I wanted to be clear that I not in any way implying that what I say about the Milla is the truth the only truth the whole truth not even the most important truth it's that piece of the truth that I have worked on and I can share with you but but nothing more than that my particular interests are in philosophy as you know um also in kabala uh also in linguistic analysis the words what do they mean whe what are their implications uh logical analysis because my area in philosophy was a area of logic um and maybe to a certain extent psychology the psychology of the of the figures who are described and the events that take place those are my primary interests so that's what I'm going to talk about but when it comes to the Mester I'm leaning a lot on the malum um which is translated into English be very worthwhile you're looking at before uh before the um before the holiday comes now um Everybody remarks that the name of God does not appear in the whole book of Esther that's important but you should also take into account that it's not the only book of the Bible for which that's true there's another one Shir song of songs God's name does not appear in that book either maybe at some point we'll compare the two of them and see what they have in common that explain why those two alone have no mention of God's name any of God's names and I should say there no no mention explicitly implicitly if you use Gatos and first letter of each word the so on you can find God's name everywhere but that's not the point the point is that in the actual text of the book the name isn't there one other um you when speaking of the king AOS the text has two possibilities sometimes it says the king and sometimes he says the king because there's only one king that the story is talking about our tradition tells us that when it says H alone it has a double ref so the Flesh and L person sitting on the throne and to when it says that's not true then it's only referring to the Flesh and Blood person on the throne but that means when you go through and you see theim if if it says just you have to stop and think the double the double reference you know the double double address okay the beginning well let's read through some of the beginning and then I'll um I will uh comment on some of the features both of what's in the text and what's missing from the text came to pass in the days of a as you know one of the key players in this in this story is morai it could have started by saying in the days of Mori so someh very Central here I'll say a little bit just a little bit more in Records who wrote which safer the authors of each of the for in the T and it starts by saying B right um why single that out for special mention p is part of the part Torah this just another part of the Torah can say that I'm sorry say again so can come and say oh he was a too maybe he wrote it good try Rashi on the spot explains that the safer is really like a biography and pasas B doesn't mention moshu at all it happened in the Hills no one knew about it even M didn't know about it said WR it down in the Torah so why would this be included in a biography of Moshe SE yes is a story of yesha's Life Of course yesha's life had Wars and had Kings and negotiations and ups and downs and all sorts of things but it's a story of his life you was the story of his life each one is the story of someone's life so here because this is much shorter it's only only a few short years in which the entire but who's who's the main figure who is it about and you know the very end of the book says and the Deeds of were written in the public history sources and he put it ends with taxes that he levied on the on on the kingdom sounds like it's a story of a of a portion of A's life now once you take into account the fact that God's name doesn't appear so you sort of form the thought in your mind well maybe the point of the book is to hide some of the main features of course not to hide them so well you can't find it out but to hide it so it isn't obvious so if the book starts with the and end the that creates the false impression that it is history doesn't have to be the deeper truth so I'm just pointing that as as orientation Okay g to pass there now who is this so the reader apparently is not expected to know who reigned from over 127 provinces I mean the book was written during A's lifetime mhm is it conceivable that the person who's reading this doesn't know who he is apparently then this description is important for the story it contributes something to the story if you left it out there be something about the story you would miss that in those days when King as sat on his Royal Throne really where else would you expect him to sit which was in the shush of the capital in the third third year of his Reign H is that important why is the third year of his Reign important who cares what year it was he made a feast for all his officials and all and his servants the Army now I think um well maybe maybe it's not bad it's not sa it's uh Army is like could be okay Army of Persia media the Nobles and officials of the provinces being present representatives of the whole empire when he displayed The Riches of his glorious kingom and the Splendor of his excellent Majesty for many days in other words it doesn't say the setting was a rich setting no it's his riches and not only is it his riches but he's displaying his riches there's got to be something there that has to be part of the point somehow it's important for him to show everybody that he's Rich that has to be put into the scenario I'm going to give you a whole scenario behind this I think which I took from the Mal which explains all of this now here we go a party 180 days a six month bash you know he could teach Los Angeles something you know they never d a six- month bash six [Laughter] months even in the pubs of London they don't dream they don't dream something like this I think they dream so what's going on why is he doing this what's the point of it and when these days were fulfilled the king made a week-long fast Feast for the people who inent in shushan and the capital Great and Small alike not officials not princes and and people of authority no this everybody everybody in the in the in the capital in the courtyard of the garden of the king's Palace now a description of all the beautiful things there are hangings of white fine cotton blue wool held with cords of fine linen and purple wool upon silver rods and marble pillars couches of gold and silver on a pavement of green and white shell and onx marble the drinks was served in Golden goblets no two goblets alike which is theat but the remes we'll see is a little different the Royal Wine in abundance according to the Bounty of the King again displaying his riches and now displaying his Bounty how generous he is why is it important for him to be displaying his wealth and why is it important for him to be generous why is that important and watch how it gets emphasized and the drinking was in accordance to the law without coercion that's is little softer than law custom no one was forced to drink anything particular so the king had ordered the off officers of his house that he should do according to Every Man's pleasure now let's see you're having a dinner party you're celebrating something you invite a lot of guests typically you choose the menu it's your party right they like it they like it they don't like it let them go out to mcdonal get a hamburger you have a list of you make opening a restaurant and say h would you like roast pheasants you know would you like turkey would you like Duck we have whatever you like to do according to the will of each person satisfy him do whatever he wants why is that so here's some backgrounds Kos was not in the Royal Line he didn't have royal blood flowing in his veins he was someone who took over the kingdom some say he was the head of the army and there were battles and he did very well and he certain amount of popular backing and when the king died he took over but he's not a descendant ofar so there's a question of of legitimacy a question of real Authority it's a question of of loyalty and he's afraid of that he's worried about that and as you'll see this comes up at least a dozen times in the Mig that what he does he does on the basis of being afraid for his popularity and his authority now one of the things finish scription question one of the things that you want in a king is that he should be rich why do you want the king to be rich Rich because then he's not in the pocket of somebody who's supplying him with money uh in England many times there were Nobles and the King was the one who had wore the crown but if he wanted to fight a war you get the money from the Nobles no then he they decided what wars he'll fight what war he won't fight or what taxes he'll collect tax he won't collect because without them he has no Kingdom K says nobody pushes me around I'm not I'm not beholden to anybody I can handle my everything on my own that's one thing number two he wants people's favor he wants them to approve of him so he throws this gigantic party this bash and and everybody's going to enjoy and he tells them shush where he's controlling the the waiters and the food do whatever people want I want them to realize that I have them in mind that have the good interests in mind I want to be popular as a king I'm not asserting my authority I'm worried about my authority now it says goblets of gold no two goblets alike when the reader chants the Milla and he comes to those words literally means vessels from various vessels which says nothing at all because various what did that tell you I tell you anything you'll notice that he changes the tune from the tune of the Milla he goes into the the tune of a at least some places they do a Lamentations why because there's a whole historical background for this party and this is why it's important in the third year of his Reign yo Prophet Jeremiah said that after 70 years in Exile they're coming back God is going to bring the Jewish people back and reild the temple but didn't say when the 70 years start H just said after 70 years and there were a few candidate dates for when it might start well let's see Babylonia conquered us took us off into Exile H once before in history we were in Exile that place was called Egypt right and when we left Egypt it was pretty spectacular especially for the Egyptians right they suffered a lot their power was broken so the question arose what's going to happen when the Jews are saved from this Exile is the power of the ruling party going to be broken like it was in Egypt what is in store for us they remembered the E The Exodus and they knew about it it wasn't trivial to them they didn't dismiss it they were concerned about it there was a previous King named bhatar belatra had a calculation when is the 70 years up he started from a thinket starting date and he calculated 70 years and when it was up he said aha whatever Jeremiah meant it's not working maybe the Jews don't deserve it 70 years is up God hasn't taken them back we're safe we're safe and he threw a party to celebrate and he took the vessels of the temple which the Babylonians had looted he took them out and used them at the party that night he was assassinated wow so so much for him so those around and said maybe we made a miscalculation you know this didn't work out so well so they put those the vessels back in the treasury of of the thing and somebody else took over as king okay now has his calculation and in the third year of his Reign according to his calculation the 70 years is up so this he feels he's out of danger so he's celebrating and he's using the vessels from the temple vessels of various vessels that's the hint in the Milla that he's using the the temple vessels and as you know from the story there wasn't a disaster so he's celebrating what looks like to him the failure of Jewish prophecy and he gets away with it now you may have heard why were the Jews of that generation vulnerable and there are various explanations but one of the explanations is that they too participated in this party this celebration we'll talk about ressa's this subject we get to the end we go back and do some more of the philosophy but they also participated and they were vulnerable not just because they were having a good time and the food was kosher it says to do according to each person's will pork chops re sorry sorry I don't do that you know I'll have you know rice with with with with tea leaves or something you know no everything was done according to the desire of the person it wasn't that so where was the crime such a terrible crime of participating in this party that the CH Jewish people becomes vulnerable to Annihilation because the party was celebrating the failure of Jewish philosophy I want you to know I I won't say because it's the same thing the Nazis created a museum a museum of Judaism to commemorate what they destroyed they got had Torah there and they had all sorts of Jewish implements there set up up his a museum to show to commemorate what they destroyed right so you imagine a legion of Jews going to visit the M you know Jews in hiding Jews in Jew was in secret how could you walk in there so this is what made one of the reasons why they were so vulnerable because they participated in this in this uh this celebration okay that's some of the political background which will be very important to as we go through the safer now Shapiro um I'm sorry he should be well made a very interesting observation here there's one element that you would have expected to be included in the description of the beauty and luxury of the feast which is left out entirely and that's music doesn't mention music so he has a whole essay on the nature of music and the way in which it integrates with the Jewish tradition and whether in particular non-jewish music is permissible or forbidden under what conditions and he makes an observation which he bases on statements and we shown him uh the way it's put in the popular languages music doesn't become defiled and he puts it this way what kind of music would you have them play his purpose one of his purposes was to under mind the Jews that one of his purposes what what and that's why he wanted them to feel comfortable let me go on about this a little bit because this is an important matter for our contemporary lives um I don't know if you know my son NE got Lo in Lakewood there's an international organization called T technology awareness group helping people cope with technology giving them the tools to te with cope with technology and he it's his group group he founded it has 50 offices worldwide that's not all he's doing he's doing other things as well he lives in Lake when his person that's known there um so he points out what you want to do if you want to undermine Jews make them feel very comfortable and safe in a basically non-jewish context no danger of that in America today Jews don't feel safe anywhere except when along their own but if you if you have this party and you're celebrating and you're inviting everybody so the Jews aren't singled out and to the Jew you say just bat everything with nothing going on in chabas have your chabas at home you know don't don't uh don't worry we understand you and we're doing everything to make you feel comfortable uhhuh comfortable with the Persians and the mes and the all the other ones just everybody's you know we're all friends we're all considerate of one another we believe in multiculturalism really multicult you know that's a terrific way to take a Jew office guard and not to realize the influence to which he's being being subject so the question is what role could music play in that how could you use music to make him feel comfortable and yet undermine him so says music arouses emotions and ideas that are in the mind of the person listening listening same style of music will arouse different ideas in different people's minds because people's minds have different ideas in them so for example let's say you play war music fighting music so a Persian is going to think of being on the battlefield and stabbing people with his sword and taking booty and you know and the je was going to think I'm struggling with my my evil inclination and I'm doing my best to overcome him and the music which would be crude low mundane to a persan will awaken in a Jew holy thoughts love you have love love love song the Persian will be thinking whatever he's thinking and the and the Jews thinking about loving God loving other Jews that's why music isn't mentioned because you can't use music in that way to undermine a person the music will be grafted into his culture it's not going to suck him into the culture of the person who wrote music I will m i will guess that for the best majority of people who enjoy Beethoven got a clue what kind of private life he led it's just you know just like they don't know Gandhi's private life they think of him as a savior for a whole subcontinent and a preacher of nonviolence read about his family life and you'll get a different picture of of who he was but they don't you don't have you have the main feature of the of the person and you don't go into the to that kind of background so now he said but there are exceptions uh one he said explicitly the other I know he meant as well if you are about Chua and you there are certain songs which have been taken whole songs taken from a non-jewish source and had Jewish words put to them like the journeys types uh and and and now they express Jewish ideas but if you know the old song in the non-jewish context when you hear you know um um Simon gar funcle you know you he hear their songs and you think of the old words then for you is not good because it's pulling up in your experience that old culture also music that destroys your Das your ability to think like music that's lasting with strobe lights and Stu of the on shall I talk about weddings no I don't talk about weddings make your own references that's not he says that's not Jewish music music that deprives you of your ability to think to understand that's not Jewish music but other than that I there was one masiva here in jerem Jerusalem 20 years ago who regularly listened to Mozart he felt the Mozart gave him a certain calm and a certain focus and he uh people knew it we didn't hide it so that's why music isn't mentioned here because of the fact that you can't you can't um undermine a person with music because it will just reinforce and call up associations with his own culture okay you got a question yeah no three so the first one was um he how did he get the kingship in the first place if he didn't if he took it he just took it I don't know the exact details but you do have this kind of thing happening all the time especially the the the leader of the army I mean that's the power the power base in fact all dictators are dictators because they subvert the Army you know they bring the Army and they they pay them well and they give them special opportunities I don't know if you ever heard of set Senator McCarthy in the 50s United States who called everyone a communist and went after powerful political people you know what stopped him he challenged the army they said no we're not playing ball and then he lost his influence the Army is is uh is a very powerful and when there's a power vacuum when the the emperor dies and and the people who are standing in line aren't really competent or they don't have popular appeal I remember when Eisenhower was was elected because he settled the thing in in Korea he won two terms he could have been you know president to the end of his life people were in love with him because he he fought in the second world war the great work with the against the Nazis and then he for people were just thrilled with him so it's quite natural for a general to step in um but all the way through as I said he's concerned about his about his popularity yeah you have another question yeah and then um how like the fact that the rby said that he had like this kind of um like it was almost like he doubted himself right like he said like because he was scared of all this absolutely so I was I was wondering like was it through this feeling of like oh like any day like you know something might happen because he knew the prophecy and everything like was it that doubt that that kept him that that made him to act like this with like party and well I think this is the end of you're asking how how long was the effect of worrying about the possibility that God will take them back and destroy the Kingdom so so on the mcgilla opens with this celebration of the fact that the prophecy is wrong and then it doesn't play any role as far as I can tell throughout the rest of the book because he feels he's finished with that and as you'll see right now uh he has a challenge at this party and he comes out with a gigantic Prophet a gigantic Victory so for him this ends in the most spectacular spectacular positive sense but he's always concerned about his popularity as you'll see so let's take a look at the next the next section which is um vashi the queen also made a feast for the women in the Royal House of King aash who is vashi the queen vashi the queen is the granddaughter ofer she has the Royal Blood he doesn't but she does and she knows it she knows it okay she's Queen and there's a king and he was head of the army whatever it is and they're married so to speak but she knows it notice what it says here she made Feast for the women in the Royal House of King doesn't say that he allowed her or he invited her and no she just made it but I don't ask I don't have to ask I'm the one with royalty he's a pretender he's in he's useful on but I have it and this is his problem his problem is the ambiguity of his authority who's really running the show She's Not Afraid no no it's not a woman if it had been another man it was just as bad if it had been a grandson of uh a grandson of Justice B not like the woman but his computation to me because she really stands in the Royal Line people do care about that and I don't have it and she's independent she does what she likes she probably had her own Palace she made it in his Palace to the text goes out of its way to tell you she made it his Tex in his pal you'll see when Esther shows the queen it's entirely different an entirely different picture on Seventh day when the heart of the King was married with wine uhoh uhoh yeah he ordered M okay seven now I don't know you probably you any idea what a Chamberlain is yeah what is it like his one with servants no okay chamber in in in French the word chamber means room it's room service you know making up the beds and taking out the trash and some of the sort but that's not the way it's used typically Chamberlin is is someone who's a servant and he could be a very could be a prime minister he's a someone who serves the serves whoever's in charge so don't think of it as taking out the trash these are the 10 the seven top ser advisers who attend the king of K and he told them bring Vash the queen before the king wearing the Royal Crown really go bring her don't ask her if she wants to come don't invite her bring her H wearing the crown instead of what not wearing the crown no would she come without the crown what what do you mean wearing the crown you'll see in a moment just the crown now why does he want her to come to show off to the people and the officials her beauty for she was beautiful to look upon now you tell me guys even with our this is real anachronism with our moderate sensibilities you try that on a on a on a woman right what we actually going to get she's gonna smack she's gonna spit in his face I'm not a I'm not a a model I'm a queen I have royal blood in my veins I'm the grand I'm the granddaughter of nebet who conquered the world you want to show off my beauty but that's what he wants because if he can bring her and show off her beauty he makes her nothing wow he makes her nothing she's just a good-look girl of whom there are 10,000 in the market he wants to degrade her he wants to disambiguate he wants to make it clear that he's the one in Authority he sends the seven not as a sign of of Honor because they have to bring her not to ask her permission sends them as a sign show of authority now the commentators push this and they say wearing the crown he means wearing the crown only just the crown to show off her beauty to all the assembled officials otherwise depending how she's dressed she's going to show off her face right but then why is she wearing the crown wearing the crown is taken for granted she wouldn't come not wearing the crown so that makes it really bitter but it emphasizes this idea that his his exercise is an exercise of degrad and that's why his heart is married with wine you know this is what he really wants he's suffering with this you know who's really running and why am I loyal to people ask themselves to the queen to the king I want to have my own un un unconditional Authority was this smart but when you're drunk you know you not everything you do is smart okay so what happens 12 but Queen refuseed to come at the king's commandment conveyed by the chamber this servants he wants me to come please tell him in my name to drop dead you know you don't push me around you don't tell me what to do who do you think you are I thought I was King silly me I thought I was running the show well the king Dev became very insens and his anger burned in him not because she said no but it's public it's public she threw down the gauntlet you think you're running my life you think you're running the kingdom think again I don't take orders from you so now instead of winning the war he's losing the war if this goes unanswered then he's going to be an object of ridicule and it will reinforce people who will say it doesn't matter what the king says so he's in deep trouble now so now the king conferred with the experts who knew the times for such was the king's procedure to turn to all who knew law and judgment so what why do I care about that why is that put in here the answer is it reinforces what I told you he never made decisions on his own he didn't just simply say oh let's tax them let's have a a holiday next week you know let's everybody wear black hats on Sunday no every decision went through channels now not having been a king not having grown up in the house of a king the ways of royalty were largely unknown to him so if he wants to do something he goes to the advisers who know the Customs who know the local circumstances 127 provinces and who can tell him what is the kingly thing to do under these conditions so here's a an explicit statement of the condition that I mentioned to you uh let me just check the Hebrew here yeah law and judgment that's means really custom what is the customary thing to do and then like din is like law it's like uh not judgment in the sense of figuring things out but what what the law requires and those closest were these seven people who had access to the king and who sat first in the Kingdom they were the top top authorities and he's taking the Consulting with them as to what should be done legally and kadash is more like the custom thing that would be appropriate according to custom to Queen vashi for not obeying the bidding of the king she didn't obey she didn't do the proposition that the king conveyed to her in the hands of the Sim the ones the the the servants whom he sent to as a show of authority is you know the king conad an order with a show of authority and the queen says no what should be done so you'll now see an exercise in spin a very beautiful exercise in spin M declared before the king and the officials it is not only the king whom Vash the queen has red don't treat it as a private offense don't treat it as a tri private challenge spin it as a social and political statement but also all the officials and all the people in all the provinces of King they're all involved they're all victimized by this watch what happens to these words all the officials and all the people all the people as you'll see instantly the words don't mean what they mean in your minds in plain English and they get an idea of the position of the people for whom this book is written for this deed of the queen will come to the attention of all women making their husbands contemptible in their eyes women are going to say my husband's nothing my husband's Nothing by saying king of commanded Vash the queen to be brought before him but did not come and just say she didn't come I don't have to listen to you George women don't have to listen to men so now when it said in the previous sentence previous verse that it's going to affect all the people what did it really mean women it's going to mean affect all the men right women aren't people part of it they're just adjuncts right all the people meaning all the men are going to suffer because of this don't paint it as she wronged you she wronged the king and then frame it that way to try and justify a punishment no bring everybody in make make it make it make them understand that you're concerned with their honor their respect not yourself but them can you can you hear King hearing this yeah that's right that's right people will be on my side people un say I'm doing it for them not for myself people will like it they'll support it that's the genius that M has here to understand where the king is where he's vulnerable and to give him advice so as to be able to appeal to us to us to his vulnerabilities isn't this great I mean there's a lot lot going on here and this day goes with his declaration the princesses of Persia and media who have heard of the Queen's deed will cite it to all the king's officials and there will be much contempt and wrath the wom will show contempt for their husbands and the husband will be angry because of the way they're being treated so if it pleases the king let there go forth a royal edict from him a royal order and let it be written the laws of Persians the meats that it not be revoked it can't be taken back we'll see that that will play a very important role in the king the certain type of order of the king cannot be taken back what should it say that vashi never again appear before King of Kash number one she the person and that the king could for her Royal Estate upon another who's better than she in other words depose her as king as Queen I'm sorry as Queen thank you and and and take away her royal possessions because of what she has done so muhan brilliant he knows knows this is a problem for the king and he says you can use this as your leverage to get rid of her your competi your competition that she shouldn't compete with you you can destroy her completely and the way in which you can do it without worrying about the Loyalty of the kingdom is to say the kingdom of course it's only the men it's not the women and they'll all be on your side because you're protecting them from being treated contemptibly by their by their wives this a brilliant thought then when the king's decree which he shall Proclaim shall be resounded throughout the all his kingdom be announced and publicized great though it be meaning large though it be all the wives will show respect to their husbands Great and Small alike and the husbands knowing this will all be on board this proposal pleased the king as you can imagine and the officials and the King did according to the word of mean he sent letters into into all the provinces to each province its own script te people in its own language he's got 127 provinces so he has a vast bureaucracy he can issue the order in his own language and these people know how to translate into other so that there's a royal document for each each group otherwise if they're left to translate and interpret from the king's language into their own language there's room for all sorts of mistakes no that's already done at the Royal level and all the pro all the all the place go out to the effect that every man should be ruling his own home look at that there's the point of it the effect is not that's not the issue every man should rule in his own home and that's why they're on board and then it says and speak the language of his own people now on the surface that's very strange what language was he speaking he wasn't speaking the language of his own people why shouldn't he why shouldn't he have been speaking the language of own people so one of the commentators says something very bitter here you have 127 provinces under one Central Authority there's going to be a lot of a lot of interaction between them be business deals and and and entertainment and tourism and who knows what they'll be into marriages now let's imagine you have a man from one Province one from another Province and they marry and their have children what language will the mother speak to the children if nobody disturbs it she'll speak her own language it's very important that a woman should be able to relate to her children by speaking to them and express herself Express her emotions with language that's meaningful to her not stuttering and figuring out what word to say and so and so on no not in's Kingdom in each man's house the language that is spoken is the husband's language and if the wife doesn't know it let her learn it let her learn it so that the father won't be cut off from the children if the mother's at home and the mother's teaching the children she teaching her language when the father comes home they can't talk to him it's hard for him to them to understand him no let her break her teeth and stultify your heart to teach them in the language the father understands so that the father can can relate to the children to that extent of putting the father in The Limelight he's in charge he's making everything happen and everything's happening to to please him that was the the Council of the m and the king and the advisers are Overjoyed so when he walks out of this Feast is riding on top of the world he hopes that he's got the the um support of the people generally because he treated them very nicely ly and generously and the people in shush by the way in shushan was old and young alike that's because shushan is the capital city in the capital city there's information this servant here is it then they sell the information their leaks from the from the Royal deliberations and so and so on it's especially important to have the people in the capital on your side if you're the king you want them to be thinking will this Hur or won't this Hur so he made this phenomenal Feast for everybody in the in in the capital city you this politically motivated the thing's really politically motivated if you're a king you have two choices be politically motivated or be dead uh and and we'll see that okay this is this is a beginning this is the introduction of the story The backer okay pick it up