There was a Judean man in Shushan
the capital, whose name was Mordecai the son of Ya'ir the son of Shimei the son
of Kish, a Benjamite, who had been exiled from Jerusalem with the exile that
was exiled with Yechoniah, king of Judah, which Nebuchadnezzar, king of
Babylon, had exiled. Esther
2:5-6
The apparently incidental
reference to Jerusalem and her destruction, as Mordecai is presented to the
reader, hints at a very significant sub-text of the Megilla. Indeed, the
verse's quadruple use of the word "exile" should immediately focus
our attention on the significance of the event.
Dr. Gavriel Ḥayyim Cohn [Introduction
to Da'at Mikra Esther] writes:
The entire saga of the Megilla,
Haman's hatred, his decree and its negation, resulted from the destruction of
Jerusalem and the subsequent exile of Israel from its Land. Had there been no
exile, there (obviously) would have been no place for the events and miracle of
Purim.
In fact, a number of Midrashim
read the theme of Jerusalem's destruction into various verses of Megillat
Esther.
"When
he showed the riches of his glorious kingdom, and the splendor of his excellent
majesty …." [1:4] The Talmud [Megilla 12a] understands the verse to
mean that Ahasuerus dressed in priestly garments, which are referred to as
having been made "for splendor and beauty." [Exodus 28:2]
Traditionally, the words "and the vessels differed from one
another" [1:7] are read with the incantation of the Book of Lamentations,
based upon the tradition that those vessels, used in Ahasuerus' banquet had
been taken from the Temple in Jerusalem.
Midrash
Panim Aḥerim teaches that the
reason Queen Vashti was punished by God was "that she prevented Ahasuerus
from granting permission to rebuild the Temple."
The
"seven princes of Persia and Media, who saw the king's face, who sat first
in the kingdom" [1:14] too were punished (by God; they are not mentioned
again in Megillat Esther, implying that they were demoted or
perhaps even executed) for the same reason as Vashti: "They advised
(Ahasuerus) not to rebuild the Temple, hence they were killed." [Midrash
Lekaḥ Tov]
Lekaḥ
Tov [3:1] also suggests that it was Haman,
descendant of Amalek, who advised that the Temple not be rebuilt:
"If
it pleases the king, let it be written to destroy them…" [3:9]
Ahasuerus said to Haman "I too wish to destroy them, yet I fear their God,
who drowned Pharaoh and his hosts in the sea, and killed Amalek, destroyed
Sichon and Og, the thirty-one kings (of Canaan, defeated by Joshua), Midian and
so many others, and Sennacherib; let us summon the wise men." Haman responded
to them "Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the house of their God, exiled them to
Babylonian, taking all their holy items. Know, therefore that their God has
abandoned them." They immediately accepted Haman's argument.
"And
the king said to her, 'What concerns you, Queen Esther, and what is your
petition? Even to half the kingdom, it will be given to you.'" [5:4] The
Talmud [Megilla 15b] teaches that Ahasuerus said to his queen:
"‘Half the kingdom’, but not the whole kingdom, and not a thing which
would divide the kingdom;" referring to building of the Temple. (Rashi
explains that the Temple was physically located in the middle of Ahasuerus'
empire.)
Indeed, as we read Megillat
Esther and celebrate the great miracle of God's salvation of His people in
their Persian exile, it behooves us to reflect on how different our nation's
history would be had we not caused the destruction of God's Temple.
