Drash and Remez:
We left off in chapter 4, the pivotal chapter where the gender role
powerflip unfolds gradually and climaxes in the last verse. Chazal see this
scene as much more dramatic than what the pshat lets on. In chapter 3 we are
told that Haman did the lottery on the 12th of Nisan (verse 7). Mordechai finds
out immediately and runs to Esther. Then Chazal add a strange section to the
dialogue, via midrash. After Esther asks Mordechai to gather the Jewish people,
Chazal hear resistance in Mordechai's response; they are convinced that
initially he rejects this suggestion.
They say it like this in Esther Rabbah 8:7 :
"These are the 13th, 14th, 15th of Nisan!" he replied to her "and within these days is the 1st day of Pesach!" She said to him "Elder of Israel, what is Pesach for?!" Immediately Mordechai listened to her and admitted her words were right as it says "So Mordecai passed and did according to all that Esther had commanded him." And there [according to a commentary this refers to the Jews in Babylon] they say "they passed the first day of Passover in a fast." [There is so much wordplay here! Avar – passing time, Passover pun with pesach/lifsoach, also aveirah.]
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to infer that of course
Mordechai and the entire rabbinical court rejected Esther's idea out-of-hand
initially - she was asking the entire nation to sin! By fasting, they would be
committing not just one transgression, but multiple – not fulfilling the mitzvah
of eating matza, maror, not drinking the four cups of wine and all the mitzvot associated
with Seder Night.
Chazal put interesting words in Esther's mouth (that can be
understood negatively/condescending or positively/respectful). "Elder of
Israel, what is Pesach for?!" What led Chazal to seeing Esther being insistent
and not just acquiescing meekly to Mordechai's command? The answer is simple: they
read the 2nd half of the megila!
Now Esther's character evolution has been established, can this be
the point of the megila? To encourage women to stop being pushovers and to take
matters into their own hands? And does the megila explain how this shift
occurred in her personality?! A docile person doesn't just become more assertive
and self-assured from out of nowhere!
So I think the megila does give us the background on why Esther
shifted and I think that that process is what the megila and Chazal are trying
to emphasize and pass on for generations. For that we need to take a peek at
the 4th dimension of Torah as well as the intersection of all 4 dimensions –
aka Chasidus.
Sod/Chasidus:
No human development happens randomly. Even if it looks like it
happens suddenly, there was certainly some kind of groundwork laid down that
enabled the change to take place. Where do we see the megila laying down the
groundwork for Esther's change? I think clearly in chapter two:
"7And he had brought up Hadassah, that is Esther, his uncle's daughter, for she had neither father nor mother, and the maiden was of comely form and of comely appearance, and when her father and mother died, Mordecai took her to himself for a daughter… 11And every day, Mordecai would walk about in front of the court of the house of the women, to learn of Esther's welfare and what would be done to her."
First and foremost we see that Mordechai cares for her and nurtures
her. And it's not just when she's a child – he is constantly invested in her
well-being and prioritizing it. I think the other clue lies in the very verses
that seem to be oppressive, that appear twice: "...Esther would not tell her
lineage or her nationality, as Mordecai had commanded her, for Esther kept
Mordecai's orders as she had when she was raised by him." I don't think we
are meant to read this sentence "…Esther kept Mordecai's orders as she had
when she was raised by him" in the patriarchal-tyrannical sense but
rather in the sense of loyalty that stems from well-earned trust.
Chasidus talks about a mystical concept called "ohr chozer"
– returning light. When describing the circuitous flow of energy in the world,
Jewish mysticism says that for the dynamic to be actualized, it requires two
parties – a bestower and a receiver. But the dynamic doesn't stop there. Once
the receiver has received light/bounty/energy from the bestower, then at some
point the receiver can now become a bestower – even to the original bestower!
The metaphor Kabbala likes to use is that of the moon and the sun. The moon has
no light of its own and only reflects that which the sun shines upon it. Except
that the Jewish paradigm says there's another step we aspire to – where the
moon absorbs enough light that it shines its own light. Hence in the time of
the redemption, the Moon and the Sun will be the same size aka level of
vibrancy.
Mordechai invests in Esther and she readily accepts his input. She
doesn't just docilely accept his ultimata in a despairing manner but from
choice. Hence she creates a dynamic by becoming a receiver. And when she is
ready, she shines her light and he is willing to accept it because he knows her
dissent is not coming from prideful belligerence. She already established the
dynamic of mutual respect and therefore he hands over the reins to her when he
sees that she is right. This is the ideal unity of the masculine and feminine
according to Jewish mystical literature.
Next Installment #4: Halacha and Tips part 1: Megila Reading
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