3/22/2008
Dear Elisha:
I am still here. I have been reading all of the e-mails and debates with
interest. You certainly have become a prolific writer. Your writing has
improved greatly .. Perhaps I’ll eventually get around to discussing many
of the things you and others have been writing about, but that must come later.
For the moment I just have a question about Purim. First let me say that your Purim sermons–for that’s what they seem to be–are of very high quality. Is the language all your own? Good stuff. I am curious, however, about an item in the content. You correctly point out in Part III that the book of Esther is the only book in the “Written Torah that does not mention G-d’s name once.” But in Part I you say:
“Rav Chizkiyahu Neventzal relates that this is exactly the whole point
[referring to the planned banquet]. Only at this stage of the Purim story
did the Jewish people really turn to G-d. Up until here, they said ‘We
have a friend in the Royal House; Esther will save us.’ However, once they
saw that Esther was wining and dining with their enemy, it occurred to
them they may be in trouble. Then they wholeheartedly repented and
returned to G-d and were miraculously saved.”
Where does that come from? I find nothing that shows a turning to God or about wholehearted repenting. Give me some explanation. The book of Esther shows the remarkable resiliency of the Jewish people, but there is no
reference to divine intervention. or the Jews turning to God. Let’s really be
honest about what it says.
Please write. I know some of your correspondents are complaining that you don’t answer their mail. I have not found that to be the case, for you
have been better than I have been in corresponding. I look forward to your
reply.
Love,
Papa
* * *
3/24/2008
Dearest Papa,
I have had a chance to think over your question on the Megillah. If I
understood you correctly, then your question was two-fold: Where do we see in the simple text of the Megillah that the Jews as a whole repented, and
where do we see Divine intervention?
To answer your questions I read through the Megillah briefly and a few
verses stuck out in my mind. There may be slight variations in my wording
of the verses from the text you have, as I am reading it directly from the
Hebrew and translating it myself. In 4:3 it states “And in every province,
the place where the king’s word and law reached, great mourning there was
for the Jews, and fasting and crying and lamenting, sackcloth and ash were
spread out to the masses.” If the Jews were not repenting here, then what
was the purpose of fasting, sackcloth, etc.? It certainly did not gain them
favor in the gentiles’ eyes. In 4:16 Esther instructs Mordechai “Go gather
all the Jews that are located in Shushan and fast for me. Do not eat and do
not drink for three days, night and day. I and my maidservants will also
fast.” Again, what was the purpose of fasting if not repentance? In fact it
was actually counterproductive for Esther to fast; she was going to the
king, without being summoned, to try and win his favor. It would be more
logical for her to look as good as possible, not to be weak and pale from
three days fasting. In 8:17 the author of the Megillah goes so far as to
write “And in every province and in every city many from the nations of the
land converted to Judaism, for the fear of the Jews fell upon them.” If
many gentiles were converting, then surely the Jews themselves must have
repented. Also, what was this “fear of the Jews”? It seems to be a
religious context here. Finally, in 9:23 it states “And the Jews accepted
that which they had begun to do, and that which Mordechai wrote.” What is
this referring to? What had they “begun to do”? Mordechai was the greatest
sage of that generation. He surely directed them to repent. The only thing
that makes sense to me that “the Jews accepted that which they had begun to
do” is that they accepted the Torah upon themselves once again. Perhaps you have a different explanation of each of these verses. I would love to hear what you have to say.
Next we move on to topic of Divine intervention. True, there was no
sea split in Shushan. However, there were too many coincidences that worked
out perfectly for the Jews for them to be considered to be coincidental.
Xerxes (Ahasereus) decided to throw a party, culminating in him having his
wife Vashti executed in a drunken rage. This paved a path for a new queen
to be chosen. Next, a beauty pageant was held throughout the empire for the
most beautiful virgins to be brought to Xerxes. Xerxes could have had any
woman in the world, but he chose the Jewish girl Esther. Then, Mordechai
happened to overhear Bigtan and Teresh’s plot to assassinate the king and
reported it. The king was saved and the matter was recorded in the king’s
chronicles. All of this was put into play before Haman’s decree was even
issued.
Then Haman decided he was going to exterminate the Jewish people, G-d
forbid. Esther went before the king to plead for her people and was told by
the king she could have anything she wanted. She requested him and Haman to come to a feast with her. It happened to be that night the king could not
sleep. He asked for his royal chronicles to be read before him. Out of any
event that had happened in his entire reign, the one read to him that night
was Mordechai’s unrewarded deed of thwarting the assassination plot against him, gaining him considerable favor in the king’s eyes. Then there was the second feast where Esther revealed to the king her true identity and begged for the life of the Jewish people, and Haman was hanged on the very gallows he prepared for Mordechai! The decree was repealed and the Jews were saved.
The Jewish people went from being earmarked for extinction, G-d forbid, to uniting, repenting, and standing up to and ridding themselves of all their
enemies.
The pieces of the puzzle all came together perfectly. If you want to say that all of these remarkable events happened by chance, fine. But as I see it, the hand of G-d can be seen throughout every stage of the story, even when things looked quite desperate for the Jews.
There’s actually a very practical reason given by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, of sainted memory, for why G-d’s name does not appear in the Megillah. He explains based on the Maharsha, of sainted memory, that though the Megillah was authored by the Men of the Great Assembly, it was published by Persians. The sages worried that if they wrote G-d’s name in the Megillah, the Persian publishers would replace G-d’s name with the name of their heathen gods, and so they omitted G-d’s name. But this is only a surface reason for why G-d’s name is not written in the Megillah. I have
discussed it in more depth in the past and would be glad to delve deeper
into the concept if you are interested.
Thank you very much for your insightful questions. I enjoyed them very
much and would appreciate similar questions in the future. If it is okay
with you, I would like to send out this letter publicly, as I think it is a
fascinating topic. If you prefer I will not mention you by name, or will
not publicize it at all. It is always great to hear from you. I hope Bubby
is well. Send her my love.
With Love from the Holy Land,
Elisha
* * *
3/26/2008
Dear Elisha:
You are becoming such a prolific writer that I wonder whether you should be wasting that talent on medicine. Your “Doresh Tov: Dodging Rockes in Sderot (again)” was very moving. Now for the Purim dialogue.
Your Purim response seems to disprove what Rav Chizkiyahu Neventzal was saying. Elisha, you will have to become a more careful reader–the independent thinker you say you are requires an open mind. The Rav made the point that up to the time of the banquet the Jewish people were not turning to God, rather they were relying on Esther, their friend in the Royal House. But your two illustrations to prove that the Jews were repenting occurred before the banquet (4:3 and 4:16). If you were right in your reading, then the Rav was wrong in his. And your assumed reason for the conversion of the Gentiles in 8:17 contradicts the reasons expressly given by the author of the Megillah. In the first place, you assume that Mordecai was the greatest sage of that generation–maybe and maybe not, but he was certainly the most powerful Jew of that generation–but it doesn’t automatically follow that he would therefore direct repentance. The Megillah is clear why many of the Gentiles converted (9:6): “for the fear of the Jews was fallen upon them.” Indeed, the king’s written decree that had been published in all the provinces granted the Jews authority “to destroy and slay, and to cause to perish, all the forces of the people and province that would assault them, their little ones and women….” Indeed, in Shushan the Jews “slew and destroyed five hundred men.” And (9:16) “the other Jews that were in the king’s provinces…slew of them that hated them seventy and five thousand.” And in 9:15 they slew 300 more in Shushan. Some Gentiles thus had good reason to fear and thus to convert. Some might have just been jumping on the bandwagon–they saw who was in charge. 10:3: “Mordechi the Jew was next unto king Ahasuerus.” Regarding 9:23, it seems to mean exactly what it says. They “took upon them to do as they had begun, and as Mordecai had written unto them….” And the preceding and following verses are very specific as to what Mordecai had written, i.e., “these things,” to wit: “a day of gladness and feasting, and a good day, and of sending portions one to another,” (9:19), and “gifts to the poor” (9:22). That’s what was being referred to. As some scholars have opined, the Megillah may even have been of secular origin. Now I’ll come up with an idea; If I’m not mistaken, the only book of the Bible that was not found among the Dead Sea scrolls was the Book of Esther, so its secular origin may have been the reason for its absence.
Anyway, it seems there are insurmountable problems with Rav CN’s thesis and also yours. Don’t be afraid to disagree with authorities. You have access to more knowledge than they had available, and if you use pure logic and unbiased reasoning you might come to some different conclusions.
As for the matter of divine intervention, the text credits only the wisdom and persistence of Esther and Mordechai. One may certainly believe there was divine intervention, but such must be based on faith, not on the text of the Magillah.
That’s all for now.
* * *
3/6/2009
Dear Papa,
Almost a year has passed from when you sent me your last letter about the book of Esther. However, as Purim approaches again my thoughts turned to our exchange last year and I decided to write you back finally. Today is actually a fitting day to begin this letter as it is the 7th of Adar, the day Moses passed away. Because of this Haman was very pleased that his lot determining when to exterminate the Jews fell out on Adar, as he saw the month of Moses’ death as a time of weakness for the Jews. However, what he did not know was that Moses was also born on the 7th of Adar and that it was actually a fantastic time of year for the Jews.
You point out that verses that I quoted as evidence of the Jewish people’s repentance happened before Esther’s feast, therefore contradicting what Rav Chizkiyahu Neventzal said. However, a closer examination of both Esther and my words will show that this is not so. I never said that the Jews did not engage in any form of repentance up until Esther invited Haman to the feast. I said that only at that stage did they really turn to G-d. The Jewish people did repent before then, however their faith was not solely on G-d, for in the back of their mind they felt they could rely on Esther as well. But once Esther invited Haman to feast with her and the king, they thought that Esther was trying to save her own neck, and only then did they realize that G-d and only G-d could save them from their predicament. I asked Rav Chizkiyahu what he thought of my explanation and he said it was the exact same one that he would offer.
It is true that the Book of Esther never writes explicitly that Mordechai was a sage. To address this I will preface by saying that the Megillah is the source used by the sages for the virtue of quoting a teacher by name, as it says, “The matter became known to Mordechai, who told it to Queen Esther, and Esther informed the king in Mordechai’s name (Esther 2:22).” Accordingly I will quote my dear teacher and friend Rav Chizkiyahu Neventzal’s response to your claim. Rav Chizkiyahu points out that both in Ezra 2:2 and in Nehemiah 7:7 Mordechai is listed amongst the ranks of Zerubavel, the governor of Judah; Nechemya, a prophet; Seraya, Ezra the scribe’s father; and Reelaiah, one of the princes who returned from the Exile. In all intellectual honesty, Mordechai would probably not have been counted in this all-star cast of scholars and nobleman without being a sage himself. In addition, the way the Megillah depicts him makes him sound like a sage: “And Mordechai sat at the gate of the king (2:21),” where the courts were generally located; the fact that he knew of the decree of the Final Solution before Queen Esther did; “For great was Mordechai in the house of the king…(9:4)”, and as establishing the holiday of Purim in 9:20; “Then Queen Esther daughter of Avigayil wrote, Along with Mordechai the Jew, with full authority to ratify this second letter of Purim (9:29).” Individually, each one of these instances can be explained in a different light. However, from an objective viewpoint, as a whole they paint the picture of the perfect sage statesman, who as a religious leader surely would have directed the people to repent.
In regards to the gentiles converting, it is true that the Megillah says “the fear of the Jews was fallen upon them.” But what does that mean? The Megillah writes very clearly that the Jews only killed their enemies. So why would any gentile who posed no threat to them fear them? The Jews were not performing a crusade to convert the gentiles, as is occasionally insinuated, they were removing the threat that had lingered above their heads. However, then, as now, hysteria was probably spread amongst the masses that the Jews were slaughtering innocent gentiles left and right, and some gentiles probably did convert out of fear of being killed.
You say that when the Megillah writes they “took upon them to do as they had begun” refers only to that which Mordechai had just commanded them to do. Namely, feasting, sending portions one to another etc. But take a more analytical approach to the verse. What does it mean when it says “to do as they had begun to do.” But this was the first time that they had ever been commanded to do these things! So when would they have “begun” to do them earlier? And if it is referring to after Mordechai commanded them, why would they begin doing it and then continue later? Why wouldn’t they just accept it all at once? Further, the verse states, “And the Jews accepted that which they had begun to do and that which Modechai wrote them (9:23).” The word “and” seems to indicate that that which the Jews accepted upon themselves to do was separate from what “Mordechai wrote them”. The verse must be referring to something else that they had begun to do previously, and I accept the sages’ explanation that it means keeping the Torah and Mitzvot.
I did some research on the Dead Sea scrolls to answer your question of why Esther was the only book not found amongst them. Dr. Magen Broshi, curator of the Shrine of the Book from 1965 to 1995, offers the following explanation: “Not only are the scrolls the oldest known copy of the Old Testament, but they belonged to the Essenes, a mysterious ascetic Jewish sect that existed about 2,000 years ago…The levity of the Book of Esther would not have been to the sect’s taste. The banquets, the drunkenness and Esther’s flirtation with Achashverosh would not have been approved of by the Essenes.” Further, the Coalition for Excellence in Science and Math Education writes that “some recent work identifies several of the fragments as possibly coming from a proto- or variant form of Esther.” I am not sure what you mean when you say the Megillah may have been of secular origin. It was written in Persia and G-d’s name was omitted for various reasons. The Megillah was also one of the last books added to the Bible, so it is not so surprising that it would be missing from the Dead Sea Scrolls.
In conclusion, there are not insurmountable problem’s with Rav Chizkiyahu’s thesis and mine. I am not afraid to disagree with authorities, but I’m also not afraid to admit that there are those who know more than me that I can rely on. You say that I have more knowledge available than him, but he has an encyclopedic knowledge of the entire Talmud, Midrash, Jewish Law, and all of his father’s teachings, which in total is a lot more than you and I will ever know combined. You speak to me a lot about being unbiased, but I think we both have our biases. I will never be able to show anyone a proof that will make them believe if they don’t want to. However, I feel that this exchange has demonstrated that there is no definitive proof against the integrity of the Megillah, whether textual or archaeological, and that the words of the sages are strongly supported. I look forward very much to your response.
With Love from the Holy Land,
Elisha
