Pensée juive sur Esther 10:1

And they said in the [Talmudic] Chapter "Ten Classes" (Kiddushin, 72a): "And behold a second beast, similar to a bear” (Daniel 7:5). Rav Yosef taught: These are Persians, who eat and drink copious amounts like a bear, and are corpulent like a bear, and grow hair like a bear, and have no rest like a bear. The explanation is that they [bears] seek always to swallow, this is their temperament. And so was it written about this [Persian] empire in Megillas Ester (Ester 10,1): "King Ahasuerus imposed tax on the mainland and the islands." What in actuality did that verse come to teach us? That the king imposed a tax on the land? [All kings do this, why would the verse waste ink sharing this information?]. Rather, what it is coming to say, is that the entire power of Ahasuerus was derived from his sense of lacking, and he sought perpetually to fulfill his נפש from wealth, and this was the essence of the second empire. And so Daniel about this beast (Daniel 7:5) "it was told, ‘Arise, eat much meat!’". And so they said [in the Gemara] (Megillah 11a) on why he was called "Ahasuerus" אחשורוש: 'And Rabbi Ḥanina said: The name alludes to the fact that everyone became poor [rash] in his days, [as it is stated: “And the king Ahasuerus imposed a tax on the mainland” (Esther 10:1).]'. And all of this was because he [Ahasuerus] wanted to fulfil his נפש from his bodily desires. And such that Haman understood this aspect of Ahasuerus, he [Haman] wanted also that he [Ahasuerus] would sell him Yisrael for money [The following is a direct quote from Megillas Ester about Haman's proposition (Ester 3:9): "If it please Your Majesty, let an edict be drawn for their destruction, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver to the stewards for deposit in the royal treasury.”]. For this is the concept of the power of Ahasuerus, for through this, G-d Forbid, Yisrael could have been swallowed up. And because Ahasuerus is perpetually desiring to swallow up, therefore Haman says (Ester 3:11) "[And the king said,] 'The money is given to you [and the people yours to do with as you see fit.”]. And he didn't say 'I don't want this money of yours', rather it must be that 'I [Ahasuerus] accepted the money from you [Haman] and I will return and give it to you. But he didn't want to hold on to your money, because this would have certainly been an insult to him [Ahasuerus], to accept money, and to give another nation over to be killed simply because of money. Rather [this whole money exchange] was because of the love of money, so he accepted and returned and gave the money to him [Haman]. And we already explained in its place this topic. The general principle here is that the concept of the second empire is the desire to swallow everything.