Musar su Ester 2:20

Nonetheless it is difficult to see how the terms אמון, and פדגוג can be equated. The word that should have been used by the Midrash is אומן, the same word used by the Torah in Numbers 11,12. Posssibly the word אמון means tutor in the sense that the tutor is faithfully carrying out the master's instructions, much as Esther is described as maintaining her loyalty to Mordechai's instructions even when she was in the king's palace by the words כאשר באמנה אתו, "just as when she had still been in the house of Mordechai" (Esther 2,20). We would have to regard the letter ב in the word באמנה as something that could have been dispensed with just as it has been dispensed with in Psalms 45,8 משחך אלוקים שמן ששון, "the Lord anointed you with oil of gladness" (the letter ב in front of the word שמן being conspicuously absent, though implied). Alternatively, we can accept the view of Ibn Ezra that the word is a noun. Ibn Ezra explains that G–d had been Esther's tutor, that the word אתו refers to Him, that Esther's loyalty was to G–d. According to this view we deal with an allusion to the tremendous power of Torah and its exalted position in G–d's scheme of things. [I believe this is a printer's error as I have not found such an Ibn Ezra, and it is not his style at all. Perhaps the author means the קו ונקי, whose text I have not seen. Ed.]

Concerning the Midrash calling the פדגוג, אמון instead of אומן, the reason is that the Midrash understands the word בראשית as alluding to two concepts. One is the תורה הקדומה, which remains hidden, i.e. which is "be-omnah-itto," still attached to Him" [in the sense of Esther 2,20]. This is the imprint of G–d that we have described earlier. It is a reference to the שורש of the soul of the בני העליה we have spoken of as being the mystical concept of the elite of Israel that was first in G–d's mind. The other is the תורה הנתונה, the Torah that was to be revealed, which acts as tutor, פדגוג, for Israel in the sense an אומן does. What is alluded to is the mystique of the number י when referring to G–d and the same number 10=י, when used in the context of Israel. When the Torah describes the creation of man as taking place as בצלם ובדמות, the meaning must be that man of the "lower" regions is to reflect אדם, "man" of the "higher" regions. The only way this can be achieved is through the "light" of Torah that remains hidden with G–d.