Musar do Estery 1:23

The first: It is to completely honor all of the creatures. Since he recognizes the virtue of the Creator that created man with wisdom - and the wisdom of the Creator is likewise in all of the creatures - and he, himself, sees that they are very, very honored; as the Creator of all, the virtuous Wise One, dealt with them in their creation. And if he disgraces them, God forbid, he touches on the honor of their Creator. And behold, this is similar to a wise smith - he made a vessel with great wisdom and he showed his creation to people. And one of them began to denounce it and to disgrace it. How much anger will come to that wise one - since they are disgracing his wisdom, in that they are disgracing the work of his hands. And so, too, will it be bad in the eyes of the Holy One, blessed be He, if they disgrace any creation of His creations. And this is [the meaning of] that which is written (Psalms 104:24), "How many are Your creations, Lord" - it does not state, "great," but rather, "many (rabu)," an expression [like], "the important one (rav) of the house" (Esther 1:8), [meaning] they are very important - "You made all of them with wisdom": And since Your wisdom has been involved with them, Your works become important and great. And [so,] it is fitting for a person to contemplate wisdom in them, not disgrace.

A woman who falls into a relationship with a man who is rough in his manners and his opinions, and who is a wretched, worthless person who lacks all good attributes, should not for this reason diminish his honor in her eyes and hate him in her heart, God forbid. Rather, she should nevertheless be cautious regarding his honor, a good man just as a sinner, a contemptible man just as an honorable man, because the word of the king and ruler of the world is upon her, and "What have you to do with the secrets of God?" (Berachot 10a), for God is the settler of the single ones and the joiner of couples, thus all that is imposed upon her to do, she shall do. What is this similar to? To a man whom the king wishes to honor and makes him the second to the king, and all the nation is required to act with honor towards him even if he is a leper or a zav, and so is this matter. And just as a woman should be cautious with regard to the commandments of niddah, challah, and lighting candles, so should she be cautious with regard to her husband's honor, because such was commanded to her by the king, and her reward will be increased as her actions prove that they are done for their own sake, and she fulfills the decree of the king of the world.

Pharaoh's dreams contain very significant allusions. Let me first quote what the Zohar (Sullam edition page 6) has to say on the subject. Commenting on "here there arose seven healthy and good-looking cows from the river and they grazed in the meadow" (41, 18), the words "from the river" are understood as referring to the source of all blessing in this world, the emanation יסוד. The word היאור is equated with the river emanating from גן עדן described in Genesis 2, 10. This "river" originates from the emanation בינה, and "irrigates" (spiritually) the emanation יסוד, the spiritual domain in which Joseph is at home. The message in the dream is that all of Egypt receives its blessings because of Joseph. The Zohar continues saying that that "river" dispenses its blessings in seven different directions, i.e the seven cows represent the seven recipients of the river's blessings. The seven recipients of the river's largesse all co-exist peacefully. This is an unusual phenomenon. We may compare the meaning of the number seven in the Book of Esther, where Esther is attended by "seven maid-servants, the ones she was entitled to have allocated to her by the palace" (Esther 2, 9). On the other hand, we find that the king had "seven men-servants (castrated), who attended to his personal needs" (Esther 1, 10).

Another major difficulty is presented by a statement both in Bamidbar Rabbah 12,3 and Esther Rabbah on the verse in Esther 1/2: כשבת המלך אחשורוש על כסא מלכותו. In both instances the Midrash describes the steps to Solomon's throne as symbolizing alternative commandments from our פרשה i.e. the respective prohibitions of marrying too many women, amassing too many horses and amassing too much silver and gold; also the three commandments already listed from 16,19. According to the description given in Esther Rabbah the lowest step would represent a reminder not to marry too many wives, the next step not to amass too many horses; the third step not to amass too much gold and silver. Step number four would remind the king not to plant an אשרה; step number five would remind him not to erect a private altar, מצבה; step number six would remind him not to offer a blemished animal as a sacrifice. The description in Esther Rabbah also lists three other symbolisms of six each, such as six of the (7) heavens, the six sections of the oral Torah, i.e. the Mishnah, as well as six different terms used by the Bible to describe the earth.

To come back to the statement of our sages that the Jewish people accepted the Torah voluntarily only because of their miraculous salvation from Haman's decree. I can think of three reasons why this acceptance occurred at that particular time in Jewish history. The sin they had committed at the time when they went to participate in the feast given by king Ahasverus was one committed totally voluntarily. The Jews had not been under any physical or political pressure to attend that feast and eat forbidden foods. The Book of Esther 1,8 goes to some length to stress that there was no religious compulsion regarding the drinking of non-kosher wine, nor was there any compulsion to eat treif: on the contrary, the Megillah emphasises that the king had given orders לעשות כרצון איש ואיש, to comply with every guest's wishes" (ibid.). Our sages (Megillah 12) comment on this that the king had given orders to comply both with the wishes of Mordechai and those of Haman; this is the meaning of איש ואיש in the verse. The Jews, having sinned voluntarily, now resolved to accept Torah voluntarily as an act of rehabilitating themselves.

But I believe that the explanation is as follows: We know that the Jews of that generation were deserving of death either because they bowed to the idol erected by Nevuchadnetzar or because they participated in the feast of the wicked Achashveirosh (Megillah 12a). Both Haman and Satan lodged accusations against them in this regard and in accordance with the attribute of judgment Israel should have been destroyed. Haman then became concerned that the Holy One Blessed is He might do exactly as described above, that is, take away a single righteous individual who was equal in weight to the entire rest of Israel. He knew that if this were to happen, another righteous person would be born on the spot and Israel would remain alive and well! Therefore it states, “And it was contemptible in his eyes to set his hand upon Mordechai alone.” For he knew that through the death of a single righteous individual, Israel would achieve atonement and he realized that Mordechai was equal to the rest of Israel put together. Therefore Haman and the Satan sought to destroy all the Jews in Achashveirosh’s kingdom. Now, according to the view that Israel had incurred the penalty of death in that generation because they participated in the feast of Achashveirosh it is impossible to say that they were guilty of consuming forbidden foods. For it states, “And the drinking was according to law, without compulsion” (Esther 1:8). This means that the drinking was in accordance with the laws of each individual. Therefore, since it is forbidden for a Jew to drink wine that had been poured out by idolaters, they were served kosher wine served only by Jewish waiters. Similarly, the food that was served to them was cooked by Jews. Achashveirosh did not compel them to eat or drink anything that was forbidden to them, as it is stated, “without compulsion … according to the will of each man” (ibid.).