Musar do Estery 2:5

In Megillah 19 we find an argument as to how much of the Megillah has to be read. Four views are mentioned as we have already stated earlier. The views are based on whether תקפו של אחשורוש, or תקפו של מרדכי, or תקפו של המן, or תקפו של נס i.e. the power of Ahasverus, Haman, Mordechai or the extent of the miracle, determines from which point the story has to be read in order to fulfil the commandment. The view mentioned last, that of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, states that the extent of the miracle is what determines from which part of the Megillah one has to start reading. Why would his colleagues of the Mishnah disagree with such a viewpoint?

To sum up: The Holy Temple will be built on the territory of Benjamin who had never bowed nor prostrated himself before Esau. Midot (2, 6) mentions thirteen occasions when one had to prostrate onself before G–d in the Holy Temple. That number corresponded to the numerical value in the word אחד, "One." When, in exile, after the destruction of the Holy Temple, Mordechai, scion of the tribe of Benjamin, refused to bow down to an alien deity, he, Esther's godfather, became the instrument through whom the Temple was rebuilt with the help of the Persian king Cyrus, a son of Esther. Although the kingdom did not remain in the hands of the tribe of Benjamin, the Holy Temple remained and will remain in that territory. In retrospect, all this was alluded to by the manner in which Samuel anointed Saul. He used only a cruse of oil; he anointed David by pouring the oil from a קרן, horn. The significance of this will be explained later.

Having said all this, we can better understand the disagreement between the first three sages in the Mishnah Megillah 19 dealing with which parts of the Megillah a person must have heard or read in order to have discharged his minimal duty to hear the Purim story. All three sages are agreed that the part in which G–d's goodness is displayed after the Jews had embraced the Torah voluntarily is an essential part of such a reading. This is why none of these three sages accepts the view of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai that it suffices to read from the point where the king could not sleep (Esther 6,1), an event which took place after the first feast Esther gave for the King and Haman, i.e. after the Jews did תשובה. The view that the Megillah has to be read from the very beginning, i.e. describing the power of Ahasverus, is easy to understand. It points out that the treatment of the Jews by Ahasverus at that meal contrasted sharply with his treatment of his queen whom he had tried to force to display herself in front of his ministers. The king displayed self-control in his dealings with the Jews at the time, i.e. his תקף, consisted of what our sages have described in Avot 4,1: "Who is a hero? He who can control his passions." Since the king had displayed the ability to conquer his natural urges, the Jews likewise could do no less but overcome their reluctance to accept the yoke of the Torah and embrace the Torah voluntarily, joyfully. The sage who believes that it suffices to read the Megillah from the point where the outstanding personality of Mordechai is described, i.e. from where the text introduces Mordechai in Esther 2,5, appears to hold that the reason the Jews accepted the Torah voluntarily at that time is similar to the second reason I have listed, the revolutionary change that occurred in the political constellation and which brought Mordechai the Torah-true Jew, member of an exiled nation, to a position of such great power. We are to appreciate that the half-shekel contribution which is described in the Torah in connection with the allusion to the name Mordechai was the key to Haman's failure and Israel's survival. Once they realised this, the Jews naturally embraced Torah enthusiastically. The third view, which holds that it is sufficient to read from the part in which Haman's rise to power, i.e. the troubles he caused the Jews, is described (Esther 3,1), considers the failure of the Jews to offer to change their religion as tantamount to accepting the Torah voluntarily. Rabbi Yossi, the sage who held this view, assumed that wholesale conversion by the Jews would have saved them from Haman's decree.