Musar do Estery 3:13

There is an interesting Midrash on Psalms 2,2, יתיצבו מלכי ארץ, "The kings of the earth will take their stand, and regents will intrigue together against G–d and His anointed." Rabbi Berechyah quotes Rabbi Levi as saying that the wicked are cursed, since they conspire against Israel. Each one claims to outdo the other in his devious plot. Esau describes Cain as having been foolish, since he killed Abel during Adam's lifetime, enabling Adam to replace Abel with other children. He, Esau was going to wait to kill Jacob until after his father had died and Jacob could no longer be replaced by Isaac siring any other children (Genesis 27,41). Pharaoh considered Esau as having been foolish, since he had overlooked the fact that while he waited, Jacob himself had a chance to sire many children, thus ensuring survival of the Jewish nation. He, Pharaoh, would not go about in in this way, but he would kill the Jewish males as soon as they emerged from their mother's womb (Exodus 1,22). Haman, on the other hand, considered that even Pharaoh had been foolish, since the latter had not realised that when the Jewish girls would marry they would multiply, the children being considered Jewish in Jewish law. Hence he decreed death for all Jews (Esther 3,13). In the future Gog and Magog will consider all former enemies of the Jews as having been fools for having ignored the fact that the Jews have a Patron in Heaven who may come to their rescue. Hence Gog and Magog plan to first contend with said Patron of the Jews, i.e. G–d, and only afterwards to attack Israel itself. This is why the verse in Psalms we quoted, reads "against G–d and His Messiah." G–d is reported as smiling, saying to Gog and Magog that their undertaking is both foolish and arrogant, since they have no idea how heavily outnumbered they will be when G–d employs His lightning, etc. After all, it is written (Isaiah 42,13): "G–d will go forth like a warrior, like a fighter. He will awaken His jealousy like a man of war." It also says (Zachariah 14,9) that "G–d will be king over the entire universe" (after having battled Gog and Magog).

We have seen again and again how all the experiences the patriarchs had in their private lives foreshadowed experiences the Jews would have in their communal lives. This is why I believe that the four problems mentioned in the Midrash based on the verse in Job or on the letters in the word וישב also allude to the four exiles the Jewish people experienced. The troubles with Joseph parallel the Babylonian exile which, as we explained above, was the result of the tribe of Joseph splitting the kingdom of David which eventually led to the destruction of the Temple. The trouble Jacob experienced with Laban was that the latter tried to uproot the entire concept of an eventual Jewish people, something like the attempt by Haman under the Medes to uproot the Jewish nation male and female including infants. The problem Jacob experienced with Dinah paralleled the Jewish experience during the exile under the Greeks, who, inter alia, decreed that no Jewish virgin could marry until she had been violated by a Greek Priest. This is why Hannah the Hasmonean became a martyr for her religion and became instrumental in bringing about the redemption from that exile. The problems Jacob experienced with Esau are the same problems we experience until this very day with the descendants of Esau in this the longest of all exiles. After having concluded the first verse of our פרשה, the Torah alludes to the final redemption when it mentions Jacob's תולדות. The Torah alludes to the time when those descendants will have achieved spiritual maturity, will enjoy the light under the kingdom of the Messiah.