Kaisipang Hudyo sa Ester 3:9: Akeidat Yitzchak & Ner Mitzvah

Lastly, the "kind deeds" parts of his statement is contained in the very fact that forgiveness and atonement are possible, and are granted by G'd. He who is aware of the inherent weakness of man, has generously made provision for man's rehabilitation. It is not a Jewish characteristic to indulge in wholesale killing, even if great wrongs have been committed. The Torah has to exhort us not to have mercy in such cases as the ir hanidachat, the city whose majority have indulged in idol worship, whose inhabitants have to be executed. The Torah therefore emphasizes that administering the death penalty has as its objective to turn aside G'ds wrath against those who tolerate wrongdoing. This is proof that were it not for this consideration, we might not administer a death penalty at all. Kings who desire the adulation of their subjects, certainly indulge in generosity when sinned against. Even Haman had to keep secret the identity of the people he wished to murder, and not use the word "murder," but "destroy," meaning "neutralise," so as not to offend the sensibilities of the king. Another motivation for generosity is that forestalling the desire for revenge by his subjects, as well as fear to trigger hostile action by those to be killed. He who feels threatened, will try to act in self defense. Ahasverus, who had shown that he craved popularity by throwing lavish banquets, had no choice but to execute Bigtan and Teresh. He executed Haman when he had become aware of the latter's machinations. Heretofore he had put quite a different interpretation on what Haman had meant when the latter had asked permission le-abdam, to destroy them, (compare story in megillat Esther) Being generous and forgiving is therefore seen as a character trait that is conducive to self-preservation. It keeps civilisation going. The King of Kings certainly does not desire mass death of His subjects, but wishes to inspire teshuvah, repentance, through the retribution exacted from the few. G'd, who had first considered creating the universe by using the yardstick of justice, i.e. midat hadin, had reconsidered when He realised that the world would not be able to endure on that basis. This is because no man could be expected never to sin. (Bereshit Rabbah 12) This is why when the Torah relates the story of creation a second time in chapter 2,4, we find that G'd has acquired a new attribute in addition to elokim. He is now also called hashem, "the merciful One." These two attributes of G'd are reflected in the two holy days Rosh Hashanah, and Yom Kippur, i.e. New year's day and Day of Atonement. The former reflects the din, justice aspect of G'ds rule, the other the rachamim, mercy aspect. On the former day everyone is judged according to his "present" state. Even the beynonim, the people whose merits are balanced by their errors, debits, are treated according to the yardstick of justice, since G'd waits until the Day of Atonement to see which way the scales will tip at that time. However, repentance is accepted from all on Yom Kippur, meaning that G'd relaxes the rule of strict justice. This is what is called lifnim mishurat hadin. The hint in scripture confirming that this is so, is found in Psalms 47,6, Elokim arose at the sound of truah, but Hashem at the sound of the shofar. Since the term truah is found in the Torah in connection with Rosh Hashanah, whereas only the term shofar is found in connection with Yom kippur, the hint is reasonably clear. If, as we said before, Samael, i.e Satan, has no control over man on Yom Kippur, as long as man exploits the day properly, it follows that he who ignores the opportunity presented by that day will fall irretrievable victim to Samael. This is the "bribe" that G'd gave to Satan. The attribute of mercy, when ignored, causes utter destruction of the soul for all those who have ignored it. A hint of all this is found in the numerical value of the word "Satan." It adds up to 364, i.e. Satan has control on 364 days of the year, not on the 365th day, the Day of Atonement. (Yuma 19) The last sentence in the Yom Kippur service (16,34) is to remind us that the function of Yom Kippur is not affected by the existence or non existence of the holy Temple and the ability to offer the sacrifices. The need is for penitence brought on through innuy, discomfort. The day alone does not achieve atonement.

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.