Komentaryong Sumisipi para sa Ester 1:12

וברוח אפיך AND WITH THE BREATH OF THY NOSTRILS — the breath that issues from both nostrils. Scripture speaks — if this were at all possible (i. e. if one may be permitted to speak so of God) of the Shechina (God) in the same manner as it does of a human monarch, in order to make peoples’ ears hear the facts in accordance with what usually happens to that they may understand the matter: when a man is angry the breath issues from his nostrils (and Scripture attributes this to God, also, when He is in anger). A similar idea is: (Psalms 18:9) “Smoke rose up in His nostril”, and also, (Job. 4:9) “By the breath of his nostril they are consumed”. And this is the meaning of what He said, (Isaiah 48:9) “For My name’s sake אאריך I will make long My אף”: when one’s anger subsides his breathing becomes long, whilst when one is in anger his breathing is short (consequently אאריך אפי signifies “I will not be angry”). The text continues ותהלתי אחטם לך which means “for the sake of My praise I will place a nose-ring in My nose to close up the nostrils against the anger and the breath so that they should not issue forth”. The word לך, for thee, in this text, means “for thy sake”, אחטם has the same meaning and root as in “a wild camel with a nose-ring (חֹטֶם)” which occurs in Mishna Treatise Sabbath (Mishnah Shabbat 5:1). Thus does the explanation appear to me. And wherever אף and חרון (i. e. where אף and words formed from the same root as חרון) occur in the Scriptures I say that it has the following sense: In the phrase חרה אף the first word is the same as (Job 30:30) “My bone is חרה with heat”, where חרה denotes burning and glowing, and this metaphor is used because the nostrils become hot and burning in a time of anger. The noun חרון is a derivation of חרה, just as רצון is a derivation of רצה, and therefore signifies “burning”. In the same way, חַמה which also signifies wrath really denotes heat (from a root יחם, not חמם, since the מ of חַמָה has no Dagesh. חַמָה is formed from יחם as עֵדָה, congregation, from יעד). That is why Scripture says, (Esther 1:12) וחמתו בערה בו “his wrath burned in him”, and when one’s wrath subsides one says, “his mind has become cooled” (נתקררה from קר cold).

Perhaps they will repent. Question: Would not the building of the ark have an opposite effect, for it may cause them not repent? For they could answer Noach: “If the ark’s purpose is really to save you [from the Flood, this makes no sense. For] Hashem has many ways to save you even without an ark!” The answer is: They knew the Flood would come, as Rashi explained in connection with the story of Lemech’s wives (4:24). But they thought it would come in the distant future. His building the ark showed that it was imminent, thus they might repent. (Nachalas Yaakov)

Its name relating to sulphur. I.e., boiling water comes from the earth’s sulfur; see Sanhedrin 108b and Rosh Hashanah 12a. You might ask: How did Rashi know that the water [of the Flood] was hot? The answer is: Here (8:1) it is written וישוכו המים, and about Achashveirosh (Esther 7:10) it is written וחמת המלך שככה. There it means subsiding from a previous heat, as it said before, “His anger burnt within him” (ibid. 1:12). And here also it is written וישוכו, meaning that the water subsided from its boiling and cooled off.

ויבאו מרתה AND THEY CAME TO MARAH — The word מרתה is the same as למרה: a ה at the end of a word (as a suffix) replaces a ל at its beginning (as a prefix). The ת takes the place of the ה which is rooted in (an integral part of) the word מרה; when it is joined with another letter, viz., when it is attached to the ה which is added to the word in place of the ל, the ה of the primary form (the ordinary form of the noun from which longer forms are made by the addition of suffixes) is changed into a ת. Thus, also, every ה which is a root-letter (a letter in the primary form of the noun) is changed into a ת when it is joined to another letter. E. g., we have (Isaiah 27:4) “Fury (חמה) is not in Me”, but (Esther 1:12) “And his fury (חמתו) burned within him”; you see that the ה of the ground-form is changed into a ת because it is to be joined to the ו which has been added. Similar are: (Leviticus 25:44) “Manservant and handmaid (אמה)”, but (Genesis 30:3) “Behold, my handmaid (אמתי) Bilhah”; (Genesis 2:7) “a creature of life (חיה)”, but (Job 33:20) “His life (חיתו) maketh him to abhor bread”; (Judges 4:5) “Between Ramah (רמה) [and Beth-el]”, but (I Samuel 7:17) “And his return was to Ramah (הרמתה)” the latter example being exactly parallel to that in this verse (מרתה - מרה‎).