ייִדישער מחשבֿה אויף אסתר 8:5

"Behold the Heavens, and the Heavens of the Heavens, belong to the Lord, the earth and all there is therein." (10,14) This points out the difference between G'd and any other deities. Since the latter, not even laying claim to own the universe, cannot inspire "fear" as we have defined it, they are also unable to elevate man. G'd, by reason of His ownership of the universe, can claim obedience of all creatures. Should we ask that since He owns it all, what difference can one nation's claim to consideration by G'd make?, the answer given is "He only took a liking to your ancestors, to love them and their seed after them." (10,15) Even though the Jewish people are far from perfect, "like the lily amongst the thorns," G'd chose Israel because of its relative merit. By the time you have realised and appreciated the meaning of your national history, says Moses, you will have arrived at the stage of love for G'd. At that point performance of the mitzvot will no longer be an act of obedience, but an expression of your love for G'd the Lawgiver. Reviewing the whole chapter, one is forced to conclude that far from making impossible demands upon us, G'd is in fact granting us privileges. The etnachta, tone sign under the words "from you" in verse twelve, as well as under the word "today" in verse thirteen, supports our view that the lines between have to be read as if in parenthesis. The verse then reads "and now Israel what is it that the Lord asks of you this day; in order that you will be well off?..except to..." After all that, the passage describing the land of Israel as one that needs rainfall, as distinct from Egypt, is a reminder that even after attaining their reward and successful takeover of the land of Canaan, Divine help will continue to be needed. The land will only deliver its bounty to Israel when such Divine help is forthcoming. The second paragraph of the keriyat shema which follows, spells out the conditions for such Divine help, and the consequences should Israel fail to meet these conditions.

"to avert the evil of Haman the Agagite and his thought against the Jews" (Esther 8:3): You should know that Haman concluded to destroy the descendants of the Jews. And he acted on his conclusions, since he wrote books to all the provinces of King Ahasuerus to destroy the Jews. And were it not that God was with us, to repeal his counsel, he would have done according to his desire, God forbid. And nevertheless, his plan is never described with the expression, counsel (etzah), and you will not find it in the Scroll of Esther or in another source with the description, counsel. And the reason is clear from our words, since he did not conclude it from the intellect, and he did not evaluate it in his heart, among various contrasting thoughts which grow out of opposed models. For this evildoer sought to destroy a great nation without any blame, but just from his evil thought. For all 'the impulse of his thought is only evil'¹An allusion based on Genesis 6:5. ; the thought designed by his pride, as written explicitly in the words of Esther (Esther 8:5), "let dispatches be written countermanding the dispatches of the thought of Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, who wrote to destroy the Jews throughout the king’s provinces": The thought of his impulse to harsh anger; the thought of his impulse to great hatred towards the people of God, since he was an Aggagite enemy of the Jews; the thought of his impulse to evil; and so forth many times over. And the thoughts of these designs came to one conclusion towards evil. And Scripture testifies to this when saying (Esther 3:5), "and Esther was full of anger." That is to say that Haman's spirit was full of violence and anger, nothing could pass in front of him. A thought of the model of fear of God and His trepidation did not raise itself in his heart; a thought of the model of mercy did not raise itself; and likewise from the good models - since he was totally wicked. It is as is it stated (Esther 3:6), "and Haman sought to destroy all the Jews." That is to say his spirit desired to do evil, not from intellect and not from knowledge.