Monday, March 17, 2008

Unsummoned: Megillat Esther

Rabbi Student and I are having a friendly discussion as to whether or not Esther went before the King unsummoned for a second time. Check it out here- and perhaps you have something to add!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting.

Unknown said...

There are differences between the two cases:

in 8 ester fell down(v tipol ester lifnei raglav)

in 5 - she is standing( omedet b hatzer)

in 5 - golden scepter is in the hand of the king, sharbit zahav asher b yado

in 8 - it does not say 'asher b yado", maybe because of ''ein leashiv 8.8, so the power was not in his hand

in 8 - Ester rose up and stood up
(v takam v taamod) rose up for war, as in Kuma Adashem
and stood - as an angel, as in "I will let you pass among those that stand here"

in 5 - Ester came close, came as a sacrifice( v tikrav Ester) and she touched the head of the specter - the thought of power,
her thoughts were correct, machshava lo poselet

in 5 - King offers up to half of the kingdom, Ester is dressed in 'kingdom' - v tilbash ester malcut
and the king is sitting on a throne

in 8 - no offer is needed, ester is not dressed in 'malcut' and the king is not sitting on the throne

Malcut is the lowest sefira and it is all that we mostly know about the nature of power. The first time Ester went as malcut.

But the second time, and it proves decisive, is a total surprise - in fact it is another world. Malcut became Keter. And for that Ester had to fall down to the legs of the king, for legs mean two other sefirot: hod v netzach - both are sefirot of prophecy. And it is Netzach and Hod she ba Keter! Be ratzon ha pnimi.

That is why it says takam v taamod, takam refers to netzach, lo kam b Israel k Moshe od, and taamod to hod.

And that is how yehudim kiymu ma she kiblu.

I agree that second time was as dangerous as the first, it was not just a question of Ester having royal power, for 'v tevcha v tithanen'.

I agree also that she did not need to be invited the second time, she had malcut. But Mordechai needed Keter. So Purim would not be just an inyan of malchut, depending on changing nilitary/political power in the world, it would correct galut mitsraim, v yakam melech hadash - so that no matter melech hadash or yashan - yechudim will win the war.

Mordechai kneged Yosef, sheni le melech. And that is why it is written V tosef Ester.

Unknown said...

Who is Meg

Unknown said...

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