Resources for Megillah 13

Daf A Week

Rabbi Yitzchok Gutterman

  1. The גמרא says that the Jewish people complained that דוד did not kill שמעי בן גרא, since from שמעי came מרדכי who caused המן to get angry by not bowing down to him which endangered the Jewish people. In explanation of what the “טענה” on מרדכי was, see the מהר"לin אור חדש on the פּסוק of “ומרדכי לא יכרה” who says that מרדכי could have avoided the entire situation with המן by going and sitting somewhere else. Instead, he put himself in a place where he would come in contact with המן and not stand for him. Moreover, he brings a מדרש that says that the king’s officers asked מרדכי if they should tell המן that he (מרדכי) would not stand for him and he said “yes, go tell him”.  As to why he felt the need to do that, there is an amazing מכתב מאליהו in חלק א on page 76 who explains that מרדכי knew there was a גזרה awaiting the Jews because they had bowed down to the idol of נבוכדנצר. Although there may have been a היתר for this because it was just an idol in honor of the king, it was still a תביעה on the Jews. Similarly, the idol that המן was wearing may have had a היתר since they were just bowing to המן and not the idol. Nonetheless, מרדכי knew this ענין needed a תיקון and he was מוסר נפש for it. So even though it appeared what מרדכי was doing was harmful, it was actually what helped save them.
  2. The גמרא says that אסתר would leave אחשורוש and be טובלת ויושבת בחיקו של מרדכי. See רש"יwho understands that the טבילה mentioned here refers to רחיצה for cleanliness. However, the מהרש"א understands it means actual טבילה משום נדות. He says that she could not be זהיר in נדה from אחשורוש since she was forced to be with him each day, but she was טובלת before going back to מרדכי. The משמעות of the מהרש"א is a חידוש not found explicitly in ש"ס; namely, there is an איסור נדה from a non-Jewish ביאה. This would mean that an intermarried woman, besides the איסור of being married to a non-Jew, would also be violating the איסור נדה.
  3. See תוספותin ד"ה וטובלת who asks how אסתר was allowed to go back to מרדכי when they hadn’t waited the three months for הבחנה that חז"ל require? He answers that she was משמשת במוך. See the  יוסף ברכי on אבן העזר סימן י"ג אות ו who asks an interesting question: The רמ"א there Paskens that if a woman was with her husband and was then נאנסה within three months of being with her husband, there is no need to wait to return to her husband since they will anyway not know whose child it is! If so, why would אסתר have had to wait? She had also been with מרדכי within three months?! He answers that we must say that תוספות’s question was not that מרדכי should have been obligated to wait, but rather why would he not have wanted to wait until a time when it would be clear whose child it was.
  4. The גמרא says that אסתר would not tell anyone which nation she was from. It is not clear from the פּסוקים or the גמרא why she kept this a secret. See the תרגוםon פּרק בּ פּסוק יwho says the reason מרדכי  told אסתר  to keep it a secret was because when מרדכי saw what happened to ושתי, he was concerned that אחשורוש might also get angry at אסתר one day. If he knew she was Jewish he might want to kill all the Jews as well. See the מנות הלוי who suggests another פּשט: a person must give up their life for any מצוה (even a מנהג ) if a non-Jew forces them to do it in public in order to violate their religion. אסתר’s situation was certainly public in the sense that it was known to all, but nothing was being done in order to make her violate her religion. However, if אחשורוש had known she was Jewish, he would likely have forced her in order to try to make her violate the Torah, and then she would have had to give up her life.

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Click here to download Shaklya v’Tarya Summary by Rabbi Chaim Smulovitz (in PDF)

Click here to download maarei m’komos by Rabbi Asher Millman (in PDF)