Megillah 11
Summary
- A shiur on *Daf* Megillah 11 continues the series of *derashot* where *Amoraim* open teachings about Esther by anchoring Purim in earlier *pesukim*, defending Esther’s place in Tanach by finding *remezim* throughout Scripture. It explains the *derashah* from the *tochachah* that Hashem “causes others to rejoice” in ישראל’s suffering without Himself rejoicing in the downfall of the wicked, and it answers the tension with *Az Yashir* through two approaches, including the distinction in the משנת רבי אהרן between *shirah* that creates *deveikut* and *shirah* that is mere praise. The shiur then moves through multiple openings to the Purim narrative from Kohelet, Yirmiyahu, Ezra, Tehillim, and Mishlei, tying Mordechai’s Torah toil to his later receiving Haman’s wealth and highlighting Hashem’s pattern of מקדים רפואה למכה. It proceeds into the Gemara’s word-by-word *derashah* on the opening of the Megillah, defining Achashverosh’s identity and wickedness, the scope of his rule, and the theme of “three who ruled under the whole heaven.” It ends with Rava’s explanation that Achashverosh’s feast occurs only after he believes the seventy-year prophecy has lapsed, detailing Belshatzar’s and Achashverosh’s competing chronological calculations and concluding that both err by starting the count from the wrong event.
- A series of *Amoraim* open their Purim teachings from varied *pesukim* in Tanach in order to justify Esther’s inclusion in Tanach by locating earlier allusions to the Purim story. A prior *derashah* from Devarim 28 reads והיה כאשר שש ה' עליכם להיטיב אתכם כן ישיש להרע אתכם as implying that Hashem does not rejoice at evil against Israel but causes others to rejoice in it, and this is linked to Haman and Achashverosh. A question is raised from the episode where the angels are prevented from singing at *Keriat Yam Suf* despite *Az Yashir*, and two answers are given: Israel sings because they personally experience the נס and express הכרה, and the משנת רבי אהרן distinguishes between *shirah* that produces closeness and strengthens faith versus *shirah* that is only external praise, which is not fitting when “מעשה ידי טובעים בים,” shaping why there is no full *Hallel* on the last day of Pesach and why even Israel does not sing *shirah* on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
- Rabbi Abba bar Kahana opens with Kohelet: לאדם שטוב לפניו נתן חכמה ודעת ושמחה as Mordechai, and ולחוטא נתן עניין לאסוף ולכנוס as Haman, so that the sinner’s gathered wealth is transferred לתת לטוב לפני האלוקים to Mordechai and Esther, as in ותשם אסתר את מרדכי על בית המן. The מנות הלוי says Mordechai receives Haman’s wealth בזכות שעסק בתורה בכל כוחו, and even during the צרה he remains immersed in Torah, as in the מדרש where Haman finds Mordechai teaching about קרבן העומר and recognizes that this Torah will overcome him. The עיון יעקב explains the sequence as מקדים רפואה למכה: Hashem gives Mordechai the חכמה to know שבעים לשון so he can understand the plot of בגתן ותרש and be recorded in the ספר הזכרונות, and He gives Haman wealth because it is destined for the צדיק, fulfilling על דעת יכין רשע וילבש צדיק and leading to ותשם מרדכי על בית המן.
- Tosafot insists the reading is רבה בר עפרן and not עפרון because שם רשעים ירקבו and “they do not mention the name of the wicked.” A teaching attributed to Rav Yehonatan Eybeshitz explains how there can be a רבי ישמעאל despite Yishmael’s earlier conduct by citing Rashi at the end of Chayei Sarah that יצחק וישמעאל implies Yishmael did *teshuvah*, and it uses the rule that אין מוקדם ומאוחר בתורה applies across sections but not within a single עניין. The same framework reads the unusual phrasing רבי ישמעאל אומר as itself signaling the rehabilitated status that enables his authority in דרשות of the י"ג מדות.
- Rabba bar Afran opens from the prophecy ושמתי כסאי בעילם והאבדתי משם מלך ושרים, identifying עילם with Shushan and reading מלך as Vashti and שרים as Haman and his ten sons. Rav Dimi bar Yitzchak opens with Ezra’s כי עבדים אנחנו ובעבדותנו לא עזבנו אלוהינו ויט עלינו חסד לפני מלכי פרס, applying it to the time of Mordechai and Esther. Rav Chanina bar Pappa opens from Tehillim הרכבת אנוש לראשנו באנו באש ובמים ותוציאנו לרויה, interpreting אש as Nevuchadnezzar’s era and the furnace of Chananya, Mishael, and Azarya, מים as Pharaoh’s era, and לרויה as the overflowing salvation in Haman’s days, with the Maharsha linking לרויה to the Purim miracles unfolding through משתה and wine. The Alshich, citing the Zohar, says rescue from natural forces like fire and water is “easier” than rescue from a בעל בחירה, so the verse emphasizes the salvation specifically by Haman, and it connects this to Reuven preferring to cast Yosef into a pit of snakes and scorpions so that the outcome is left to Hashem rather than human choice.
- Rabbi Yochanan opens with זכר חסדו ואמונתו לבית ישראל ראו כל אפסי ארץ את ישועת אלוהינו and identifies its fulfillment with Mordechai and Esther because the salvation becomes known to all nations through letters sent throughout the world. The shiur frames this as striking because Purim is a נס נסתר with Hashem’s name absent, yet it still becomes widely recognized as providential.
- Reish Lakish opens with Mishlei ארי נוהם ודוב שוקק מושל רשע על עם דל, reading the lion as Nevuchadnezzar and the bear as Achashverosh as in Daniel’s bear-like beast, and Rav Yosef characterizes Persians as “eating and drinking like a bear,” heavy with flesh, growing hair like a bear, and never at rest. The verse’s מושל רשע is Haman, and עם דל is Israel described as דלים מן המצוות. Rabbi Elazar opens with Kohelet בעצלתים ימך המקרה ובשפלות ידים ידלף הבית and interprets Israel’s עצלות in Torah as making the “enemy of Hashem” poor, reading מך as עני and מקרה as a name for Hashem via המקרה במים עליותיו, and the shiur ties this to the centrality of overcoming עצלות through the *middot* of זהירות and זריזות.
- Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak opens with Tehillim לולי ה' שהיה לנו בקום עלינו אדם and derives אדם ולא מלך as Haman, emphasizing the danger posed by an individual rather than a king. The מהר"ץ חיות ties this to לב מלכים ושרים ביד השם and frames the threat of a private אדם acting by בחירה חפשית as requiring special divine aid.
- Rava opens with Mishlei ברבות צדיקים ישמח העם ובמשול רשע יאנח עם and identifies the צדיקים as Mordechai and Esther, matching והעיר שושן צהלה ושמחה, and the רשע as Haman, matching והעיר שושן נבוכה. The shiur notes communal customs of reading certain verses aloud and connects debates about public recitation and practices such as saying the ten sons of Haman in one breath to broader frameworks of שומע כעונה, including applications to קדושה in Shemoneh Esrei and to ברכת כהנים as analyzed by the Beit HaLevi.
- Rav Masna opens from כי מי גוי גדול אשר לו אלהים קרובים אליו as a statement of Israel’s unique closeness to Hashem. Rav Ashi opens from או הניסה אלהים וגו' as describing Hashem taking a nation from within a nation, applied to Israel’s rescue from Shushan.
- Rav reads ויהי בימי אחשורוש as וי והי, a cry of woe, and associates it with the curse of being sold to enemies in Bechukotai. Shmuel interprets לא מאסתים ולא געלתים לכלותם as a sequence across oppressors, and a *baraita* assigns each phrase to a period where Hashem raises leaders: Daniel, Chananya, Mishael, and Azarya in Babylon; Shimon HaTzaddik, the Chashmonaim, and Matityahu Kohen Gadol in Greece; Mordechai and Esther in Haman’s era; and later leaders of the בית רבי and חכמי דורות, ending with a future where no nation can rule over Israel.
- Rabbi Levi opens from ואם לא תורישו את יושבי הארץ and applies it to Shaul’s failure with Amalek, reading Israel’s punishment as rooted in his misplaced compassion. The shiur elaborates from the haftarah of Parashat Zachor that Shaul repeatedly attributes the failure to the people and admits יראתי את העם ואשמע בקולם, contrasting David’s willingness to act without regard for public opinion, as portrayed in the *midrash* about Michal criticizing his dancing before the Aron.
- The Gemara derives meanings from the name אחשורוש: Rav reads it as אחיו של ראש ובן גילו של ראש, associating him with Nevuchadnezzar the “head,” Shmuel reads it as ישראל’s faces blackened like pot-bottoms, Rabbi Yochanan reads it as provoking a groan אח לראשו, and Rabbi Chanina reads it as making all poor, supported by וישם המלך אחשורוש מס. The phrase הוא אחשורוש is read as he remains wicked from beginning to end, and the pattern is extended to figures like Esav, Datan and Aviram, and Achaz as consistently wicked, and to Avraham, Moshe and Aharon, and David as consistently righteous or humble. The word המולך is read by Rav as “he ruled by himself,” interpreted both as praise for his unique suitability and as blame that he is unfit and buys the throne with extra money.
- Rav and Shmuel dispute whether Hodu and Kush are at opposite ends of the world or adjacent, yet either reading yields that Achashverosh rules from one end of the world to the other, and a parallel dispute is applied to Shlomo’s domain from Tifsach to Azah. Rav Chisda reads שבע ועשרים ומאה מדינה as a growth from seven to twenty to one hundred, and the Gemara defends דרשה by noting the numerical detail is redundant after saying מהודו ועד כוש. A *baraita* lists three who ruled בכיפה—Achav, Achashverosh, and Nevuchadnezzar—and excludes Alexander because he is not in Tanach; it addresses challenges from Shlomo by placing him in a different category as ruling over עליונים ועל תחתונים, explained by Rashi as dominion over שדים, and it rejects other candidates like Sancheriv for failing to conquer Jerusalem, Daryavesh for lacking seven provinces, and Koresh because he is merely boasting.
- Rava resolves the tension between בימים כשבת המלך and בשנת שלוש למלכו by reading כשבת as “after his mind settled,” when he decides to hold the feast because he believes the seventy years of redemption have passed. The Gemara reconstructs Belshatzar’s calculation from Jeremiah’s prophecy, counting 45 years of Nevuchadnezzar, 23 of Evil-Merodach, and 2 of Belshatzar to reach seventy, and it explains the 45 by aligning the exile of Yehoyachin with the later release in Evil-Merodach’s first year after “thirty-seven years of the exile.” Belshatzar then uses the Temple vessels and is killed that night, after which Daryavesh the Mede receives the kingdom at age sixty-two. Achashverosh recalculates by starting from גלות בבל and adding eight years, counts one year of Belshatzar, five of Daryavesh and Koresh, and two of his own reign to reach seventy, and when redemption still does not come he too uses the Temple vessels and the Satan “dances among them,” leading to Vashti’s death. The Gemara concludes that Achashverosh’s count is also wrong because the seventy years must be counted from the destruction of Jerusalem, and the shiur ends by noting the continuation of this calculation tomorrow.
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