Megillah 12
Summary
- Ahasuerus, Belshatzar, and others calculate Yirmiyahu’s seventy years and each errs until the Gemara’s framing moves the count to the destruction and *galut* of Tzidkiyahu, while the Ben Yehoyada explains why Belshatzar dies for using the Temple vessels but Ahasuerus is punished through Vashti’s death because Belshatzar remains a شریک in the later sin and Vashti is his only daughter and also “like Ahasuerus’s body.” Rava answers why the rebuilding still halts by saying the years are *shanim mekutaot*, and even Daniel misreads the account, while Rav Schwab defines *binah* as processing *daat* into *mevin davar mitokh davar* and contrasts increasing scientific progress with decreasing Torah stature across generations under *nitkatnu ha-dorot* alongside *Yiftach be-doro ki-Shemuel be-doro*. The sugya resolves contradictory verses by calling the seventy years a staged *pekidah*, portrays redemption as a process, and interprets “Hashem to His anointed, to Koresh” with a *pasik* that turns it into a complaint against Koresh, which the Ben Yehoyada ties to the lost possibility that Bayit Sheni could have been the final enduring Temple. The Gemara then expounds the Megillah’s feast details, Ahasuerus’s political wisdom or folly, the Jews’ near-destruction for enjoying the feast or for bowing to an idol, Vashti’s immodesty and punishment *midah keneged midah*, and the chain that elevates Haman while hinting that early royal letters were so laughable they later blunted the genocidal decree, before beginning Mordechai’s titles as descriptions of his prayer.
- Ahasuerus bases the seventy years on *galut* Yehoyakhin and is wrong because the true count runs from the nineteenth year of Nevukhadnetzar, the destruction and *galut* Tzidkiyahu, leaving him off by eleven years, so that by his fourteenth year the Temple should be rebuilt. The Ben Yehoyada asks why Belshatzar is killed the night he uses the Temple vessels while Ahasuerus’s punishment falls on Vashti, and he explains that Belshatzar originates the celebratory misuse based on a false calculation, Ahasuerus learns and repeats it, and Belshatzar therefore shares in Ahasuerus’s sin like one who digs a pit, so the punishment strikes both through Vashti’s death as Belshatzar’s only daughter and as Ahasuerus’s beloved wife. The Maharal’s answer is cited that by Ahasuerus’s time the vessels are already *nitkhalel*.
- Rava answers that the chronology contains *shanim mekutaot*, with partial regnal years effectively combining Nevukhadnetzar with Evil-Merodakh and similarly compressing other transitions, and a beraita supports that a remaining year for Babylonia is completed by Daryavesh. Rava adds that even Daniel errs in this accounting, as implied by “I Daniel understood in the books,” because the calculation requires interpretive processing rather than straightforward reading.
- Rav Schwab defines *daat* as received knowledge of Hashem through Torah, tied to “כי מלאה הארץ דעה את השם,” and defines *binah* as the act of understanding and deriving, *mevin davar mitokh davar*, that processes *daat* into grasp and application. Rav Schwab adds that *ha-sekhel* is practical applied wisdom, so one who knows halakhot but does not live them lacks *ha-sekhel*, and “למען תשכיל” in Yehoshua signals applying *devar Hashem* successfully. Rav Schwab states that although physical civilization advances, Torah greatness declines across generations from contemporary *posek* back through the Vilna Gaon, Ramban, Geonim, Savoraim, Amoraim, Tannaim, Soferim, Nevi’im, Yehoshua, and Moshe Rabbeinu, while Jews still live by *Yiftach be-doro ki-Shemuel be-doro* and do their best with what they have.
- Rava resolves the contradiction between counting to Babylonia’s fullness and to Jerusalem’s ruins by calling the earlier point a *pekidah be-alma* that begins a process rather than completing it, and Koresh’s declaration that Hashem charged him to build in Jerusalem exemplifies an unfolding sequence. The narration applies this model to *geulah* as staged progress, illustrated by the image of riding a donkey that moves, stops, and veers, and it adds a derash that *ani* alludes to “*Eruvin Niddah Yevamot*” as difficult learning that leads to Mashiach.
- The Gemara reads “כה אמר השם למשיחו לכורש” with a *pasik* so that Hashem speaks to Mashiach and complains about Koresh for not personally rebuilding the city and gathering the exiles, because Koresh instead says “מי בכם מכל עמו.” The Ben Yehoyada explains that “גדול יהיה כבוד הבית הזה האחרון מן הראשון” leads nations to think “*ahar’on*” means no third Temple, and he answers that it is last in human building while Bayit Shlishi is *ma‘aseh shamayim* as in “מקדש השם כוננו ידיך,” yet he also says Bayit Sheni could have been the final eternal Temple had Koresh fulfilled his divine mission by bringing all Jews, since his empire could have compelled return and would have made the building count as done by Heaven through *shlichut*. The Ben Yehoyada states that because Koresh changes the mission, *kol shaliaḥ she-shinah mi-divrei ha-meshale’aḥ batlah shlichuto*, the Temple loses that status and the promise of “*ahar’on*” as the last enduring structure is voided.
- The Minchat Chinukh in *mitzvah* 107 raises that Mashiach, as a *melekh ben melekh* from Shlomo’s line, might not require anointing if there is no dispute, because the kingship remains his inheritance despite the passage of generations. The Minchat Chinukh adds uncertainty because earlier rupture around Rechav‘am may imply the need for anointing, and he concludes the answer will be clarified when Mashiach comes and teaches it.
- Rava explains the verses that call them officers and then kings by saying Persia and Media bargain to alternate roles, “אי מינן מלכי מינייכו אפרכי ואי מינייכו מלכי מינן אפרכי,” ensuring partnership in rule.
- Rabbi Yosei bar Rabbi Chanina derives that Ahasuerus wears *bigdei kehunah* from the *gezera shava* between “יקר תפארת גדולתו” and “לכבוד ולתפארת.” The Rambam is cited as counting a separate *mitzvat aseh* that kohanim wear special garments “לכבוד ולתפארת,” with invalid service and *mitah bi-dei shamayim* when performed lacking the proper garments, and “בזמן שבגדיהם עליהם כהונתם עליהם” is brought as proof that garments confer priestly status. The Ramban argues the garments are only a *hechsher avodah* and should not be counted separately, while the Chinukh explains that special clothing shapes inner focus by “אחרי הפעולות נמשכות הלבבות,” and the Or HaChaim suggests the garments are not merely for the act of service but relate to defining the kohen himself.
- Rav and Shmuel split on whether Ahasuerus is wise or foolish for first feasting the distant provinces and only later the people of Shushan, with wisdom defined as winning over the far-flung subjects first and folly defined as failing to secure nearby allies against rebellion. A Targum is cited that in the third year Ahasuerus makes the feast to re-stabilize the realm after provinces rebel and he suppresses them.
- Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai asks his students why “the enemies of Israel” deserve destruction, they answer because they benefited from the feast of that wicked one, and the emphasis is placed on “*nehenu*” as enjoying rather than merely eating. Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai rejects this as insufficient because it would target only Shushan, and he answers instead that they bowed to an idol, which Rashi places in Nevukhadnetzar’s time so it implicates all. The students ask about *mash’o panim*, and Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai answers that Israel’s bowing is only external *le-fanim* under coercion, so Hashem’s decree is also only external to frighten them, grounded in “כי לא ענה מלבו,” and the Shiftei Chachamim connects this to the Purim mask custom as a symbol of hidden externals.
- Rav and Shmuel interpret “בחצר גינת ביתן המלך” as either tiered seating by status or overflow that forces movement from courtyard to garden to palace, and a beraita describes opening two exits from the courtyard to the garden and palace. “חור” is read by Rav as perforated design and by Shmuel as white wool, and Rabbi Yosei bar Rabbi Chanina reads “כרפס” as “כר-פס,” cushions of striped wool. The narrative links *karpas* at the Seder to Yosef’s *ketonet passim* through Rashi’s association of *passim* with “כרפס ותכלת,” and it ties dipping to Yosef’s garment being dipped, using saltwater in place of blood.
- Rabbi Yehudah says seating uses silver or gold couches by rank, and Rabbi Nechemiah rejects this because it creates jealousy, so he says the couches are silver with gold legs, with Tosafot explaining jealousy is sharper when people see the contrast directly. Rav Asi interprets “בהט ושש” as precious stones obtained through many trials, “אבני נזר,” and Rav and Shmuel interpret “דר וסוחרת” as either rows of stones or one radiant gemstone placed centrally, while a teaching in the school of Rabbi Yishmael reads it as proclaiming tax freedom for merchants. Rava reads “כלים שונים” as “repeating,” and a *bat kol* warns that earlier ones perish for the vessels and these are repeating the sin.
- Rav says each guest is served older wine than himself, and “*ha-shetiyah ka-dat*” is read as “*ke-dat shel Torah*,” with Rashi defining Torah’s model as more altar “eating” than “drinking” through abundant offerings versus limited libations. The Maharsha says Ahasuerus follows this not out of piety but to avoid Belshatzar’s fate by avoiding drunken excess with the vessels, and the Maharatz Chayot בשם הגר״א derives “eating more than drinking” from “פת במלח תאכל ומים במשורה תשתה,” where bread is unmeasured but water is measured. Rabbi Elazar says each person drinks wine from his own country, and Rava interprets “לעשות כרצון איש ואיש” as accommodating Mordechai and Haman as the two key officials.
- Rava reads “משתה נשים בית המלכות” as Vashti deliberately hosting in the king’s area rather than the women’s quarters to facilitate immorality, and the proverb “איהו בקרי ואיתתיה בבוציני” frames both spouses as oriented to the same *averah*. Rava identifies the seventh day as Shabbat and contrasts Jews who eat and drink and move to Torah and praise with idolaters who turn to vulgar talk, and the revelers argue whether Median or Persian women are more beautiful until Ahasuerus boasts of Vashti and agrees to present her naked. The Gemara says this is *midah keneged midah* because Vashti strips Jewish girls and forces them to work naked on Shabbat.
- Rabbi Yosei bar Chanina says Vashti refuses because she is struck with *tzaraat*, and a beraita says Gavriel gives her a tail, with Rabbeinu Bachya in *Kad ha-Kemach* explaining it as a horn-like disfigurement. Rava explains Ahasuerus’s intense anger by saying Vashti sends a message calling him “son of a stableman,” boasting that her father drinks a thousand cups without drunkenness and mocking Ahasuerus for becoming drunk, and the insult ignites his rage.
- The “*chachamim*” are identified as the rabbis, “*yod‘ei ha-itim*” as experts in intercalating years and fixing months, and they fear advising execution or pardon will backfire once the wine wears off or will undermine royal authority. The rabbis evade judgment by saying that since the Temple’s destruction and exile “ניטלה עצה ממנו” and they cannot judge capital cases, and they direct him to Ammon and Moav who remain settled “כחמרא דיתיב על דורדייה,” citing “שאנן מואב מנעוריו.” The Rambam’s description of yearning for Mashiach not for conquest or indulgence but for quiet to learn Torah is invoked to parallel the idea that tranquility enables דעת.
- Rabbi Levi interprets the list of officers as the angels’ claims that nations never offer what Israel offers, reading each name as a reference to a specific sacrifice or Temple preparation such as lambs, birds, an earthen altar, priestly garments, mixing blood, mixing *menachot*, and setting the table. The teaching identifies Memukhan as Haman because he is “*mukhan le-pur‘anut*,” and Rav Kahana derives that a commoner jumps first from the fact that the last-listed figure speaks first.
- Haman’s policy “להיות כל איש שורר בביתו” is sent out, and Rava says that without these first letters no Jew would survive because the obviousness and absurdity of the decree makes the nations treat royal letters as a joke. The people say the message is self-evident, “אפילו קרחא בביתיה פרדשכא להוי,” and this contempt later weakens the seriousness with which the genocidal order is received.
- Rabbi reads “כל ערום יעשה בדעת וכסיל יפרוש אולת” as David’s wisdom in requesting one girl so families bring daughters willingly, while Ahasuerus’s foolishness in demanding all girls causes families to hide their daughters. The explanation portrays Ahasuerus’s recruitment as predatory and therefore self-defeating.
- The Gemara begins “איש יהודי היה בשושן הבירה” and asks why the lineage stops at “בן קיש איש ימיני,” and a teaching says the names are not genealogy but honorifics. The text defines “בן יאיר” as one who enlightens Israel’s eyes with prayer, “בן שמעי” as one whose prayer is heard, and “בן קיש” as one who knocks on the gates of mercy and they open for him, with anticipation of further discussion of his tribe in the continuation.
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