Megillah, Daf Tet Vav, Part 4
ותעמד בחצר בית המלך הפנימית. אמר רבי לוי: כיון שהגיעה לבית הצלמים – נסתלקה הימנה שכינה, אמרה: +תהלים כ"ב+ אלי אלי למה עזבתני, שמא אתה דן על שוגג כמזיד ועל אונס כרצון? או שמא על שקראתיו כלב, שנאמר +תהלים כ"ב+ הצילה מחרב נפשי מיד כלב יחידתי. חזרה וקראתו אריה, שנאמר +תהלים כ"ב+ הושיעני מפי אריה.
"And she stood in the inner court of the king’s house" (Esther 5:1):
R. Levi said: When she reached the chamber of the idols, the Divine Presence left her. She said, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me" (Psalms 22:2)? Maybe you punish the inadvertent sin like the intentional one, or one done under compulsion like one done willingly? Or is it because I called him "dog" as it says. "Deliver my soul from the sword, mine only one from the power of the dog?" (Psalms 22:21). She straightway retracted and called him lion, as it says, "Save me from the lion’s mouth" (Psalms 22:22).
This text reads Psalms 22 in connection with Esther’s entrance to Ahashverosh’s chamber. God’s Divine Presence leaves Esther as soon as she enters the chamber in which the king’s idols are kept. She then defends herself, as if to accuse God of not realizing that she was there under duress, to save the people of Israel. She also presents another possibility as to why the Divine Presence abandoned her she called Ahashverosh a dog. This is not a proper means by which to refer to a king even a foreign king like Ahashverosh, who was considered wicked by the rabbis. The Talmud demands respect for the non-Jewish authority. Esther’s lack of respect for him may have caused God to leave her!
She restores the Divine Presence to her side by calling Ahashverosh a lion, a proper term of respect. This is also based on the verse in Psalms.
ויהי כראות המלך את אסתר המלכה, אמר רבי יוחנן: שלשה מלאכי השרת נזדמנו לה באותה שעה: אחד שהגביה את צוארה, ואחד שמשך חוט של חסד עליה, ואחד שמתח את השרביט. וכמה? – אמר רבי ירמיה: שתי אמות היה והעמידו על שתים עשרה, ואמרי לה: על שש עשרה, ואמרי לה: על עשרים וארבע. במתניתא תנא: על ששים.
"And it was that when the king saw Esther the queen" (Esther 5:2): R. Yohanan said: Three ministering angels were appointed to help her at that moment; one to make her head erect, a second to endow her with charm and a third to stretch the scepter.
How much [was it stretched]? R. Jeremiah said: It was two cubits long and he made it twelve cubits Some say, sixteen, and some again twenty-four.
In a Baraitha it was stated, sixty.
The verse says that when the king saw Esther "he stretched out the golden scepter in his hand and Esther drew near and touched the scepter." Rabbi Yohanan says that three angels performed three miracles for her at that moment. The first lifted her head up so that Ahashverosh would notice her, the second made her look beautiful and the third extended Ahashverosh’s scepter to make it easier for her to reach.
I know it is tempting to give a certain interpretation to the lengthening of Ahashverosh’s scepter. After all, he just saw Esther and now his scepter grows. I’m not sure if this is what the midrash intended. If so, that’s one long scepter.
וכן אתה מוצא באמתה של בת פרעה, וכן אתה מוצא בשיני רשעים. דכתיב +תהלים ג‘+ שני רשעים שברת, ואמר ריש לקיש: אל תקרי שברת אלא שריבבת,
רבה בר עופרן אמר משום רבי אליעזר, ששמע מרבו, ורבו מרבו: מאתים.
So too you find with the arm of the daughter of Pharaoh, and so you find with the teeth of the wicked, as it is written, "You have broken [shibarta] the teeth of the wicked" (Psalms 3:8) and Resh Lakish said: Do not read shibarta but shirbavta.
Rabbah b. Ofran said in the name of R. Elazar who heard it from his teacher, who heard it from his teacher, [that the scepter was stretched] two hundred [cubits].
Exodus 2:5 says that Pharaoh’s daughter sent out her "amata" to take Moses out of the water. The simple reading of the verse is that she sent her slave woman out to take Moses out. But the rabbis read the word "amata" as "her arm." This is to protect the dignity of Moses a simple slave woman didn’t draw him from the water. The princess did! Her arm was miraculously lengthened and she reached out and took Moses from the water.
Resh Lakish also reads a pun on the word "shibarta" you broke from Psalms 3:8. Elsewhere, the Talmud reads this verse as referring to Og, King of Bashan, whose teeth were lengthened to sixty cubits by God. Those are some long choppers!
Finally, there is a tradition that the scepter grew to 200 cubits. That’s more than the length of a football field. Touchdown to Ahashverosh!
ויאמר לה המלך לאסתר המלכה מה בקשתך עד חצי המלכות ותעש, חצי המלכות ולא כל המלכות, ולא דבר שחוצץ למלכות, ומאי ניהו – בנין בית המקדש.
And the king said to Queen Esther What is your requests? Even to the half of the kingdom, it shall be given you. "Half the kingdom" but not the whole kingdom. And not a thing which would divide the kingdom.
What could that be? The building of the Temple.
The rabbis note that the one thing that Ahashverosh did not offer Esther was the opportunity to go back to the land of Israel and rebuild the Temple. He didn’t even offer her the land of Israel, for that would have cut his kingdom in half. Had she been offered a return to Israel or the Temple, she surely would have asked for it. This may also be there way of explaining why she only asked to save her life, which seems to be a minor request considering he offered to give her half the kingdom.