Megillah, Daf Tet Vav, Part 5
Introduction
This section contains a long baraita with multiple explanations for why Esther invited Haman to her feast. After all, she could have just invited Ahashverosh and told him about Haman’s plot without the presence of Haman.
יבא המלך והמן… אל המשתה. תנו רבנן: מה ראתה אסתר שזימנה את המן? רבי אליעזר אומר: פחים טמנה לו, שנאמר +תהלים ס"ט+ יהי שלחנם לפניהם לפח,
"Let the king and Haman come to a banquet" (Esther 5:4). Our Rabbis taught: What did Esther see that she invited Haman?
R. Elazar said: She set a trap for him, as it says. "Let their table before them become a snare" (Psalms 69:23).
Esther invited Haman as a trap. When a person eats a good meal, and drinks good wine, he feels relaxed. It is at that moment that he is most vulnerable. Once food and liquor loosen him up, he might also speak too freely and thereby be ensnared by his own words.
רבי יהושע אומר: מבית אביה למדה, שנאמר +משלי כ"ה+ אם רעב שונאך האכילהו לחם וגו‘,
R. Joshua said: She learned to do so from her father’s house, as it says. "If your enemy be hungry give him bread to eat" (Proverbs 25:21-22).
Esther learned this strategy from "her father’s house." Since Esther was an orphan this phrase cannot be taken literally. Rather, commentators understand that she learned it in school, when studying the book of Proverbs.
רבי מאיר אומר: כדי שלא יטול עצה וימרוד.
R. Meir said, So that he should not form a conspiracy and rebel.
Esther wisely kept Haman close so that when he heard her accusation he would be immediately caught. He would not be able to begin a rebellion against Ahashverosh.
רבי יהודה אומר: כדי שלא יכירו בה שהיא יהודית,
R. Judah said: So that they should not discover that she was a Jew.
Had she not invited Haman, he might have realized that she was a Jew and that she planned to influence the king to annul his decree. This might have caused him to move up the date of the planned massacre.
רבי נחמיה אומר: כדי שלא יאמרו ישראל אחות יש לנו בבית המלך ויסיחו דעתן מן הרחמים.
R. Nehemiah said: So that Israel should not say, We have a sister in the palace, and so should neglect [to pray for] mercy.
R. Nehemiah reads Esther’s strategy as directed at the Jews. She made it look to the other Jews as if she was not pleading on their behalf. They would see that she had invited Haman and this would cause them to continue to pray for mercy from God. This section seems to reveal a tension in the story what saves the Jews their prayers to God or Esther and Mordecai’s political machinations? The Talmud casts the story as if Esther purposefully shapes her politics to encourage Jews to continue praying for God’s mercy.
רבי יוסי אומר: כדי שיהא מצוי לה בכל עת.
R. Yose said: So that he should always be at hand for her.
As they say, Keep your friends close and your enemies even closer.
רבי שמעון בן מנסיא אומר: אולי ירגיש המקום ויעשה לנו נס.
R. Shimon b. Menassiah said: [She said], Perhaps God will notice and perform a miracle for us.
Esther invited Haman so that God could see her desperation. The situation of the Jews was so dire that she had to invite their archenemy to her own feast.
רבי יהושע בן קרחה אומר: אסביר לו פנים כדי שיהרג הוא והיא.
R. Joshua b. Korha said: [She said], I will encourage him so that he may be killed, both he and I.
Esther invited Haman to her feast so that Ahashverosh would think that the two of them were having an adulterous relationship. The king would kill them both and thereby save the rest of the Jews. This highlights Esther’s willingness to martyr herself.
רבן גמליאל אומר: מלך הפכפכן היה.
אמר רבן גמליאל: עדיין צריכין אנו למודעי. דתניא, רבי אליעזר המודעי אומר: קנאתו במלך, קנאתו בשרים,
Rabban Gamaliel said: [She said]. Ahasuerus is a flipflopping king.
R. Gamaliel said: We still require the Modai, as it has been taught: R. Eliezer of Modiin says, She made the king jealous of him and she made the princes jealous of him.
Rabban Gamaliel says that Esther realized that Ahashverosh was a flipflopper (someone who says one thing and then changes his mind). Esther invited Haman lest Ahashverosh were to change his mind after she told him about the decree. With Haman there she hoped he would kill him immediately.
רבה אמר: +משלי ט"ז+ לפני שבר גאון,
Rabbah said: [She said], "Pride goes before the fall" (Proverbs 16:18).
Rabbah says that Esther wanted to inflate Haman’s sense of pride for "pride goes before the fall."
אביי ורבא דאמרי תרוייהו: +ירמיהו נ"א+ בחמם אשית את משתיהם וגו‘,
Abaye and Rava both of whom said,: [She said], "With their poison I will prepare their feast" (Jeremiah 51:39).
Abaye and Rava say that Esther learned from Jeremiah that the downfall of the wicked comes from the context of a feast. The verse in Jeremiah refers to the downfall of Belshazzar. He and his men had returned from a victory over Darius and Cyrus and settled down to a feast. At that very feast he was killed.
אשכחיה רבה בר אבוה לאליהו, אמר ליה: כמאן חזיא אסתר ועבדא הכי?
אמר ליה: ככולהו תנאי וככולהו אמוראי.
Rabbah b. Abbuha found Elijah and said to him: Which of these reasons prompted Esther to act as she did? He replied: [All] the reasons given by all the Tannaim and all the Amoraim.
Elijah the ultimate peacemaker, says that Esther acted out of all the reasons proffered by the Tannaim and Amoraim. Interestingly, when it comes to halakhic debates, Elijah is imagined as settling them, i.e. determining which side is correct. But here, in an aggadic debate, he is presented as accepting all of the answers.