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1) EXPOUNDING NAMES

(a) Yehuda is culpable - Dovid didn't kill Shimi, and this allowed Mordechai to be born, that provoked Haman.
(b) Binyamin is culpable - Shaul did not kill Agag, and from him came Haman.
(c) Answer#4 (R. Yochanan): He really comes from Binyamin - he is called Yehudi, because he denied idolatry.

1. Anyone who denies idolatry is called Yehudi, as it says, "There are these Yehudi men ..."

(d) R. Yehuda Ben Pazi, when he would start expounding Chronicles, would say "All your words are one, and we know how to expound them."
(e) "And his wife ha'Yehudiyah gave birth to Yered, the father of Gedor; and Chever, the father of Socho; and Yekusi'el, the father of Zenoach; and these are the sons of Bisyah, the daughter of Paro, whom Mered took."
(f) Question: Why does it call her Yehudiyah?
(g) Answer: Because she denied idolatry, as it says, "Paro's daughter went down to wash on the river".

1. R. Yochanan: She descended to cleanse herself from the idolatry of her father's house.

(h) Question: "Gave birth to" - but she (only) raised (Moshe)!
(i) Answer: This teaches, one who raises an orphan in his house, is considered as if he fathered him.
(j) "Yered" is Moshe - he is called Yered because manna *Yarad* (came down) to Yisrael in his days.
(k) He is called "Gedor" because *Gadar* (he fenced) the breaches in Yisrael.
(l) He is called "Chever" because *Chiber* (he connected) Israel to their father in Heaven.
(m) He is called "Shocho" because he was like a protecting Sukkah to Yisrael.
(n) He is called "Yekusi'el" because *Kavu Yisrael la'Kel* (Yisrael hoped to Hashem) in his day.
(o) He is called "Zano'ach" because *Hizniach* (he made Yisrael abandon) their sins.
(p) "Father of, father of, father of" - A father in Torah, in wisdom, and in prophecy.
(q) Question: "These are the sons of Bisyah, whom Mered took" - but her husband's name is Kalev!
(r) Answer: Hashem said, let Kalev, who *Marad* (rebelled) against the counsel of the spies, marry Bisyah, who rebelled against the idolatry of her father's house.
(s) "That exiled from Yerushalayim" (Rava): (Mordechai) willingly exiled himself.
(t) Question: "And he was raising Hadasah" - she is elsewhere called Esther!
(u) Answer#1 (Beraisa - R. Meir): Her name is Esther; she is called Hadasah, as Tzadikim are, as it says "And he stands among the Hadasim".

1. Answer#2 (R. Yehuda): Her name is Hadasah; she is called Esther, because *Masteres* (she hides) her words, as it says, "Esther does not tell which is her nation".
2. Answer#3 (R. Nechemyah): Her name is Hadasah; she is called Esther, because the nations called her as *Istahar* (the moon).

(v) (Ben Azai): Esther was not tall, nor short, but average, as a Hadasah.
(w) (R. Yehoshua Ben Karcha): Esther was green; a string of Chesed was strung over her (that all considered her beautiful).

(a) Question: "For she has no father or mother" - why must it also say "When her father and mother died"?
(b) Answer (Rav Acha): When her mother became pregnant, her father died; when she was born, her mother died.
(c) "When her father and mother died, Mordechai took her as a Bas (daughter)" (Beraisa - R. Meir): Read it as *Bayis* (a wife).

1. Similarly: "To the poor man is nothing, save one small sheep that he bought, and it grew with him and his sons together, it eats from his bread and drinks from his cup and sleeps in his chest and was to him as a Bas".
2. Question: Because it sleeps in his chest, it is like a daughter?
3. Answer: We must read it, as a Bayis (and so, too, by Esther).

(d) "And the 7 young girls" (Rava): She would count the days of the week through them.
(e) "And he (Hegai) changed her and her girls" (Opinion#1 - Rav): He fed her food of Jews.

1. (Opinion#2 - Shmuel): He fed her flanks of swine.
2. (Opinion#3 - R. Yochanan): He fed her legumes, as it says, "And the steward removed the royal food and gave them legumes".

(f) Question: "6 months with oil ha'Mor" - what is oil ha'Mor?
(g) Answer#1 (R. Chiya Bar Aba): Satchet.

1. Answer#2 (Rav Huna): Oil of olives which did not reach 1/3 growth.
2. (Beraisa - R. Yehuda): *Anfekinon* is oil of olives which did not grow 1/3.
3. The oil makes hair fall out, and softens the skin.

(h) "In the evening she comes, and in the morning she returns" (R. Yochanan): From the detriment of that evil one, we hear his praise, that he would not have relations by day.
(i) "And Esther bore grace" (R. Elazar): This teaches that everyone thought she was from his nation.
(j) "Esther was taken to the king Achashverosh to the palace in the 10th month, Teves" - a month in which a body enjoys (the warmth of) a body.
(k) "And the king loved Esther from all the women, and she bore grace and Chesed in front of him more than all the virgins" (Rav): If he desired the taste of a virgin, he tasted it; the taste of a non-virgin, he tasted it.
(l) "And the king made a great party" - he made a party, and she did not reveal to him; he pardoned taxes (in her honor), and she did not reveal to him; he sent gifts (in her honor), and she did not reveal to him.
(m) "And in the gathering of virgins a 2nd time" - he took counsel with Mordechai, who told him that a woman only envies the thigh of another woman - even so, she did not reveal to him, as it says, "Esther did not reveal to him her lineage".

(n) (R. Elazar): "His eyes will not diminish from (reward due to) a tzadik - as a reward for Rachel's Tzni'us, Shaul descended from her; as a reward for Shaul's Tzni'us, Esther descended from him.

1. Question: What Tzni'us was in Rachel?
2. "Yakov told Rachel that he is her father's brother.
3. Question: Really, he is the son of her father's sister!
4. Answer: This was the conversation: Yakov: Marry me.
5. Rachel: Yes, but father is a deceiver, you cannot beat him.
6. Yakov: I am his brother in deceit.
7. Rachel: Is that allowed for a tzadik?
8. Yakov: Yes - "With a pure one, be clear, with a crooked one, be crooked". What is his trickery?
9. Rachel: I have an older sister, he will not marry me off before her.
10. Yakov gave her signs. When the night come, Rachel thought, my sister will be shamed; she gave the signs to Leah.
11. This explains the verse, "In the morning, behold it is Leah" - until now, it wasn't? Rather, because of the signs which Rachel gave to Leah, Yakov did not know until morning.

(o) Therefore, Rachel merited that Shaul should descend from her.
(p) Question: What Tzni'us was in Shaul?
(q) Answer: "He did not tell the matter of the kingship (to his family) that Shmuel said." Through this, he merited that Esther descend from him.
(r) R. Elazar: When Hashem apportions greatness to a person, he apportions to his children and grandchildren for all generations, as it says, "And he sat them (kings) forever and elevated them".
(s) If he gets haughty, Hashem lowers him, as it says "If they are bound in fetters".
(t) "And Esther fulfilled the instruction of Mordechai" (R. Yirmiyah): She showed menstrual blood to the Chachamim.
(u) "As she used to when he raised her" (Rabah Bar Leima): she would get up from the lap of Achashverosh, immerse, and sit in the lap of Mordechai.
(v) "In those days, Mordechai was sitting in the gate of the king; Bigsan and Seresh got angry" (R. Chiya Bar Aba) - Hashem angered a master on his servants to do the will of a tzadik.

1. The tzadik was Yosef, as it says "And there with us, a young Ivri".

(w) Hashem angered servants on their master to do the will of a tzadik - Mordechai, as it says "and the matter became known to Mordechai.
(x) (R. Yochanan): Bigsan and Seresh were 2 Tarsiyim and spoke in Torsi - "from the day this one (Achashverosh) came, our eyes have not seen sleep; let us put poison in the bowl so he will die."
(y) They did not know that Mordechai was from the Sanhedrin and knew the 70 languages.
(z) One said: "Our watches are not the same." "I will guard both of them." This is as it says, "the matter was investigated and found" - they were not at their watches.

(a) "After these things" (Rava): After Hashem created the cure for the affliction.

1. This is as Reish Lakish said, Hashem does not strike Yisrael unless he creates the cure first, as it says, "In my healing Yisrael, the sin of Efrayim is revealed."
2. By the other nations, he first strikes, and then creates the cure, as it says, "And Hashem will plague Egypt, plague and cure".

(b) "It was scornful in his eyes to strike Mordechai alone" (Rava): At first, Mordechai alone; in the end, the nation of Mordechai - Chachamim; in the end, all the Jews.
(c) "He cast Pur, this is a Goral (lottery)" (Beraisa): Once the lottery fell on the month of Adar, he was exceedingly happy; he said, the lottery fell in the month that Moshe died in.

1. He did not know that on the 7th of Adar he died, and on the 7th of Adar he was born.

(d) "*Yaishno* (There is) one nation"(Rava): No one knows how to speak Lashon Hara like Haman.

1. Haman: Let us destroy them.
2. Achashverosh: I am afraid of their Lord, that he should not do to me as he did to to those before me.
3. Haman: "*Yashnu* (they are sleeping)" from the Mitzvahs.
4. Achashverosh: There are Rabbanim among them.
5. Haman: They are "One nation". Lest you will say I am making a bald patch in your kingdom? "They are scattered among the nations."
6. Lest you will say, there is benefit from them? "*Mefurad* (scattered)", like a *Pereidah* (mule) which bears no fruit.
7. Lest you will say, there is a province (full) of them, "in all provinces of your kingdom".

(e) "And their laws are different from every nation" - they do not eat from us, and don't marry our women nor our men.
(f) "And the laws of the king they do not keep" - all year they avoid work, saying, Today is Shabbos, today is Pesach.
(g) "It is not worth it to the king to leave them" - they eat and drink and despise the kingdom; even if a fly falls in the cup of one of them, he removes the fly and drinks; if my master, the king, touches the cup of one of them, he spills it on the ground and will not drink it.
(h) "If it is good to the king, it will be written to destroy them, and 10,000 talents of silver ..." (Reish Lakish): It was known in front of Hashem that Haman was going to weigh Shekels (to destroy) Yisrael, therefore he preceded their Shekels to his.

1. This is as the Mishnah: On the 1st of Adar we announce about the Shekels and Kilayim (mixed seeds).

(i) "The king said to Haman, the money is given to you, and the people, to do with it as is good in your eyes."