“Good Morning Rabbi Taub!
Text I Received: See More Below
Just wondering, did Achashveirosh have a unique zechus that sanctioned his progeny to help construct the Beis Hamikdosh?”
In line at the grocery on Shushan Purim, I noticed the first stages of Pesach shelve-stocking. Purim candies were now across from macaroons, and leftover packaged mishaloach manos were near Pesach candy platters.
This overlap was a perfect mashal for our hashkafa during this time of year, when we needn’t erase the residue of one yom tov to begin preparing for the next. In fact, Purim is designated as our start date to begin reviewing the halachos Pesach (see Bach to siman 429).
In this spirit, I shared above a text I received a few weeks ago that has had a tremendous impact on my prism during this Pesach/Purim intersection.
Hashem could bring a yeshuah in a myriad of ways – as Mordechai himself verbalizes to Esther during the events of Purim (“[R]evach v’hatzalah yaamod l’yehudim mimakom acher“, Esther 4:1) – so why was it this rasha’s son, Daryuvush, who came to our spiritual aid?
It may be tempting to dismiss this question, claiming that is was in the zechus of Darius II’s mother,Esther, and not his father (as indeed alluded to in chazal, see, e.g., Vayikra Rabbah 13:5).
However, chazal allude to this texter’s point when they state in the very first midrash to Esther:
“…Says Rav Nechemia, the same Achashveirosh who ordered the halting of the reconstruction of the Beis Hamikdosh, is the same one who later ordered its rebuilding!”
(See meforshim ad loc., as well as to sefer Ezra, for how this was chronologically possible; see also Shabbos 32a and Yalkut to Bereishis, 8:61).
And, to the texter’s actual question, we do find that chazal were bothered by such matters. Famously, chazal wonder what zechus Nevuchadnetzar had so as to gain power and ultimately destroy the Beis Hamikdosh (see Shir HaShirim Rabbah 3:6) -a zechus we still seek to counter with our own steps by shemoneh esreh!
This same question is only enhanced here, concerning the zechus for its constructing!
I was initially only able to find sources that discuss this question in reverse:
The sefer Birchas Tov (printed in 1713) asks, “Why was Esther’s having to marry someone like Achashveirosh Hashem’s chosen path of yeshuah?”.
Others ask this same question with a unique twist:
What zechus did Esther have to rule over all this land (see Bereishis Rabbah 58:3 with HaRash Ozida (a student of the Ari’zl, only published forty years ago).
To these questions, many share a chazal (Bereishis Rabbah 99:3) where they expound upon the language of Binyaman’s beracha, “ze’ev yitaref“, alluding to ‘grabbing’ (see Rashi). They explain that this was referencing Shaul (who was from Binyamin), a zechus that would allow him to ‘grab’ the malchus from Yehudah, as well, it was a reference to Esther (also from Binyamin) enabling her to ‘grab’ ‘kingship power’ from Achashveirosh.
This is alluded to in Esther when the pasuk states ‘Vatilakeich esther el melech achashveirosh’ (2:15; note the feminine tense as well).
The sefer Einei Haeidah (by the baal Shevet Mussar, Rav Eliyahu of Izmir, d. 1729) reminds us of one more, unfortunate, ‘grabbing’ done by shevet Binyamin:
The pilegesh b’givah.
Amazingly, he state that it was for that ignoble and shameful ‘seizing’ that this shevet would need one of its progenies to endure a mida k’neged mida to atone (chelek 1, p.146, first column; see there, and Alshich to 4:7, for further answers).
As for the initial question of Achashveirosh’s zechus, we find that chazal see in Achashveirosh a confounding and duplicitous character.
The gemara even debates if he was a fool or wise man (Megilla 13a).
- On the one hand, chazal state that he hated klal yisroel more so than Haman (Esther Rabbah 7:20)
- On the other, that he was easily manipulated by whomever had his ear at that time (first Memuchan, then Haman, then Esther, etc. see Megillah 15 and Midrash Abbah Gurin).
- While chazal proclaim his wickedness, they also praise how he would bring even his own cases to fair tribunals (see Rashi to Esther 1:13).
It was then when remembered a chazal (Esther Rabbah, 1:15), where they go out of their way to catalogue Achashveirosh’s positive attributes, something chazal were not keen on doing for many other reshaim:
“Said Rav Shmuel bar Ami: four good things were found in him (Achashveirosh)…”
He lists actions done or resisted that relate to his leadership as king.
The midrash concludes by quoting one more positive trait (cf. meseches Megilla 13a where two more are added):
“ Rav Pinchas added, whenever anyone did him a favor, he would record it. Thus we find ‘…and it was written in his book of chronicles that Mordechai…’”
We can easily miss the fact that the whole story of Esther is predicated upon this ‘book of favors’, as well the remarkability of its existence.
Consider how wild this fact is:
Here is a king -of the entire world (see Esther 1:1, with midresh)!-a man who owed nothing to anyone, whose serfs would yield to his any wish, and yet, he still saw the good in people, still recognized an act of kindness toward him!
This is an astonishing part of the story to contemplate.
More, when this same king couldn’t sleep, he -the king of the civilized world! – didn’t request a jester or food, rather, he would sit up and review to whom he owed appreciation!!
Notably, we find the exact opposite approach to life by Haman.
After somehow crawling and sneaking his way into a position of power, and after he is invited by the Queen to a special feast, how does he respond? He bemoans to his wife that all of his recent progress and power, all his newfound prosperity and prestige, is ‘lo shava li’, worth nothing if just one person refuses to bow to him!
What a stark reminder how one with everything will feel as if they have nothing should they focus on the ‘negative’. Conversely, should someone always focus on gratitude and appreciation for the good that was done for them they will live a serene life and, likely, ultimately succeed in the end.
Perhaps it was this inyan of hakaras hatov that was Achashveirosh’s zechus.
I once saw in a sefer (sadly, I can’t remember which) that the failure in this same middah was the catalyst for our sins in the midbar.‘Nirgan’ is the modern Hebrew word for that ungracious, negative, and quarrelsome person who could somehow always find reason to complain. Indeed, Moshe uses this very root term when describing that generation (Devarim 1:27). Even with miraculous food, drink and shelter, some were only able to focus on the negative.
Hakaras hatov is the key to a content existence, and perhaps for becoming a vessel in which Hashem places His berachos.
When I shared this idea in my shul it seemed to resonate. One woman later shared, “Every year I clean, cook and prepare Pesach. I enjoy every minute of these hachonos. But it all gets thrown away when, invariably, at some point during the seder one of my kids (or her husband!) mentions something that I didn’t make, or a new Pesach product that I didn’t buy, or a better matzah that others use, or a sleeping arrangement that I didn’t set”.
As we enter the weeks leading to Pesach I would urge everyone to follow in this one trait of Achashveirosh -start a journal of thanks. Rav Avigdor Miller once wrote that if a person would contemplate – even for a moment – the amount of time, effort and number of people that went into one packaged cookie then their life would be vastly improved.
Gratitude is not a teffila, fulfilled by simply and mindlessly uttering the words ‘Thank You’, as if my incantation. Rather hakaras hatov and appreciation is an attitude, a way of life, and one we should all work on, especially this time of year.
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