Rav Elchonon in Maseches Kesuvos has a Dvar Halacha.
Esther says in 4:16 וְכַאֲשֶׁר אָבַדְתִּי, אָבָדְתִּי Meaning, she was willing
to go to Achashveiroish,
however, just like she was Ovaditi from her parents’ house so too she was
Ovaditi from Mordechai in that she became Assur to him when she went to live with
Achashveiroish willingly. (Tosafos asks why didn’t Mordechai give a Get and
answers that Mordechai thought then the story would be out there.)
There
are 2 difficulties with this. Someone who is married and lives with someone
other than her husband B’oines is not Assur to her husband who is a Yisrael.
Let’s say she was Assur to her husband, this should have happened anyway years
before as this part of the story took place in the 12th year of
Achashveiroish’s reign. Esther had already been married to Achashveiroish for
an extended period. So why does Esther say here
וְכַאֲשֶׁר אָבַדְתִּי, אָבָדְתִּי ?
Rav
Elchonon in Koivetz Shiurim Ois 8 & 9 has an important insight into when
people are compelled to do something. Basically, he is coming to answer a Rambam.
The Rambam says if someone is forced to bow down to an Avoida Zorah, the
Halacha is he should get killed and not bow down. This person bows down and
doesn’t ask to be killed. The Rambam says that he violated the Halachos of
Kiddush Hashem. Howevr, as far as Dinei Avoida Zorah he isn’t Chayuv Misa
because he was an Oines and Oines Rachmana Patrei.
Rav
Elchonon asks that this Rambam contradicts a Rambam in the 5th Perek of Hilchos
Yesoidei Hatorah. The Rambam there says that if a person is ill and the only
way to be healed is to eat from the fruit of an Asheira tree, which is
Abaz’rai’hu of Avoida Zorah, that you must be killed and not to eat the fruit.
The Rambam says if that person were to eat the fruit from that tree then he
gets Malkus. This contradicts the person who bowed down to Avoida Zorah and
didn’t receive a punishment. The Ohr Sameach asks this question as well on the
Rambam and gives the same Teretz.
Rav
Elchonon is Mechaleik between 2 types of Oines. There is one type of Oines that
a person is forced physically, meaning someone points a gun at him and forces
him to do something. There the act is not really his act. If someone would take
a person and physically bend his body in front of an Avoida Zorah, we wouldn’t
say that the person is bowing. The other person is using this person’s body to
bow. So too if someone points a gun at someone and asks him to bow to an Avoida
Zorah, the Rambam considers it the man with the gun who is doing the Mai’se. So
it is an Oines and he is Patur.
This is
not so with eating from the Asheira tree. This is not the same type of Oines.
In the case of the Avoida Zorah, this person would be delighted if the Avoida
Zorah would just disappear. Not so the person who is ill and needs the food of
the tree for his Hatzolah. If someone would take that fruit away, the person
would be distraught. So someone who does a Hatzolah because of Pikuach
Nefashois does not have the same rules of Oines and he is punished.
This is
the Pshat with Esther. All along when Esther was married to Achashveiroish when
she was physically forced to live with Achashveiroish, and we know that since
Isha Karka Oilam Hi that she is not required to let herself be killed instead
of Znus, and therefore since it was an Oines, she didn’t become Assur to her
husband.
Not so
when she went to Achashveiroish as a means of Hatzolah for Klal Yisrael.This
would be comparable to eating from the Asheira tree. She did it and she is
still Assur to her husband Mordechai.
This
Pshat actually helps us appreciate the Gadlus of the Chofetz Chaim. This Rav
Elchonon and Ohr Sameach, the Mishna Berura says in half a line. In the Halacha
of Brocha Rishonah of Birchas Hapeirus in Siman (204) Raish Daled, the Taz asks
a Stira between two Se’ifim. In 240:8 the Rama says if someone forces you to
eat something, you don’t make a Brocha. In 240:9 it says, if someone eats Treif
because of a Sakana, you do make a Brocha. The Taz asks that it is a Stira
because both are an Oines and yet by someone forcing you to eat you don’t make
a Brocha and when you are an Oines to eat Treif for a Refua you do make a
Brocha?
The
Mishna Berura says when you are forced to eat something you are an Oines in the
Mai’se itself, which is like Esther all the years living with Achashveiroish.
On the other hand when someone is ill and takes something to eat that is
Hatzalah through an Issur and you do make a Brocha because it is not called an
Oines Gamur.
The
Minchas Elazar brings a Zohar to explain why וְכַאֲשֶׁר
אָבַדְתִּי, אָבָדְתִּי is only
applicable here and not previously. Before this incident, any time
Achashveiroish wanted to be Mezane, Esther would send a Shaid in her place.
This Shaid was a spirit that would take on the physical form of Esther and she
was never Mezane. Now for the first time she was going herself which is why she
said וְכַאֲשֶׁר אָבַדְתִּי, אָבָדְתִּי. Now of course this is difficult Al Pi
Pshat because as we know she had a child. We know that she couldn’t have become
pregnant that night because that was in middle of Achashveiroish’s 12th year of
his reign and Achashveiroish’s reign was for 14 years. This would mean that
Daryaveish would have been 1 year and 3 months old at the time that he took
over the kingdom and gave permission to the Yidden to rebuild the BaisHamikdash
which is highly unlikely. We know that he was the one that gave the permission
because the Gemara says that Koiresh was a Melech Kosher. Daryaveish was
Koiresh. So Al Pi Pshat it doesn’t fit well.
The
Minchas Elazar writes if she was able to send a Shaid every other time than why
couldn’t she send a Shaid this time as well to be with Achashveiroish? He Teitches that Mordechai warned her as it
says in 4:14 יד כִּי אִם-הַחֲרֵשׁ תַּחֲרִישִׁי, בָּעֵת הַזֹּאת--רֶוַח
וְהַצָּלָה יַעֲמוֹד לַיְּהוּדִים מִמָּקוֹם אַחֵר, וְאַתְּ וּבֵית-אָבִיךְ
תֹּאבֵדוּ; וּמִי יוֹדֵעַ--אִם-לְעֵת כָּזֹאת, הִגַּעַתְּ לַמַּלְכוּת Meaning, if you are going to do magic this
time and send a Shaid again, the Yidden will be saved through Shaidim (the
Sitra Achra) and nothing will remain of you. Hatzolah that comes about through
using the Sitra Achra has no Kiyum, it doesn’t remain, and this time you have
to go yourself.
אין תגובות:
הוסף רשומת תגובה