ESTHER 1:11: Ahashverosh: money or ego?

להראות העמים והשרים את יופיה

Yesterday, we began to analyze the dysfunctional character of King Ahashverosh and how his psychological problems affected the decisions, that almost lead to the annihilation of the Jewish people.

King Ahashverosh’s emotional insecurity made him needy of the applause of others. And since his material resources were unlimited, the King decided to invest a fortune in throwing a mega-party that lasts 187 days.

It is very interesting that when the Megillah explains why King Ahashverosh made this party, it says literally: “to show (בהראותו, to display, exhibit or show off) his wealth and the glory of his kingdom.” In other words, this party was not an act of charity for the poor. The King did not distribute bread, but crazy amounts of alcohol. This was a feast that he made for himself. To show off and exhibit his greatness and wealth.

Rabbi Almosnino, an expert in musar (Jewish psychology of human behavior) explains that there are two elements that might drive the behavior of a dysfunctional ruler or leader: money and image (ego). For some politicians, money is priority. These people will try to get to power only to accumulate money, and they would be willing even to sacrifice their image in order to get more money. For other leaders, image and ego are above money. These people, unlike the first, will be willing to sacrifice all their money in order to achieve a positive image that would make them feeling good about themselves. Ahashverosh, says Rabbi Almosnino, belonged to this second category. He squandered an enormous fortune with a single purpose in mind: to improve his image in the eyes of all his subjects, and thus, boosting his own ego.

Why is it important to know that for Ahashverosh his ego was more important than his money? Rabbi Almosnino said that when the reader reaches the most dramatic part of the Purim story, when King Ahashverosh approves Haman’s plan to eliminate the Jewish people, one would think that perhaps it would be possible to bribe the King, offering him more money than what Haman offered him in order to cancel this terrible edict. However, once we know that for this King his ego is more important than his money, we realize that there was not an option to bribe the King. Not because this king is very honest and incorruptible. But because this king is so insecure that he cannot backtrack on something he already decreed.

Arrogant people, explains Rabbi Abraham Twersky, suffer from low self-esteem. This emotional insecurity leads to arrogance, an unconscious compensatory attitude. Arrogance prevents a person from saying, “I was wrong”. Admitting a mistake is virtually impossible for an arrogant person, because the insecurity of that arrogant individual. Acknowledging a mistake would imply the recognition that one is not so great and perfect as he wants to “show off”. Admitting a mistake would go against the psychological pretension of perfection. And the social mask of flawlessnessless will collapse. Only a wise and humble person, that is, an individual who has a healthy dose of self-esteem, is able to admit making mistakes. Since there is no inflated ego to be deflated ….

The insecure Ahashverosh admitted no mistakes. (as we will see later on, in Esther 8: 8, the original decree to kill the Jews was never repealed: Mordekhai and Esther had to write a completely new decree, allowing the Jews to defend themselves)

One more thing: at the end of the party, the King wanted to continue “showing” more. And once he had shown all his wealth, his royal wine, his golden bowls, his garden, etc. there was only one more thing for him to display: his trophy wife Vashti. The Megilla (1:11) using explicitly the same verb as before: להראות (to show off), says that Ahashverosh summoned “Queen Vashti to show her beauty to the subjects of the kingdom and to the ministers, because she was very beautiful.” Our Hakhamim explained that Ahashverosh intended to exhibit his wife without clothes, and she obviously refused.

This party, as we will explain BH tomorrow, ended very badly for Ahashverosh.

The message is very clear and very strong. Vanity and ostentation leads to self-destruction. This infinitely rich, but miserably insecure and arrogant, King cannot control his exhibitionist impulses. And at the end of the party, in which he invested so much to boost his ego, he ends up dishonored and humiliated by all (היה אחשורוש שחוק לכל העולם).

To be continued…

ESTHER 1:5: Ahashverosh’s dangerous vulnerability

ובמלאת הימים האלה עשה המלך לכל העם

In the coming days we will concentrate on the King Ahashverosh, who was not a paragon of virtue, and see how important is to know his psychological profile 1. to better understand how the story of Megillat Esther unfolds and 2. for our own moral education.

The first chapter of the Megilla describes two major parties. A first celebration which lasted 180 days, and the second, which lasted seven days. In this second fest, the Persian emperor showed all his “kindness” handing out free and unlimited wine for a week, to all the people of Shushan. Giving free stuff to people was, and remains to this day, the favorite way demagogues and populist leaders use to increase their popularity.

But Ahashverosh had deeper personal and emotional needs, to act the way he acted.

To discover the psychological profile of Ahashverosh no better commentary than that of Rabbi Moshe Almosnino (1515-1580). Rabbi Almosnino wrote a wonderful book “Yede Moshe” where similarly to the way a psychoanalyst examines the profile of her patient from therapy sessions, Rabbi Almosnino examines the personality of Ahashverosh from a deep “psychoanalysis” of the the text of the Megilla (it is important to note that following a long tradition of Hakhamim Sephardim, Rabbi Almosnino was able to analyze the text, Peshat, also independently from the Midrash).

I will summarize his words:

King Ahashverosh was a great soldier, a great strategist and an eximious “Conquistador”. But unlike Cyrus and Darius, who besides being great fighters were also admired rulers, King Ahashverosh did not have many virtues as monarch. And when he was not on the battlefield, sheathing a sword and mercilessly killing the enemy, he did not know how to act. The main ambition of this great “conqueror of lands” was to “conquer” his own people. And in this business, probably due to his lacking of social skills, he was not very successful. And that is why outside the battlefield, the great Ahashverosh was a very insecure man.

Rabbi Almosnino says that “the king made a feast for all his subjects” because the King became a people pleaser. It was so much his desperation to be liked, loved and admired by all (in order to feel good about himself) that he who was willing to throw the biggest and most lavish parties to do so.

Why is it important for us to know this? Rabbi Almosnino asks. And he explains that the Megilla here anticipates to us that this insecure King was not going to make decisions that will necessarily be good for his Empire or his subjects. This Emperor’s decisions will be made based mainly on how those decisions would affect his need to be loved by his people, and especially by his closest advisers, those who most flattered him.

This psychological weakness of the King will be exploited to the maximum by his advisers. The machiavellian advisors of the King, always looking for their own benefit, knew that a king who does not enjoy a healthy dose of self-esteem, is an easy prey to their maneuvers. They just have to praise him enough for the King to become emotionally dependent on their approval. And the man who better exploited this vulnerability of the King was the evil Haman.

The Megilla tells us in detail how Haman presented to the King his plan to eliminate the Jews. For Haman, as we all know, it was a personal mega-vendetta against Mordekhai. But Haman described his plan to the King not in terms of his own interest but disguised as the interests and personal benefit of the King and his image. “These people [the Jews] do not follow your orders … It is not in the interest of the King that these people would be left alive”. Ahashverosh would do anything that would improve his image, and vice versa. That’s why the King did not ask Haman who this people are, what benefits or detriments this decision would bring for the empire, etc. Incredibly Ahashverosh accepts Haman’s request at face value without questioning him, just in order to please his favorite sycophant. On the other hand, Haman, very cleverly, did not reveal the name of the people he wanted to eliminate. Haman suggests the king to get rid of an anonymous “people”, “distant”, mostly unknown and, above all, disobedient. As if this decision was not going to hurt at all to the image of Ahashverosh. Quite the opposite.

A King with infinite power over the lives of his subjects, who suffers from such deep psychological vulnerabilities, is a dangerous ticking bomb. And we, the Yehudim, were about to be the main victims of the King’s tragic dysfunctions.

Tomorrow, BH, we will see how Ahashverosh ‘s insecurity unfolded into an extreme need of showing-off his wealth.

ESTHER 1:1-3: Who was Ahashverosh?

To appreciate a little better the story of Megillat Esther, we are analyzing some historical data that will help us understand the events recounted in this wonderful book.

First, we will focus on identifying Ahashverosh, which is also the intention of the first pasuq (biblical verse) of the Megilla. With this data, I think we will better realize the magnitude of the miracle of Purim.

The ancient tradition of the Jews of Iran is that King Ahashverosh was the emperor who in Persian language is known as “Khashayarsha”. And Khashayarsha is none other than the famous King Xerxes (also known among Gentiles as “Ahasuerus”), who reigned from 486-465, before the common era.

Cyrus (reigned 559-529 BCE) was the first Persian emperor. Then followed his son Cambyses (528-521 BCE), and then the famous Darius (521-486 BCE), the predecessor of Ahashverosh. Already at the time of Cyrus, the Persian Empire was huge and reached all the way to India (in Hebrew “Hoddu”). But Darius expanded it further, conquering several civilizations of North Africa: Egypt, Libya, Sudan, and Ethiopia (in Hebrew “Kush”). This was the huge empire inherited by Ahashverosh.

The Megilla begins with this description. The first pasuq of the Megilla reads:

ESTHER 1: 1 “And it came to pass in the days of Ahashverosh, the Ahashverosh who reigned from India to Ethiopia, a total of 127 provinces.”

Rabbi Moshe Almosnino, in his extraordinary book on the Megillot “Yede Moshe” explains why the Megilla started with this information, which might seem superfluous. As discussed yesterday, the Persian Empire was the largest known to humankind, and it was never larger than in the times of Ahashverosh. This information is relevant to the story of Purim. Because now we know that ALL the Jews of that time lived under the Persian empire. And when Haman decreed the elimination of the “Persian Jews”, he did not target just the Jews of Shushan, but absolutely all the Jewish people. As this pasuq says, the Kingdom of Ahashverosh extended to Israel and it even included Egypt, where it is estimated that there were some Jewish colonies. IN THE TIME OF AHASHVEROSH THERE WERE NO JEWS LIVING OUTSIDE THE PERSIAN EMPIRE. That gives us an idea first, of the magnitude of the danger experienced by the Jewish people during Purim: I think that with the exception of the Shoah, there was never a time the Jewish people were so close to an impending and total elimination. Second, as Rabbi Almosnino says, this fact helps us to appreciate even more the “godel hanes”, i.e., the extraordinary Providential protection HaShem granted us, saving us from total extermination.

ESTHER 1: 3. “In the third year of his reign, [Ahashverosh] made a feast for all his nobles and officials: all the army officers of Persia and Media, and the princes and nobles of the provinces”

Although the Kingdom of Ahashverosh was very large, for the emperors it was never enough. Darius had left an incomplete mission: to conquer Europe. And the gateway to the conquest of Europe was Greece. Darius died before he could conquer Greece. Ahashverosh then, had as the main goal of his life to conquer Greece.

Ahashverosh or Xerxes is known in world history for leading the largest military expedition in the history of mankind. According to Herodotus, who is considered the father of modern history (and who began his career with the story of Xerxes) the Persian emperor prepared an army of 5 million (to be more precise: 5,283,220 men) between soldiers and auxiliaries, to conquer Greece (He ultimately failed!).

In its third pasuq the Megilla tells us that Ahashverosh made a feast which lasted for six months, and then he threw another party that lasted for seven days. Some say that the first party was actually a “smokescreen” to bring together all the rulers and the generals of the Empire, and spend together six months organizing the army of 5 million soldiers.

There are two facts in the Megilla that seem to corroborate this theory.

1.The first guests mentioned in this pasuq are indeed the Military chiefs of Persia and Media (the Medes were allies of the Persians).

2. This would also explain why Ahashverosh, who was very fond of alcohol, got drunk only on the last day of the second party: as if during the first six months Ahashverosh, the commander in chief of the army, had to be sober and lucid not to lose any detail of the preparation of this monumental military expedition. After six months of intensive work, the monarch allowed himself to celebrate for seven days, without any limitations. Historical data also seems to confirm the theory of the smokescreen, as it is estimated that Ahashverosh began preparing his expedition in 483 BC (see this), that is the third year of his reign, as it is mentioned with exquisite precision in our Megilla .

To be continued…

ESTHER 3:8, Credit, an old Jewish innovation

ישנו עם אחד מפוזר ומפורד בין העמים בכל מדינות מלכותך

As we explained yesterday, the Jews were deported from Israel in 586 BCE. At that time, more than 100,000 Jews were living in the Babylonian Empire. The Jews were second class citizens, virtual prisoners of war of the Babylonians. But the Jewish resilience prevailed. Not only they did not assimilate but in a few decades, especially with the surge of the Persian Empire (538 BCE), the Jews began to thrive. While in Israel, for centuries, the Jews dedicated mainly to agriculture, now they discovered a new enterprise: trade. The huge Persian Empire was a perfect international free-trade-zone. Some examples.

According to Samuel Kurinsky (see below) the Jews discovered how to produce glass (from sand) including ornamental glass-beads. The Jews exported glass-beads to China in exchange for gold and silver mining rights.

The Jews also exported to China linen, made in Israel, (thus helping their brothers in Yerushalayim) and imported Chinese silk. Kurinsky explains that Chinese people fancied linen as much as the west fancied Chinese silk. Because of the international network they developed, Jews were very prominent in the famous Silk Road. “…the Jewish enclaves within the region, formed the hub of a network of trade routes that fanned out across Asia to the East and West. Jewish merchants and artisans established colonies at strategic points along those routes….”.

Jews were also very strong in the spices trade. They imported exotic spices from China and India, which were in high demand in the west.

But all scholars agree that the most successful Jewish enterprise was “credit”. We have records, almost 900 clay tablets, of two families of Jewish bankers, among them the Murashu family. (see this). Imagine promissory notes, written in Hebrew, that were recognized and honored by other Jewish merchants and financiers in the remote corners of the Persian Empire, which extended from India-China to Sudan-Ethiopia. “Jewish bankers made finance capital a factor of Persian industrial development and initiated a system of credit that Jewish traders wove into the world economy. The surviving records of two Jewish banking families are among the most revealing documents of the Persian period. Jews supplied the credit and capital for the expanding economy of the region.”

Probably referring to this international trade-hub, Haman described the Jews to Ahashverosh with great accuracy (Esther 3:8)”There is a certain people spread and dispersed among the peoples, in all the provinces of your kingdom…”

It seems that by the time of Ahashverosh, the Jews in the Persian Empire were economically successful. This could also explain why the majority of the Jewish population (probably over 200,000 Jews) choose to remain in the prosperous Diaspora instead of joining those who returned to Erets Israel in 538 BCE.

For more information about the innovations and entrepreneurship of the Jews in their first diaspora read: “Samuel Kurinsky – The eighth day: the hidden history of the Jewish contribution to civilization”

PURIM: Why Mordekhay did not bow down to Haman?

When King Aḥashverosh appointed Haman as his Chief of Staff he ordered all the officers of the King’s court to bow-down to him. Everyone did, except Mordekhay. As we explained yesterday (here) Haman’s reaction (his personal revenge!) to Mordekhay disobedience was the plan to execute all the Jews.

We know of other occasions in which Jews have bowed down to others as a signal of respect. So, why Mordekhay refused to honor Haman? The key to understand Mordekhay’s disobedience seems to be the word: “kore’im” (Esther 3:2) “everyone knelt and bowed down to Haman”. In the Tora the verb leahishtaḥavot (bowing down) is applied mostly in the context of prostrating in front of God. But we also find many times in the Tora that Jews bowed down to other people as an expression of respect. Abraham bowed down to the Hittites, Ya’aqob to Esav and Moshe to Yitro. What we never find, however, is that people kneeled down to other people for respect. Knelling down (keri’a) has a religious connotation. As an expression of honor, kneeling down is an act of religious worship. We say in ‘alenu leshabeaḥ that we reserved “kneeling down” exclusively to HaShem (ki LEKHA tikhra’ kol berekh)!

As our Rabbis explained, kneeling to Haman (or to the idol he was carrying) was an act of idol-worshiping. Mordekhay was following the example of Ḥanania, Mishael and Azaria, the three Jews that 100 years before him refused to kneel down to worship Nebuhadnezzar statue, and were condemned to death. Mordekhay assumed that, same as Nebuhadnezzar, King Aḥashverosh will order his execution as well. Mordekhay was ready to sacrifice his life (‘al qiddush haShem) to avoid idolatry, setting the example to all the Jews.

READ HERE the story of Ḥanania, Mishael and Azaria, called by their Aramaic names: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego.

Haman, the genius megalomanic

The villain of the story of Purim is Haman ben Hamedata, a descendant of Amaleq. King Aḥashverosh appointed Haman as his Vizier (or Chief of Staff). The King also issued an unusual order (Esther 3:2) all the officers of the Kings’s court must bow-down to Haman. Everyone followed the King’s order except one man: Mordekhay (tomorrow, BH, we will discuss why) . When Haman learned about Mordekhay’s affront, “he disdained to lay hands on Mordekhay alone” (3:6), and anticipating the practices of the mafia, he decided instead to kill all of Mordekhay’s brothers and sisters: the entire Jewish nation. As we have explained, the Persian empire covered all the civilized world, so every single Jew in the planet was a target of Haman’s decree. Including more than 50,000 Jews that were living by that time in Israel.

How would Haman execute his pan? To persuade the King was very easy. Among other things, because there were zero operating costs involved. On the contrary: in exchange for his executive order Haman offered the King a lot of money for the Royal treasure (3:9). Now, how would Haman recruit so many soldiers and forces to find and execute hundreds of thousands of Jews?

Haman came up with a shrewd evil plan, which the Megila briefly describes with two words: ushlalam la-boz. A Royal Decree was sent saying: “If you kill a Jew on a certain day (Adar 13), you are not to be prosecuted. The police will not oppose you. Moreover: you can keep the Jew’s money, his assets and his properties”. It was a genius plan! There was no need for professional army forces, trains to transport the Jews to death camps or gas chambers. Our Rabbis explained that there was no shortage of volunteers. Many people, particularly those who were not sympathetic to the Jews, were fighting among themselves to be the first to kill the Jews and keep their money!

Had Haman succeeded (and he was very close!) it would have been the end of the Jewish people!

At the end, as we all know, Mordekhay and Esther devised an effective plan, and HaShem, from behind the scenes, saved us from extinction.

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