We continue with the second perek of Megillat Esther.
We are told that Esther was brought to Ahashverosh in the month of Tevet. As we know, every detail of Megilat Esther describes a miracle.
What is the miracle of the month of Tevet ?
The Gaon of Vilna explains that it’s related to the end of the chapter, where we are told that Bigtan and Teresh plotted to kill the king.
As we know, Mordechai overheard them and saved the king’s life. This was written in the book of records, and then, the night before Haman planned to kill Mordechai, Ahashverosh couldn’t sleep, read the book and remembered the incident.
But why exactly did the guards want to kill Ahashverosh? The Gemarah tells us a very simple reason. They were the night guards while Ahashverosh had his beauty pageant.
On a regular night, the king didn’t need to have guards outside of his room, as he’d be sleeping. But due to the beauty pageant, he was busy with outside guests, so his security team posted special guards outside his room to supervise. These two guards were getting burnt out from these late nights, night after night. This is what caused them to plot the poisoning. They grew weary of the responsibility.
The Gaon of Vilna points out how Hashem is controlling every aspect. Hashem worked it out that the time of year in which this took place; the a month of Tevet, entailed a very long shift for the night guards.
The nights of Tevet are long, and the days short.
If it had been at a different time of year, with shorter nights, their shifts would have ended earlier, and they would have been better able to handle their schedule. But they were on duty from 4 PM till 6 AM, and thus could not handle that long night watch.
The Vilna Gaon shows us how we can see, even from the month of the year, that Hashem controls every detail.
It is all dictated by God, in the larger plan.
Even a seemingly unimportant detail is truly important.
Another important aspect to this story is that Mordechai was able to understand the language that they were speaking. They were speaking a strange language, and assumed that no one knew what they were saying. So how did Mordechai understand them? The answer is that Mordechai was from the remnants of the Sanhedrin, and in order to be in the Sanhedrin, one had to know all 70 languages. This was because translators were not permitted when a witness was testifying. Things get lost in translation, as the saying goes. This might seem like a minor detail, but, again, this minor detail was necessary to set up the miracle.
Everything that a person goes through is for a reason. A person might wonder why his parents are making him learn Spanish in high school, or why he has to wait in an airport for two hours for his flight (which was when this class was composed),
but everything is part of the plan, and that is a lesson of the Megila.
Have a wonderful day.