I don’t know whether any of you were ever taught about what is one of the most interesting and perplexing questions in the reading of the Megillah on Purim. Perhaps we’re so attuned to what happens in the story that we don’t even notice it. We all know the story so well that we accept the really strange as sounding normal.
Esther, or Hadassah as she is known in Hebrew (Esther is a Persian name), had become queen over all 127 provinces of King Ahashuveros’s empire. The King did not know that Esther was Jewish. Enter Haman (Boo! Boo!), who had talked the King into allowing him to rid the Persian Empire of all its Jews.
Mordecai got the word to Esther that she must go and talk to her husband, the King, and ask him to save her, their people, our people. At first reluctant, Esther decided to risk her life and go unannounced to see the King.
And after all of that—the plot, the danger, the bravery—WHAT DID ESTHER ASK FOR?
I asked our children—those in Religious School, Bat Mitzvah Training, Confirmation—what would they ask the King for?
They said:
Save me and my people.
Get rid of Haman and/or his decree.
King, why would you promote Haman when you are so nice and he is so mean?
All very good things to ask of the King. You have been granted access to see the King; don’t waste the chance to change what Haman wants to do.
No, no, no! So, what did Esther ask? She said, “Come on over to my place for dinner”. What? What on earth was she thinking? Or was she thinking?
The answer, of course, is yes, she was thinking, and very cleverly, at that.
When she talked to the King (and to Haman), she was in the Palace. She was at her husband’s house, on his territory. Even the children at our Religious School understand that when they go over to a friend’s house to play, the friend is in charge. At their home they are in charge.
Esther started the conversation in the Palace, on the King’s turf and on Haman’s turf. And she brought the discussion instead to her house, where she was in charge.
Esther’s request to the King showed that Esther was not only beautiful, but that she was smart—indeed, very, very smart.
B’Shalom
Rabbi Stanley Halpern