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grâCHOOSE ONE-Compliments
of the Yated Neeman Publication
A Bit About Purim
A
Purim Lesson About Anger
A
Bit About Purim
Tze-ena Purim-18 Adar: Yemenite Jews suffered one of the most bitter diasporas
of all Jews through the centuries, and the stories they relate of disasters and
near disasters that befell the community would fill a heavy book. In "Kovetz
Teiman", Yosef Meyuchas relates how the king's ministers were jealous of
his position as the viceroy of the king, and they schemed to remove him by
spreading a base libel about him. When the king's son went on a trip to the
Jewish quarter accompanied by two of the king's ministers to see the
celebrations one Purim, the ministers murdered him in cold blood as he descended
from the horse. Then the ministers hurried to the king and told him, "The
Jews decided to revenge Haman by killing your son! They murdered him!" When
the king heard this, he became enraged, and he commanded that the Jewish street
be closed off. He demanded that the murderer of his son be given over to him
within 3 days, or else he would burn all the Jews alive. The Jews' happiness
that Purim was turned in an instant to mourning.
The Jews hurried to the synagogue and fasted and cried out to Hashem. In the meantime, the king was sitting next to the bed on which his dead son was lying. Suddenly the son opened his eyes and murmured to the king, "Your ministers stabbed me." and then immediately fell dead on the couch again. When the king heard this, he commanded that the ministers who had murdered his son be hung. The Jews' mourning and fasting was turned back into happiness. The Tze-ena Jews decreed that the 17th of Adar would be a fast, and the 18th of Adar would be a second Purim when feasting and praising Hashem would be the order of the day. This story was provided by the Yated Neeman Publication...
A Lesson About Anger
"But Queen Vashti
refused to come in accordance with the King's
commandment as conveyed by the chamberlains. The King became
furious
(vayiktzof), and his anger burned within him" (Esther 1:12).
The Talmud asks a
question on this verse: "But why did Achashveirosh
become so angry?" (Megillah 12b).
The Talmud then goes
on to explain that Vashti, in addition to
ignoring
his royal command, added insult to injury by sending him the
following
message: "My father's stable boy would drink a thousand
barrels of wine
and
stay sober, whereas you get stone drunk after only a few
cups!"
Upon further analysis
this segment of the Talmud is enigmatic. For one
thing, why is it so difficult to understand why Achashveirosh
grew
angry at
Vashti? He had every right to! By not obeying his royal command,
she
embarrassed him in front of the world's greatest leaders. This
was
certainly sufficient reason to become angry with his wife. Why
then
does
the Talmud wonder what got him so upset?
The word vayiktzof-translated
here as "became furious"-is a derivative
of
the word ketzef, or foam. It refers to an overt expression of
anger,
symbolized by the sea on a stormy day, when the waves wear a
crest of
foam.
The Talmud's question
is as follows:
Since Achashveirosh
vented his anger, why did his anger still "burn
within
him"? Anger can be said to "burn" within a person
when he neglects to
give
expression to it. But when one gives expression to one's anger,
the
sense
of indignation usually subsides.
The Talmud explains
that Vashti's rude message concerning
Achashveirosh's
tendency to become drunk easily was what made his anger burn
within
him.
True, his anger over
her refusal to follow his command had already
spent
itself, but he had still not gotten over the disgrace of being on
the
receiving end of her private little joke. What really frustrated
Achashveirosh was the knowledge that he could not afford to
publicly
vent
his anger at her for sending him the obnoxious message, because
had he
done
so, her crude remark would have soon made the headlines, which
would
have
only magnified his sense of embarrassment.
This is what made his
anger "burn within him."
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