Introduction: The Seventh Discourse in Zera Shimshon on Megillat Esther
We come to the seventh discourse of the book Zera Shimshon on Megillat Esther, which focuses on the Gemara in Masechet Megillah (first perek): Reish Lakish said, it was known and revealed before the One Who spoke and the world came into being that Haman was destined to weigh out shekels against the Jewish people; therefore, He caused their shekels to precede his shekels. And that is what we learned in the Mishnah: On the first of Adar, announcements are made regarding the shekalim and regarding kilayim (forbidden mixtures). In other words, Chazal teach that the Holy One, blessed be He, foresaw that Haman would weigh out ten thousand talents of silver, and He therefore gave precedence to the holy shekalim we donate over the shekels of Haman. This is what we learned in Masechet Shekalim, that on the first of Adar, announcements are made concerning the shekalim.
Three Questions on the Words of Reish Lakish
The Zera Shimshon raises a difficulty: Could it enter one's mind that had it not been for the episode of Haman, the Holy One, blessed be He, would not have commanded the mitzvah of shekalim? The entire Torah, all of its 613 mitzvot, preceded the creation of the world, and the mitzvah of giving the shekalim is one of the 613, which the Torah could not lack! From these shekalim, all public communal offerings throughout the year are brought, and this is a positive commandment from the Torah. Are we to say that this entire mitzvah was created solely to counter Haman's decree?
Furthermore, he asks: What is meant by "And that is what we learned in the Mishnah"? These matters are not from the Torah, but rather Rabbinic law. The Holy One, blessed be He, did not command in the Torah to announce the shekalim in the month of Adar; this is merely an enactment of the Sages. If so, how can one prove that the Holy One, blessed be He, caused the shekalim of Israel to precede Haman's shekels from an enactment of Rabbinic origin? Had this been explicitly written in the Torah, it would make sense to say that Hashem gave precedence to the shekalim, but since this is only Rabbinic, where is the proof?
And a third question: What is the nature of this announcement? Why did the Sages institute to proclaim specifically about the shekalim and about kilayim, and why specifically in the month of Adar?
The Resolution: Not the Essence of the Mitzvah, but Its Timing
The Zera Shimshon resolves this: Had it not been for the episode of Haman, the command to give the shekalim would not have been set specifically for Nisan, but for another month - possibly Tishrei - and the mitzvah would not have been missing from the Torah at all. One must understand the distinction: On the first of Adar announcements are made regarding the shekalim, but the terumat halishkah (the appropriation of the chamber) itself occurs in Nisan. Terumat halishkah refers to the stage where the kohanim would withdraw the new shekels from the chamber to purchase communal offerings, which begins on the first of Nisan. All shekels collected up until that point were considered "old shekels," and the Mishnah details for which purposes they were utilized. Consequently, the fact that on the first of Adar announcements are made regarding the shekalim means: begin collecting them, because from Nisan onward we will already use the new shekels. The Torah does not state to make announcements in Adar, but from the Torah we do derive that from Nisan we begin using the new appropriation.
And from where do we derive this? From the verse, "This is the burnt-offering of every month in its month throughout the months of the year," which Chazal expounded: renew it and bring an offering from the new appropriation. With the start of the year, one begins bringing the daily tamid offerings from the new appropriation. The Gemara in the first chapter of Rosh Hashanah asks: Let us derive "year" from "year" in reference to Tishrei? For regarding Tishrei it is also written, "from the beginning of the year," and the start of the year is Tishrei, so perhaps we should bring offerings from an appropriation made in Tishrei? The Gemara answers: We derive a year mentioned alongside months from a year mentioned alongside months. In our verse, it is written "throughout the months of the year" - both year and months - which refers to Nisan; whereas regarding Tishrei, "year" is mentioned, but "months" is not mentioned. A gezeirah shavah whose wording is more similar is preferred to learn from.
It emerges, then, that were it not for the episode of Haman, we would not have had a command to bring the shekalim specifically in Nisan, and we could have brought them in Tishrei, as the Gemara initially thought (the havah amina). Thus, there is no missing mitzvah from the Torah here, since we would have brought the shekalim in any case. The entire point is the timing: The Holy One, blessed be He, foresaw that Haman was destined to weigh out his silver, and He therefore established the time of the new appropriation specifically in Nisan. This is the meaning of "He caused their shekels to precede his shekels."
Nisan Preceded Haman's Lot
Here, one must recognize a detail that not everyone notices when reading the Megillah: The decree and the fast did not take place in Adar. The lot (pur) was cast in Nisan, and the decree was set for Adar of the following year. The Jewish people fasted in Nisan, during Pesach, shortly after the casting of the lot. From the order of the verses, it might appear as though they fasted two weeks before the decree and everything was overturned, but when examining the dates explicitly, one sees:
בַּחֹדֶשׁ הָרִאשׁוֹן הוּא־חֹדֶשׁ נִיסָן בִּשְׁנַת שְׁתֵּים עֶשְׂרֵה לַמֶּלֶךְ אֲחַשְׁוֵרוֹשׁ הִפִּיל פּוּר הוּא הַגּוֹרָל לִפְנֵי הָמָן מִיּוֹם לְיוֹם וּמֵחֹדֶשׁ לְחֹדֶשׁ שְׁנֵים־עָשָׂר הוּא־חֹדֶשׁ אֲדָר׃ (ג, ז) - "In the first month, which is the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Achashverosh, pur - that is, the lot - was cast before Haman from day to day and from month to month, to the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar." (3:7)
אִם־עַל־הַמֶּלֶךְ טוֹב יִכָּתֵב לְאַבְּדָם וַעֲשֶׂרֶת אֲלָפִים כִּכַּר־כֶּסֶף אֶשְׁקוֹל עַל־יְדֵי עֹשֵׂי הַמְּלָאכָה לְהָבִיא אֶל־גִּנְזֵי הַמֶּלֶךְ׃ (ג, ט) - "If it please the king, let it be recorded that they be destroyed, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who do the work, to bring into the king's treasuries." (3:9)
It turns out that the decree of the Holy One, Blessed be He - that from the beginning of Nisan offerings are brought from the new year's shekalim - preceded Haman's shekalim, as the lot was cast in the month of Nisan itself. This is the meaning of "He preceded their shekalim to his shekalim."
Mazal Taleh - The Firstborn of the Mazalot
The Zera Shimshon adds: It is known that the constellation of Taleh (Aries) is the first of all the mazalot, as the holy Zohar states in Parashat Pinchas, and it claims the birthright as its portion. Therefore, the Plague of the Firstborn took place in Egypt during this month. The Egyptians worshiped the ram, and the ram symbolizes the firstborn; consequently, they deified the firstborn and accorded them special importance. Thus, the Holy One, Blessed be He, struck them specifically through their firstborn, and specifically at the time when Taleh, their deity, was ascendant. The peak of a mazal's ascendancy is on the fifteenth of the month, when the moon is full. Therefore, on the fifteenth of Nisan, the Holy One, Blessed be He, took Israel out of Egypt: everyone slaughtered the lamb, the god of Egypt, and the firstborn were smitten. Furthermore, Mazal Taleh rises and ascends in the month of Nisan, as Rashi explains, that in Nisan the Taleh always begins to ascend with the morning light - for every mazal has its time of rising, and the rising of Taleh is from the morning. So too, Nisan is the head of all months.
The Kelipah of "Riv" and the Holy Name "Kedat"
Here, the Zera Shimshon refers to his novellae on Masechet Avot, Chapter 5, regarding "every dispute that is for the sake of Heaven." There he explains that there is an impure force (a kelipah) called "Riv" (strife), whose purpose is to undermine the Torah. To nullify its power, there is a holy name, "Kedat" (meaning "according to the law"). As an aside, these names are mentioned here even though holy names are generally not enunciated, because these are ordinary spoken words and are permitted to be pronounced; names that are not spoken words are not enunciated, while names of angels such as Uriel, Michael, and Gabriel, which are also names of people, are permitted to be spoken.
Now, "Kedat" (כדת) has the numerical value of twice "Riv" (ריב): Riv is 212, and Kedat is 424, exactly twice Riv. It is also the gematria of hachodesh hazeh lachem ("This month shall be unto you"). For the Holy One, Blessed be He, desired to nullify the power of this kelipah in the first month, which is the firstborn of every year, so that all the subsequent months and mazalot would be subdued and subordinated under this holy name, leaving them powerless to undermine the Torah. This is the meaning of "He preceded their shekalim": He preceded to subdue the kelipah before it could dominate, in order to suppress it immediately. Preceding the shekalim in Nisan is the subduing of the kelipah before its time of dominance.
The Intercalated Adar - And the Source of Accusation
However, the month of Adar is sometimes doubled when the year is intercalated (a leap year), and there the kelipah might think that the month of Nisan subdued the sign of Adar only once, not twice. That is, the power of the name "Kedat" at the beginning of the year nullifies the dominion of the kelipah for twelve months; but in a leap year, the kelipah comes and argues: There is one extra month that was not covered, and in it I will prevail.
The Zera Shimshon adds a reason for this concern: all the more so since this intercalation is performed by the Jewish people according to their need and at the discretion of the Nasi, as stated in the first chapter of Sanhedrin (11a). That is, in Nisan at the start of the year, it is not yet known at all whether there will be a second Adar, since everything depends on necessity, the discretion of the Nasi, the crops, the seasons, and whether spring has arrived. If so, it might seem that the name "Kedat" of Nisan, intended to nullify the kelipah for the months of the year, does not nullify it for the Adar added later in the year, leaving room for the kelipah to lodge an accusation there, as if the power of "Kedat" has no authority over it.
For this reason, the proclamation regarding the shekalim is made in Adar so that they will be ready by Rosh Chodesh Nisan. Through this, the Jewish people are considered actively engaged in this mitzvah, whose entire purpose is to subdue the kelipah so that it can no longer bring accusations. And this is the meaning of "and this is what we learned in the Mishnah": already in Adar the proclamation concerning the shekalim begins, in order to cover the month of Adar as well, where the kelipah seeks to accuse - preceding with the shekalim to combat it and prevent its prosecution.
Why Specifically "Concerning the Shekalim and Concerning Kilayim" Together
The insight here is that it was not without reason that the Tanna taught the shekalim and kilayim together, but rather because it is all one single matter. For kilayim (forbidden mixtures) means that one should not mix good with evil and evil with good - that is, the kelipah (husk of impurity) with holiness. Indeed, the very term kilayim denotes a mixture: a garment of kilayim (sha'atnez), a mixture of wool and linen; animal kilayim, crossbreeding a horse with a donkey; kilayim of the vineyard, sowing wheat and grape seeds in a single cast of the hand. Thus, the public proclamation concerning kilayim is directed against that very kelipah of riv (strife), ensuring it does not mingle with holiness in the manner of kilayim; therefore, we announce concerning the shekalim in order to prevent its dominion.
Amalek - His Hallmark Is Riv
Proof of this is seen in the fact that in every battle with Amalek, we find the terminology of riv (strife). "Because of the strife (al riv) of the Children of Israel," followed immediately by "Then Amalek came." So too with Shaul: "And fought (vayarov) in the valley." And likewise regarding Haman:
וְכׇל־זֶה אֵינֶנּוּ שֹׁוֶה לִי בְּכׇל־עֵת אֲשֶׁר אֲנִי רֹאֶה אֶת־מׇרְדֳּכַי הַיְּהוּדִי יוֹשֵׁב בְּשַׁעַר הַמֶּלֶךְ׃ (ה, יג) - "Yet all this is worth nothing to me, every time I see Mordechai the Jew sitting at the king's gate." (5:13)
Notice a wondrous allusion: the final letters of "היהודי יושב בשער" (haYehudi yoshev b'sha'ar) spell riv (strife). Amalek always goes hand in hand with strife.
"Kedat" - Throughout the Verses of the Megillah
In contrast, Esther said "to do according to the decree of today" (la'asot kedat hayom), for through kedat - which is twice the numerical value of riv - one nullifies the kelipah of riv:
וַתֹּאמֶר אֶסְתֵּר אִם־עַל־הַמֶּלֶךְ טוֹב יִנָּתֵן גַּם־מָחָר לַיְּהוּדִים אֲשֶׁר בְּשׁוּשָׁן לַעֲשׂוֹת כְּדָת הַיּוֹם וְאֵת עֲשֶׂרֶת בְּנֵי־הָמָן יִתְלוּ עַל־הָעֵץ׃ (ט, יג) - And Esther said, "If it please the king, let it be granted to the Jews who are in Shushan to do tomorrow also according to today's decree, and let Haman's ten sons be hanged upon the gallows." (9:13)
Likewise, the final letters of "בַּחֲמָתוֹ... שָׁכָכָה", which aside from forming a holy Name in its own right - the Name ShaCh (320) - also in gematria equal this Name with the kolel (inclusive unit): tav, kaf, and heh (425), corresponding to kedat (424) with the kolel, where a heh (5) replaces the dalet (4), arriving at that very same gematria:
וַיִּתְלוּ אֶת־הָמָן עַל־הָעֵץ אֲשֶׁר הֵכִין לְמׇרְדֳּכָי וַחֲמַת הַמֶּלֶךְ שָׁכָכָה׃ (ז, י) - "So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordechai, and the king's wrath subsided." (7:10)
Earlier, when the sins of Israel still empowered the kelipah and the holy Name could not yet take effect, Esther said, "which is not according to law" (asher lo chedat). This is a wondrous nuance: at the end, she says "to do according to the law of today" (la'asot kedat hayom) - today the kelipah of riv will be nullified; but at first she said, "I will go in unto the king, which is not according to law (asher lo chedat)" - for at that moment kedat could not yet manifest, since the sins prevented the holy Name from acting:
לֵךְ כְּנוֹס אֶת־כׇּל־הַיְּהוּדִים הַנִּמְצְאִים בְּשׁוּשָׁן וְצוּמוּ עָלַי וְאַל־תֹּאכְלוּ וְאַל־תִּשְׁתּוּ שְׁלֹשֶׁת יָמִים לַיְלָה וָיוֹם גַּם־אֲנִי וְנַעֲרֹתַי אָצוּם כֵּן וּבְכֵן אָבוֹא אֶל־הַמֶּלֶךְ אֲשֶׁר לֹא־כַדָּת וְכַאֲשֶׁר אָבַדְתִּי אָבָדְתִּי׃ (ד, טז) - "Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me; do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maidens will also fast likewise; and then I will go in to the king, which is not according to the law, and if I perish, I perish." (4:16)
And indeed, we find this word many times throughout the Megillah, including:
כְּדָת מַה־לַּעֲשׂוֹת בַּמַּלְכָּה וַשְׁתִּי עַל אֲשֶׁר לֹא־עָשְׂתָה אֶת־מַאֲמַר הַמֶּלֶךְ אֲחַשְׁוֵרוֹשׁ בְּיַד הַסָּרִיסִים׃ (א, טו) - "According to law, what shall we do to Queen Vashti, because she has not performed the commandment of King Achashverosh by the chamberlains?" (1:15)
In order for the name "Kedat" to shine forth, they had to consider what to do with Vashti, so that she would be removed and Esther would take the throne and nullify Haman's decree - for the Holy One, blessed is He, prepares the cure before the blow. Vashti had to be cleared out of the way so that the name "Kedat" could operate and nullify the klipah of strife (Riv), which is the klipah of Haman.
Gematria and "Im HaKolel"
We mentioned that the calculation is im hakolel - that is, with the addition of the word itself as an additional unit of one. What is the concept behind this? The holy books explain that this addition hints at the Master of the World (Alufo shel Olam): an additional Aleph is added, representing the Master of the Universe, signifying that to every matter one can join the Holy One, blessed is He. Then an addition of one is made, and the calculation equals that gematria. As the humorous quip goes: an avrech was once asked what it is like to be married, and he replied that ishah has the numerical value of ye'ush (despair); when told that the count was missing one, he replied, "With the kolel!"
The very principle of gematria is from the Torah. From where do we derive this? "He shall be holy, letting the locks of the hair of his head grow" - yihyeh ("shall be") has the numerical value of thirty, and from here our Sages deduced that an unspecified term of Naziriteship is thirty days. Even the addition of the kolel is rooted in the Torah, as noted by the Terumat HaDeshen in a wonderful allusion: The Holy One, blessed is He, did not want the verse "venoshantem" ("and you shall have grown old") in the land to be fulfilled in us, whose gematria is 852, for had it been fulfilled, "you shall quickly perish" would have come to pass, Heaven forbid. Therefore, He exiled us after 850 years. The Terumat HaDeshen asks: If the entire concern was that 852 should not be reached, why did He not allow us to remain for 851 years, seeing as He desires to extend mercy until the very last limit? From this you learn that 851 is considered 852 with the kolel. Therefore, exactly 850 years were required, for only then was "venoshantem" not fulfilled, and "you shall utterly perish" did not come to pass.
"And the Drinking Was According to Law, Without Compulsion"
וְהַשְּׁתִיָּה כַדָּת אֵין אֹנֵס כִּי־כֵן יִסַּד הַמֶּלֶךְ עַל כׇּל־רַב בֵּיתוֹ לַעֲשׂוֹת כִּרְצוֹן אִישׁ־וָאִישׁ׃ (א, ח) - "And the drinking was according to law, without compulsion; for so the king had appointed to all the officers of his house, to do according to each man's pleasure." (1:8)
Our Sages expounded "kedat" - according to the law of the Torah. On a simple level, what does the law of the Torah have to do with this banquet? Rather, the Gemara expounds: Just as under the law of the Torah eating exceeds drinking - for the sacrificial meat is greater than its libations, and the Altar eats more than it drinks - so too at the feast of Achashverosh, the food exceeded the drink. However, according to the approach of the Zera Shimshon, "and the drinking" hints at something else: because the holy Name of "Kedat" desired to shine upon them for their benefit, they were not forced to drink, so that they would not violate the prohibition. For had they been coerced to drink, the name "Kedat" could not have shone, since they would have stumbled into sin. Therefore, there was "no compulsion" - they did not force them to drink.
Yet despite all this, due to our many sins, they drank without compulsion, which made their iniquity far greater. For had one been coerced, he could still claim, "I was forced." But acting without compulsion is far more severe. It is like the story of the Gentile who knocked on his Jewish neighbor's door and said, "I have made an incomparable wine; you must taste it." The Jew replied, "Our wine is forbidden to us; we do not drink wine made by Gentiles." He asked, "Is there really no situation where it is permitted?" The Jew replied, "Only in a life-threatening emergency, a matter of pikuach nefesh." The Gentile caught on quickly, fetched his old rifle, aimed it at the Jew's head, and said, "Either you drink or I kill you!" The Jew said, "If you are forcing me and I have no choice, then this is pikuach nefesh and it is permitted" - and he took a generous gulp. The Gentile asked, "Well, how is the wine?" The Jew replied, "A taste of the World to Come! Aim, aim the rifle for just another moment..."
And this is "to do according to each man's pleasure" - according to the will of Mordechai and the will of Haman, for both wanted there to be no compulsion. You might ask: Haman did not want compulsion? After all, all the Hamans throughout the generations, including our own, do everything through coercion: forcing us to become secular, forcing draft enlistment, forcing the introduction of secular core curricula - everything by force. Rather, Haman understood this precise point: if there were compulsion, they would have a plea of defense. Therefore he said: No, no, I do not want to force them. Let them drink of their own free will, and then they will be held accountable. And despite all this, due to our many sins, they drank without compulsion, and this magnified their guilt.
In light of this, "and the drinking was according to the law (chadat)" is wonderfully explained - according to the law of the Torah: Hashem willed that the name "chadat" would ensure that the Torah would not be forgotten and that the kelipah of Amalek would not prevail, and therefore there was no compulsion in the drinking; yet ultimately, it brought about the very opposite.
In summary:
The teaching of Reish Lakish that "He preempted their shekalim to his shekalim" does not mean that the mitzvah of Shekalim was created because of Haman, but rather that its timing was set specifically in Nissan, because the Holy One, blessed be He, foresaw Haman's lottery, which was cast in Nissan. Nissan, the firstborn of the months, with the constellation of Aries at the head of the zodiac, is the time of the illumination of the holy name "Chadat" - double "Riv" - which subdues the kelipah of strife, the kelipah of Amalek and Haman, before its period of dominance. And because in a leap year the kelipah is left an opening to prosecute regarding the additional Adar, whose intercalation was not certain in advance, the Sages instituted that on the first of Adar announcements are made concerning the Shekalim, so that they will be ready for Nissan, ensuring that Israel is engaged in the very mitzvah that subdues the kelipah. They juxtaposed the prohibition of kilayim (forbidden mixtures) to it, so that good would not become mixed with evil, nor the kelipah with holiness. From here, too, emerges the sharp message of the verse, "And the drinking was according to the law, with no compulsion": precisely when there is no compulsion, the responsibility rests entirely upon us.