Chapter 10

1) The meaning of the verse, "and to speak like the language of his people", is to be interpreted in context of the decree of Achashverosh, which was primarily to give dominating power to the man in his household. As an additional clause in the decree, Achashverosh added that a man may force his wife to adopt the language that he speaks, and that will become the household language, irrespective of the wife's nationality or background.

2) We know of one child that Esther had, who was named Darius, or Artachshasta. He ruled over Persia after his father Achashverosh, and commissioned the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem.

3) Although Esther's true name was Hadassah, she was nevertheless referred to as Esther by her cousin Mordechai. One of the reasons for this is, because Mordechai sought to hide her true identity, so that they would not know that she was Jewish. He hinted to this in the name Esther, which comes from the Hebrew word, "Haster", meaning concealment. Reply

feminism and war Thank you Jules for your comments. It is indeed sad that women were then treated like chattel. Sadly, this is still the case in large parts of the world. In our tradition, Vashti is not seen as a hero. Many tales are told of her cruelty towards her Jewish maids.
Esther on the other hand gives up her own physical and spiritual wellbeing in order to save her people.
Regarding the sons of Haman, they were killed because they were not just the biological children of Haman but ideological as well. They were not killed out of hate, just we do not kill Hamas terrorists today out of hate, but out of the obligation to defend ourselves from those who seek our destruction. They may have had innocent wives and children but so did the ten Nazis who were condemned to death in the Nuremberg trials.
Hate may beget hate, but justice begets peace, as did the destruction of Nazi Germany in our time. Reply

Thanks and "his many brethren" Thanks, Anonymous, glad you enjoyed it.
Once I'm here, here's a comment regarding the words "For Mordechai the Jew was ...loved by his many brethren."
The word for "many" is "rov."
Another interpetation for rov in this verse is "the majority."
I.e., the verse is read to mean that Mordechai was beloved by most of his brethren, but not all of them....
Why? Who could find fault with Mordechai. Well, some of the rabbis felt that should have left politics and gone back full time to Torah study....
Although we should go with the positive spin on Mordechai, since the pejorative interpretation is part of Torah, we must learn from it as well.
One lesson we can take from it is that sometimes we have a good excuse to suspend our Torah study to fulfill mitzvot, especially helping others. But we have to be vigilant not to abuse this suspension and get too comfortable with not studying and jump back into Torah study as soon as it is once again appropriate....
Happy Purim! Lchaim! Reply