[Avodah] Vashti

[Zvi Lampel]

From: "Eli Turkel" eliturkel at gmail.com Tue, 6 Mar:
Subject: > I repeat my previous question - what forced Chazal to assume Vashti has sins and was evil. This is not pshat in the pesukim. Again, in accordance with the Malbim (and R.Boubil) it could have been just political intrigue.<
A relevant Ramban (and Ibn Ezra) on Breishis (10:9-11):
LIKE [NIMROD,] A MIGHTY HUNTER BEFORE HASHEM--…intending to rebel against Him…--Rashi; and such is the daas of our Rabbis (Eruvin 53a). Rabbi Avraham [ibn Ezra] explains the idea the opposite way al derech peshuto, that Nimrod began to be mighty against the beasts to trap them, and interprets “before Hashem”: that he would build alters and sacifice the beasts as an offering before Hashem.
But his words are not nir’een, and behold he is making a rasha a tzaddik, /for rabboseinu knew/ his evilness /through [receiving] the transmission/ [of the Torah’s true intent].
(End of Ramban)
Evidently, the Ramban held that regarding basic characteristics of people, Chazal had a mesorah that we must follow in explaining Scripture. The Ibn Ezra gave unscripturally-modified peshat a stronger role. (Remember that based upon peshat, the Ibn Ezra even rejects the Seforno’s non-literal peyrush of the Nachash as the yetzer hara, rather than as being a physical creature).
Zvi Lampel
 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20070306/d84e96ac/attachment-0002.htm>