[Avodah] Esther and Achashveirosh

[T613K at aol.com]

From: Sarah Green _sarahyarok at yahoo.com_ (mailto:sarahyarok at yahoo.com) 

However,  there was one part I never understood - on 'ka'asher avadti  
ovodti"....    
 
However, in my adult mind it still seems to me that if you go to request  an 
audience to speak to a king, he is sitting in a public throne room or  
reception room surrounded by courtiers and advisors.  

So why on  earth, when Esther went to invite him the party, would we need to 
assume that  anything private or personal would take place? <<
 
>>>>>
 
The way I always understood that was that, prior to this  moment, she /never/ 
went to the king voluntarily for /anything/ -- always  had to be taken 
against her will -- thus making it clear that to her it was no  marriage and she was 
in the palace under duress, an unwilling captive.  
 
Once she went to the king voluntarily -- for /anything/ -- she was no  longer 
a captive but a willing actor.   She was now acting as a wife  rather than a 
kidnap victim.  
 
However I also always understood the "ka'asher avadti avadti" to mean, not  
that she would automatically be chayav kares for going to the throne room, but  
that by going to the king's throne room voluntarily she was greatly 
increasing  the chances that he would remember her, think of her and want her -- that  
night?  -- in his private room, whereupon she might /then/ be chayav  kares.  
So she wasn't saying, "I will go to the king's throne room even if  going 
there makes me chayav kares."  She was saying, "I will go to the  king's throne 
room even if going there will increase the odds that I  will shortly thereafter 
be put in a position where I will be chayav  kares."




--Toby  Katz
=============



************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20071106/995f3a62/attachment-0001.htm>