[Avodah] Melech

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

R' Eli Turkel wrote:

> RHS (in the shiur of my other post) took it for granted that
> Melech means a Jewish government in EY.  He thus felt that the
> first of the requirements for building a new bet hamikdash has
> been fulfilled.
>
> He further speculated that when Esther's son became king there
> was a Jewish King over the land of Israel which affected some
> halachot. When Esther dies Darius lost all contact with Jews and
> could no longer be considered a Jewish king.

Why would "contact with Jews" be a criterion for the definition of "Jewish king"? I would expect the definition to be either genetic/conversion-based (in which case he would be a Jewish king even after he lost contact with the Jews), or it would also be dependent on Shmiras Hamitzvos, like when we define Jewishness for wine, or minyan, or many other situations (in which case his status would be unchanged before and after Esther's death, unless he actually converted out).

It would help if I knew more about Darius. *Did* he convert out? Did he know of his Jewishness at all? If he did, did he accept that and observe mitzvos? Or did he see himself as a non-Jewish king who was good to the Jews because his mother was Jewish?

(Incidentally, my chavrusa raised an interesting question this past Shabbos: According to those who say that Esther and Mordechai were married, and that because of "karka olam" she did not become assur to Mordechai, then is it possible that Darius was really Mordechai's son? Do any meforshim suggest this?)

Akiva Miller

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