R' Micha Berger: <<Which makes more sense grammatically -- "befanai nechtam" or "befanai nischateim"?>> Either *could* make sense: the nif'al and hispael/nispael are both used where the subject is the patient -- though I suspect nif'al is more common for that. But I think the existence of "nechtam" in Ester is telling. Chag kasher v'sameach. Michael Hamm