Megillah 16 - December 28, 24 Tevet

Today’s daf is sponsored by Jonathan Stein in honor of Rina Goldberg on the occasion of her birthday from her children and grandchildren. “She is a role model for all of us”. 

Today’s daf is sponsored by Sari Esserman in loving memory of her aunt Miriam Monaver Bat Yosef HaCohen.

Acheshverosh found "it was written" about Mordechai having saved his life. The wording sounds like it had been recently written. What aggada is told about this and what can be learned from here? When his officers told him that nothing was done with Mordechai for saving the king's life, it was to point a finger at Haman for not having taken care of it. The rabbis expanded on the conversation between Haman and Achashverosh when Achashverosh told Haman to ride Mordechai on the king's horse, etc. What transpired when Haman reached Mordechai - what did Mordechai think? What conversation took place between Haman and the rabbis that were with Mordechai? How and why did Mordechai delay Haman? When Haman's daughter saw the scene of someone leading another on the king's horse, she assumed Mordechai was leading her father and she emptied the chamber pot on her father's head. When she realized her mistake, she fell from the roof and died. Haman's wise advisors understood that Haman was going to lose the battle to Mordechai - how did they know this? Haman came to the party in disarray as he did not have time after having the chamber pot dumped on him to clean himself up. Esther told Achashverosh at the party that Haman had advised him to kill Vashti and was now trying to kill her. Esther first wanted to point to Achashverosh to accuse him of being wicked but an angel came and moved her to point at Haman. Achashverosh felt threatened by Haman from a few different directions - what were they? In Egypt, Joseph send 5 extra clothes to Binyamin, which was a foretelling of the five clothes that Mordechai, a descendant of Binyamin wore when he left the king's palace. The Gemara brings drashot about Binyamin and Joseph meeting up after so many years as well as the interaction between Joseph and his brothers after Jacob's death. "For the Jews there was light, happiness, etc." What is that verse referring to? The ten sons of Haman in the megillah should be recited in one breath. They are also written in the form of poetry but different than the way most of the poetry in Tanach is written - in two columns one opposite the other, rather than a "half brick on top of a whole brick and a whole brick on a half brick." The parchment of the megillah needs scoring - where is this derived from? Why was Mordechai accepted by "most of his brothers" and not all of them? It seems that since he was busy with community needs and neglected Torah study, some were not pleased with him. the Gemara brings several statements about the importance of learning Torah.