This week’s edition of Midrash HaShavua has been generously sponsored by Moshe Enayatian.
“The life of Sarah was one hundred years, twenty years, and seven years – these were the years of the life of Sarah.” Rabbi Aqiva was once sitting and lecturing, and the attendees were falling asleep. To arouse them, he said: How could Esther rule over one hundred and twenty seven provinces? It is fitting that Esther, a descendant of Sarah who lived to one hundred and twenty seven, to rule over one hundred and twenty seven provinces. (Beresheet Rabbah 58:3)
The Midrash recounts that Rabbi Aqiva was once delivering a public lesson when he realized that his students were dozing off. In order to reawaken their curiosity (pun intended!) he presented a novel exposition that he believed would capture their attention. The Megillah tells us that King Ahashverosh, who would eventually wed Queen Esther, ruled over an empire of one hundred and twenty seven provinces. Rabbi Aqiva explained that Esther had the privilege of leading one hundred and twenty seven provinces because she was the descendant of the Matriarch Sarah who lived to one hundred and twenty seven years of age.
On the surface, it is easy to dismiss this statement of Rabbi Aqiva as a mere rhetorical flourish; after all, the text itself mentions that he introduced it as a way to rouse his audience from their slumber. However, it is unlikely that our Sages would have included Rabbi Aqiva’s teaching in their Midrashic compilations if they did not believe it contained an idea of substance as well. They must have assumed that, while its form was designed to seize the attention of sleepy listeners, its underlying content remained profound and valid.
Rabbi Aqiva links two Biblical women on a basis that appears to be rather arbitrary and superficial – the fact that both are associated, in one way or another, with the number 127. An important principle in Midrashic interpretation is that whenever two characters, incidents, objects, etc., are connected exegetically by our Sages, no matter how tenuous, random or far-fetched the connection may seem, there is more to the relationship between them than first meets the eye. With that premise in mind, let us see if we can uncover the deeper level of commonality between Sarah the Matriarch and Esther the Queen to which Rabbi Aqiva alluded in his discourse.
When we allow our intuition to be guided by Rabbi Aqiva’s comments, the hidden similarities between Sarah and Esther slowly come to light. Both Sarah and Esther were taken captive by powerful kings because of their alluring beauty – Sarah by both Pharaoh and Avimelekh, and Esther by Ahashverosh. Both of them were compelled to hide their true identity from their captors, as well as to obscure the nature of their relationship with a powerful male figure in their lives (Avraham and Mordekhai, respectively.) Perhaps most importantly, from their unlikely and unintended positions in the courts of powerful kings, they managed to accomplish a sacred purpose that they might otherwise have been unable to achieve.
After kidnapping Sarah, the Pharaoh was tormented with plagues that forced him to release her, but not before he and his kingdom recognized that there was a Divine plan at work in her life and the life of her husband. “And the Eternal afflicted Pharaoh and his household with great plagues on account of Sarai, the wife of Avram.”
Similarly, Avimelekh came to acknowledge the uniqueness of Avraham, Sarah and their inspirational mission only after his attempt to marry Sarah was thwarted by the miraculous intervention of the Almighty, “And God came to Avimelekh in a dream of the night, and said to him “behold, you shall die because of the woman you have taken…now return the wife of the man, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you, and you will live.” In his case, this led to a long lasting teacher-student relationship and political alliance in which Avraham and Sarah became intellectual and moral mentors to Avimelekh and his family, as the Torah states, “at that time, Avimelekh and his general Pikhol said to Avraham, ‘God is with you in all that you do – now, swear to me by this God that you will not be disloyal to me, or my descendants…’ and Avraham said, ‘I swear.’” In fact, it is implied later in the text that Avraham and Sarah’s subsequent outreach activities in the Land of the Pelishtim were carried out in partnership with none other than their new disciple, Avimelekh!
As Rabbi Aqiva astutely notes, there are echoes of precisely the same phenomenon in the life of Esther. Although she is initially taken to the palace against her will and carefully hides her true identity, her role in court life eventually enables her to bring about salvation for her nation and to inspire her husband Ahashverosh to acknowledge the unique purpose of the Jewish people in this world, as he declares to Esther and Mordekhai, “behold, the I have given the house of Haman to Esther and they hung him on a tree because he stretched out his hand against the Jews; and now, write concerning the Jews whatever is proper in your eyes in the name of the king, and seal it with the seal of the king…”
There are no supernatural miracles recounted in the narrative of the Megillah. However, we do read of an unprecedented increase in awareness of Hashem and a renewed respect and appreciation for Judaism in the aftermath of the events of Purim. Esther’s standing as an insider was what enabled her to bring about this incredible transformation before the eyes of the citizens of the Persian kingdom, to the extent that “many of the people of the land became Jews, for the awe of Mordekhai had fallen upon them.”
Rabbi Aqiva mentions that Queen Esther’s rule over one hundred and twenty seven provinces was fitting because of her heritage as a descendant of Sarah who lived one hundred and twenty seven years. What does this detail in his formulation add to our understanding of the commonalities between the two heroines? I believe Rabbi Aqiva means to suggest that Esther learned how to make the best of her circumstances by studying the life and times of her illustrious ancestor Sarah.
Sarah never resigned herself to helpless victimhood nor did she allow herself to be robbed of moral agency when she was seized by one king after another for lustful purposes. Instead, she remained steadfast in her convictions and was always prepared to refashion her unsavory situation into a vehicle for proclaiming the Divine message. Sarah was not chosen as a queen and occupied no throne, so she did not wield the sort of influence that would have allowed her to be proactive in this regard. However, as soon as Hashem paved the way with His intervention, she was ready to respond with wisdom, dignity and grace.
According to one Midrash quoted by Rashi, in fact, Sarah personally directed the angel who afflicted Pharaoh during her captivity, and, according to many commentaries, when Avimelekh attempted to appease her after returning her to Avraham, she was not satisfied with his gestures and still took him to task for his inappropriate conduct (see Ibn Ezra and Ramban on Beresheet 20:16). She may have been abducted against her will, but her inner strength as a human being, devoted to the service and commandments of the Almighty, was never diluted or diminished.
Esther had internalized the lessons of the story of Sarah and was blessed with the opportunity to implement them on an even grander scale. As the official Queen of the Persian Empire, she had the power to prevail upon her husband, impact the direction of the kingdom, and shape it in accordance with her vision and her values. Like Sarah, Esther refused to be humiliated, silenced, or objectified even when she found herself thrust into situations that were far from ideal for a righteous woman. Unlike Sarah, however, she did not have to wait patiently and passively for Divine intervention to manifest itself on her behalf. Instead, Esther was in a position to take initiative to ensure that her unpleasant circumstances were utilized in the service of the Jewish people and for the sanctification of God’s name in the world.
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