...two of the king's...guardians...sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus. And the matter became known to Mordecai and he told Esther, and Esther spoke to the king in Mordecai's name. Why did King Ahasuerus favor Mordecai? Because when Esther relayed to Ahasuerus the plot to kill him - long before Haman was on the scene
Our Haftara describes Solomon's Temple as having "inset and latticed windows." Robert Alter writes that "the precise meaning of these and other architectural terms here is uncertain." The traditional explanation is that since the Temple diffused its light outward, the windows were larger on the outside and smaller on the inside. RaLbaG agrees on this
"Should a man steal an ox or a sheep and slaughter it or sell it, five cattle he shall pay for the ox and four sheep for the sheep." Why four times for the sheep and five for the ox? R. Yohanan explains that to steal a sheep one must carry it, not so an
The last of the Ten Commandments prohibits jealousy. The Ibn Ezra struggled with how it was possible to command one not to be jealous. Previous commandments, S. D. Luzzato explains, are the training ground for this commandment: You shall not commit adultery / You shall not steal. These teach that we cannot have whatever we
