Monday 29 February 2016

talmud gemara - Why not "Where is Achashverosh in the Torah"?


In Chullin 139b, the Gemara asks about hints in the Torah for several of the figures in the Megillah, and provides answers:



"Where is {Haman, Esther, Mordechai} hinted at in the Torah?" (המן\אסתר\מרדכי מן התורה מנין?‏)



Why doesn't it ask about Achashverosh as well? He's certainly as major a character in the story as any of them. (And in fact, while by name he's mentioned only about half as many times as each of them - 29, as compared to 50+ for each of the other three - his title המלך appears by itself some 160 times.)



Answer



I see where Maharsha explains this Gemara in a way that apparently answers the question indirectly.



He says that each of the four personages mentioned in the Gemara there (it starts with Moshe) is known by other names as well. Moshe had a bunch; the others are also called, respectively, Memuchan, Hadassah and Pesachyah. Furthermore, the common names for all four of them come from other languages: Moshe from Egyptian, the other three from Persian (whereas the secondary names are all Hebrew).


So the point of the question, he says, is: from where do we see that these foreign names are truly significant from the Torah's point of view? And so for each one, the verse that the Gemara cites indicates an underlying connection between their accomplishments (or, in Haman's case, his character flaws) and common name.


Which, then, presumably answers the question why Achashverosh isn't listed: there aren't any other names for him in the Megillah.


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