ובהגיע תור נערה ונערה לבא אל המלך אחשורוש מקץ היות כדת הנשים שנים עשר חדש כי כן ימלאו ימי מרוקיהן ששה חדשים בשמן המור וששה חדשים בבשמים ובתמרוקי הנשים. ובזה הנערה באה אל המלך.
“When each girl’s turn came to go to King Achashveirosh at the end of the twelve months’ treatment prescribed for women, for that was the period spent on beautifying them: six months with oil of myrrh and six months with perfumes and women’s cosmetics, and it was after that that the girl would go to the king.” (Esther 2:12-13)
The Gemara in Megillah quotes Rav Huna who says that “shemen ha’mor” is oil from olives which did not reach more than a third of their growth. Such oil was used “because it removes the hair and softens the flesh.”
The Vilna Gaon (Esther 2:12) suggests that the Megillah’s discussion of how the maidens prepared themselves and smeared themselves with oil in preparation for their audition with Achashveirosh alludes to the way a person must prepare himself to stand before the King of kings on Yom Kippur.
The pasuk says that each maiden was given twelve months to prepare to come before the king, just as a kallah [bride] is given twelve months to prepare for her wedding (Kesubos 57a). The Zohar uses the word na’arah, maiden, to refer to a person’s neshomah. Hence, the pasuk means that one’s neshomah is given twelve months to prepare to come before the King, Hashem. The Vilna Gaon explains as follows:
The Gemara in Rosh Hashanah (17a) teaches that Hashem is: מעביר ראשון ראשון - “He removes the first sin that a person commits and does not hold the person accountable for it.” The Vilna Gaon explains that this means that Hashem expunges all of a person’s aveiros, one at a time. The Vilna Gaon adds that Hashem removes a person’s aveiros only if he does teshuvah. However, when a person does teshuvah during the days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, his teshuvah is often done, b’ones [under duress] and may not be fully sincere. Therefore, although Hashem removes the aveiros, they are not yet completely forgiven. Rather, Hashem gives the person twelve months — the duration of the coming year after Yom Kippur — to prove the sincerity of his teshuvah. If he does not repeat the aveirah during those twelve months, he shows that his teshuvah was sincere, and Hashem then wipes out the aveirah entirely and completely exonerates him. Until that time, however, Hashem suspends the aveirah while He waits to see if the person will refrain from doing it again. If the person returns to his aveiros during those twelve months, Hashem reinstates the aveiros on the person’s account and counts it against him retroactively (for example, it may increase the punishment decreed for the person due to his other aveiros).
When the pasuk says that each na’arah — referring to every person’s neshomah — was given twelve months for:ימי מרוקיהן - “The days of their anointing”, it refers to the twelve-month period which determines whether a person’s teshuvah was sincere.ימי מרוקיהן, comes from the word, מרק, which means to “cleanse.” The twelve months of ימי מרוקיהן, allude to the twelve months a person is given to completely cleanse himself of his aveiros that were temporarily suspended on Yom Kippur.
The pasuk continues and describes how those twelve months are to be used to wipe out the aveiros that were suspended on Yom Kippur.
First,ששה חדשים בשמן המור - “Six months with shemen ha’mor”, which Rav Huna says refers to the removal of body hair. Hair is the only part of the body that serves primarily an aesthetic purpose. As such, it symbolizes the extraneous luxuries in a person’s life which keep him ensnared in the pursuit of materialistic pleasure. By working for six months to remove those luxuries, a person is able to extract himself from the lure of worldly pleasures and overcome his yetzer horah to sin again. (Rav Moshe Shapiro explains that “softening the flesh” also alludes to removing all external influences which adversely affect the body. Alternatively, it may represent becoming “soft like flesh,” an allusion to humbling oneself.)
The next six months are, ששה חדשים בבשמים ובתמרוקי הנשים - “six months with perfumes and women’s ointments.” After one has removed the “hair” of worldly luxuries, he must strive to bring kedusha into his life through the scrupulous fulfilment of mitzvos aseh [the positive mitzvos]. Mitzvos aseh are represented by “perfumes” because they bring a sweet scent into a person’s life like perfumes. One also must work on cleansing himself by fulfilling all of the mitzvos lo sa’aseh [the negative mitzvos], which are represented by תמרוקי נשים – “women’s ointments”. As mentioned above, the word תמרוקי comes from the word מרק, which means to cleanse oneself of the temptation to sin.
After those twelve months, ובזה הנערה באה אל המלך – “With this, the maiden would come to the King.” On the following Yom Kippur, twelve months after a person has done teshuvah and resolved not to do any more aveiros again, the person’s neshomah is prepared to come before the King to ask for complete forgiveness. Since he successfully avoided returning to his old aveiros which Hashem temporarily suspended, Hashem sees that his teshuvah was sincere. Hashem then completely forgives the aveiros that were suspended on the previous Yom Kippur.
Rav Shlomo Wolbe (in Alei Shur 3:16, pg. 430 footnote) adds that this approach explains the nussach of the berachah in the Shemoneh Esrei of Yom Kippur:ברוך אתה ה׳ מלך מוחל וסלח לעונו תינו ... ומעביר אשמתינו בכל שנה ושנה – “Blessed are you Hashem, the King Who pardons and forgives our aveiros ... and removes our aveiros each and every year.” After we say that Hashem pardons and forgives our aveiros, why do we add that He “removes our sins each and every year”? If He already forgave our aveiros, what is left for Him to remove each year? What is this “removal” of aveiros if not forgiveness?
Rav Wolbe explains that the berachah refers to the two types of forgiveness Hashem grants on Yom Kippur. First, He looks at the aveiros of the year before — the outgoing year, which He suspended last Yom Kippur and for which He waited until this Yom Kippur to see whether the person’s teshuvah was sincere. If He sees that the person did not return to those aveiros, He is מוחל וסלח – “pardons and forgives” them completely. Secondly, He looks at the aveiros of the outgoing year, and if He sees that the person is making an effort to correct his ways and do teshuvah, He removes them and suspends them for twelve months until Yom Kippur of the following year. If, on the next Yom Kippur, He sees that the person achieved a full and sincere teshuvah for those aveiros, He completely pardons the person for his aveiros.
