בימים ההם ומרדכי יושב בשער המלך קצף בגתן ותרש שני סריסי המלך משמרי הסף ויבקשו לשלח יד במלך אחשורש. ויודע הדבר למרדכי ויגד לאסתר המלכה ותאמר אסתר למלך בשם מרדכי.
“At that time, when Mordechai was sitting in the palace gate, Bigsan and Seresh, two of the king’s eunuchs who guarded the threshold, became angry, and plotted to do away with King Achashveirosh. Mordechai learned of it and told it to Queen Esther, and Esther reported it to the king in Mordechai’s name.” (Esther 2:21-22)
If someone is chasing after a na'arah me'urasah [a betrothed girl] in order to have forbidden relations with her, the din is one is allowed to kill the one chasing her. If someone attempts to kill the man chasing her, and the na'arah me'urasah turns around and kills the one who was going to kill her pursuer, and in the end she gets forced to have forbidden relations, is she considered: Onus [coerced] and permitted to her husband, or do we say that it is considered as if she did it willingly, as if she wouldn’t have killed the one who was going to kill her pursuer then she would have been saved?
Seemingly we can bring proof from a pasuk in Megillas Esther. The Gemara in Megillah (15a) says that Esther was an anusah [coerced]. But surely Esther had a way of stopping Achashveirosh, if she wouldn’t have told Achashveirosh about the plot of Bigsan and Seresh then they would have gone ahead and poisoned him and he wouldn’t have been mazaneh with her, so how can the Gemara say she was an anusah. It would seem from the above that if a woman stops someone from killing her pursuer she is still considered onus?
However, the above can be refuted based on the Targum. The Targum writes: ואמרו לאשקאה סמא דמותא דמטול לאסתר מלכתא ולאושיטא ידא במלכא אחשורוש למקטליה בסיפא בבית דמוכיה – “Bigsan and Seresh two of the kings eunuchs who guarded the threshold said, ‘let’s give poison to Esther to kill her, and let’s kill king Achashveirosh with a sword’. We see that Bigsan and Seresh were planning to kill Esther as well. Since they were planning on killing her as well, we can’t bring any proof to our shailah. (R’ Eliyohu Boruch Finkel)
