Why Were the Yidden Punished for Bowing Down to Avodah Zorah in the Days of Nevuchadnetzar and Benefiting from the Feast of Achashveirosh at the Same Time, What’s the Connection?
ונשלוח ספרים... להשמיד להרג ולאבד את כל היהודים
“Letters were sent... to destroy, kill and exterminate all the Jews.” (Esther 3:13)
The Gemara in Megillah (12a) says that the decree was issued against the Jews because: 1) In the days of Nevuchadnezar they prostrated themselves to an idol and 2) They partook in Achashveirosh’s feast.
A long time transpired between these two episodes. Why were they now punished for these two things together?
R’ Yonason Eibshitz (Yaares Devash, Vol. 1, pg. 20) explains as follows: According to the Manos HaLevi, when Nevuchadnezar set up the idol he put the tzitz on it, a golden plate which the Kohen Gadol wore on his forehead on which was engraved Hashem’s holy four-letter Name (see Manos HaLevi, Introduction 7b). If so, the Jews could justify their actions by claiming that in reality they were not bowing to the idol, but to the holy tzitz; and despite the fact that it was in the hands of the gentiles, it retained its holiness. They could rationalize that they did not accept the way the Gemara (Nedorim 62a) interprets the pasuk: ובאו בה פריצים וחללוה - “And lawless people will enter the Beis HaMikdosh and profane it” (Yechezkel 7:22) - that once these people use the vessels for unlawful purposes, they become profaned.
When the Jews partook of the meal, though death is not the punishment for eating non-Kosher, death was decreed because the food was served in the vessels of the Beis HaMikdosh, and according to Rebbi: “If one intentionally uses the property of the Beis HaMikdosh for personal benefit, he is put to death” (Sanhedrin 83a). In truth, however, they could have justified themselves by arguing that since the vessels were no longer in the Beis HaMikdosh but in the hands of the gentiles, they were no longer consecrated, and hence there was no “me’ilah.”
However, in light of both episodes together, either way the punishment would be death: The claim that they did nothing wrong in the days of Achashveirosh since the vessels were not holy would mean that the tzitz was also not holy, and thus they had bowed to an idol in the days of Nevuchadnetzar. The claim that they did nothing wrong in the days of Nevuchadnetzar since they were actually bowing to the tzitz, which was holy, would mean that the vessels too were holy and that by blatantly using them for personal needs at the feast of Achashveirosh they incurred the death penalty.
