REMATCH: Vashti vs. Achashverosh

Nov 8, 2016 by Chaim David Targan

As I entered the Sanz Shtiebel in the mystical city of Tzfat this morning– where I usually daven Shaharit – an elder Chasid from South America who had befriended me asked with a big smile in his charming Latin accent “So who do you want to win, Hillary or Trump?” I pointed my finger heavenward indicating “I am voting for Hashem” Little did I know that the secret to this incredible whirlwind of an election would all come down to me minutes later as I was davening (praying) Shaharit, the morning prayer.

WHO WILL WIN – THE ANSWER WILL SURPRISE YOU
Who will win?
Who will lose?
The answer is that Both Hillary and Trump will lose…. And the winner is us. Us being Klal Yisrael and the righteous of the world.

WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?
As we all have seen, this has been anything but a normal election.

This is nothing less than the epic battle between revealed evil and hidden evil. And the two protagonists starring in the dramatic comic tragedy are none other than the gilgulim – the (partially) incarnated souls – of none other than Ashashverosh (played by Donald Trump) and Vashti (played by Hillary Rodham Clinton). To those who may not be familiar with these personalities, they are The King and first Queen in the Purim story brought down in Megillat Esther (The Scroll of Esther) in the Tanach (Bible)

WHO WAS VASHTI & WHO WAS AHASHVEROSH ?
In order to fully understand who these characters really were, we need to go beyond reading Megillat Esther (The Book of Esther) on a simple text level. We do this by going into the both the Talmud Megilla (Oral Law) and the Midrash – Esther Rabba, the allegorical stories behind them – which were brought down by our great sages with Ruach HaKodesh – Divine inspiration.

To the simple eye, Vashti may appear like a heroine – the one who defied her obnoxious and drunken husband, King Ahashverosh to parade in front of the men’s celebration au naturel. She was anything but a heroine. Vashti was born a princess to one of the most evil and arrogant hereditary lines in history, and clearly shared their DNA. She was the daughter of Belshazzar (who saw Daniel’s “Writing on the Wall”) and the granddaughter of Nebuchadnezzar, the emperor of Babylonia who destroyed the Beit HaMikdash in Jerusalem. Not only was Nebuchadnezzar evil, he didn’t even want to hide it; he relished in it. He was the personification of evil. According to the Midrash (and there are a few versions here) Vashti, his granddaughter, relished in her meanness by trying to break the spirit of Jewish women, which she did by forcing them to come to her, to undress and to then humiliate them by forcing them to work naked on Shabbat (The Sabbath) – thereby trying to destroy both the Tzniyut (modesty) and Shabbat observance – which are two of the hallmark traits of Jewish women. Clearly not a nice lady.

Ahashsverosh is made out to be a buffoon, a foolish king who is described in Pesikta Esther Rabbah 9: “He was arbitrary. He put his wife to death because of his friend and put his friend to death because of his wife”. He was focused on greed, on false honor, and portrayed himself as greater than G-d, by his unabashedly displaying the holy vessels of the Beit HaMikdash at his drunken orgy of a party. Esther Rabba 10:3 goes on to say the evil people are controlled by their hearts, while righteous people are able in control of their hearts. And the more the Midrash shares of Ahashverosh, we see how evil a character he really was.

(Please see the Midrash – Esther Rabba – to understand this at a deeper level, as due to the time sensitivity of this article, there is not time to add more)

NOW BACK TO THE ELECTIONS
As mentioned above, this election is about the battle between revealed evil and hidden evil. So which is which? Like everyone else, I had my preference and clearly saw much more evil in one candidate than the other. SO GUESS WHAT — If you are party to Donald Trump, you will of course see Hillary as revealed evil as is clearly seen by her entitlement, unapologetic corruption, arrogance, etc (Vashti). And if you are party to Hillary Clinton, you will undoubtedly say Donald Trump is revealed evil – as can be seen by his opportunism, attitudes and comments towards those he dislikes.

The answer will surprise you. They are BOTH Revealed and Hidden evil. It all depends on your point of view. This is the lesson we each need to learn as well, as we often see evil or negativity in others, but fail to see any in ourselves.

Like a TV game show with options for “door #1, door #2 or door #3”, Hashem designed the world – from our limited human perspective at least – with multiple potential paths to get to the same result. Some paths are easier and sweeter. Some paths are harder and more painful. It is only after the fact, will we be able to re-interpret the Nevuah– the prophecy – to see things in the actual way they turned out.

THEY LOSE: WE WIN: CLEARING EVIL for THE GEULA
As all the Tzaddikim (righteous sages) agree, we are already in what I call “The Concealed part of the Geula (Redemption / Messianic age)”, as we all anxiously await Moshiach to be revealed. But in order to bring the Geula as sweetly as possible (See Hashem’s Upcoming Wake Up Call), we also need to fix things first, as “It is NOT The Geula that will bring the healing, but the healing will bring the Geula.” So this election is helping clear out evil in the world, both hidden and revealed evil as well as external evil (from others) and internal evil – that which is inside each one of us”. We may not realize it – and certainly don’t like hearing it – but each one of us has components even from the negative primal energies that needs to be cleared and metakened (spiritually fixed). But having these two antagonists – Trump and Clinton – fight it out, effectively destroying each other at the end, Hashem has blessed us that through their demise, and cleansing of their own evil ways, we are also being blessed immensely by helping us pave the way to the Geula through eradication of much of the evil in the world.

NOT THEIR FIRST REMATCH
This is not the first potential healing or fixing for Ahashverosh & Vashti. They were also partially reincarnated as King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella – the evil power couple that expelled the Jews from Spain in 1492. Hashem had given them a chance to shine or become worse – and unfortunately they chose the latter course.

But there is a difference between the two — One is rectifiable evil (fixable) while the other is not. More on this coming up.

THE BIGGER PICTURE
As part of the Geula process, all of the major players in history are back for the final show for their final tikkunim– or spiritual fixings – many of which are Divine retribution from past evil. Some of the players have already come and gone – like Saddam Hussein – who was the gilgul / incarnation of Nebuchadnezzar- and who went down in disgrace like a rat being hunted to its death. This is why we have the epic battle here between Ahashverosh and Vashti through their incarnations of Trump and Hillary.

But Don’t Worry – It is not only the evil players who are back. All of the holy players are back as well. But they are mostly hidden for now. All of the Imot, Avot, (Mothers and Fathers) prophets, great kings of Israel, the Tana’im and Amorim (sages of the Talmud – Oral Law), and the great sages of all the generations are back as well. But it isn’t so easy to figure out who they are as most are hidden, often not looking like the Tzaddikim you would expect them to be. We just have to have emunah and bitachon (Faith and Trust) that Hashem knows exactly what He is doing and will reveal them at the right time.

BUT – as the Geula can come either the easy way (D’Achishena) or the hard way of the prophets (D’Ita) – what we can do is crash open gates in Heaven with both our actions, thoughts and our prayers to bring the Geula in the sweetest way possible.

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Chaim David Targan
Tzfat, Israel
7 Cheshvan 5777
Nov 8, 2016