LaYehudim haytah orah v'simchah,
orah v'simcha v'sasson vikar.
The Jews enjoyed light and gladness, happiness and honor.
“When they spoke to him daily” – Rabbi Yoḥanan said in the name of Rabbi Binyamin bar Rabbi Levi: The children of Rachel, their miracles are equal and their ascent to greatness is equal. Their miracles are equal; that is what is written: “It was when she spoke to Joseph day after day” (Genesis 39:10). Here it written: “When they spoke to him daily and he did not heed them,” and there it is written: “And he did not heed her to lie with her, to be with her” (Genesis 39:10). And their ascent to greatness is equal; that is what is written: “Pharaoh removed his ring from his hand and he gave it to Joseph, and he garbed him in garments of linen” (Genesis 41:42). Here it is written: “The king removed the ring that he had taken from Haman, and he gave it to Mordekhai” (Esther 8:2). There it is written: “He had him ride in his second chariot, and they cried before him: ‘Avrekh’” (Genesis 41:43); here, it is written: “And let the garments and the horse be placed…and they will proclaim before him: So shall be done to the man whose honoring the king desires” (Esther 6:9).
אָמַר רַבִּי חִיָּיא בַּר אַבָּא אָמַר רַבִּי יוֹחָנָן: בְּשָׁעָה שֶׁאָמַר לוֹ פַּרְעֹה לְיוֹסֵף ״וּבִלְעָדֶיךָ לֹא יָרִים אִישׁ אֶת יָדוֹ וְגוֹ׳״, אָמְרוּ אִיצְטַגְנִינֵי פַרְעֹה: עֶבֶד שֶׁלְּקָחוֹ רַבּוֹ בְּעֶשְׂרִים כֶּסֶף תַּמְשִׁילֵהוּ עָלֵינוּ? אָמַר לָהֶן: גִּנּוּנֵי מַלְכוּת אֲנִי רוֹאֶה בּוֹ. אָמְרוּ לוֹ: אִם כֵּן, יְהֵא יוֹדֵעַ בְּשִׁבְעִים לָשׁוֹן! בָּא גַּבְרִיאֵל וְלִימְּדוֹ שִׁבְעִים לָשׁוֹן. לָא הֲוָה קָגָמַר. הוֹסִיף לוֹ אוֹת אַחַת מִשְּׁמוֹ שֶׁל הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא וְלָמַד, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: ״עֵדוּת בִּיהוֹסֵף שָׂמוֹ בְּצֵאתוֹ עַל אֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם שְׂפַת לֹא יָדַעְתִּי אֶשְׁמָע״. וּלְמָחָר, כֹּל לִישָּׁנָא דְּאִישְׁתַּעִי פַּרְעֹה בַּהֲדֵיהּ, אַהְדַּר לֵיהּ.
Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Abba says that Rabbi Yoḥanan says: When Pharaoh said to Joseph: “And without you no man shall lift up his hand or his foot in all the land of Egypt” (Genesis 41:44), Pharaoh’s astrologers said: You will appoint a slave whose master bought him for twenty silver coins to rule over us? He said to them: I perceive royal characteristics in him. They said to him: If that is so, he should know the seventy languages. The angel Gabriel came and taught him the seventy languages... And the next day, when he appeared before Pharaoh, in every language that Pharaoh spoke with him, he answered him.
“In those days, while Mordecai sat in the king’s gate, two of the king’s chamberlains, Bigthan and Teresh, became angry, and sought to lay hands on the king Ahasuerus” (Esther 2:21). Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Abba said that Rabbi Yoḥanan said: The Blessed Holy One, caused a master to become angry with his servants in order to fulfill the will of a righteous man. And who is this? It is Joseph, as it is stated in the chief butler’s account of how Pharaoh had become angry with him and with the chief baker and sent them to jail: “And there was with us there a young man, a Hebrew” (Genesis 41:12). Similarly, the Blessed Holy One also caused servants to become angry with their master in order to perform a miracle for another righteous man. And who is he? It is Mordecai, as it is written: “And the matter became known to Mordecai” (Esther 2:22).
אָמַר רַבִּי יוֹחָנָן: בִּגְתָן וָתֶרֶשׁ שְׁנֵי טַרְסִיִּים הֲווֹ, וְהָיוּ מְסַפְּרִין בְּלָשׁוֹן טוּרְסִי, וְאוֹמְרִים: מִיּוֹם שֶׁבָּאת זוֹ לֹא רָאִינוּ שֵׁינָה בְּעֵינֵינוּ, בֹּא וְנַטִּיל אֶרֶס בַּסֵּפֶל כְּדֵי שֶׁיָּמוּת. וְהֵן לֹא הָיוּ יוֹדְעִין כִּי מָרְדֳּכַי מִיּוֹשְׁבֵי לִשְׁכַּת הַגָּזִית הָיָה, וְהָיָה יוֹדֵעַ בְּשִׁבְעִים לָשׁוֹן.
Rabbi Yoḥanan said: Bigthan and Teresh were two Tarsians, and they would talk in the Tarsian language. They said: From the day that Esther arrived we have not slept. Come, let us cast poison in the goblet from which he drinks so that he will die. But they did not know that Mordecai was one of those who sat on the Sanhedrin, which convened in the Chamber of Hewn Stone, and that he knew seventy languages.