The longest word in Tanach, tied with two others, is “והאחשדרפנים”, which appears in Megillas Esther 9:3. We know the Achashdarpenim were officers of the Persian king, but their specific duty is unclear and generally unknown.
Remarkably, none of the commentators mention the following Midrashic source, which tells us exactly what they did. The word “אחשדרפניא” appears in Daniel 3:27, and the meaning of the word is the subject of a dispute between Rabbi Acha and the Rabbis in Shir HaShirim Rabba 7:9:
Rabbi Acha says they were corrupt legal advisers who would turn the law in all directions. The Rabbis say they show favoritism and turn the law accordingly. These opinions appear very similar; in essence, their job was to twist the law to suit the purposes of the ruler.
My, how little things have changed in our “enlightened” generation. The leaders of so-called democracies around the world are determined to wiggle around laws that exist to protect the rights of the people. These laws are nothing but nuisances to them. If they cannot revoke these laws, they create emergency laws that suspend them indefinitely, or they redefine words to render the laws meaningless.
The democracies of today are little different than the Persian monarchy. Their kings too were restricted by laws, and they too massaged the laws to get away with anything they wanted. Instead of allowing the law to restrain them from corrupt behavior, they used the law to sanitize their corruption. First they decided what they wanted to do, then they deployed their Achashdarpenim to find a way to make it legal.
Once again, there is nothing new under the sun, and even an obscure word in Megillas Esther teaches us a timeless lesson.
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The Zera Shimshon has a remarkable insight in his commentary on the Haggada, Chapter 7. He cites the Drasha that the Egyptians first enslaved the Jews by cajoling them, and then imposed backbreaking work on them. He then asks as follows: “Why did they accept upon themselves in the end to do backbreaking work? And why were the Egyptians not afraid of them that they might protest, being that the Jews were already a large and more powerful nation than them? And the Zera Beirach asks the same question on this Pasuk. And he answered that this was the scheme of the Egyptians to first enslave them in this way with mortar and bricks, in order to make foolish the wisdom of the Jews…” He goes on to explain that this type of menial work demoralizes people and has a negative effect on their intellect.
Indeed, this helps explain how so many intelligent people all around us have lost their ability to think clearly, and have so readily forfeited their most basic freedoms. How have the 99% been enslaved by the 1% of degenerate “elites”? They were cajoled into being slaves “just a little bit”, then they were easily demoralized and lost their minds. Once someone allows himself to be enslaved just a little bit, he is a slave all the way.
The degenerate people in power cannot possibly control the masses with force. Their greatest fear is that the masses will realize this, unify, and take back their freedom together. They prevent this from happening by demoralizing the people and dumbing them down, so they forget how much power they collectively have.
