From scattered yesh to united ayin

בפסוק ישנו עם אחד.

On the pasuk, "There is one nation (yeshno am echad)" (Esther 3:8).

Haman describes Bnei Yisrael to Achashverosh as "yeshno am echad" — "there is one scattered nation." The Sefas Emes will mine the word "yeshno" for its deeper hint.

דרשו חז"ל אלקיהם ישן.

Chazal expounded: "their God sleeps" (yashen).

The Midrash reads "yeshno" (there is) as alluding to "yashen" (sleeps) — Haman's claim that Hashem, as it were, "sleeps" and has withdrawn His open presence from His people.

כי בני ישראל יש להם דביקות באל אחד.

For Bnei Yisrael have dveikus (cleaving) to the one God.

The essence of Bnei Yisrael is their bond of dveikus to the one Hashem — they are called "am echad" because they cling to "Keil echad."

ואיתא דבני ישראל סתים וגליא וכמו כן אורייתא וקוב"ה ע"ש בזוה"ק.

And it is taught that Bnei Yisrael have a concealed aspect (sasim) and a revealed aspect (galya), and likewise the Torah and the Holy One, Blessed is He; see there in the Zohar HaKadosh.

The Zohar teaches that Bnei Yisrael, the Torah, and Hashem each have a hidden (sasim) dimension and a revealed (galya) dimension. The inner, concealed point is always bound to Hashem even when the outer face is hidden.

ובימים ההם הי' בחי' הסתר אסתיר ולא הי' ניכר בחי' אלקות בבני ישראל.

And in those days there was the aspect of "haster astir" ("I will surely hide" — Devarim 31:18), and the aspect of Elokus (Godliness) was not recognizable within Bnei Yisrael.

The Purim era was a time of hester panim — concealment of Hashem's face. The hidden inner connection was still there, but the Godliness within Bnei Yisrael was not outwardly visible.

ולכן אמר ישנו שהם דביקים ביש יותר מדאי.

Therefore he said "yeshno" — that they were clinging to "yesh" (existence/somethingness) too much.

The word "yeshno" shares the root of "yesh" — material, self-asserting existence. Haman's accusation, and the spiritual flaw of that generation, was that Bnei Yisrael had sunk too deeply into "yesh," into a sense of independent material reality.

ונרחקו מבחי' אין.

And they had become distant from the aspect of "ayin" (nothingness/self-nullification).

By clinging to "yesh," they grew distant from "ayin" — the bittul, the self-nullification before Hashem in which one recognizes that he has no independent existence apart from the Source.

והטעם שהם מפוזר ומפורד.

And the reason is that they were "scattered and dispersed" (mefuzar u'meforad) (Esther 3:8).

The cause of this slide into "yesh" was that they were "scattered and dispersed" — fragmented and divided, having lost their unity.

וניטל מהם האחדות.

And the achdus (unity) had been taken from them.

When unity is lost, each person feels himself a separate "yesh." The fragmentation of the people and the over-attachment to material existence are one and the same flaw.

ובאמת כך הי'.

And in truth, so it was.

Haman's charge was, sadly, accurate on its surface — the people had indeed fallen into division and distance from their inner point.

רק מרדכי הצדיק נשאר בזה האחדות כמ"ש איש יהודי.

Only Mordechai the tzaddik remained within this achdus, as it is written, "a Jewish man" (ish Yehudi) (Esther 2:5).

Mordechai alone held fast to the unity. The Gemara notes "Yehudi" connotes one who denies idolatry and affirms the One — Mordechai stayed anchored in the "ayin," bound to the one Hashem.

יחידי הי'.

He was a "yachid" (singular/unique one).

Mordechai stood as a yachid — singular in his unwavering attachment to the One, the living embodiment of achdus when the rest of the nation was scattered.

וע"י אותו צדיק חזרו בנ"י להתדבק באחדות ובה' אחד כמ"ש אסתר לך כנוס.

And through that tzaddik, Bnei Yisrael returned to cleave to unity and to "Hashem is One," as it is written, Esther said, "Go, gather (lech k'nos)" (Esther 4:16).

Through Mordechai's strength, the people returned to dveikus in achdus and to "Hashem echad." Esther's call "lech k'nos es kol haYehudim" — gather all the Jews — was the instrument of restoring that lost unity.

כי מרדכי כינס בנ"י אל האחדות.

For Mordechai gathered Bnei Yisrael into unity.

Mordechai's gathering of the people was not merely a physical assembly; it drew them back into spiritual achdus — back to their inner "ayin."

כמ"ש נקהלו ועמוד על נפשם שנתדבקו בבחי' אין למעלה מהנפשות:

As it is written, "they gathered (nikhalu) and stood up for their lives (al nafsham)" (Esther 9:16) — that they cleaved to the aspect of "ayin," which is above the souls (nefashos).

"They gathered to stand al nafsham" — literally "upon their souls," i.e., reaching above the level of the individual nefesh. By uniting, Bnei Yisrael bound themselves to the "ayin," the point of bittul that transcends each separate soul and rejoins them all to the one Hashem.

Summary: Haman's word "yeshno" ("their God sleeps") exposes the flaw of the generation: scattered and divided, they had sunk into "yesh" (material self-existence) and grown distant from "ayin" (self-nullification before the One). Mordechai the tzaddik, a singular "ish Yehudi," held fast to achdus; through him, and through Esther's call to "gather," Bnei Yisrael reunited and cleaved once more to the "ayin" that lies above all individual souls — to Hashem who is One.