Musar for Shabbat 259:7

The reason that men of military age who are engaged in building a house for themselves, or in the planting of a vineyard which has not yet borne fruit, or who have betrothed a bride without as yet having consummated the marriage are free to return to their homes to complete these endeavours is explained by the Rekanati. We are quoting verbatim: "Know that the three categories of people listed by the Torah in 20,5-8 are people who are especially prone to meet with disaster. The attribute of Justice is more likely to seek them out than others. We have proof for this from what happened during the episode of the golden calf. If you will examine the various occasions when the Torah reports the Jewish people as sinning while they were in the desert, you will find that it was almost invariably after they had experienced a spiritual "high." The first set of tablets were smashed because of the golden calf. Our sages explain that the עין הרע the evil eye, had focused on these tablets. After the Israelites had travelled only three days' journey from Mount Sinai, the very next verse (Numbers 10,36) ויהי העם כמתאוננים, רע באזני השם "The people were complaining before the Lord; they spoke evil within the hearing of G–d." All this in spite of the Torah having told us that the Presence of G–d rested over their encampment. The sin of the spies occurred at a time when the people were ready to conquer ארץ ישראל, i.e. they were at a spiritual "high." The sin of בעל פעור occurred immediately after G–d had made Bileam bless the people instead of cursing them as he had been hired to do (Cf. Numbers chapters 24 and 25). After all, Michah 6,5 reminds the Jewish people to remember the advice given to Bileam by Balak how to curse the Jewish people and how Bileam had responded to him. In that admonition of the prophet the Jewish people are addressed by G–d as "My people," i.e. they were on a morally high level at that time. This is the meaning of the statement of our sages in Shabbat 130 that ליכא כתובה דלא רמו בה תיגרא, "There is no marriage contract which does not give rise to some dispute." Thus far the Rekanati.

The Talmud described the word ששון in our verse from the Book of Esther as a reference to circumcision. This was a commandment which had not been practised joyfully prior to the cancellation of Haman's decree. It could now be celebrated again. According to a view expressed at the beginning of chapter 19 in Shabbat 130, all commandments which the Jewish people accepted joyfully continue to enjoy popularity amongst the Jewish people One such commandment was the rite of circumcision because it was performed to the accompaniment of a feast. As a source for this statement Tossaphot quote the verse describing Abraham making a feast on the day Isaac was weaned. The extra letters ה and ג in the word הגמל serve as the basis that it was on the eighth day after Isaac was born that this feast took place (cf. Genesis 21,8). When Haman's decree was published Esther and Mordechai had decreed a three-day (72 hour) fast on the entire Jewish population of Shushan. Presumably there were many thousands of circumcisions during those days without a feast being prepared honouring performance of this commandment. Now that Haman's decree had been cancelled this commandment could again be performed amid a joyous celebration.