The Gemarah discusses the the Possuk of "The courtyard of the garden of the palace", and brings a Machlokas between Rav and Shmuel. One says that you sat in the area most fitting of your stature, and the other says that all the guests sat in the courtyard, which had doorways to the gardens and the palace. A few lines on, the Gemarah then discusses the Possuk of "Gold and silver couches". The Machlokas there/here is between Rav Yehudah and Rav Nechemiah. Rav Yehudah says that some couches were gold, whilst others were silver; however Rav Nechemiah argues and says that the reason for the feast was for Achashverosh to appease the nation (as discussed by Rav and Shmuel above), and this would do the opposite, if some guests saw that their fellow diners had gold couches they would be jealous. Therefore Rav Nechemiah explains the Possuk to mean that each couch was made of silver and gold. Tosafos asks (in D"H Atah Matel Kinah): what about above, according to the opinion that held t!
hat th
e guests were spread around the Royal Grounds of the king, would this not also cause jealousy between one man and his friend? Tosafos answers that since the gardens could not be seen from the palace and the courtyard, the palace from the gardens and the coutyard, and the courtyard from the palace and gardens, it was all okay, because no-one could see the other diners, (unless they were in that area), so there was no jealousy.
This is difficult because:
a) When each man got home, they could have asked around, and found out that other people had been at the feast, but in a better location than themselves, so Tosafos' answer wouldn't count.
b) Tosafos doesn't explain why the Gemarah did not mention this.
c) Rav Nechemiah does not ask on Rav/Shmuel "Would this not cause jealousy?"
Chaim Kahan, London, England
(a) Possibly the answer lies in what R. Nechemiah said, "If so, you place jealously in the meal!". This suggests that this would only be a problem if they were jealous of each other during the course of the actual meal, but if the jealously would only start after they had returned home, this would not concern King Achashverosh so much. If people are angry with each other during a feast, this is obviously going to spoil the rejoicing, whilst Achashverosh was not worried about repercussions in the more distant future. One should also remember that the feast lasted 7 days and possibly at the end of the week, people would have forgotten the original chagrin experienced when they discovered they had been given a second-class seat.
However IYUN YAAKOV (cited in EIN YAAKOV) asks a similar question to your's, but brings the friction closer. He writes that Tosfos' answer is forced because even though they could not see each other, nevertheless everyone knew who was sitting where (presumably the word got around quickly) and there would still be jealousy (i.e. during the course of the feast itself). Because of this question on Tosfos, IYUN YAAKOV offers a different interpretation of the Gemara.
(b) Most answers given by Tosfos are not stated in the Gemara itself. Tosfos' explanation might have been obvious to the authors of the Gemara, and it was only several hundred years later, when people had more difficulty understanding the Gemara, that it was necessary for the Rishonim to add on more explanation.
(c) R. Nechemia could clearly not ask on Rav/Shmuel because R. Nechemia was a Tana and lived before Rav and Shmuel, who were in the first generation of the Amora'im.
KOL TUV
D. Bloom