Megillah, Daf Tet Zayin, Part 2

 

Introduction

Today’s section is an extended telling of the episode where Haman is forced to lead Mordecai around garbed in royal clothing riding on a horse.

 

ויקח המן את הלבוש ואת הסוס,

אזל אשכחיה דיתבי רבנן קמיה, ומחוי להו הלכות קמיצה לרבנן. כיון דחזייה מרדכי דאפיק לקבליה, וסוסיה מיחד בידיה, מירתת. אמר להו לרבנן: האי רשיעא למיקטל נפשי קא אתי, זילו מקמיה די לא תכוו בגחלתו. בההיא שעתא נתעטף מרדכי וקם ליה לצלותא, אתא המן ויתיב ליה קמייהו ואוריך עד דסליק מרדכי לצלותיה. אמר להו: במאי עסקיתו? – אמרו ליה: בזמן שבית המקדש קיים, מאן דמנדב מנחה מייתי מלי קומציה דסולתא ומתכפר ליה. אמר להו: אתא מלי קומצי קמחא דידכו, ודחי עשרה אלפי ככרי כספא דידי. – אמר ליה: רשע! עבד שקנה נכסים – עבד למי, ונכסים למי?

 

"Then Haman took the clothes and the horse."

He went and found [Mordecai] with the Rabbis sitting before him while he showed them the rules of the "handful." When Mordecai saw him approaching and leading the horse, he became frightened and said to the Rabbis: This villain is coming to kill me. Get out of his way so that you should not be burned by his ember.

Mordecai thereupon drew his robe around him and stood up to pray. Haman came in and sat down before them and waited till Mordecai had finished his prayer. He said to him: What have you been discussing? He replied: When the Temple stood, if a man brought a meal-offering he used to offer a handful of fine flour and make atonement with it. Haman said to them: Your handful of fine flour has come and displaced my ten thousand talents of silver. Mordecai said to him: Wicked one, if a slave acquires property, whose is the slave and whose is the property?

 

Haman finds Mordecai, portrayed as a rabbinic sage, teaching the laws of the handful of fine flour taken from a meal-offering and put on the altar. The rabbis tell Haman that they have been studying these laws, for which he mocks them. How could your little handful of flour supersede my 10,000 talents of silver!

But Haman according to legend had already sold himself to Mordecai as a slave (we learned this on page 15b). So any money that Haman owned really belongs to Mordecai himself.

 

אמר ליה: קום לבוש הני מאני, ורכוב האי סוסיא, דבעי לך מלכא. – אמר ליה: לא יכילנא עד דעיילנא לבי בני ואשקול למזייא, דלאו אורח ארעא לאשתמושי במאני דמלכא הכי. שדרה אסתר ואסרתינהו לכולהו בי בני, ולכולהו אומני. עייליה איהו לבי בני, ואסחיה, ואזיל ואייתי זוזא מביתיה, וקא שקיל ביה מזייה. בהדי דקא שקיל ליה אינגד ואיתנח. אמר ליה: אמאי קא מיתנחת? – אמר ליה: גברא דהוה חשיב ליה למלכא מכולהו רברבנוהי, השתא לישוייה בלאני וספר? – אמר ליה: רשע! ולאו ספר של כפר קרצום היית? תנא: המן ספר של כפר קרצום היה עשרים ושתים שנה.

 

Haman then said to him: Arise and put on these clothes and ride on this horse, for so the king desires you to do.

He replied: I cannot do so until I have gone into the bath and trimmed my hair, for it would not be good manners to use the king’s clothing in this state. Now Esther had sent and closed all the baths and all the barbers shops. So Haman himself took him into the bath and washed him, and then went and brought scissors from his house and trimmed his hair. While he was doing so, he sighed and groaned. Mordecai said to him: Why do you sigh? He replied: The man who was esteemed by the king above all his nobles is now made a bath attendant and a barber. Mordecai said to him: Wicked one, and were you not once a barber in Kefar Karzum? For so a Tanna stated: Haman was a barber in Kefar Karzum twenty-two years.

 

The tale continues. Haman was once a barber. This seems to have been considered a rather lowly profession, thereby adding to the tale of Haman’s humiliation.

 

בתר דשקלינהו למזייה לבשינהו למאניה, אמר ליה: סק ורכב. – אמר ליה: לא יכילנא, דכחישא חילאי מימי תעניתא. גחין וסליק. כי סליק בעט ביה. – אמר ליה: לא כתיב לכו +משלי כ"ד+ בנפל אויבך אל תשמח? – אמר ליה: הני מילי – בישראל, אבל בדידכו כתיב – +דברים ל"ג+ ואתה על במותימו תדרוך.

 

After he had trimmed his hair he put the garments on him, and said to him, Mount and ride. He replied: I am not able, as I am weak from the days of fasting. So Haman stooped down and he mounted [on his back]. When he was up he kicked him. He said to him: Is it not written in your books, "Rejoice not when your enemy fails" (Proverbs 24:17)? He replied: That refers to an Israelite, but in regard to you it is written, "And you shall step on their high places" (Deuteronomy 33:29).

 

Adding more layers of humiliation to Haman, Mordecai makes him bend over so he can get up on the horse and then kicks him while he mounts. I’d say I feel bad for Haman, but remember, this is a man who has plotted to kill thousands of innocent people. I can imagine that the rabbis who composed this midrash enjoyed taking out all of their misery on this wicked man.

+אסתר ו’+ ויקרא לפניו ככה יעשה לאיש אשר המלך חפץ ביקרו. כי הוה נקיט ואזיל בשבילא דבי המן חזיתיה ברתיה דקיימא אאיגרא. סברה: האי דרכיב – אבוה, והאי דמסגי קמיה – מרדכי. שקלה עציצא דבית הכסא ושדיתיה ארישא דאבוה. דלי עיניה וחזת דאבוה הוא, נפלה מאיגרא לארעא ומתה. והיינו דכתיב וישב מרדכי אל שער המלך אמר רב ששת: ששב לשקו ולתעניתו. והמן נדחף אל ביתו אבל וחפוי ראש, אבל – על בתו, וחפוי ראש – על שאירע לו.

 

And proclaimed before him, "Thus shall be done to the man whom the king desires to honor." As he was leading him through the street where Haman lived, his daughter who was standing on the roof saw him. She thought that the man on the horse was her father and the man walking before him was Mordecai. So she took a chamber pot and emptied it on the head of her father. He looked up at her and when she saw that it was her father, she threw herself from the roof to the ground and killed herself. Hence it is written . . . "

And Mordecai returned to the king’s gate". R. Sheshet said: This indicates that he returned to his sackcloth and fasting.

"But Haman hastened to his house, mourning and his head covered"; mourning for his daughter, and with his head covered on account of what had happened to him.

 

Again, this account adds to Haman’s humiliation. Haman’s daughter unwittingly dumps the chamber pot onto his head, thinking it was Mordecai. When she realizes what she has done, she commits suicide. This is why Haman goes back to his house mourning.

The longer account in interrupted with R. Sheshet’s midrash that Mordecai returned to his sackcloth and fasting. He didn’t let this temporary victory deter him from his larger task.