Megillah, Daf Yod Gimmel, Part 6

 

 

ויבז בעיניו לשלח יד במרדכי לבדו"

אמר רבא בתחילה במרדכי לבדו, ולבסוף בעם מרדכי, ומנו – רבנן, ולבסוף בכל היהודים.

 

"But it seemed contemptible in his eyes to lay hands on Mordecai alone" (Esther 3:6). At first he [wanted to lay hands] "on Mordecai alone," then at "the people of Mordecai" and who are these? The Rabbis; and finally at "all the Jews."

 

Rava explains why the verse moves from Mordecai, to "the people of Mordecai" then "all of the Jews." Gradually, Haman expanded the scope of his evil decree.

 

הפיל פור הוא הגורל, תנא: כיון שנפל פור בחדש אדר שמח שמחה גדולה, אמר: נפל לי פור בירח שמת בו משה. ולא היה יודע שבשבעה באדר מת ובשבעה באדר נולד.

 

"They cast a pur, that is the lot". A Tanna taught: When the lot fell on the month of Adar, he rejoiced greatly saying: The lot has fallen for me on the month in which Moses died. He did not know, however, that Moses died on the seventh of Adar and was born on the seventh of Adar.

 

Haman rejoiced when he saw that the lot to kill the Jews fell on Adar, the month in which Moses died. He thought this was a good sign that his plot would succeed. What he did not know was that Moses was also born in Adar. Just as Adar can be a month of death, so too it can be a month of rebirth.

 

ישנו עם אחד אמר רבא: ליכא דידע לישנא בישא כהמן. אמר ליה: תא ניכלינהו! – אמר ליה: מסתפינא מאלהיו, דלא ליעביד בי כדעבד בקמאי. – אמר ליה: ישנו מן המצות. – אמר ליה: אית בהו רבנן. – אמר ליה: עם אחד הן. שמא תאמר קרחה אני עושה במלכותך – מפוזרין הם בין העמים, שמא תאמר אית הנאה מינייהו – מפורד, כפרידה זו שאינה עושה פירות. ושמא תאמר איכא מדינתא מינייהו – תלמוד לומר בכל מדינות מלכותך. ודתיהם שנות מכל עם – דלא אכלי מינן, ולא נסבי מינן, ולא מנסבי לן. ואת דתי המלך אינם עשים – דמפקי לכולא שתא בשה"י פה"י. ולמלך אין שוה להניחם – דאכלו ושתו ומבזו ליה למלכות. ואפילו נופל זבוב בכוסו של אחד מהן – זורקו ושותהו. ואם אדוני המלך נוגע בכוסו של אחד מהן – חובטו בקרקע ואינו שותהו.

 

"There is one people" (Esther 3:8):

Rava said: No one was ever as skillful at evil language as Haman. He said to Ahashverosh: Come, let us destroy them. He replied: I am afraid of their God, lest He do to me as He did to my predecessors. He replied: They are "negligent" (yashu) of the precepts.

He said: There are Rabbis among them.

He replied: They are "one people".

Should you say that I will make a void in your kingdom, they are "scattered abroad among the peoples".

Should you say: There is some profit in them, I reply, "they are dispersed" [nifredu], like an isolated bough [peridah] that does not bear fruit.

Should you say that they occupy one province, I reply, "they are in all the provinces of your kingdom".

"Their laws are diverse from those of every other people": they do not eat of our food, nor do they marry our women nor give us theirs in marriage.

"Neither keep they the king’s laws", since they evade taxes the whole year by saying today is Shabbat, today is Pesah.

"Therefore it does not profit the king to suffer them", because they eat and drink and despise the throne. For if a fly falls into the cup of one of them, he throws it out and drinks the wine, but if my lord the king were to touch his cup, he would dash it on the ground and not drink from it.

 

Rava explains Haman’s speech to Ahashverosh. How did Haman convince Ahashverosh to allow him to kill all the Jews? Many of Haman’s claims against the Jews are classic anti-semitic claims made throughout history against the Jews. The portrait of a king hesitating about killing the Jews is also a scene that played itself out throughout Jewish history. Often the kings looked at the bottom line (the money) and did see some benefit in retaining the Jewish population in their region. It was often the people or other community leaders (the church) who were most dangerous to the Jews.

The beginning of Rava’s derashah is a bit different. There Haman himself notes that these Jews are lax in their observance of commandments. Even the rabbis are not fully observant of the commandments. While it is strange to hear Haman saying these things, this is reflective of typical rabbinic theology. God would not punish Israel without Israel deserving such punishment.

 

 

אם על המלך טוב יכתב לאבדם ועשרת אלפים ככר כסף וגו‘ אמר ריש לקיש: גלוי וידוע לפני מי שאמר והיה העולם שעתיד המן לשקול שקלים על ישראל, לפיכך הקדים שקליהן לשקליו. והיינו דתנן: באחד באדר משמיעין על השקלים ועל הכלאים.

 

"If it please the king, let it be written that they be destroyed, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver": Resh Lakish said: It was well known to Him at whose word the world came into being that Haman would one day pay shekels for the destruction of Israel. Therefore He anticipated his shekels with those of Israel. And so we have learned: "On the first of Adar they make a proclamation regarding the shekalim and the mixed seeds."

 

Resh Lakish refers here to the announcement made on the first of Adar as to the collection of the half-shekel tax. This was a tax collected from every Jew when the Temple still stood. The proceeds were used to finance the daily sacrifices. Resh Lakish says that it is not coincidental that Haman’s decree involved shekels and that Adar is also the month in which the Jews give a shekel to the Temple. Through observing the mitzvah of the half-shekel, the Jews were saved from Haman’s evil decree, bought with shekels.

On the first of Adar they also announce that anyone with two different kinds of seeds growing together should uproot them (see Leviticus 19:19). Since Adar is the beginning of the growing season, this is when that announcement was made.

ויאמר המלך להמן הכסף נתון לך והעם לעשות בו כטוב בעיניך, אמר רבי אבא: משל דאחשורוש והמן למה הדבר דומה? לשני בני אדם, לאחד היה לו תל בתוך שדהו, ולאחד היה לו חריץ בתוך שדהו, בעל חריץ אמר: מי יתן לי תל זה בדמים! בעל התל אמר: מי יתן לי חריץ זה בדמים! לימים נזדווגו זה אצל זה, אמר לו בעל חריץ לבעל התל: מכור לי תילך! – אמר לו: טול אותה בחנם, והלואי!

 

"And the king said to Haman, The silver is given to you and the people also, to do with them as it seems good in your eyes." R. Abba said: To what can we compare Ahashveros and Haman? To two men one of whom had a mound in the middle of his field and the other a ditch in the middle of his field. The owner of the ditch said, I wish I could buy that mound, and the owner of the mound said, I wish l could buy that ditch. One day they met, and the owner of the ditch said, Sell me your mound, whereupon the other replied, Take it for nothing, and I shall be only too glad.

 

Ahasheverosh ends up giving the Jews to Haman for free! This is like two men who both need what the other has. One has a mound and wants to level his field into the other’s ditch. One has a ditch and wants to fill it up with the other’s mound. In the end, they are both happy because they make the exchange for free. So too Ahashverosh wants to get rid of his Jews and Haman wants to kill the Jews. Ahashverosh is so willing, he does not even take the money.