This week we continued our deep dive into the book of Esther. You may recall that last week we concluded chapter two by learning that Esther’s uncle Mordecai had a job at the palace gate. The gate was a significant structure with storerooms and offices for people in the king’s service. While at the gate, Mordecai overheard two guards who were angry with King Ahasuerus, the man to whom Esther was queen, and plot to kill him. Mordecai warns Esther of the plot, who then warns the king. Because Esther told the king about her uncle’s role as informant, both Esther and Mordecai are in the king’s good graces.
Chapter 3 tells us that, sometime afterwards, a man named Haman was elevated in the king’s service. Because of his high position, and because of a royal edict, the townspeople were required to bow to Haman when he passed. But Mordecai would not bow. Readers might have been told by their parents, or by other family members, that Mordecai refused to bow to Haman because Jews only bow down to God, not to other people.
The Greek historian Herodotus recorded that King Xerxes (the Persian king that Ahasuerus in lightly modeled on) did in fact require people to bow before him and before his high ranking officials. Herodotus tells us that the Greeks refused to bow to Xerxes because, “It was not the Greek way to prostrate oneself before another human being” (Histories 7.136).” According to our Bible, Jews have no problem with bowing before another person. In Genesis 23 Abraham bows to the Hittites; in Genesis 43 Joseph’s brothers bow before Joseph (whom they thought was an Egyptian official); in Exodus 18 Moses bows to Jethro; and in 1 King 1 Nathan bows to David.
Knowing this, our ancient Rabbis created a midrash that, when he was elevated, Haman crafted an image on his garment. Therefore, whoever bowed before Haman was also bowing before the image, which would amount to idolatry. Therefore, not wanting to commit the sin of bowing before an idol, Mordecai would not bow. But we should point out that, while it is a good rabbinic midrash, this story is not found in the Bible. But Mordecai’s refusal to bow before Haman would spark Haman’s anger, and he would then plot who the genocide of the Jews. Therefore, there must have been a really good reason that Mordecai would not bow before Haman.
The real problem that Mordecai had with Haman comes from his parentage: Haman is described in the Bible as “Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite. The Agagites are descendants of King Agag of Amalek (1 Samuel 15:8). The Amalekites are the bitter enemies of the Jewish people.
To get the complete story of the Amalekites, we need to draw information from a couple places in the Bible. In Exodus 17, Moses begins to lead the people into the wilderness after they left bondage in Egypt. As the caravan of people journeys forward, the Amalekites were the first attackers the Israelites had to fight. With God’s help, the Israelites defeated the Amalekites and God says: “I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.” Then Moses notes, “The Lord will be at war with Amalek throughout the ages.” The Amalekites also took part in skirmishes against the Israelites in Numbers 14, Judges 3 and Judges 6.
The Israelites fought against many neighboring tribes in their quest to conquer the Promised Land, but only the Amalekite tribe gets hatred of this type heaped upon them. It may be because in Deuteronomy 25 we are told that, when the Israelites left Egypt and they were “famished and weary… [the Amalekites] cut down all the straggles in your rear.” Perhaps it was felt that this was a coward’s way to attack the already suffering Israelite people.
1 Samuel 15 tells us that King Saul had the opportunity to destroy Amalek handed to him on a plate—but Saul failed God. The story goes that God told Saul the time was right for God’s revenge on Amalek, and Saul should go and entirely wipe out all living creatures, human or animal, that belonged to Amalek. Although Saul won the battle, Saul let King Agag of Amalek live, and he allowed his troops to keep anything of value that they wanted: sheep, oxen, 2nd-born sons, lambs, etc. This angered God greatly, who wanted anything with the stench of Amalek destroyed!
The Rabbis created a midrash that God knew that a descendant of Amalek would lead a genocide against the Jews, and that is why he demanded everything connected to Amalek be destroyed. By not doing as instructed, Saul allowed Haman to be born: Haman who would go on to lead a genocide of the Jews (Megillah 13a). This story is also the reason given for why Saul lost the kingdom of Israel and David was given the throne.
Mordecai is a descendant of Saul, and Haman is a descendant of Amalek. The Esther story makes Mordecai an “avenger and redeemer for Israel.” Mordecai is finally writing Saul’s wrong.
Our Torah Study group talked about the horror of identifying an entire people as an enemy. As a people who have been reviled over the millennia, we may feel some shock at lumping an entire people in this way. Rabbi Jaech shared with us words of wisdom she learned in rabbinic school from Professor Martin Cohen: Jews of every generation have had the perception that we are disappearing, or that we are in danger. Maybe that is one of the reasons we are still here. We realize that we cannot be complacent about who we are, and we have developed resiliency. In our great biblical texts, we see how resilient we need to be. These are stories about survival.
The blog is Tara Keiter’s interpretation of the Temple Israel of Northern Westchester Torah Study session. Misquotes or misunderstandings in what Rabbi Jaech taught are the responsibility of Tara Keiter.