Demagogues in the Bible // Haman

Haman then said to King Ahasuerus, “There is a certain people, scattered and dispersed among the other peoples in all the provinces of your realm, whose laws are different from those of any other people and who do not obey the king’s laws; and it is not in Your Majesty’s interest to tolerate them. If it please Your Majesty, let an edict be drawn for their destruction, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver to the stewards for deposit in the royal treasury.” Thereupon the king removed his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the foe of the Jews.

“There is [yeshno] one people. Rava said: There was none who knew how to slander like Haman. He said to Ahasuerus: Let us destroy them. Ahasuerus said to him: I am afraid of their God, lest He do to me as He did to those who stood against them before me. Haman said to him: They have been asleep [yashnu] with respect to the mitzvot, having ceased to observe the mitzvot, and, therefore there is no reason to fear. Ahasuerus said to him: There are the Sages among them who observe the mitzvot. Haman said to him: They are one people, i.e., they are all the same; nobody observes the mitzvot. Perhaps you will say that I am making a bald spot in your kingdom, i.e., you fear that if an entire nation is wiped out there will be a desolate area within the kingdom. There is no need to worry, though, as they are scattered [mefuzarin] among the peoples, and eradicating them will not result in the creation of an unpopulated zone in the area where they had once lived. Furthermore, perhaps you will say that there is benefit from them; but this nation is meforad, like this barren mule [pereida] that cannot bear offspring, and there is no benefit to be gained from them. And perhaps you will say that there is at least a province that is filled with them. Therefore the verse states that they are scattered “in all the provinces of your kingdom” (Esther 3:8), and they do not inhabit one place. Haman continued: “And their laws are diverse from those of every people” (Esther 3:8), as they do not eat from our food, nor do they marry from our women, nor do they marry off their women to us. “Nor do they keep the king’s laws” (Esther 3:8). They spend the entire year in idleness, as they are constantly saying: Shehi pehi, an acronym for: It is Shabbat today [Shabbat hayom]; it is Passover today [Pesaḥ hayom]. The verse continues: “Therefore it does not profit the king to tolerate them,” as they eat and drink and scorn the throne. And a proof of this is that even if a fly falls into the cup of one of them, he will throw the fly out and drink the wine it fell into, but if my master the king were to touch the glass of one of them, he would throw it to the ground, and would not drink it since it is the wine of a gentile.

Lisbon, 16th century

"Whose laws are different from those of any other people." While the other nations in your kingdom are different from one another, they come together to drink and marry and become one people to do your will. Whereas these people [the Jews] do not eat the food of others and do not love others. They constantly cheat others and exploit them with usury and interest. If a great king would ask to marry a simple daughter of theirs, they would not allow it. If one of them was starving and the king offered him his own food, he would not take it, and the same for his drink. On their sabbaths and festivals great harm comes to those doing business with them, for they say "wait, as it is Sabbath of festival" and the merchant is in a rush to leave. Or they will say "wait, for he is in synagogue, their house of worship where all nations are cursed. And they pray for the surrender of all nations and the collapse of their kingdoms. And they call the other nations impure and themselves holy [...] "Who do not obey the king's laws." The other nations will learn from them to our great embarrassment, and a great rebellion will ensue. So for the longevity of the king and his reign he should not let them be.

Haman then said to King Ahasuerus, “There is [yeshno] one people." The same of who it is said "God is one" (Deuteronomy 6, 4) is sleeping over his people. God said to him: I do not sleep, as it is written "Indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep" (Psalms 121:4), and you say I sleep? Indeed, I will awake from my slumber and destroy that man.

Another interpretation:

He said to him: Their teeth [shneyhon] are large, for they eat and drink and say "this is for the honour of Shabbat" or "this is for the honour of Yom Tov" any they deplete the finances of the world. Every seven days comes Shabbat; every thirty days is Rosh Hodesh. In Nissan there is Passover; in Sivan, Shavuot. In Tishrei, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and Sukkot. Ahashverosh said to him: This is what their Torah commands them.

Haman said to him: If they kept their festivals and ours, that would be well and good. But they disgrace your festival, and the laws of the king they do not perform, for they do not observe Kalends or Saternilia.

God said to him: Evil one! You place an evil eye on their holidays, I will cause you to fall before them and add for them another festival commemorating your downfall, namely Purim. This is what is written, "The fool’s mouth is his ruin" (Proverbs 18:7).

Meir Leibush ben Yehiel Michel Wisser

Russia, 1809-1879

"Haman then said". Haman misled Ahasuerus by two things: firstly, he did not tell him who the nation he was defaming was; since had Ahasuerus knew it was the Jews, who were well-known as a wise and discerning people, he would not have listened to him. But even had he told him his intention to annihilate a lower and more despicable nation, [Ahasuerus] would not have listened to him.

But Haman in his cunning said 'there is a people,' a people so unknown that he cannot call them by their name. He wanted to defame them, saying they harm all nations, whether through their faith or their political behavior. It is well-know that a people living in isolation in a state of their own, even if it is among the worst, does not harm other peoples living in other states. Even if they live among another nations in their states, they normally live in their own cities and do not harm their surroundings to the extent that the king should wish their destruction. Therefore, Haman preempted by saying that they are a dispersed people, meaning they do not live in separate states or cities, but rather in each and every neighborhood. And not only in some states but "in all the states of your kingdom" so that their damage includes all people. [...] After explaining the great loss caused by them, he added: "don't think you will have any advantage from them, making it worthwhile to leave them alone." So he concluded: "and it is not in Your Majesty’s interest to tolerate them" - meaning you have no benefit from them outweighing their damage.

Reish Lakish said: At the time when the wicked Haman said to Ahasuerus, “Come, let us destroy Israel from the world,”

Ahasuerus replied: You cannot overcome them, because their God does not forsake them at all. Come, see what they did to the ancient kings who came before us who raised up their arms against them. Those kingdoms were mighty and more numerous than we are. And yet everyone who came upon them to annihilate them from the world and to scheme against them, they were annihilated from the world and became a lesson for all those who dwell on earth. And we who do not have their advantages, how much the more so! Enough of your chatter, recant this decree. Even so, the wicked Haman bothered Ahasuerus about the decree all the time and advised him with wicked schemes about Israel. Ahasuerus said: If so (if it really means this much to you), let’s consult the advisors and soothsayers. Immediately, he sent and gathered all the advisors from the nations of the world. They all came before him. Ahasuerus said to them: Is it your will for us to destroy this nation from the world? They said all at once: Who is the one who wishes to do thus?! For if you destroy Israel from the world, the world will cease to exist! The world only exists because of the Torah which was given to Israel. (As it is written “As surely as I have established my covenant with day and night-- have I not ruled the heavens and the earth?” (Jer. 33:25) [...] God has the ability to raise up and knock down, to kill and to give life! Go and investigate what came to pass with the ancient kings who raised their hands against Israel-- what happened to them, like Sanheriv and Pharaoh?

Immediately, Haman said to them: The God who drowned Pharaoh in the sea and did all those miracles and wonders for Israel that you have heard about-- He is elderly and powerless! Nebuchadnezzar was able to ascend and destroy His house, burn His sanctuary, and exile Israel and scatter them among the nations. And where is his power and might? He has aged! As it says, “They say: The Lord sees not, the God of Jacob does not attend.” (Ps. 94:7)

When he presented this argument, they immediately accepted his words and were of one mind to end Israel. And they wrote proclamations and signed them. And thus was written in those proclamations:

"Greetings to you who are innumerable! You surely know that among us there is a man who is not from our place but rather he is from the royal bloodline and from Amalek’s bloodline and he is among the greatest men of our generation -- and his name is Haman. He was asked a small, insignificant question about one of the nations in our midst, lowly among the nations but exceedingly haughty. They seek our downfall and regularly curse the king. (And what is the curse they curse us with? “God is King forever, nations shall perish from His land” (Ps. 10:16) and they further say, “To impose retribution upon the nations and punishment upon the peoples” (Ps. 149:7).) And they rebel against those who have done them good. Come and see what they did to poor Pharaoh. When they went down to Egypt, he greeted them warmly, settled them in the best of the land, sustained them in the years of famine, and fed them all the best from his land. His palaces needed to be built and they were employed to build there. Nonetheless, he could not overpower them. And not only that! They also treated him with deception. They said, “To sacrifice to our God, we will walk a distance of three days’ travel (Ex. 5:3) and then come back. If it is your will, lend us silver and gold and clothing.” And they lent their silver and gold and all the nice clothing they had and packed up untold numbers of donkeys. Thus they completely ransacked Egypt-- as it is written, “They completely ransacked Egypt” (Ex. 12:36) -- and escaped. When Pharaoh heard that they were escaping, he went after them to reclaim his money. What did they do to him? They had a man with them named Moshe ben Amram. With his sorcery he lifted some stick and cast a spell on it and hit the sea until it split. They all entered on dry land in the midst of the sea and all of them passed through. I do not know how they passed or how the sea dried up. When Pharaoh saw this, he went after them to reclaim his money. I do not know how they pushed him into the sea, but he and all his soldiers drowned. And they did not recall the good he had done for them. Do you not agree that they are ingrates?!

Yaakov Lorberbaum of Lisa

(Galicia, 1770-1832)

Rabbi Oshaya said: What is the meaning of that which is written: “The righteous acts of His rulers [pirzono] in Israel” (Judges 5:11)? The Holy One, Blessed be He, performed a charitable deed toward Israel in that He scattered them [pizran] among the nations; had He exiled them to one place, they could have all been destroyed at once.