Over the period of about a week many things happened in Shushan. Let us start with a day that the moon was nearly full, nearing the middle of Nissan. Esther, the queen had told Mordechai the Jew to gather many young Jewish children into the Bais Midrash and they should all learn and fast for three days. I for one can barely get through Yom Kippur and Tu Bishvat which are 24 hour fasts… the prospect of a 72 hour fast is rather daunting – especially for young boys. Yet the boys loved Mordechai, their teacher and Rabbi and would do anything that he told them to do as they trusted him. So for 3 days they fasted, their mothers like the centuries old stereotypical Jewish mothers were worried about their little boys. Jewish mother love feeding their kids and they were ridden with anxiety when their attempts to get their sons to eat failed. The 22 thousand boys would not eat , rather they satuated themselves with the Torah which they studied the whole time.

On the third day Esther, weak from fasting began her trek to the throne room. Trepidation encircled the hearts of her maid servants who were fasting too as well as perhaps Esther. Going unannounced to the king was like signing ones own death sentence. So Esther did was many Jewish women have done for centuries… when in doubt-pray! So she davened, and she pleaded with Hashem to save his people and her pleadings joined the tears and hunger of the boys and their mothers.

Miraculously, Esther managed to find favour in the kings eyes. He held out his sceptre to her and she invited him and Haman to a party scheduled on one of the first days of Pesach. At that party she invited them to another party.

After the next party, after Esther invited the duo to another party, Haman went home incensed by Mordechai’s unwillingness to bow decided to build gallows for Mordechai. His family helped and he was up most of the night there. He was not the only one up though, as the children were learning in the bais midrash. In fact the only one who was sleeping was the king and seeing this Hashem woke him up and would not let him go back to sleep. Achashveirosh then called for his book of chronicles to be read.

The chronicalers were Haman’s sons and they bean to read… yet when they looked at an entry they had written down they did a double take. When they had written in the book of chronicals about Mordechai saving the kings life from Bigsan and Seresh, they had written it Bigsan Aleph Vav Seresh, which means Bigsan or seresh in order to make the claim lack credibility. Yet somehow, someone or something had moved the aleph to join the word Bigsan and the vov to join the word Seresh and now in the chronicles (and the megilla as well) it says Bigsan and then Aleph and in the next word it says v’seresh. They did not know that it was the Malach (Angel) Gavriel that did that. So upon hearing about this and that Mordechai had never been repaid.

He was wondering what to do when Haman came in. Immediately Achashveirosh seized the moment and asked Haman what to do to the man, which the king wished to honour. Haman replied that he should paraded through the streets on the king’s horse, wearing the kings clothes and crown and someone should lead the horse saying “so should be done to the one which the king wishes to honour. To Haman’s shock and dismay he was ordered to do that to Mordechai.

The next morning Haman went to find Mordechai who was in the Bais Midrash with ‘his’ boys. While Haman was waiting for Mordechai to appear he asked one of the 22 000 boys what they were learning about. The boy replied “Komotz Mincha”, a korban that one gives. Haman then asked how much such a thing costs to which the boy replied, “one zuz per komotz mincha per person”. From this Hamas had an inkling that his downfall was coming. As if all the boys in the Bais Midrash paid a Zuz for the Komotz Mincha, there would be 22 000 Zuzim, which far outweighed the 10000 Shekalim that Haman offered to Achashveirosh to have carte blache with the lives of the Jews.

Soon Mordechai appeared. “You have to prepare me to go before the king. I have been mourning though, so I am dirty, my hair is long and unkempt. You will have to assist me in the bath house and get my hair cut”. So Haman assisted Mordechai in the bathhouse and then they went to go look for a barber. They went from shop to shop yet no barber was working. Why? Because Queen Esther had given all the barbers in Shushan the day off as part of a national holiday, not knowing about Mordechai needing them. Some call this co-incidence we know it was Hashacha Pratis (Divine assistance).

So the story continues as usual, and as we all know, Haman was hung on the gallows which he made for Mordechai, on the Eitz which was created on the 6th day of creation for this purpose. That is how Haman  from Amalek met his end. Esther and Mordechai fixed the oversight of their ansector Shaul HaMelech who did not kill Agag, Haman’s ansecter right away.

An interesting fact about Amalek is that it has the same Gematriah (numerical value) as Sofek – nature. That is what the Amalikites believed in. It was not Hashem, it was nature.

 

Next Weeks Topic: All our Matriachs are the decendent of whom?