In Megilat Esther, Haman and Achashverosh are two types of anti-Semites. Haman makes no bones about his feelings; he is so enraged with hatred that he is not happy as long as there are Jews around. He specifically wants Mordechai killed. It does not matter that he is the second most powerful person in the vast Persian Empire. Also, Haman was willing to spend vast sums of money to achieve his goal of annihilation of the Jewish people. We see such people in our time who do not care that their anti-Semitism may cost them their job, career, or reputation. They are willing to throw it all away because what matters most to them is their hatred of Jews. These are easy people to deal with because they wear their anti-Semitism on their sleeves.
Then there is a second type of anti-Semite, like King Achashverosh, who hates Jews just as much as Haman but is smart enough to make sure that it will not be seen as such. The Megillah starts off with the King throwing an elaborate party. On its face it is to thank the leadership of the provinces and others for their support. The underlying reason was that the King thought that the prophecy that the Temple would be rebuilt within 70 years would not occur because 70 years had already passed. The fact that he was wrong in his calculations does not diminish his intent to celebrate that the Jewish people would remain in galus (exile) and the Temple would not be rebuilt.
The second thing King Achashverosh did was to protect himself so that he has deniability. Haman does not mention the Jewish people when he makes his proposal to the King to be allowed to destroy the Jewish people, and offers to pay the King for the privilege. He refers to them as “a people scattered throughout the land. Their laws are different from every other people.” If Achashverosh was not sure who he was referring to, would not the King ask? Instead, the King tells Haman, keep your money and do what you want. If it goes bad, then Achashverosh has deniability. He can claim that he had no idea Haman meant the Jewish people, since he never explicitly said the name.
In fact, this is what happened. When Queen Esther called out Haman for his dastardly plan to destroy the Jews, the King feigns ignorance and throws Haman under the bus, or in this case, hangs him on the gallows. What is lost is the fact that the only reason Haman was able to get to the position to destroy the Jews was as a result of the acquiescence of the King who had the final say.
King Achashverosh also did not let his anti-Semitism overpower his own self-interest. His interest was to remain in power, have a lot of money and a queen whom he wanted. Thus, he kept Esther as queen and gave Mordechai the position of prime minister.
The King’s type of anti-Semitism is in some respects more dangerous than Haman’s. It is easier to deal with Haman because you can call him out for who he is. With Achashverosh, the hate is still there. Someone like Achashverosh wants to harm the Jews but is just waiting for the right time. Meanwhile, he may come across as being our friend. When he thinks the time has come, the Jewish community will be unprepared to respond and also be unable to show that the person is an anti-Semite.
The two heroes of the story of Purim are Esther and Mordechai. Haman is killed and the Jewish community is given permission to attack their enemies on 14 and 15 of Adar, which are now Purim and Shushan Purim. The danger has passed. Esther, as queen, has no choice but to stay as queen if she wants to live. Also, if there would be any problem related to the Jewish people, she has the power as before to deal with it. However, Mordechai’s role is more problematic. He had been the head of the Sanhedrin. There was a crisis and he had to get more politically involved to deal with it. But now it was over. Mordechai, instead of stepping back to his old position, takes Haman’s old job as prime minister. Was this really necessary? He did what he had to do to alleviate the crisis and it was time to move on instead of getting more involved in the government of King Achashverosh. As the Talmud noted, there were clearly those who felt that way. The Megillah ends with the sentence that he found favor with most of his brethren. It does not say all of his brethren. There were some, especially those who were in the Sanhedrin, who thought that the better approach was to step away and go back to being the head of the Sanhedrin.
We also see that in our society where we have leaders who may have been the right person for a certain time, but that time has passed, and it is time to step away.
Warren S. Hecht is a local attorney. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
