There’s a part that’s almost always left out of the family-friendly Purim Spiel: In Chapter 9, Mordecai and the Jews kill Haman’s ten sons, and then claim to slaughter 75,000 of their “enemies.” Despite the commandment to read “the whole Megillah,” modern Jews often gloss over this section, which doesn’t lend itself to catchy songs about good prevailing over evil.
Since there is no historical evidence for such a massacre, are we justified in ignoring it? Or should we take this section seriously and grapple with it? Can we assume that any killing done by the Jews was for the greater good? Or might a modern interpretation of the end of the Megillah offer lessons about the moral responsibilities of military power and the blurry line between good and evil?
- Farce. a light, humorous play in which the plot depends upon a skillfully exploited situation rather than upon the development of character.
- Satire. the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, to expose, denounce, or deride the folly or corruption of institutions, people, or social structures.
- Humor. a comic, absurd, or incongruous quality causing amusement.
Chapter 1: Girls Gone Wild?
(16) Thereupon Memucan declared in the presence of the king and the ministers: “Queen Vashti has committed an offense not only against Your Majesty but also against all the officials and against all the peoples in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus. (17) For the queen’s behavior will make all wives despise their husbands, as they reflect that King Ahasuerus himself ordered Queen Vashti to be brought before him, but she would not come. (18) This very day the ladies of Persia and Media, who have heard of the queen’s behavior, will cite it to all Your Majesty’s officials, and there will be no end of scorn and provocation!
Chapter 3: Man Plans...
וְנִשְׁל֨וֹחַ סְפָרִ֜ים בְּיַ֣ד הָרָצִים֮ אֶל־כׇּל־מְדִינ֣וֹת הַמֶּ֒לֶךְ֒ לְהַשְׁמִ֡יד לַהֲרֹ֣ג וּלְאַבֵּ֣ד אֶת־כׇּל־הַ֠יְּהוּדִ֠ים מִנַּ֨עַר וְעַד־זָקֵ֜ן טַ֤ף וְנָשִׁים֙ בְּי֣וֹם אֶחָ֔ד בִּשְׁלוֹשָׁ֥ה עָשָׂ֛ר לְחֹ֥דֶשׁ שְׁנֵים־עָשָׂ֖ר הוּא־חֹ֣דֶשׁ אֲדָ֑ר וּשְׁלָלָ֖ם לָבֽוֹז׃
Accordingly, written instructions were dispatched by couriers to all the king’s provinces to destroy, massacre, and exterminate all the Jews, young and old, children and women, on a single day, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month—that is, the month of Adar—and to plunder their possessions.
The text of the document was to the effect that a law should be proclaimed in every single province; it was to be publicly displayed to all the peoples, so that they might be ready for that day.
The couriers went out posthaste on the royal mission, and the decree was proclaimed in the fortress Shushan. The king and Haman sat down to feast, but the city of Shushan was dumfounded.
Chapter 5: Gallows Humor?
Then his wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, “Let a stake be put up, fifty cubits high, and in the morning ask the king to have Mordecai impaled on it. Then you can go gaily with the king to the feast.” The proposal pleased Haman, and he had the stake put up.
5:14 fifty cubits high. This would be seventy-five feet (like a six-story building). Probably the gallows was erected on a hilltop, with the seventy-five feet being the height above the ground where observers would see it.
Chapter 7: ...And God Laughs
The king, in his fury, left the wine feast for the palace garden, while Haman remained to plead with Queen Esther for his life; for he saw that the king had resolved to destroy him.
When the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet room, Haman was lying prostrate on the couch on which Esther reclined. “Does he mean,” cried the king, “to ravish the queen in my own palace?” No sooner did these words leave the king’s lips than Haman’s face was covered.
Then Harbonah, one of the eunuchs in attendance on the king, said, “What is more, a stake is standing at Haman’s house, fifty cubits high, which Haman made for Mordecai—the man whose words saved the king.” “Impale him on it!” the king ordered.
So they impaled Haman on the stake which he had put up for Mordecai, and the king’s fury abated.
3 times Haman is "undone" by Mordechai and Esther: In Chapter 6 Haman believes the King intends to honor him, but it is Mordechai who is celebrated and Haman who must lead him through the city on horse. In Chapter 7, he is hung/impaled on the gallows he built for Mordechai. Finally, in Chapter 10, Haman's position is given to Mordechai.
Chapter 9 is a broader reversal as the Jews are given permission to massacre those who intend(ed) to massacre them, and they do so with speed and success.
וּבִשְׁנֵים֩ עָשָׂ֨ר חֹ֜דֶשׁ הוּא־חֹ֣דֶשׁ אֲדָ֗ר בִּשְׁלוֹשָׁ֨ה עָשָׂ֥ר יוֹם֙ בּ֔וֹ אֲשֶׁ֨ר הִגִּ֧יעַ דְּבַר־הַמֶּ֛לֶךְ וְדָת֖וֹ לְהֵעָשׂ֑וֹת בַּיּ֗וֹם אֲשֶׁ֨ר שִׂבְּר֜וּ אֹיְבֵ֤י הַיְּהוּדִים֙ לִשְׁל֣וֹט בָּהֶ֔ם וְנַהֲפ֣וֹךְ ה֔וּא אֲשֶׁ֨ר יִשְׁלְט֧וּ הַיְּהוּדִ֛ים הֵ֖מָּה בְּשֹׂנְאֵיהֶֽם׃
And so, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month—that is, the month of Adar—when the king’s command and decree were to be executed, the very day on which the enemies of the Jews had expected to get them in their power, the opposite happened, and the Jews got their enemies in their power.
Throughout the provinces of King Ahasuerus, the Jews mustered in their cities to attack those who sought their hurt; and no one could withstand them, for the fear of them had fallen upon all the peoples.
Indeed, all the officials of the provinces—the satraps, the governors, and the king’s stewards—showed deference to the Jews, because the fear of Mordecai had fallen upon them.
For Mordecai was now powerful in the royal palace, and his fame was spreading through all the provinces; the man Mordecai was growing ever more powerful.
So the Jews struck at their enemies with the sword, slaying and destroying; they wreaked their will upon their enemies.
the king said to Queen Esther, “In the fortress Shushan alone the Jews have killed a total of five hundred men, as well as the ten sons of Haman. What then must they have done in the provinces of the realm! What is your wish now? It shall be granted you. And what else is your request? It shall be fulfilled.”
Death Count: 500 + 10 sons of Haman = 510
“If it please Your Majesty,” Esther replied, “let the Jews in Shushan be permitted to act tomorrow also as they did today; and let Haman’s ten sons be impaled on the stake.”
and the Jews in Shushan mustered again on the fourteenth day of Adar and slew three hundred men in Shushan. But they did not lay hands on the spoil.
Death Count 510 + 300 = 810
The rest of the Jews, those in the king’s provinces, likewise mustered and fought for their lives. They disposed of their enemies, killing seventy-five thousand of their foes; but they did not lay hands on the spoil.
Death Count: 810 + 75,000 = 75,810
That was on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar; and they rested on the fourteenth day and made it a day of feasting and merrymaking.
Does this sound familiar? (Esther 3:15)
...the same days on which the Jews enjoyed relief from their foes and the same month which had been transformed for them from one of grief and mourning to one of festive joy. They were to observe them as days of feasting and merrymaking, and as an occasion for sending gifts to one another and presents to the poor.
For Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the foe of all the Jews, had plotted to destroy the Jews, and had cast pur—that is, the lot—with intent to crush and exterminate them.
But when [Esther] came before the king, he commanded: “With the promulgation of this decree, let the evil plot, which he devised against the Jews, recoil on his own head!” So they impaled him and his sons on the stake.
Consequently, these days are recalled and observed in every generation: by every family, every province, and every city. And these days of Purim shall never cease among the Jews, and the memory of them shall never perish among their descendants.
- What are we celebrating?
- What are we supposed to be remembering?
- Do the rituals of remembrance and celebration achieve those goals? (Mitzvot: Hearing megillah, giving charity to the poor and gifts to our neighbors, making a Purim meal; Customs: costumes, alcohol, silly plays, hamentashen)
Excerpt from Humor and Hope from Passover to Purim, by Professor Joel S. Kaminsky
In Esther, Haman who plans to murder all the Jews is in fact killed by the very mechanisms he seeks to deploy against the Jews (both the use of lots he uses to determine the date of the killing spree and the gallows he constructed upon which he sought to kill Mordecai).
In Exodus, Pharaoh seeks to kill male Israelite babies and his plan is doubly reversed. Not only does his daughter save and raise baby Moses who challenges Pharaoh’s authority and leads the Israelites out of Egyptian slavery, but the tenth plague results in the death of many Egyptian male babies.
With these facts in mind, one pressing question that needs to be addressed is: what, if any, are the theological implications of this widespread usage of humor in these oppressive circumstances?
Here I will reprise what I argued two decades ago. It is my contention that the writers of the biblical text used humor not only to enhance the aesthetic experience of the reader or listener, but also to make a deeper theological point. One of the major themes in the Hebrew Bible is trusting in God’s promises even though quite often current reality suggests that the fulfillment of these promises is unrealistic, or even impossible. Inasmuch as the Bible asks those who read it as sacred scripture to develop a type of HOPE that calls into question a common-sense view of the world, one should not be surprised to find humor in these narratives. This is because there is a structural affinity as well as a direct connection between humor and hope in that each proclaims that the reality of everyday life does not necessarily have the final word.
As Peter Berger notes, humor challenges the dominant tragic worldview that confines humans to a stoic acceptance of the current conditions of existence: "At least for the duration of the comic perception, the tragedy of man is bracketed. By laughing at the imprisonment of the human spirit, humor implies that this imprisonment is not final but will be overcome, and by this implication provides yet another signal of transcendence—in this instance in the form of an intimation of redemption."
Hope presents a similar challenge to the status quo and also provides, in Berger’s words, a “signal of transcendence.” Humor is part of the language of hope that points to a higher order than the one in which we normally live and thus we should not be surprised to find it is purposefully introduced into narratives where Israel’s hopes and in fact her very existence are being called into question. Of interest is that these ancient Israelite writers deployed humor in situations that many today would see as no laughing matter. However, it is precisely here that humor, by allowing the reader to laugh in the face of potential tragedy, facilitates the ability to continue to trust in God’s promises even when such trust seems rationally unwarranted. (https://themarginaliareview.com/humor-hope-passover-purim/ )
Esther as Comedy: Can a book of the Bible be funny? By Adele Berlin
The largest interpretive problems melt away if the story is taken as a farce or a comedy associated with a carnival-like festival. The book sets out a threat to the Jews so that the Jewish audience can watch with glee and laugh with relief as it is overcome. The mad and threatening world of the beginning of the story fades into a happy ending where, for a brief moment, the Jews, through their two representatives, can play at wielding the highest power in the great empire to which they were in reality subservient and in which they were an insignificant minority. (https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/esther-as-comedy/)