The gemara compares Haman to someone who had a hole in his yard and compares Achashveirosh to someone who had a pile of dirt. The mashal seems to indicate that from Haman's perspective the Jews were a dangerous hole that was prone to cause problems and detrimental to the kingdom. But, from the perspective of Achashveirosh the Jews were like a pile of dirt that is extra and unnecessary but not in any way damaging to the malchus. In fact, when we look at Haman's arguments to Achashveirosh to justify wiping out the Jews, he does not claim that they actually pose a threat. All Haman's arguments are along the lines of how it will not negatively effect the kingdom since they are dispersed and contribute very little to society.
Perhaps this explains an apparent contradiction. The gemara said earlier 11a that we thank Hashem that is was a "man not a king" who wanted to destroy the Jews, namely Haman but not Achashveirosh. Yet we find in our gemara that Achashveirosh also considered the Jews to be an annoying pile of dirt and wanted it out? The answer is that for Achashveirosh the Jews were just an unnecessary appendix. He had no reason to kill them, but also no reason to spare them so he gave into Haman's wishes. Since Achashveirosh had no specific agenda, it was so easy for Esther to influence Achashveirosh to overturn the decree.
4 comments:
Rashi on Daf 15a states that Achashverosh did not have in mind to destroy the Jews. Isn't this inconsistent with the Gemorah in the beginning with the dirt and the ditch and the other Gemoros there?
I had a different idea about the pit, as follows:
There are two types of sinas yisrael. Achashvarosh has all kinds of qualms about the Jews (which he learnt from Haman), namely that the don't pay tazes, don't intermarry, and wouldn't drink his wine. Even though the claims are ridiculous they are claims, and he wants to fix these "problems".
However, haman has another dimension completely. He has an emotional problem with the Jews. He feels as something is missing, that there is a pit inside him, as long as there are Jews around. He actively needs to destroy Jews in order to create a self-worth for himself.
This is similar to the idea brought down regarding Yakov and Eisav on the pasuk of "u'lam m'lam yeematz". We need their downfall and they need our downfall, for our own personal survival.
Since Achashveirosh had no specific agenda ROSHO MTCHILAH AD SOFAH?
yes he was a rasha from start to finish, but that does not mean he planned on wiping out the jews if not for haman's influence.
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