Sefer Ha-Bloggadah: week 20

We continue with the Chanukah story, and return to the annals of the Second Temple. Even though these stories take place chronologically later than what we've seen before, they somehow feel more ancient to me. I think this is because we've gotten late enough that the rabbis aren't just reading Tanakh and making up stories about it, but these are stories that have a basis in historical memory, and stories that had been passed down (albeit with embellishments) in an unbroken chain since they had occurred.

• Monday - 1:9:40 (The Mother of Children)
• Tuesday - 1:9:41-50 (The House of the Hasmoneans)
• Wednesday - 1:9:51 (Herod's Temple)
• Thursday - 1:9:52-62 (The Service in the Temple)
• Friday - 1:9:63-68 (The Miracles in the Temple; Diligent Priests)
• Saturday/Sunday - 1:9:69-71 (The Paschal Lamb)

1:9:23 – not sharing

Hygros ben Levi excelled in the art of singing but would not teach others. It is told of him that when he was about to make a high trill, he would put his thumb into his mouth, place his index finger between the two parts of his mustache, and produce all kinds of sounds at such high intensity that, to a man, his brother priests would be thrown backward

When we fail to teach others, we repel them.  In the dark days of exile, we have a responsibility not only to learn, but teach.

1:8:25 Justifying Humiliation?

I'm a couple of days late with this, but I was struck by a piece of this section.

Part of this lengthy section elaborates on the reversal of Haman's expectation that he would receive the honors of riding on the king's horse, garbed in the king's robe, etc. The elaboration, including details not in the biblical text, accentuates the humiliation of Haman, and shows Mordechai as adding to that humiliation. For example: Mordechai insists that he cannot don the royal garments until he bathes and has his hair cut. He cannot find a bath attendant or a barber, and Haman is compelled to be bath attendant, personal butler, and (bringing his own pair of scissors) barber. We infer that all of these are low-status occupations. When Haman groans over his plight, Mordechai taunts him: "Scoundrel, didn't I know your father, who was bath attendant and barber in the village of Kiryanus for 22 years, and those are his scissors!"

So far, Mordechai's adding to Haman's grief is edgily humorous rather than morally troubling. Then, Mordechai is ready to mount the horse and says, "I'm old, and the fasting has weakened me," and Haman bends down for Mordechai to use him as a step-stool to mount the horse. Mordechai steps on him, gets up, and gets on the horse. But then the midrash adds the last detail -- in his mounting, Mordechai kicks Haman, apparently gratuitously. Haman objects, quoting Scripture: "Mordechai, 'At the downfall of your enemy, don't rejoice (Prov. 24:17).'" And Mordechai responds, "Scoundrel, '[Your enemies shall come cringing before you] And you shall tread on their backs (Deut. 33:29).'"

This last part is perturbing. Haman's plea has some appeal -- gratuitous humiliation of even our enemies seems wrong on its face, and the Scriptural citation strengthens Haman's claim on our sympathy. Yet the midrash seems to present Mordechai's action as justified, and it backs up this presentation with its own Scriptural citation (even a Torah citation, which trumps the Writings citation adduced by Haman).

Sefer Ha-Bloggadah: week 20

Happy 2009! We're now done with Tanakh, and moving on to the Second Temple and Second Commonwealth, including the Hellenistic period, just a little bit late for Chanukah.

• Monday - 1:9:1-10 (The Temple in its Glory)
• Tuesday - 1:9:11-17 (The Hiding of the Ark; The Crown of Priesthood; Simeon the Righteous)
• Wednesday - 1:9:18-19 (The Temple of Onias; Alexandria's Synagogue with the Double Colonnade)
• Thursday - 1:9:20-28 (Priestly Families)
• Friday - 1:9:29-35 (Alexander of Macedon)
• Saturday/Sunday - 1:9:36-39 (The Servitude under Greece and the Jews Who Betrayed the Covenant)

1:8:27 - Things That Are Used For Good; Things That Are Used For Bad

There is a tradition that an object that has been used for a mitzvah is holy and should be used for another mitzvah, or at least not simply discarded. (People do all sorts of good things with old tzitzit, lulavs and etrogs, etc.) Similarly, an object that has been used for evil should be destroyed. For example, the Torah explains that if an ox gores and kills a person, the ox itself must die. (Exod. 21:28-29) Certainly the ox is not being punished for his moral culpability; he is being destroyed because he was the cause of someone's death.

The idea here is that non-human things can take on certain normative qualities. They can in some limited way be holy or unholy, good or evil, objects that elevate or objects that denigrate. Mystics would ascribe supernatural characteristics to these things. I am more this-worldly, and I view this in terms of the meaning or attributes we ourselves ascribe to these objects.

Our midrash picks up on this idea and expands upon it. In this midrash, Haman pleads with Mordecai not to hang him from a tree, but Mordecai refuses. At that point, an argument breaks out among the trees as to which tree must bear the burden of having Haman hang from it. Each tree says no. The gravevine, fig tree, olive tree, palm tree, etrog tree, myrtle, oak, terebinth and pomegranate trees all explain why they should not have Haman hanging from them. Finally, the cedar says "hang Haman on me, on the tree that he in fact prepared for himself."

(For some reason, I seem to get all the midrashim involving trees with attitude.)

First, a quick clarification. This midrash comes from Targum Sheni, a later collection of midrashim on the Book of Esther. It is not clear from our text what precisely the cedar meant by "for himself." Did Haman prepare the tree for Haman? And if so, in what way? I was unable to find an on-line version of Targum Sheni to check this. However, after poking around the web a bit, it looks like Haman had prepared a ceder tree in some way to hang Mordecai. That makes sense, but it is not readily apparent from our text.

So here we have an object (the cedar) that was going to be used for a bad purpose (hanging Mordecai) but instead was used for a good purpose (hanging Haman). Apart from pleasant parallelism, why should this be? Why not hang Haman anywhere?

Importantly, Mordecai was not in fact hanged from the cedar, and so the tree was not actually used for bad purposes. (If it had been, I assume the tree would have been detroyed.) The cedar had only potential evil, not actual evil, associated with it, and so it not only was not destroyed, but could be used for good purposes.

Unlike objects, people can make moral choices. But some of the lessons from these animals and objects apply to us as well. Potential evil is a relatively easy thing to turn around: simply do not do it, and instead do good. But once we do wrong, it is much harder to turn things around. After all, if we had been objects or animals, we might have actually been killed or destroyed. But since we are not animals or objects, but instead are moral agents, we can repent and do t'shuvah.

Haman's letter

For a very long, long midrash, I will keep my comments on the short side. The first:


The second: I detected in reading this passage by the rabbis of a hint of sympathy for the other. Even though the rabbis would never say they have sympathy for those listed as having been slain in the Torah, it seems to me pretty clear that they did have some thoughts underwater about how it must have looked from the other side. It reminds me of a passage in the beginning of T. Bavli, tractate Avodah Zarah, where there's a discussion of why the nations should be punished for not keeping the Torah, even though the never received, and why shouldn't Israel be punished, since the did receive it and broke the laws over and over. In the Palestinian version, it's very clear that there's some sympathy for the nations, but by the time it gets to the Bavli, that sympathy has been turned into part of a longer section which paints the non-Jews as utterly wicked and without any redeeming features. My teacher speculated that in Israel, where the Jews weren't mixed with non-Jews in their day-to-day lives, sympathy for non-Jews could be imagined, because there was no threat of assimilation, whereas in Bavel, where Jews mixed with non-Jews constantly,and there was a constant danger of acceptance and assimilation, what was originally a rather sympathetic portrayal of non-Jews came to be more of a screed.

1:8:23: Sunrise

I have a secret preference for the major post-Biblical holidays:  Purim, Chanukah, and Tisha b’Av – these are the holidays that most touch my heart.  The Biblical festivals were declared by Hashem, but the post-Biblical holiday have a special connection with us because they have human (very human) fingerprints on them. 

And today is a happy day as well because in the secular Gregorian calendar, it is New Year’s Day.  In my mind, this is a day for hearing Strauss-family waltzes, watching the Rose parade (how improbable at this time of year – ah Pasadena), and watching really good football games (part of a glut of games making up for all those college games we lost on Saturdays in Fall). 

And 2009 brings new promise with it as well – in the United States we are about to have a new President – and we are both hopeful and anxious about what his administration will bring. 

What a happy time this is – so optimistic, to celebrate one of our most fun and joyous festivals, Purim, through study-seder of Sefer Ha-Bloggadah.  (As an aside, I’d like to recommend Adele Berlin’s commentary on the Book of Esther in the JPS Commentary series – it is accessible and compelling and a nice scholarly take on the book of Esther, in which she convincingly argues for a comedic reading of Esther.)

This portion of the Sefer ha-Aggada deals with particularly nasty slander by Haman against the Jews to Ahasuerus.  He takes particular delight in denouncing the Jewish festivals.  But there is a response: 

"Beside, 'their laws are diverse from those of every people' [Esther 3:8]--they do not eat with us, drink with us, or intermarry with us. 'Neither keep they the king's laws' [ibid.]--they spend the entire year dawdling and lolling about. They say, 'It is the Sabbath, it is a festival,' and thus get out of doing the king's work." Haman then proceeded to reckon the Jewish festivals: the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Feast of Weeks, Feast of Tabernacles, New Year's Day, and the Fast of Atonement. At that, the Holy One said to Haman, "Villain, you would cast an evil eye on their festivals? I will cause you to fall down before them, and to celebrate your downfall they will add still another festival."

Let us remember, when we are in the darkness, that darkness is the seed of sunrise, and that through the wisdom of the Aibishter (the One above), our darkest moments lead to our happiest festivals.