In the Piyut after the Megillah, אֲשֶׁר הֵנִיא, we say
הָמָן הוֹדִיעַ אֵיבַת אֲבוֹתָיו, וְעוֹרֵר שִׂנְאַת אַחִים לַבָּנִים:
וְלֹא זָכַר רַחֲמֵי שָׁאוּל, כִּי בְחֶמְלָתוֹ עַל אֲגָג נוֹלַד אוֹיֵב:
I find this difficult to understand. Right now I am situated in the afternoon of Purim, so any opacity might be the consequence of the reader, not the text.
I do not understand how we can accuse Haman of ingratitude. Shaul killed man, woman, and children of Amalek. He, for some unknowable reason, allowed Agag to live one more night, during which he impregnated a woman with the progenitor of Haman. I do not see why we accuse Haman of ingratitude. True, Shaul killed every single person of Amalek, but he allowed Agag to live a few hours more, and that's why you, Haman, are alive. Any this means that Haman should be abjectly grateful??? We committed genocide on the nation of Amalek. Shaul granted Agag a short reprieve. For that Haman should be grateful? Maybe what he should do is return the favor, and leave Mordechai the last of his people alive long enough to father a child? That seems fair enough.
Someone suggested that in that world, this was what was expected, like the Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's court. You can't really complain when what was done to you is precisely what you would have done to the other guy. Fine, that may be true. But to accuse Haman of being a kafui tov is just too much.
Rav Bergman asks this question in his Shaarei Orah Volume I. I do not see that he offers any valid answer to the question.
I await a wise answer.
A freilachen Purim to all, and to all, a good night.
Assuming this is an actual shverkeit, I would offer that it doesn't actually say anything about ingratitude. It just says "v'lo zachar" and leaves the point vague. Maybe the point is that he should have taken a lesson through a kal vechomer ben b'no shel kal v'chomer, from the disaster that resulted from Shaul going against the retzon elyon. There is something poetic about that. "A man had rachmanus, a generally good midda, on one man he wasn't supposed to and that resulted in a lethal enemy to all his progeny- you! And now you think you will get away clean plotting to wipe out all of the RBSHO's children?" But the truth is, I don't really see what's wrong with the kafuy tova pshat. When one's entire existence is is owed to another's mercy, doesn't that behoove infinite gratitude to that other and all he holds dear? The other option (Shaul killing Agag) was for him to have never been born, so it's not "proportionate" to return the favor by leaving alive a single person and killing the rest of his extended family. Just killing one family member would be kafuy tova!
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry I did not see this until today, three weeks after you posted it. My auto email on comments was off for some reason.
DeleteI was thinking about this, and I thought about all my grandparents and uncles and cousins who were murdered in the holocaust. I wondered, what if a kind Lithuanian took pity on one of them, and although he had spent the whole day murdering Jews, he let my uncle off. And even hid him and fed him. And after the war, he asked my uncle if he would grant him a pardon for all the killings, of all the rest of the family, some of whom were burned alive in their shul, perhaps after other unthinkable abuse. What do you think? Sure! I'm a Telzer Talmid, I know I should be makir tov! Of course I forgive you!
You seem to have not read the Harry Potter series. Ask you grandkids what happened to Peter Pettigrew, and you will get your answer.
ReplyDeleteYou and my wife. Always proving things from fictional characters. She says that fiction is often more true than history, in that it fully expresses humanity without the vagaries and complications of the physical world. She says that the fact that Nassan HaNavi convinced Dovid HaMelech with a fictional story supports her.
DeleteAll that aside, I looked up Peter Pettigrew on Wiki, and I see exactly what you mean. Interesting! The same complexity and contradictions.