Thursday, March 05, 2015

where did Haman get the zechus to have great...grandchildren sitting and learning?

Freilichin post Purim!  While you digest your delicious seudah, here is an amazing Sefas Emes [with a small editorial edition of my own] to take away from the chag with you:

 ונראה כי נס דפּורים הי׳ הכנה לבית שׁני כי הי׳ צריך להיות כח ועוז לבני ישראל וע״י הנס נגבה לבם ויכלו לחזור לבית המקדשׁ וכן אפשׁר שׁיהי׳ לעתיד נס כּזה קודם הגאולה כּמ״שׁ חז״ל מעמיד עליהם מלך כּהמן כו׳ [הנקרא אובּמא] שׁנס זה הכנה לגאולה

We know from the gemara in Gittin that Haman's great-great...grandchildren ended up learning Torah in Bnei Brak.  Where did a guy like Haman such zechuyos from to have descendants sitting and learning?  That's a zechus that many of us would be glad to have in our back pocket!  The Radomsker in Tiferes Shlomo answers that the megillah tells us that after Haman went to the first party with Esther he walked out "sameiach v'tov leiv."  Why does the megillah preserve for prosperity this moment of happiness of that rasha?  Because it was that simcha and "tov leiv" from sitting at the tisch of the tzadekes Esther that generations later led to Haman's kids sitting in the beis medrash and learning.  

Of course it's great if you were able to share chiddushei Torah at the seudah and appreciated the day of Purim as a day of kabbalas haTorah, but even without that, look at what you can get just from walking away from a seudas mitzvah "sameich v'tov leiv."  If we walk out of Purim with just that alone, it's no small thing.

2 comments:

  1. Nice. I always thought it was the הסרת הטבעת but I guess it was that and his Simcha. Either way it's hard to understand how he had such a zechus.

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  2. Nice. I always thought it was the הסרת הטבעת but I guess it was that and his Simcha. Either way it's hard to understand how he had such a zechus.

    ReplyDelete