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Ahasuerus Cannot Please Both Haman and Mordecai

At a Persian feast Ahasuerus vows every guest pleasure; Heaven answers with two ships, one woman, and the clash of Haman and Mordecai.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. Every Man's Pleasure
  2. Two Dragons Under a Shaking Sky
  3. A Banquet Built as a Trap
  4. The Wind That Cannot Blow Both Ways
  5. What the Court Did Not Hear
Ahasuerus Cannot Please Both Haman and Mordecai Click for full size

Every Man's Pleasure

Ahasuerus filled the palace with wine and noise and issued a command that sounded like generosity. Officers of his house were to "do according to every man's pleasure" (Esther 1:8). Guests chose cups, couches, and company. The king smiled as if he owned the weather of desire itself.

God answered him in wrath. "Thou villain, canst thou do every man's pleasure? Suppose two men love the same woman, can both marry her? Two vessels sail forth together from a port, the one desires a south wind, the other a north wind. Canst thou produce a wind to satisfy both?"

The feast kept laughing. Heaven did not. Cups kept filling. The boast had already cracked. Tomorrow, the same voice said, Haman and Mordecai will stand before you. Wilt thou be able to side with both?

Servants still ran with trays. Musicians still found the next note. None of them heard the theological veto landing on the king's open mouth. Ahasuerus had confused catering with omnipotence, and the confusion was now on the record above.

Two Dragons Under a Shaking Sky

Mordecai sat at the king's gate with an older grudge breathing through the court. He descended from Saul, who had struck Amalek from Havilah to Shur. Haman descended from that same Amalekite line and carried the memory like a knife under silk. Hatred was not a new fashion in Shushan. It was an inheritance that found new titles.

In the second year of Ahasuerus, Mordecai dreamed. Earth shook. Two immense dragons fought with terrible noise while a small nation lived among watching peoples. The surrounding nations rose to destroy that small people. Darkness thickened. Then a thin brook ran between the dragons, grew into a flood like the Great Sea, covered the earth, and when the sun returned the small nation stood exalted and the proud lay low.

At the gate, Mordecai also overheard Bigthan and Teresh plotting to behead the king and send the head to Macedonia. He told Esther. The conspirators hung. They had been Haman's counselors. Execution only fed the Amalekite's rage. The dream waited for faces.

A Banquet Built as a Trap

Haman did not trust steel alone. He told Ahasuerus that the God of Israel hates lewdness, then staged a feast of lewd women and open desire, hoping Jews would sin and lose protection. Mordecai warned the people not to go. Eighteen thousand five hundred sixty went anyway and sat at Haman's table while the plot thickened in two worlds at once.

Above, Ha-Satan, the Accuser, stood before God. "How long wilt Thou cleave to this nation who turn their hearts from Thee? Let them perish from the world." God asked what would become of the Torah. Ha-Satan (the Accuser) answered, "Let it remain for the higher beings." For one terrible span, agreement hung in heaven like a drawn decree.

Ha-Satan went for a scroll on which destruction could be written. The Torah herself met him in widow's garments, groaning. Ministering angels heard and wept. "If the Israelites are to be destroyed, what is the use of us?" Sun, moon, stars, and planets put on sackcloth. Elijah raced to the patriarchs with the news that heaven and earth were already mourning a people not yet erased.

The Wind That Cannot Blow Both Ways

Back in the palace, Ahasuerus still believed a host could please every heart. The midrash had already named his failure with ships and a shared beloved. Haman wanted a nation erased. Mordecai wanted that nation alive. No royal steward could pour one cup that satisfied both. The king's earlier command became a trap for his own mouth.

When the conflict fully entered the throne room, the earlier feast looked less like hospitality and more like rehearsal. "Every man's pleasure" had never been a policy. It had been hubris dressed as courtesy. God had asked the only question that mattered before Haman ever cast lots: can you side with both?

The dragons of the dream still fought in the air above the gate. The brook between them had not yet become a sea. Esther still wore a crown that cost her silence. The Accuser still wanted a scroll. The king still thought power meant unlimited accommodation.

What the Court Did Not Hear

Courtiers heard music. Heaven heard the Torah weep. Jews at Haman's banquet heard laughter that would later taste like ash. Mordecai heard chamberlains plot and dragons thrash. Ahasuerus heard only the clink of obedience when he ordered pleasure for all.

Jewish myth refuses to leave the Persian story as palace romance alone. It sets the feast under a theological veto. Human kingship cannot reconcile opposite loves, opposite winds, opposite destinies. When Haman and Mordecai finally force a choice, the veto becomes history, and the small nation of the dream learns whether the flood between dragons will rise.

The officers still poured wine. The decree of annihilation still waited its hour. Between those two pours, the villain-king of Shushan had already been answered from above: you cannot do every man's pleasure, and tomorrow will prove it with two names you cannot hold in one hand.

EstherAhasuerusHamanMordecaiPersia
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The texts behind this telling. Some cards carry a translation of the source; others are our own retelling of it, and each card says which. Every card links out to the original.

Legends of the Jews 12:20Legends of the Jews

Retold in our words. Read the original at the link below.The Legends of the Jews by Louis Ginzberg (1909) · Public Domain

It all revolves around King Ahasuerus, the ruler of Persia. Now, Ahasuerus wasn't exactly known for his, shall we say, subtlety. He wanted to throw the biggest, most extravagant party the world had ever seen. And he wanted everyone to have a fantastic time.

The idea? Let every single guest indulge in whatever their heart desired. As it says, Ahasuerus commanded his officers to "do according to every man's pleasure." Sounds generous. Like, ultimate host status. But according to the Sages, this is precisely where Ahasuerus crossed a line.

God, as the story goes, wasn't exactly thrilled with this proclamation. We can almost hear the Divine voice, laced with righteous indignation: "Thou villain! Canst thou do every man's pleasure?" The nerve!

I mean, think about it logically. Can anyone really satisfy everyone, all the time?

The Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary), specifically Midrash Rabbah, elaborates beautifully on this. Imagine, God continues, two men in love with the same woman. Can both marry her? Of course not! Or picture two ships setting sail from the same harbor, one yearning for a southerly breeze, the other for a northerly one. Can Ahasuerus conjure up a wind that pleases them both? Impossible.

The implication is clear: Ahasuerus's hubris – his excessive pride – blinded him to the limitations of human power. He presumed to be able to grant every wish, to reconcile every desire, a power that belongs to God alone.

And then comes the kicker: "On the morrow," God continues, "Haman and Mordecai will appear before thee. Wilt thou be able to side with both?"

This, of course, foreshadows the central conflict of the story. Haman, the wicked advisor, and Mordecai, the righteous Jew, represent opposing forces, diametrically opposed desires. Ahasuerus would soon be forced to choose between them, revealing the emptiness of his boast to satisfy everyone.

That true leadership isn't about empty promises of universal satisfaction. It's about wisdom, discernment, and the humility to recognize our own limitations. Ahasuerus thought he was being generous. Instead, he was setting himself up for a fall, a fall that would have devastating consequences for his kingdom and, ultimately, lead to its salvation. As Ginzberg retells this in Legends of the Jews, it serves as a potent reminder of the dangers of unchecked ego and the importance of recognizing the limits of even the most powerful earthly rulers.

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Chronicles of Jerahmeel LXXIXChronicles of Jerahmeel (Gaster, 1899)

Retold in our words. Read the original at the link below.The Chronicles of Jerahmeel, trans. Moses Gaster (1899) · Public Domain

The hatred between Haman the Amalekite and Mordecai the Jew had deep ancestral roots. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle translated by Moses Gaster in 1899, Mordecai was a descendant of Saul, who had destroyed the Amalekites from Havilah to Shur, slaying more than 500,000 men, women, and children. Haman descended from those same Amalekites and nursed that ancient grudge against all of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin.

While sitting at the king's gate, Mordecai overheard two Persian chamberlains, Bigthan and Teresh, plotting to behead Ahasuerus and deliver his head to the Macedonian king, whose empire was then at war with Persia. Mordecai told Esther, who told the king. The conspirators were hanged, but because they were Haman's counselors, their execution only deepened his rage.

Mordecai remembered a dream from the second year of Ahasuerus's reign. A great earthquake shook the earth. Two immense dragons fought each other with terrible noise while a small nation lived among the watching peoples. All the surrounding nations rose to destroy this small nation. Thick darkness fell. Then Mordecai saw a small brook of water flow between the two dragons, separating them. The brook grew into a flood like the Great Sea, covering the whole earth. The sun returned, the small nation was exalted, the proud were humbled, and peace was restored.

When Haman's plot took shape, Mordecai told Esther to remember that dream and go before the king. Then Mordecai himself prayed with extraordinary intensity: "It is well known to the throne of Thy glory, O Lord, that it was not from pride or haughtiness I refused to bow to this Amalekite. I would prostrate myself to no being except Thy holy presence. But for Israel's salvation I would lick the shoe upon his foot and the dust upon which he walks."

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Chronicles of Jerahmeel LXXXIIChronicles of Jerahmeel (Gaster, 1899)

Retold in our words. Read the original at the link below.The Chronicles of Jerahmeel, trans. Moses Gaster (1899) · Public Domain

Haman did not just plot in the Persian court. He plotted in heaven. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle translated by Moses Gaster in 1899, Haman's banquet was designed as a spiritual trap. He told Ahasuerus that the God of Israel hates lewdness, then arranged a feast with lewd women and decreed that every desire be fulfilled, hoping the Jews would sin and lose divine protection. Mordecai warned the people not to attend, but 18,560 Jews went anyway.

While the Jews feasted at Haman's table, Ha-Satan, the Accuser, appeared before God. "How long wilt Thou cleave to this nation who turn their hearts from Thee?" he demanded. "Let them perish from the world." God asked what would become of the Torah. Ha-Satan replied, "Let it remain for the higher beings." And for one terrible moment, God agreed. He told Ha-Satan to fetch a scroll so He could write the decree of Israel's destruction.

When Ha-Satan went to get the scroll, the Torah herself appeared before him in widow's garments, groaning and weeping. The ministering angels heard her cries and wept, saying, "If the Israelites are to be destroyed, what is the use of us?" The sun, moon, stars, and planets clothed themselves in sackcloth and cried out: "Shall Israel be destroyed, for whose sake we were created?"

Elijah raced to the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and told them heaven and earth were weeping for Israel. Moses asked whether the heavenly decree had been sealed with clay or with blood. If clay, prayers might still overturn it. Elijah went to Mordecai, who gathered all the schoolchildren, stripped them of food and water, dressed them in sackcloth, and set them on ashes. Their mothers brought bread, begging them to eat before they died. The children refused, clutching their Torah scrolls to their hearts.

That night their cries reached heaven. God heard and said, "I hear the voices of kids and goats." Moses corrected Him: "These are not kids and goats, but the young of Thy people, fasting three days and three nights in chains of iron." God's mercy was stirred. He broke the seals, tore the decree, and frustrated Haman's plans, fulfilling the verse: "I shall cut off the horns of the wicked, but the horns of the righteous shall be raised on high."

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