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Haman Bathed and Dressed the Man He Meant to Kill

Mordecai still wore sackcloth and asked for a last meal. Haman had come to wash him, because every bathhouse in Shushan was shut.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. Minutes for a Last Meal
  2. Every Bathhouse Shut
  3. His Father's Trade
  4. Fattened for Slaughter

Haman came up to Mordecai while the ashes were still in his hair. Mordecai had just finished praying. He was still in sackcloth. He still thought the gallows was the next room.

Haman Bathed and Dressed the Man He Meant to Kill Click for full size

Haman said, "Arise, thou pious son of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Thy sackcloth and ashes availed more than my ten thousand talents of silver, which I promised unto the king. They were not accepted, but thy prayers were accepted by thy Father in heaven."

The man who had bought a death with silver had to say the silver had lost.

Minutes for a Last Meal

Mordecai did not rise. He asked for a few minutes. He wanted a last meal, the small grace a man takes when he believes the rope is already measured. Haman had to protest again and again. He had not come to lead him to the wood. He had come with a horse, a robe, and a proclamation the king had ordered him to shout.

Only the repeated denials moved Mordecai. Even then he did not trust the kindness. A gallows can wear a costume.

When Haman set about arraying him in the royal apparel, Mordecai refused to put it on. Three days of sackcloth and ashes still clung to him. Royal cloth would sit wrong on a body that had been mourning in the street. He would not wear the king's honor until he had bathed and had his hair dressed.

Every Bathhouse Shut

Haman went to fetch a bathkeeper. The shops were closed. Esther had issued the command that the bathkeepers and barbers were not to ply their trades on that day. Door after door stayed shut. There was no hired hand left in Shushan to wash the man Haman hated.

There was nothing for Haman to do but bathe him himself. He rolled his sleeves. He washed the ash from Mordecai's skin. He had planned a gallows. He got a basin. He dressed the hair that sackcloth had matted. The greatest in the king's realm bent over a basin.

Haman fetched a deep sigh. "The greatest in the king's realm is now acting as bathkeeper and barber!"

Mordecai did not give him the pity the sigh was fishing for. He knew the house this man came from.

His Father's Trade

Mordecai remembered Haman's father, who had been bathkeeper and barber in a village. The sigh was a costume too. The skills were not new. They were the old work, pulled back onto a man who had used the king's ring to climb past it.

Haman poured water. Mordecai sat. The street outside waited for a parade. Inside the steam, the first minister of Persia did the labor he had been born near, for the Jew he had meant to hang.

When the washing was done, the robe went on. The horse was waiting. Haman would have to walk beside it and cry the honor the king had written. His mouth had already confessed the prayers. Now his feet would have to confess them in public.

Fattened for Slaughter

It had begun with a seat. After these matters, King Ahasuerus promoted Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite and set his seat above all the princes who were with him (Esther 3:1). The extra grain had looked like love. It was not.

A man once kept a filly, a donkey, and a sow. He fed the sow without limit and measured the portions of the beasts that pulled his work. The filly asked why the idle one ate so well. The donkey said, wait. They are not fattening her for her good. When the feast day came, they took the sow and slaughtered her, and barley was set before the filly, who blew on it and would not eat. Idleness had been the feed. The knife had been the point.

Haman had sat above the princes. He had silver enough to buy a people. He had built wood for Mordecai. Then he heated bathwater with his own hands, because the queen had closed every shop, and the prayers of a man in ashes had been accepted. The wicked are not fattened for their own good. They are fattened for slaughter.

Mordecai stepped into the street washed. Haman walked. The basin behind them was still wet.

EstherPurimDivine JusticeHumilityReversalPatriarchs
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From the tradition

Sources

2 sources

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 12:223Legends 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

The story of Mordecai and Haman in the Book of Esther is full of such moments, and one of the most dramatic comes right after Esther reveals Haman’s plot to destroy the Jews.

Mordecai, fresh from days of fasting and prayer, still believing his execution is imminent, is approached by Haman. But instead of taunts or threats, Haman speaks words of surprising humility. "Arise, thou pious son of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob," Haman says, as Ginzberg retells it in Legends of the Jews. "Thy sackcloth and ashes availed more than my ten thousand talents of silver, which I promised unto the king. They were not accepted, but thy prayers were accepted by thy Father in heaven."

After all, he still thinks Haman is there to lead him to the gallows! He asks for a few moments to eat a last meal, not quite trusting this sudden turn of events. It's only after Haman insists, repeatedly, that Mordecai begins to understand the tide has turned.

Then comes the really delicious part. Haman, the man who plotted the annihilation of an entire people, is now tasked with clothing Mordecai in royal garments. But Mordecai, ever the shrewd strategist, refuses to put on the clothes until he has bathed and groomed himself. Royal attire, after all, would hardly suit someone covered in sackcloth and ashes, would it?

But here's the kicker. Esther, in a stroke of what can only be described as divine providence (or perhaps brilliant planning!), had ordered that the bathkeepers and barbers were not to work that day. So who is left to perform these menial tasks? None other than Haman himself!

Haman, trying to salvage some shred of dignity, sighs deeply and laments, "The greatest in the king's realm is now acting as bathkeeper and barber!" But Mordecai isn’t buying it. He remembers Haman’s humble origins. As Ginzberg points out, he knew Haman’s father had been a bathkeeper and barber in a village. The Zohar tells us that knowing someone's true character can cut through their false pretenses.

It's a moment of profound irony and poetic justice. The man who sought to elevate himself through evil is now forced to perform the most humble of services for the very man he sought to destroy. What does this story tell us about power, humility, and the long arc of justice? And how do we respond when we find ourselves on either side of the equation?

Full source
Esther Rabbah 7:1Esther Rabbah

Retold in our words. Read the original at the link below.The Sefaria Midrash Rabbah, 2022 · CC-BY

“After these matters, King Aḥashverosh promoted Haman son of Hamedata the Agagite, and he raised him up and set his seat above all the princes who were with him” (Esther 3:1).“After these matters, King Aḥashverosh promoted Haman son of Hamedata” – that is what is written: “But the wicked will perish, and the enemies of the Lord will be like the fat of rams” (Psalms 37:20). They are not fattened for their own good, but for slaughter; so was Haman only made great for his downfall. This is analogous to a person who had a filly, a donkey [the mother of the filly], and a sow. He would feed the sow without limit, and the filly and the donkey measured amounts. The filly said to the donkey: ‘What is this fool doing? We, who perform the owner’s labor, he feeds us measured amounts, and the sow that is idle, without limit.’ She [the donkey] said to her [the filly]: ‘The time will come and you will witness its downfall, as they are not feeding it more for its benefit, but rather, to its detriment.’ When the calends1The first day of the Roman month, which was often a feast day. arrived, they immediately took the sow and slaughtered it. They began placing barley before the daughter of the donkey, and she blew on it and wouldn’t eat. Her mother said to her: ‘My daughter, it is not the food that causes it, but rather the idleness causes it,’ as it is written: “He set his seat above all the princes who were with him” – therefore, “they hanged Haman” (Esther 7:10).

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