Absalom, the handsome prince who rebelled against his own father King David, was famous throughout Israel for one thing above all else: his magnificent hair. The Mekhilta preserves a tradition from Rebbi (Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi) that adds a remarkable detail about this vanity.
Rebbi teaches that Absalom shaved every Sabbath eve. This was not ordinary grooming — it was the custom of princes and royalty, who would prepare their appearance before each Shabbat (the Sabbath) with particular care. Absalom's hair grew so thick and luxurious that it required weekly trimming. He weighed the cuttings each time, and the weight was legendary. His hair became his signature, the feature that set him apart and drew admiration from every corner of the kingdom.
But what happened in the end? The very thing that Absalom gloried in became the instrument of his destruction. When he fled from David's forces on a mule, his hair caught in the branches of a great oak tree. The text records: "And Absalom was encountered by David's servants, and Absalom was riding on a mule" (2 Samuel 18:9) — and he was undone by his hair and killed.
The Mekhilta uses Absalom's story to reinforce the principle of measure-for-measure justice. The hair he groomed with such pride every week, the hair that was his glory and his vanity, became the trap that held him suspended between heaven and earth while Joab drove three spears through his heart. God's justice arrived through the very thing Absalom cherished most.