When Ahasuerus raised Haman to his high office, he at the same time
issued the order, that all who saw him were to prostrate themselves
before him and pay him Divine honors. To make it manifest that the
homage due to him had an idolatrous character, Haman had the image of
an idol fastened to his clothes, so that whoever bowed down before him,
worshipped an idol at the same time. (100) Mordecai alone of all at
court refused to obey the royal order. The highest officials, even the
most exalted judges, showed Haman the reverence bidden by the king. The
Jews themselves entreated Mordecai not to call forth the fury of Haman,
and cause the ruin of Israel thereby. Mordecai, however, remained
steadfast; no persuasions could move him to pay to a mortal the tribute
due to Divinity. (101)
Also the servants of the king who sat at the gate of the royal palace
said to Mordecai: "Wherein art thou better than we, that we should pay
reverence to Haman and prostrate ourselves, and thou doest naught of
all commanded us in the matter?" Mordecai answered, saying "O ye fools
without understanding! Hear ye my words and make meet reply thereunto.
Who is man that he should act proudly and arrogantly man born of
woman and few in days? At his birth there is weeping and travailing, in
his youth pain and groans, all his days are 'full of trouble,' and in
the end he returns unto dust. Before such an one I should prostrate
myself? I bend the knee before God alone, the only living One in
heaven, He who is the fire consuming all other fires; who holds the
earth in His arms; who stretches out the heavens in His might; who
darkens the sun when it pleases Him, and illumines the darkness; who
commanded the sand to set bounds unto the seas; who made the waters of
the sea salt, and caused its waves to spread an aroma as of wine; who
chained the sea as with manacles, and held it fast in the depths of the
abyss that it might not overflow the land; it rages, yet it cannot pass
its limits. With His word He created the firmament, which He stretched
out like a cloud in the air; He cast it over the world like a dark
vault, like a tent it is spread over the earth. In His strength He
upholds all there is above and below. The sun, the moon, and the
Pleiades run before Him, the stars and the planets are not idle for a
single moment; they rest not, they speed before Him as His messengers,
going to the right and to the left, to do the will of Him who created
them. To Him praise is due, before Him we must prostrate ourselves."
The court officials spake and said: "Yet we know well that thy ancestor
Jacob prostrated himself before Haman's ancestor Esau!"
Whereunto Mordecai made reply: "I am a descendant of Benjamin, who was
not yet born when his father Jacob and his brothers cast themselves
upon the earth before Esau. My ancestor never showed such honor to a
mortal. Therefore was Benjamin's allotment of land in Palestine
privileged to contain the Temple. The spot whereon Israel and all the
peoples of the earth prostrated themselves before God belonged to him
who had never prostrated himself before mortal man. Therefore I will
not bend my knee before this sinner Haman, nor cast myself to earth
before him." (102)
Haman at first tried to propitiate Mordecai by a show of modesty. As
though he had not noticed the behavior of Mordecai, he approached him,
and saluted him with the words: "Peace be with thee, my lord!" But
Mordecai bluntly replied: "There is no peace, saith my God, to the
wicked." (103)
The hatred of Mordecai cherished by Haman was due to more than the
hereditary enmity between the descendants of Saul and Agag. (104) Not
even Mordecai's public refusal to pay the homage due to Haman suffices
to explain its virulence. Mordecai was aware of a certain incident in
the past of Haman. If he had divulged it, the betrayal would have been
most painful to the latter. This accounts for the intensity of his
feeling.
It once happened that a city in India rebelled against Ahasuerus. In
great haste troops were dispatched thither under the command of
Mordecai and Haman. It was estimated that the campaign would require
three years, and all preparations were made accordingly. By the end of
the first year Haman had squandered the provisions laid in to supply
the part of the army commanded by him, for the whole term of the
campaign. Greatly embarrassed, he requested Mordecai to give him aid.
Mordecai, however, refused him succor; they both had been granted the
same amount of provisions for an equal number of men. Haman then
offered to borrow from Mordecai and pay him interest. This, too,
Mordecai refused to do, and for two reasons. If Mordecai had supplied
Haman's men with provisions, his own would have to suffer, and as for
interest, the law prohibits it, saying "Unto thy brother thou shalt not
lend upon usury," and Jacob and Esau, the respective ancestors of
Mordecai and Haman, had been brothers.
When starvation stared them in the face, the troops commanded by Haman
threatened him with death unless he gave them their rations. Haman
again resorted to Mordecai, and promised to pay him as much as ten per
cent interest. The Jewish general continued to refuse the offer. But he
professed himself willing to help him out of his embarrassment on one
condition, that Haman sell himself to Mordecai as his slave. Driven
into a corner, he acquiesced, and the contract was written upon
Mordecai's knee-cap, because there was no paper to be found in the
camp.
The bill of sale ran thus: "I, Haman, the son of Hammedatha of the
family of Agag, was sent out by King Ahasuerus to make war upon an
Indian city, with an army of sixty thousand soldiers, furnished with
the necessary provisions. Precisely the same commission was given by
the king to Mordecai, the son of Shimei of the tribe of Benjamin. But I
squandered the provisions entrusted to me by the king, so that I had no
rations to give to my troops. I desired to borrow from Mordecai on
interest, but, having regard to the fact that Jacob and Esau were
brothers, he refused to lend me upon usury, and I was forced to sell
myself as slave to him. If, now, I should at any time decline to serve
him as a slave, or deny that I am his slave, or if my children and
children's children unto the end of all time should refuse to do him
service, if only a single day of the week; or if I should act
inimically toward him on account of this contract, as Esau did toward
Jacob after selling him his birthright; in all these cases, a beam of
wood is to be plucked out of the house of the recalcitrant, and he is
to be hanged upon it. I, Haman, the son of Hammedatha of the family of
Agag, being under no restraint, do hereby consent with my own will, and
bind myself to be slave in perpetuity to Mordecai, in accordance with
the contents of this document."
Later, when Haman attained to high rank in the state, Mordecai,
whenever he met him, was in the habit of stretching out his knee toward
him, so that he might see the bill of sale. This so enraged him against
Mordecai and against the Jews that he resolved to extirpate the Jewish
people. (105)