The fourth essay in the sefer Zera Shimshon on Megillat Esther opens with a Midrash on the verse "That they take for Me an offering" (Terumah), expounding the verse, "A good name is chosen over great wealth" (Mishlei 22:1) - the name of Mordechai was chosen over the wealth of Haman. This is the language of the Midrash: "Rabbi Yoshiyah said: What did that wicked one do? He brought out all the silver and gold that he possessed and offered it to Achashverosh. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: By your life, 'favor is chosen above silver and gold' - the grace of Esther was chosen, as it is stated, 'And Esther found favor in the eyes of all who beheld her' (Esther 2:15). And once the wicked one came with the money, the king said to him: 'The silver is given to you' (Esther 3:11). The Holy One, blessed be He, said: Is this how you sell what is Mine for what is Mine? As it is stated, 'For to Me the Children of Israel are servants' (Vayikra 25:55), and it is written, 'Mine is the silver, and Mine is the gold' (Chaggai 2:8)... By your life, just as you said, 'The silver is given to you,' so too 'On that day King Achashverosh gave the house of Haman to Queen Esther' (Esther 8:1)."
"A name is chosen over great wealth" - a person's good name is preferable to vast riches. In our context: Mordechai's good name was chosen and favored over Haman's enormous wealth. The Holy One, blessed be He, then added another "chosen": "Favor is chosen above silver and gold" - grace is preferable to silver and gold. And what is this "good favor"? It is the grace of Esther, for the king preferred Esther and her charm over Haman's money.
When the wicked one arrived with the money, the king said to him, "The silver is given to you," and the Holy One, blessed be He, responded: "Is this how you sell what is Mine for what is Mine?" That is to say: You are selling My people - and with what? With My money! The standard way of a purchaser is to bring something of his own and receive in exchange the seller's property; but here, both the money is Mine and the item is Mine, and you dare to purchase My nation with My money? "For to Me the Children of Israel are servants" - we are servants of the Holy One, blessed be He; "Mine is the silver and Mine is the gold" - the silver and gold also belong to Him, blessed be He.
Finally, the Holy One, blessed be He, swore: "By your life" - an expression of an oath - that this very phrase you uttered, "The silver is given to you," would be overturned for their benefit. Ultimately, all of that wealth passed into the possession of Esther and Mordechai, as it is stated, "On that day King Achashverosh gave the house of Haman to Queen Esther."
The author raises several difficulties: What connection is there between Mordechai's name and Haman's wealth that leads the Midrash to state that one was chosen over the other? Where do we see that Mordechai's name was deemed more important, and how did this manifest? Furthermore, if Achashverosh returned the money to Haman, then the transaction never actually took place - so why does the Holy One, blessed be He, say, "You are selling what is Mine for what is Mine," when ultimately no sale occurred? The Midrash contains several other textual nuances as well, and all of this will be clarified below.
First and foremost, we must examine: What did Mordechai see that led him to place himself and all of Israel into such grave danger? Should he not have fled, so that Haman would not become enraged at him and at all of Israel? This is a question asked by many, to the extent that Chazal record a statement: "See what the Benjamite did to me" - voicing a grievance against Mordechai for provoking Haman and thereby bringing about this distress.
Indeed, Tosafot in the fourth chapter of Pesachim (53b) raise a similar question: What did Chananyah, Mishael, and Azaryah see that made them surrender themselves? That is, why did they not flee beforehand, as Daniel did? Here too, Mordechai could have fled. Furthermore, why did he insist on constantly sitting at the king's gate, which was a place of extreme danger? It almost appears as though Mordechai went out of his way to antagonize Haman. For our Sages teach that whenever Haman approached, Mordechai was sitting - meaning, he would spot Haman from afar, and if he had been standing, he would intentionally sit down so that when Haman arrived, he would see clearly that Mordechai was refusing to rise before him. Had he remained standing, Haman might have assumed he had seen him from afar and stood up in his honor. Thus, there was an intentional entry into danger. Had he simply fled, there would have been no clash at all, and no issue of "neither knelt nor bowed down."
It can be suggested based on what is stated in the Yalkut: David and Mordechai were given a hint and took heed - the Holy One, blessed be He, hinted to them of the salvation, and they sensed the hint and paid attention to it, and through this the salvation came about. Regarding David, it says, "Your servant struck down both the lion and the bear"; David understood that whoever is capable of striking down a lion and a bear has the power to save Israel. Therefore, when Goliath arrived, he said: Who is this dead dog that he should defy the ranks of Israel? What had happened to him earlier was a hint to his abilities and that he was destined to subdue Goliath.
And regarding Mordechai, it says:
וּבְכׇל־יוֹם וָיוֹם מׇרְדֳּכַי מִתְהַלֵּךְ לִפְנֵי חֲצַר בֵּית־הַנָּשִׁים לָדַעַת אֶת־שְׁלוֹם אֶסְתֵּר וּמַה־יֵּעָשֶׂה בָּהּ׃ (ב, יא) - "And every day Mordechai would walk about in front of the court of the harem, to learn how Esther was faring and what would be done with her." (2:11)
Mordechai thought: Is it possible that this pious woman should be married to this wicked, uncircumcised pagan? Rather, some misfortune is destined to befall Israel, and they are destined to be saved through her. Mordechai understood that Esther was not being taken to the king's palace for nothing. Esther was one of the seven prophetesses, and it was inconceivable that a woman of such holiness and stature would end up in the king's palace with this defiled pagan - unless a calamity was inevitably destined to strike Israel, and the Holy One, blessed be He, had planted the salvation in advance right here. For this reason, Mordechai wanted to remain close by: knowing that salvation was destined to come through Esther, he sought to see how this would unfold and to stand ready to assist and offer support.
The Midrash states: "'He who trusts in his wealth shall fall' - this refers to Haman." But a difficulty arises: Where do we find that he trusted in his wealth? His fall is obvious, but "trusting in his wealth" indicates that on account of his riches he was confident he would succeed - and where do we see this with Haman?
It can be explained based on what the Zera Berach writes in Parashat Pekudei in the name of Tosafot: when our Sages say, "Whoever distresses Israel becomes a ruler," this means that before he distresses them, he is first made a leader and rules over the world, so people will not say that the Holy One, blessed be He, delivered Israel into the hands of a degraded nation. It does not mean that as a consequence of afflicting us he became a ruler, but rather the opposite: because he is destined to afflict us, the Holy One, blessed be He, elevates him first. The reason is that there is humiliation in being handed over to a lowly person. As we find with Avimelech, when a woman cast an upper millstone upon him and fractured his skull, he told his armor-bearer, "Arise and strike me down," lest people say a woman killed him - and there is likewise disgrace in dying at the hands of a youth. There is a certain honor or dignity when a person is at least pursued by a king.
There is also an additional dimension to this matter: "Whoever distresses Israel becomes a ruler" is said so that the oppressor cannot afflict us without limit. As the holy Or HaChaim explains, this is for our protection and rescue: if the oppressor is a king, "the heart of kings and ministers is in the hand of Hashem," and in his holy words, the dog's leash is held firmly by its master; the chain is held tight, and he cannot do as he pleases. But when slaves rule over us, "there is none to deliver us from their hand" - there is no one to stop them. Therefore, the Holy One, blessed be He, makes him a ruler so that He can intervene in his free will, whereas normally the Holy One, blessed be He, does not intervene in man's free choice.
Yet let us follow the approach of the Zera Berach: Hashem elevates the oppressor beforehand so that our downfall will not be at the hands of the lowly, but at the hands of a king. If so, Haman reasoned to himself: since I have attained all this honor and all this wealth, this is surely an indication that I am the one designated to afflict Israel. Haman, as the Midrash relates, was deeply knowledgeable - he presents an entire historical review before Achashverosh: the Exodus from Egypt, what befell Pharaoh, what took place in the wilderness, and the conquest of the Land; his knowledge was vast. Haman therefore reasoned: since I have been made a ruler, it is a sign that I am destined to distress Israel, for "whoever distresses Israel becomes a ruler."
And he had another sign: fortune was smiling upon him. In the first chapter of Berachot the Sages say: If you see a wicked person upon whom fortune is smiling, do not provoke him; not only that, but he will triumph over his adversaries. Haman said: If so, I will see the downfall of my enemies; I will witness the downfall of Israel. It turned out that all the cards, in his estimation, proved that he was destined to win.
Countering these, Mordechai had two other signs from which he knew that the Jewish people would prevail. The first is what was mentioned earlier, that salvation would come through Esther: how else could this holy, righteous woman end up in the house of this defiled pagan? Heaven was necessarily signaling to him that salvation would sprout from here. The second sign was that he himself was destined to become a leader. For in the twelfth chapter of Chullin the Gemara asks: Where is Mordechai alluded to in the Torah? From the verse, "Take for yourself chief spices, pure myrrh [mor dror]," which the Targum renders as "mira dachya." "Chief spices" means the head of spices, the foremost among them, and "mor dror" is translated as "mira dachya" - which is Mordechai. It is thus hinted that Mordechai's name is linked to "chief spices," indicating that he would become a ruler and the viceroy to the king.
Now the Midrash is explained: Mordechai believed he would become head on account of the name - his very name, "Mira Dachia", "the chief spice" (besamim rosh), proved that he would be head. Haman, on the other hand, believed he would become head on account of wealth - "they elevated me so greatly, a sign that I will reign and the nation will be delivered into my hand." Therefore, the Midrash stated: "A name is preferred above great riches" - Mordechai's name, from which he learned that he would become head, was chosen over Haman's wealth, from which Haman learned that he would become head.
"Rabbi Yoshiyah said: What did that wicked one do? He brought out all the silver and gold... [The Almighty] said to him: By your life, good grace is chosen above silver and gold." Yet this is difficult: What does one have to do with the other? What connection is there between the silver and gold Haman offered Achashverosh and the grace of Esther, which overcame his wealth? Seemingly, what Esther requested at the wine banquet was not meant to overcome Haman's wealth, for ultimately Achashverosh did not take money from him at all. Had the money been placed on the table opposite grace, and Achashverosh had foregone the money in favor of Esther's grace, it would be understandable that there was a struggle here. But from the very beginning, Achashverosh had waived it:
וַיֹּאמֶר הַמֶּלֶךְ לְהָמָן הַכֶּסֶף נָתוּן לָךְ וְהָעָם לַעֲשׂוֹת בּוֹ כַּטּוֹב בְּעֵינֶיךָ׃ (ג, יא) - And the king said to Haman: "The money is given to you, and the people, to do with them as seems good to you." (3:11)
It has previously been noted in discussions on the Megillah that this is truly wondrous. People ask: What is the great miracle in the Megillah? That a gentile Persian king makes a banquet? Yet there is a far greater miracle: that he is willing to forego ten thousand silver talents in cash - "it is given to you." If they offer you money, won't you take it? After all, he was not setting out to destroy the Jews for the sake of Heaven; if you are being offered money, take it! Why, then, did he waive it?
Rather, it is explained that Achashverosh was deeply apprehensive. For what was about to take place here? An entire nation was being sold for destruction in exchange for monetary gain. Achashverosh reasoned: If this becomes known, it will trigger a rebellion. People will say, "This is an insane king - they gave him ten thousand silver talents and he sold the Jews; tomorrow they will give him another ten thousand and he will sell the Medes; the next day another nation, until he disposes of all his subjects for money." Therefore, he told him: Such things are not done openly in the light. "The money is given to you" - above board, on the table; under the table, we will settle matters. For the record, I have not accepted a single cent from you.
And who knew about all this? "And Mordechai knew all that had been done." Mordechai knew that although ostensibly no money changed hands, in truth the money was transferred through alternate channels and ultimately reached Achashverosh. Therefore, he sent word to inform Esther:
וַיַּגֶּד־לוֹ מׇרְדֳּכַי אֵת כׇּל־אֲשֶׁר קָרָהוּ וְאֵת פָּרָשַׁת הַכֶּסֶף אֲשֶׁר אָמַר הָמָן לִשְׁקוֹל עַל־גִּנְזֵי הַמֶּלֶךְ בַּיְּהוּדִים לְאַבְּדָם׃ (ד, ז) - And Mordechai told him of all that had happened to him, and of the exact sum of money that Haman had promised to weigh out into the king's treasuries for the Jews, to destroy them. (4:7)
Even though publicly no one was aware of this, Mordechai informed her that money was indeed involved. And how did Mordechai know? Chazal already asked this: the Master of Dreams told him, Elijah the Prophet told him - there are several opinions. For this was something conducted in inner chambers that no person could naturally know; rather, it was certainly revealed to him from Heaven that money was truly exchanged and a transaction took place.
According to this, we can understand what Esther said:
כִּי נִמְכַּרְנוּ אֲנִי וְעַמִּי לְהַשְׁמִיד לַהֲרוֹג וּלְאַבֵּד וְאִלּוּ לַעֲבָדִים וְלִשְׁפָחוֹת נִמְכַּרְנוּ הֶחֱרַשְׁתִּי כִּי אֵין הַצָּר שֹׁוֶה בְּנֵזֶק הַמֶּלֶךְ׃ (ז, ד) - "For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, killed, and annihilated. Had we been sold as male and female slaves, I would have kept silent, for the adversary's damage cannot be compensated by the king's loss." (7:4)
וַיֹּאמֶר הַמֶּלֶךְ אֲחַשְׁוֵרוֹשׁ וַיֹּאמֶר לְאֶסְתֵּר הַמַּלְכָּה מִי הוּא זֶה וְאֵי־זֶה הוּא אֲשֶׁר־מְלָאוֹ לִבּוֹ לַעֲשׂוֹת כֵּן׃ (ז, ה) - King Achashverosh said, speaking to Queen Esther, "Who is he, and where is he, who dared to do such a thing?" (7:5)
This seems astonishing: why this feigned innocence? After all, you sold them; you were a full partner in this! Rather, that was not what bothered him; the royal missives were out and everything was already known. What bothered him was the claim "we were sold" - "Who is he, and where is he, who dared to do such a thing," to publicize and announce that a financial sale took place here, when no one was supposed to know about it.
וַתֹּאמֶר אֶסְתֵּר אִישׁ צַר וְאוֹיֵב הָמָן הָרָע הַזֶּה וְהָמָן נִבְעַת מִלִּפְנֵי הַמֶּלֶךְ וְהַמַּלְכָּה׃ (ז, ו) - Esther said, "An adversary and an enemy, this wicked Haman!" And Haman was terrified before the king and the queen. (7:6)
Haman was the one who spread the word; he told everyone that he had paid vast sums and that Achashverosh took a fortune from him. Achashverosh understood immediately: If so, he is trying to ruin me - for now everyone will know that I sold an entire nation for money. It is a clear sign that he seeks to rebel against the king and set a trap for him. Therefore:
וַיֹּאמֶר חַרְבוֹנָה אֶחָד מִן־הַסָּרִיסִים לִפְנֵי הַמֶּלֶךְ גַּם הִנֵּה־הָעֵץ אֲשֶׁר־עָשָׂה הָמָן לְמׇרְדֳּכַי אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר־טוֹב עַל־הַמֶּלֶךְ עֹמֵד בְּבֵית הָמָן גָּבֹהַּ חֲמִשִּׁים אַמָּה וַיֹּאמֶר הַמֶּלֶךְ תְּלֻהוּ עָלָיו׃ (ז, ט) - Then Charvonah, one of the chamberlains, said before the king, "There is also the gallows that Haman made for Mordechai, who spoke good on behalf of the king, standing at Haman's house, fifty cubits high." And the king said, "Hang him on it!" (7:9)
According to this explanation, the struggle between the money and the favor (chen) is readily understood, for money truly was involved, and Esther's favor overcame it. However, the Zera Shimshon adheres to the plain meaning of the text, and according to peshat no money changed hands at all - "The silver is given to you" - which brings back our question: Where is the conflict between the money and Esther's favor?
It can be suggested based on what our Sages teach in the ninth chapter of Sotah: There are three kinds of favor (chen) - the favor of a woman in the eyes of her husband, the favor of a place in the eyes of its residents, and the favor of an acquisition in the eyes of its buyer. The favor of a woman in the eyes of her husband: an outsider cannot fathom what he saw in marrying her, or what she saw in marrying him. The favor of a place in the eyes of its residents: you cannot understand why someone would choose to keep living in that place. And the favor of an acquisition in the eyes of its buyer: someone buys an item, and you say, "I wouldn't take it even for free" - yet he sees great charm in it.
Now, this wicked man, who had amassed so much silver and gold, found no genuine satisfaction in it. As the Gemara notes in the first chapter of Megillah, all of his treasures were engraved upon his heart, etched into a precious jewel that he wore over his chest. Consider the extent of his madness: a man so obsessed with his wealth that he must carry it engraved and resting over his heart, unable to divert his thoughts from it for a single moment. And so, whenever he caught sight of Mordechai, he would say:
וְכׇל־זֶה אֵינֶנּוּ שֹׁוֶה לִי בְּכׇל־עֵת אֲשֶׁר אֲנִי רֹאֶה אֶת־מׇרְדֳּכַי הַיְּהוּדִי יוֹשֵׁב בְּשַׁעַר הַמֶּלֶךְ׃ (ה, יג) - "Yet all this is worth nothing to me every time I see Mordechai the Jew sitting at the king's gate." (5:13)
"Yet all this" - an expression of pointing with a finger. Had he meant his money, he would have had to point to many vaults; rather, everything was engraved right here upon his heart, and at this precious stone he pointed: all my wealth is worth nothing to me.
And since Haman knew that Ahasuerus loved him and would not want him to grieve, he displayed all his silver and gold before him, demonstrating that in his eyes it was worth nothing and brought him no joy - all so that Ahasuerus would grant him power over Israel. And that is what he did: he brought forth all the silver and gold, the precious stones and pearls, and declared: all this is considered nothing to me whenever I see the Jews. He knew that Ahasuerus loved him, and that seeing his distress, the king would deliver the nation into his hands.
Yet while he found no favor in all his wealth, the Holy One, Blessed is He, found true grace in Esther, and this was chosen over all his silver and gold. Esther's grace overpowered his wealth, and Ahasuerus granted her permission to execute him even though he had loved him. Thus the conflict takes on a new dimension: it was not merely that Esther's grace was chosen over money that Haman had actually paid, but that while Haman aroused great empathy in Ahasuerus by displaying his wealth, Esther's grace aroused a far greater empathy, through which Esther prevailed.
Furthermore, one can explain: that wicked man was willing to spend his silver and gold to purchase Israel from Ahasuerus, and this acquisition would find favor in his eyes - as Chazal say, an acquisition finds favor in the eyes of its buyer. Even though Ahasuerus did not ultimately accept the money, there was nonetheless a genuine willingness to surrender all his wealth for the acquisition; yet despite this, the grace possessed by Esther was chosen and prevailed over it.
"Once the wicked man arrived with the money, the king said to him: The silver is given to you." That is to say, Ahasuerus told him: If you wish to destroy Israel, you must possess great wealth, so that the principle "whoever distresses Israel becomes a leader" may be fulfilled. If you spend all your wealth, you will no longer be able to be a leader, and you will not succeed in destroying them. This is the meaning of "the silver is given to you" - and through that power, "and the people, to do with them as seems good to you." A magnificent explanation: keep the money, for by its power you will remain a leader, and as a leader, the people will be delivered into your hands.
The Holy One, Blessed is He, said: Is this how you sell what is Mine over what is Mine? By your life, just as you said, "the silver is given to you," so too, "On that day King Ahasuerus gave." Since Haman expected to be leader through his wealth, and Ahasuerus affirmed this by leaving the money in his hands so he would remain a leader, then once it became known that, on the contrary, Mordechai was the one worthy of being leader - as alluded to in the verse "chief spices, pure myrrh [mor deror]" - Mira Dachya, Mordechai - it was fitting that all of Haman's wealth be transferred to him so that he would become the leader:
בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא נָתַן הַמֶּלֶךְ אֲחַשְׁוֵרוֹשׁ לְאֶסְתֵּר הַמַּלְכָּה אֶת־בֵּית הָמָן צֹרֵר הַיְּהוּדִים וּמׇרְדֳּכַי בָּא לִפְנֵי הַמֶּלֶךְ כִּי־הִגִּידָה אֶסְתֵּר מַה הוּא־לָהּ׃ (ח, א) - "On that day King Ahasuerus gave the estate of Haman, the adversary of the Jews, to Queen Esther; and Mordechai came before the king, for Esther had revealed what he was to her." (Esther 8:1)
And with this, what the Gemara in Megillah explains regarding the verse is resolved:
בַּלַּיְלָה הַהוּא נָדְדָה שְׁנַת הַמֶּלֶךְ וַיֹּאמֶר לְהָבִיא אֶת־סֵפֶר הַזִּכְרֹנוֹת דִּבְרֵי הַיָּמִים וַיִּהְיוּ נִקְרָאִים לִפְנֵי הַמֶּלֶךְ׃ (ו, א) - "On that night, the king's sleep fled, and he ordered to bring the book of records, the chronicles, and they were read before the king." (Esther 6:1)
Our Sages taught: A thought entered his mind - perhaps Haman was scheming to kill him. This presents a difficulty: From where did such a notion enter Achashverosh's mind? Was Haman not his servant and trusted confidant? You promoted him, you empowered him, and you granted him authority - why would he suspect him?
It can be explained that this was Achashverosh's thought: perhaps "anyone who distresses Israel becomes a head" means becoming king, and it is not enough that he merely become wealthy. Since Haman sought to destroy the Jews, this principle might cause Haman to kill him and become a great king himself! Achashverosh suddenly realized that the promotion he had bestowed upon Haman had spiraled out of control: Haman had become too great. You wanted him elevated so that Israel would be handed over to him, but if "becomes a head" means a king and not just a wealthy nobleman - he will ultimately overthrow you as well. If so, Achashverosh said, I must put an immediate stop to this whole development. It was from this suspicion that he commanded Haman to take Mordechai and lead him on the horse, and from that point the entire wheel began to turn. Truly, the words of a wise man's mouth are gracious.
The Midrash on "A good name is chosen over great riches" contrasts two calculations: Haman relied on his wealth as proof that he was the "head" destined to distress Israel, while Mordechai knew from his name alluded to in the Torah - besamim rosh mor dror, translated by the Targum as mira dachia - and from what he saw in Esther, that salvation was prepared and that he was destined to be the head. The silver that Haman placed on Achashverosh's table - whether presented to arouse the compassion of the king who loved him, or intended to purchase Israel - was swept aside before Esther's grace. And regarding Achashverosh, who left the money in Haman's hand so that he would remain head and rule over the people, the Holy One, blessed be He, swore: that very phrase "is given to you" would be fulfilled in Mordechai and Esther, as it says, "On that day King Achashverosh gave the house of Haman to Queen Esther." When Achashverosh finally realized that Haman had grown too powerful and was liable to seize the throne - his sleep fled, and the wheel of salvation began to turn.