To the Moon, Haman!

Es chatasi ani mazkir hayom.

When I was growing up, we had a TV, a very small TV, but still a TV… until one day, when my mother decided enough is enough. She picked it up and intentionally dropped it on the floor. Presto, no more TV!

But as we know, mitzvah goreres mitzvah. One good deed begets another, and we children suddenly become very machmir on the mitzvah of visiting our Oma… who just happened to have a TV. Go figure. At the time there was a very popular show featuring two fellows, a very large bellicose, bombastic man named Ralph, and his sidekick, Norton, a skinny guy with a beat-up hat.

Whenever we read in the Megillah, “lehiyos kol ish soreir b’veiso” I imagine Ralphie belting out those words. “I’m the ruler of this home! The king of this castle! The BOSS MAN!” (and his wife totally ignoring him).

But I cannot imagine how Achashveirosh’s executive order was implemented. Picture the scene in Shushan after Haman (Memuchan) gives his “expert” advice to the king. A royal decree is proclaimed: “Lehiyos kol ish….” A husband walks in, and his wife asks him to take out the trash. “Oh yeah?” he responds, “I’m the king of this castle… by law!”