Last Laughs

So, the crucial Purim question is, did Haman have a sense of humor? Being a Nazi genocidaire, he may well have suffered from a Teutonic deficit in that department. Frustratingly, the mefarshim don’t seem to elaborate on this intriguing question.

At any rate, there’s a scene in Megillas Esther that he definitely didn’t find funny, but which should give us heart in these somber times.

One evening, Haman returns home from a very bad day at the office. He’s been forced to lead his nemesis, Mordechai, through the streets of the capital in a triumphal procession. His own daughter has dumped the contents of a chamber pot on his head, to boot.

But instead of a cup of tea and commiseration, Haman’s wife Zeresh piles on the pressure. “If Mordechai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of Jewish descent, you will not prevail against him, but will undoubtedly fall before him,” she intones.