I always wanted to learn martial arts as a child, but my parents didn’t let me. They were afraid I would use it on my little brother! One of the martial arts which I was fond of was Aikido, since it redirects the force of the attackers against themselves.

A major theme of Purim is “venahafoch hu” (Hashem turned everything around). Rebbe Shmuel bar Nachmeini introduced the Megillah story with the following pasuk in Navi: “Tachas hanaatzutz yaaleh verosh, vesachas hasirpad yaaleh hadas…—In place of the thornbush a cypress will rise, and in place of the nettle, a myrtle will rise…” The Gemara says that “naatzutz” refers to Haman, “berosh” to Mordechai, “sirpad” to Vashti, and “hadas” to Esther. Mordechai ended up replacing Haman, and Esther replaced Vashti.

The Gemara says that Haman was called “Memuchan,” as appears in the first chapter of the Megillah. The word Memuchan means “prepared.” Haman, through his evil actions, prepared his own demise.

Memuchan was the one who advised Achashverosh to kill Vashti, which set the stage for Esther to become queen. After Mordechai reported a plot to overthrow Achashverosh, incurring his appreciation, Queen Esther eventually exposed to Achashverosh Haman’s plot to destroy Mordechai’s people and caused Haman to be hanged.

The Megillah refers to the gallows that Haman erected to hang Mordechai as “asher heichin lo,” which means Haman prepared it for himself. The gallows that Haman set up to hang Mordechai was 50 amos (100 feet) tall. Who had such a tall piece of wood? The Midrash says that Hashem designated a tree which existed from the beginning of creation. It was growing in a forest of redwood trees owned by Haman, and he had this super tall tree cut down for this purpose. Haman ended up being hung on his own tree!

After Haman induced Achashverosh to issue a decree that all Jews in the kingdom should be exterminated, Haman was still aggravated about Mordechai’s lack of respect for him. At the moment when Haman was going to ask Achashverosh to hang Mordechai, Achashverosh instead asked Haman how the king should accord honor to someone he wishes to honor. Instead of hanging Mordechai in the morning as he had planned, Haman paraded Mordechai around the entire city, leading the royal horse on which Mordechai rode, announcing, “So shall be done to a man the king wants to honor.”

Rabbi Daniel Glatstein presents another example of “venahafoch hu”: After Achashverosh issued his decree against the Jews, letters were sent to the entire country, telling everyone to be ready for “that day” (to attack the Jews). But interestingly, the Megillah records that the letters just said to be ready, but not what to be ready for. The Vilna Gaon explains that there were two letters sent out. One letter was for the public, directing that they should be ready, but not revealing why. The second letter was to the governors and the police, telling them about the edict that people are to kill the Jews. The reason the public was not initially informed about the details was that if the Jews found out in advance, they would attempt to have the decree rescinded. However, the police and governors were directed to be ready to rally the people against the Jews … when the time comes.

This plot backfired! Since the public didn’t know the original intent of Achashverosh, when the new letter came as a result of Esther’s intervention, granting permission for the Jews to defend themselves, everyone joined in ready to help them. The anticipation and excitement that was mounted was used to rally the nations to help defend the Jews and kill the Amaleikim who attacked the Jews!

The Megillah concludes that Achashverosh levied a tax on everyone. Why is this important to record in the Megillah? Rabbi Glatstein explains that Darius, the son of Achashverosh and Esther, granted the Jewish nation permission to rebuild the Beis HaMikdash and gave the Jews a grant from the treasury to help do so. These funds came from the tax that Achashverosh had levied. There was a chamber in the second Beis HaMikdash called Shushan HaBirah, because Achashverosh’s tax funded a significant portion of the construction.

Throughout the Megillah, everything turned around against Haman. Rav Yitzchak Hutner says that what happened to Haman is similar to a ball which is thrown at a wall and bounces back. We see that Hashem placed an invisible wall between Haman and the Jewish nation which made all his evil efforts ricochet back at him.

As Hashem saved the Jewish people from Haman’s evil plot against them, may Hashem turn around all the difficulties and troubles that we currently have in our lives—as individuals and as a nation—and send them back at Amalek’s progeny! May we fully rejoice in our relationship with Hashem and dance as we soon rebuild the Beis HaMikdash.

Rabbi Baruch Bodenheim is the associate rosh yeshiva of Passaic Torah Institute (PTI)/Yeshiva Ner Boruch. Rabbi Bodenheim can be reached at [email protected]. For more info about PTI and its Torah classes, visit www.pti.shulcloud.com