Pt2 The Humiliation of Haman: The Dramatic Talmudic Elaboration of the Biblical Verse of Haman Carrying out King Ahasuerus's Orders to Honor Mordecai (Esther 6:11-12; Megillah 16a)
This is the second part of a two-part series. The first part is here.
Haman took Mordecai to the bathhouse, washed him, and cut his hair
Haman then instructed Mordecai to stand up, put on the royal garments, and ride the horse as per the king's orders.
Mordecai responded that he could not do so until he had gone to the bathhouse1 and trimmed his hair, as it was improper to wear the king's garments in his current unkempt state.
Esther had sent messengers to close all bathhouses and surgeons.2
With no one else available, Haman had to personally take Mordecai to the bathhouse, wash him, and then retrieve scissors (זוזא) from his house to trim Mordecai's hair.
While cutting, Haman sighed. Mordecai asked why he sighed, and Haman lamented his fall from the king's favored minister to a bathhouse attendant3 and barber.
Mordecai reminded Haman that he was once a barber in the village of Kartzum,4 so he had merely returned to his former occupation. The Talmud quotes a tradition that Haman was a barber in Kartzum for 22 years.
אמר ליה: קום לבוש הני מאני ורכוב האי סוסיא, דבעי לך מלכא.
אמר ליה: לא יכילנא, עד דעיילנא לבי בני, ואשקול למזייא, דלאו אורח ארעא לאשתמושי במאני דמלכא הכי.
שדרה אסתר, ואסרתינהו לכולהו בי בני, ולכולהו אומני.
עייליה איהו לבי בני,
ואסחיה,
ואזל,
ואייתי זוזא מביתיה
וקא שקיל ביה מזייה.
בהדי דקא שקיל ליה,
אינגיד, ואיתנח.
אמר ליה: אמאי קא מיתנחת?
אמר ליה: גברא דהוה חשיב ליה למלכא מכולהו רברבנוהי, השתא לישוייה בלנאי וספר?!
אמר ליה: רשע, ולאו ספר של כפר קרצום היית?!
תנא: המן, ספר של כפר קרצום היה עשרים ושתים שנה.
Haman said to him: Stand up, put on these garments and ride on this horse, for the king wants you to do so.
Mordecai said to him: I cannot do so until I enter the bathhouse [bei vanei] and trim my hair, for it is not proper conduct to use the king’s garments in this state that I am in now.
In the meantime, Esther sent messengers and closed all the bathhouses and all the shops of the craftsmen, including the bloodletters and barbers.
When Haman saw that there was nobody else to do the work, he himself took Mordecai into the bathhouse
and washed him,
and then he went and brought scissors [zuza] from his house
and trimmed his hair.
While he was trimming his hair
he injured himself and sighed.
Mordecai said to him: Why do you sigh?
Haman said to him: The man whom the king had once regarded above all his other ministers is now made a bathhouse attendant [balanei] and a barber.
Mordecai said to him: Wicked man, were you not once the barber of the village of Kartzum?! If so, why do you sigh? You have merely returned to the occupation of your youth.
It was taught in a baraita: Haman was the barber of the village of Kartzum for twenty-two years.
Haman stooped down to help Mordecai mount the horse, and as he did, Mordecai kicked him
After trimming Mordecai's hair, Haman dressed him in the royal garments and instructed him to mount the horse. Mordecai, weakened from fasting, said he couldn't. Haman stooped down to help Mordecai mount the horse, and as he did, Mordecai kicked him.
Haman reminded Mordecai of the proverb "Do not rejoice when your enemy falls" (Proverbs 24:17). Mordecai responded that this applies only to Jews, while regarding Haman, it is written, "And you shall tread upon their high places" (Deuteronomy 33:29).
בתר דשקלינהו למזייה,
לבשינהו למאניה,
אמר ליה: סק ורכב.
אמר ליה: לא יכילנא, דכחישא חילאי מימי תעניתא.
גחין וסליק.
כי סליק, בעט ביה.
אמר ליה: לא כתיב לכו: ״בנפל אויבך אל תשמח״?!
אמר ליה: הני מילי בישראל, אבל בדידכו כתיב: ״ואתה על במותימו תדרוך״.
After Haman trimmed his hair,
Haman dressed Mordecai in the royal garments.
Haman then said to him: Mount the horse and ride.
Mordecai said to him: I am unable, as my strength has waned from the days of fasting that I observed.
Haman then stooped down before him and Mordecai ascended on him.
As he was ascending the horse, Mordecai gave Haman a kick.
Haman said to him: Is it not written for you: “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls” (Proverbs 24:17)?!
Mordecai said to him: This statement applies only to Jews, but with regard to you it is written: “And you shall tread upon their high places” (Deuteronomy 33:29).
Haman’s daughter threw feces onto her father's head, and then committed suicide
As Haman led Mordecai through the streets, proclaiming, “Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor” (Esther 6:11), Haman’s daughter saw them from the roof. Mistaking Mordecai for her father and Haman for Mordecai, she threw a chamber pot of feces (עציצא דבית הכסא) onto her father's head.
When Haman looked up in disgust, she realized her mistake and, in distress, jumped from the roof and died.5
״ויקרא לפניו ככה יעשה לאיש אשר המלך חפץ ביקרו״.
כי הוה נקיט ואזיל בשבילא דבי המן,
חזיתיה ברתיה דקיימא אאיגרא,
סברה האי דרכיב — אבוה,
והאי דמסגי קמיה — מרדכי.
שקלה עציצא דבית הכסא, ושדיתיה ארישא דאבוה.
דלי עיניה, וחזת דאבוה הוא,
נפלה מאיגרא לארעא ומתה.
The verse states: “And he proclaimed before him: Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor” (Esther 6:11).
As Haman was taking Mordecai along the street of Haman’s house,
Haman’s daughter was standing on the roof and saw the spectacle.
She thought to herself that the one who is riding on the horse must be her father,
and the one walking before him must be Mordecai.
She then took a chamber pot full of feces and cast its contents onto the head of her father, whom she mistakenly took as Mordecai.
When Haman raised his eyes in disgust afterward, and looked up at his daughter, she saw that he was her father.
In her distress, she fell from the roof to the ground and died.
אומני - surgeons would also cut hair.
כפר קרצום - or כפר קרנוס, see כפר קרנוס – ויקיפדיה.
נפלה מאיגרא לארעא ומתה - Literally, “fell from the roof to the ground, and died”
For the same form of suicide elsewhere in the Talmud, see my previous piece ““The Man with the Nose is Wanted”: The Talmudic Story of Tineius Rufus and Rabban Gamliel (Taanit 29a)":
סליק לאיגרא, נפיל, ומית.
[The officer] ascended to the roof, fell, and died.
See also Bava_Batra.3b.14, re Miriam the Hasmonean purportedly committing suicide rather than marry Herod:
כי חזת ההיא ינוקתא דקא בעי למינסבה, סליקא לאיגרא, ורמא קלא אמרה: ״כל מאן דאתי ואמר: מבית חשמונאי קאתינא – עבדא הוא, דלא אישתיירא מינייהו אלא ההיא ינוקתא,
וההיא ינוקתא נפלה מאיגרא לארעא.
When that girl saw that he wanted to marry her, she went up to the roof and raised her voice, and said: Whoever comes and says: I come from the house of the Hasmoneans, is a slave, since only that girl, i.e., I, remained from them.
And that girl fell from the roof to the ground and died.
For another example of death by falling from a roof, see Ketubot.62b.4, about Rav Reḥumi (רב רחומי):
הוה יתיב באיגרא, אפחית איגרא מתותיה ונח נפשיה.
[He] was sitting on the roof. The roof collapsed under him and he died.