Synagogue Sermon
Providing an Excuse for Haman (1975)
Anti-Semitism is never justified, no matter what the provocation, any more than it is right to be generally anti-Black because many muggers are Black or anti-Italian because the Mafia is all Italian. Yet unquestionably, it sometimes happens that the victim of bigotry invites the venom of the bigot, and evokes and stimulates enmity. When R. Simeon bar Yohai’s students, according to the Talmud (Meg. 12a), asked him, מפני מה נתחיבהו כל שוניהם של ישראל כוליה באותו דור, “Why were the Jews of the generation (of the Purim incident) found worthy of destruction,” he challenged them to offer a reason. They responded, מפהי שנהנו מסעודה של אותו רשע, “Because they consented to join in the great feast tendered by the evil Ahaseurus,” about which we read at the beginning of the Megillah. Indeed, Mordecai, according to the Midrash, warned them not to participate, so as not to give any excuse for Satan to accuse Israel of wrongdoing. The general idea of this passage is that man sometimes invites retribution and hatred. He too often “gives an opening to the mouth of Satan.”Of course, there is no excuse for Haman. Morally, we can never forgive a criminal of this sort. But if the victim incites him, dares him, seduces him, and then leaves himself defenseless before him, we can understand the criminal psychologically if not morally. In a word, Haman is always inexcusable, but we must never give an excuse to the Hamans of the world!That means that we Jews must follow a two-pronged attack against anti-Semitism: First, we must battle it on moral and all other grounds—political, economic, and social. And second, we must seek to prevent its application by avoiding any unnecessary provocations.Let us look at several interpretations by the Rabbis of the Purim incident, and see how we too may err by providing excuses for our contemporary Hamans.We mentioned the Talmudic passage about the whole near-tragedy being caused by the willingness of the Jews to join in the banquet of Ahaseurus. But why…
