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Last night, the entire Yeshiva had a terrific time at our Fourth Annual Yesodei HaTorah Purim Eve Bash. Everyone danced to the music of the yeshiva band, who played outside in the courtyard, and enjoyed the large spread of food. This was followed by the shpiels - one by the rabbeim, and four by various groups of students. Everyone agrees that this year's shpiels were the best ever seen at Yesodei!, This morning, each of the rebbeim are hosting their shiur for Purim seudah. Afterwards, everyone is meeting at Rav Wolicki's house for dessert. This will be followed by an in- Shabbat, hosted by Rav Lichtman and family. This past Wednesday , our Madrich, Avi Meghnagi, celebrated his finishing of Masechet Taanit with a siyum in the beit midrash. It was a bittersweet occasion, however, because it was also a goodbye party for Avi, as he is leaving the yeshiva this Monday. Avi has been part of the Yesodei HaTorah family from our very first year, and he will be missed by all the rabbeim and students. We wish him much success in his future endeavors, and expect him to visit often! We also wish Mazal Tov to Eitan Levine, who made a siyum on Seder Moed on Wednesday evening. Happy Purim to everyone, and Shabbat shalom!

Haman's Ten Sons
By Rabbi Pesach Wolicki

Near the end of the Book of Esther, in the narrative of the victory of the Jews over their enemies, the names of Haman's ten sons are recorded.

And in Shushan, the capital, the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men; and Parshandata, and Dalfon, and Aspata, and Porata, and Adalya, and Aridata, and Parmashta, and Arisai, and Aridai, and Vayzata, the ten sons of Haman."

Instead of just being written into columns of text of the rest of the book, the names are arranged in a peculiar way. All ten names are written in a narrow column - each name directly above the next one. Opposite this column of names is another narrow column with the word "ve'et" - "and" - written ten times, one on top of the other.

A number of questions arise from this text. First, why are Haman's sons mentioned by name at all? They are not characters in the book up to this point. Why not simply state that Haman and all his sons were killed? Second, once they are listed, why must it say "and" before each one? When genealogical lists are given in biblical text, it does not say "and" before every name in a list. Third, what is the point of arranging them in this strange way?

Furthermore, the Talmud mentions a unique law regarding the reading of this passage: "Rav Ada from Yafo said: The ten sons of Haman must be recited in one breath. What is the reason? - All of their souls left them simultaneously." (TB Megila 16b)

Regarding the third question - that of the two column arrangement of the text - the Talmud states: "Rav Shila a man of the town of Timrata taught: All songs are written space above writing and writing above spaces except for this one and the kings of Canaan in which the words are above words and the spaces are above spaces. What is the reason? - So that there should be no [re]establishment for theirdownfall." (Ibid)

When one is building a structure out of bricks the bricks are staggered so that each brick sits above the space between two bricks below it. This produces a stronger structure than if the bricks were to be stacked directly above each other. Likewise, the arrangement of the names of Haman's sons in the Book of Esther resembles bricks that are stacked in a way that is not very strong. The Talmud sees this as symbolic of the wish that the downfall of the sons of Haman be complete.

What is significant about the downfall of Haman's ten sons? As stated above, they are not even mentioned in the narrative before this point. They have no role in the story.

Rashi points us in the right direction: "The ten sons of Haman: I saw in [the book] Seder Olam that these are the ten who wrote a slander about Judea and Jerusalem. As it states in the book of Ezra, 'And during the reign of Achashverosh, at the beginning of his reign, a slander was written about the inhabitants of Judea and Jerusalem.' (Ezra 4:6) And what was the accusation? - To prevent those who were arriving [in Israel] from the exile in the days of Cyrus who had begun to build the Temple. The Kuthites reported it to the authorities and caused them difficulty. When Cyrus died, Achashverosh became king, and Haman ascended to power, [Haman] made sure that those in Jerusalem would not be involved in the building [of the Temple]. He sent [a decree] in the name of Achashverosh to the governors [over Israel] to prevent them."

During the reign of Achashverosh there were Jews who had returned to the land of Israel to build the Temple in Jerusalem. The Kuthites - a non-Israelite tribe that lived in Israel - told the authorities in Persia. When Achashverosh elevated Haman to a leadership role, Haman worked to prevent the further construction of the Temple. It was the ten sons of Haman who were responsible for all of this.

What interest did Haman and his sons have in preventing the building of the Temple in Jerusalem?

It is well known that Haman was a descendant of Amalek. He is identified by the text as an Agagite. Agag was the king of Amalek in the days of Saul and the prophet Samuel. The ten sons of Haman are identified by the Targum Sheni - a Midrashic Aramaic translation and commentary of the Book of Esther - as "all of them high military officials of the family of Amalek." (Targum Sheni Esther 9:6)

Amalek, the arch-enemy of the Jewish people, seeks to prevent the ultimate goal of Judaism from being actualized. It is the goal of Judaism to bring a greater awareness of God and his Glory to the world. If the Temple in Jerusalem is rebuilt, there will be a greater awareness of God in this world. Amalekites seek to prevent this from happening.

After the People of Israel in the desert set up their camp to travel, the Torah states: "When the Ark set out Moshe would say, 'Arise, O God! And your enemies shall scatter, and your foes will flee before You.' And when [the Ark] rested, he would say, 'Return, O God, the myriad thousands of Israel.'" (Numbers 10:35-36)

The Hebrew term for "myriads" is "rivevot" which literally means "tens of thousands." The Talmud homiletically comments on this verse. "This verse teaches that the Divine Presence only rests upon no less that twenty-two thousand of Israel. If Israel were twenty-two thousand less one and one of them did not produce a child, the result [of not reproducing] is that the Divine Presence leaves Israel." (TB Yevamot 64a)

Since the minimum of a plural is two, the terms "myriads" - "rivevot" - and "thousands" amount to a minimum of twenty-two thousand people. The Talmud states that this is the minimum number for the resting of the Divine Presence - the "Shechina" - on Israel.

What does all of this have to do with the ten sons of Haman? The sons of Haman worked actively to prevent the ultimate revelation of the Divine Presence - the building of the Temple in Jerusalem. This is the work of Amalek. The downfall of the sons of Haman - the chieftains of Amalek - allowed the construction of the Temple to continue. Thus the deaths of Haman's sons led directly to a great revelation of the Divine Presence just as their presence on the political scene prevented this revelation.

A few years ago a friend of mine who is a sofer - a Jewish scribe - mentioned to me that as he was writing a scroll of Esther he noticed that there are a lot of Alephs - the first letter in the Hebrew aleph-bet - in the names of Haman's ten sons. He decided to count them. He counted twelve Alephs. In addition, each of the ten times that the word "ve'et" - "and" - is written there contains an Aleph. The total number of Alephs in the verses that list the ten sons of Haman is twenty-two.

All the names of Hebrew letters are words that have independent meanings. Aleph - the name of this letter - means "thousand."

Perhaps the presence of twenty-two Alephs in this list of names is hinting at the purpose of this passage. Within the downfall of the ten sons of Haman is contained the secret to the revelation of the Divine Presence. The defeat of Amalek facilitates the building of the Temple and the ultimate redemption.

Now we may understand why all of the names had to be written, why the word "and" is necessary, and why they must be uttered all in one breath.

When this entire list is uttered in one single breath by the reader, twenty-two Alephs are uttered at once. This utterance becomes a code word for the victory over Amalek and the opening of the door for the Divine Presence. This is the essence of the victory of Purim