Hadassah

by Tommy Tenney

  It was not until Xerxes publicly announced the new title that Mordecai and I fully realized what had just taken place. The King loudly intoned, “People of Persia and servants of the Crown, I give you this day my new Master of the Audiences, Haman the Agagite of the Negev. It is my will that each of you obey and treat him in every way exactly as you would regard your King.”

  Upon hearing those words I felt my heart pound and my breath quicken. I swiftly turned toward the audience, where Mordecai occupied a prominent seat. Our eyes locked with an implacable expression of dread.

  My first instinct was to run straight to Xerxes and tell him what a murderer he had just appointed. But the tiny voice of prudence warned me to consult first with Mordecai, and as usual my poppa convinced me to keep still for the time being. He wisely reasoned that unraveling the whole story to Xerxes would reveal my Jewishness and would throw me into a pitched battle with a Palace official whose power, at least as decreed, could be said to rival my own. Remember Memucan’s ability to have Vashti deposed, Mordecai somberly reminded me.

  And then it struck me. The true field of war was not Greece, a thousand miles away. It was right here, in my own residence. I could not have stood in a more exposed and perilous spot if I had stood upon the prow of that doomed lead ship bound for Salamis.

  For the next few days I went about my business, secretly consumed with a lingering sense of dread and alarm. I met Mordecai for another covert meeting outside the walls of our private quarters. He seemed both as troubled and as irresolute as I. “I have spent the last three nights in the Palace library poring over the archives. Esther, I finally found the proof. An old volume of the Chronicles of the King records a tidy sum of money paid to one Haman of the Negev for services rendered in the ‘pacification’ of Babylon. The time period is right. We already know his emblem is that of the twisted cross. He most certainly is the man responsible for the murder of our families.”

  But then, seeing the helpless rage mixed with fear upon my face, he quickly added, “I am sure he knows nothing of our identity, so we are in no immediate danger. Please do not do anything rash. We may find a way to bring him to account for his crimes, but it will take time and a great deal of careful planning.”

  “I could have him executed at once,” I fumed recklessly.

  “I doubt it, my dear. Any other citizen, perhaps. But do not forget—he is the newly appointed second-in-command of the Empire. You might have a difficult time. No, I implore you, let me devise a way to reveal him for who he is. Do not worry that I will let the issue drop. You know how driven I’ve been to seek justice for what happened to us. Just be patient. Please?”

  I exhaled. “All right, Mordecai. But I don’t know if I can treat him normally.”

  “I know. I know.”

  Mordecai’s understanding made his wise counsel acceptable to me. After a quick hug, we went our separate ways.

  It was Mordecai who had the most difficulty treating Haman normally. I learned of this only much later, but the next day Mordecai was sitting in his usual seat near the King’s Gate when Haman entered the Palace grounds. Evidently he had taken seriously Xerxes’ order that everyone treat him as they would the King himself, for he had several of his largest men precede him with swords in their hands, yelling, “Everyone bow before His Excellency, the King’s Master of the Audiences, Haman the Agagite! Everyone stand and bow!”

  At once, the hundreds of onlookers bowed forward at the waist, just as they would before the King himself. That is, they all bowed except for Mordecai. He sat as still as his posture would allow and gritted his teeth against the dust whipped up by Haman’s horses.

  The thug closest to him walked over and brandished his blade high in the air. “Did you hear me right?” he shouted. “Bow at once for the King’s Master of the Audiences! Have you not heard? There is a new master in the kingdom!”

  Mordecai did not even deign to look the man in the eye for several long seconds, so intense was his disgust. I know because he later told me that his mind raced with thoughts of death with honor—Kill me, you swine, for I long to go the way of my mother and father and sisters, not to mention Esther’s beloved family, and I welcome the chance to turn every one of these onlookers into a witness to your brutality. Come on—raise your blade, you coward.

  Instead, the man swore repeatedly, then turned and rode on—clearly not authorized for killing that day.

  Then Haman himself rode by in a chariot inlaid with rare and precious gems. His eyes never left Mordecai’s figure during his ride through the portal.

  As quickly as he’d come, he was gone. After several long moments, the grit settled, and the hundreds of bowed torsos slowly straightened. Every eye was darkly fixed upon Mordecai, the one who had not budged.

  A fellow scribe groaned from the back strain and turned to his stubborn colleague. “What is the matter with you, Mordecai? Why did you disobey the King’s direct order and refuse to pay homage?”

  “It is none of your business.”

  “Come on, Mordecai. You and I have known each other since you came to the Palace. You’ve always been a reasonable, accommodating man. You’ve bowed to the King and his high officials in the past. Why not bow to the new Master of the Audiences?”

  When Mordecai finally spoke, he settled a heavily lidded gaze upon his questioner. “I bow to no man but the G-d of Heaven and my King, Xerxes,” he said slow and level.

  “What is happening here?” asked a deep voice from over the companion’s shoulder. It was a royal guard who had stepped off his post to investigate the problem. “Why did you defy the King’s command?”

  Mordecai said nothing and looked straight ahead like a man scanning the horizon for some approaching danger. A razor-sharp blade found its way beneath his chin, deeply indenting his neck but not quite puncturing it.

  “Answer me, you luckless soul. I already have the grounds to haul you in.”

  Mordecai’s back grew straighter, his gaze even more resolute.

  “Sir,” interrupted the bystander, “the man refuses to bow to the King’s emissary on religious grounds.”

  “What is your name, my man?”

  “My name is Mordecai.”

  “And what religion do you practice?”

  Mordecai paused and made the decision that I always knew he would make when the occasion warranted. “I worship the one true G-d,” he replied. “YHWH. The Creator of heaven and earth. The G-d of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

  43

  Apparently the soldier in question was familiar with the influence and autonomy that Jews enjoyed in Susa, for he nodded, shrugged and returned to his post, harassing Mordecai no longer. He did not even stir the next day when Mordecai repeated his defiance, or the day after, or the day after that when my poppa’s back remained unbent and it seemed the passing Haman would burst a blood vessel from apoplexy.

  On the fourth day, the scribe who had overheard Mordecai’s startling admission was mysteriously called in for a day’s work with the King’s Master of the Audiences. Once alone with the man, Haman wasted no time in inquiring why his neighbor was showing such disrespect. He asked the question almost mournfully, as though he felt nothing more than a vague disquiet at this strange scribe’s behavior.

  At first, the scribe resisted. After all, he was not eager to bring about his old colleague’s demise. They had become good friends over the years. But sensing his prey’s reluctance, Haman resorted to threats. “Perhaps we did not see correctly. Perhaps it was you, sitting so close to this man, who refused to show me the proper respect.”

  The colleague sighed, then began to speak. He restated his conversation with Mordecai and told Haman the surprising disclosure that his old friend was actually a Jew, though Mordecai attempted to keep this a secret.

  Haman smiled and inhaled, deep and long. He leaned back on his couch and sighed.

  Finally, one of the Susa Jews—in person.

  Perfect.

  He knew better than to mar his first
week in his new position with the indiscriminate killing of a Palace scribe, so he merely reached out and clenched his fist in the air. There would be time enough—soon.

  Mordecai’s friend left the encounter shaken to the core of his being.

  On the terrace of his palatial villa, Haman nodded to one of his men for the plot to begin. His henchman had ushered in a soothsayer, who pulled two handfuls of small clay cubes from a bag, separated them on the tabletop with deft stabbing motions and dropped the respective piles into two thin-necked urns. He looked at Haman and nodded. The casting of the pur, the lots, was set to begin.

  He shook the first urn, tossed a half-dozen cubes down upon the wood and looked up at Haman. He had his first result.

  “The pur show the month of Adar.”

  He picked up the second urn and repeated the process.

  “The thirteenth day.”

  Haman was at first a little disappointed that it would be several months away; then he decided it would give time for his plan to reach every province and time to prepare every detail.

  Finally Haman smiled. “Just so! The thirteenth of Adar is the beginning of the Persians’ feast of the goddess Anahita. There’ll be drinking and revelry . . . topped off with a little slaughter and plunder, courtesy of the King.”

  It must have taken enormous effort for Haman to appear hurt, incensed and concerned before Xerxes later that afternoon. Inwardly, he no doubt felt buoyed by a sense of relentless destiny, of staggering opportunity. Finally his time had come. Not just as a man, as an official of the Empire, but in a role that stretched back centuries—as a son of Amalek, a descendant of Agag.

  Finally he had both the influence and the pretext with which to exterminate the Jews. He could have wept with humble gratitude, wishing his father could have been there to see him—and more importantly, there to see the stacks of Hebrew corpses that would soon line ditches and alleyways the world over. He breathed deeply to hold in his emotions, remembering all the generations of Amalekites who had lived and died in exile because of the Israelites and their hateful G-d. He would soon avenge them. When Xerxes remembered the meeting later, he concluded that Haman would have been nearly overwhelmed with the potential for revenge.

  But Haman obviously swallowed all these feelings in favor of a mask of simmering rage and victimhood as he approached Xerxes’ side that day. Never one to ignore a courtier’s emotions, the King looked up from a parchment he was reading and asked, “What is the matter, my new Master of the Audiences?”

  “Sir, I am naught but your servant; you know it no less than I.”

  “Oh, not so sour, Haman. It is but a jest. Now tell me what troubles you before I grow angry.”

  “Your Majesty, I have just encountered one of the gravest threats to your reign and to this Empire that you will ever imagine.”

  All the mirth drained instantly from Xerxes’ face. A threat to his reign was always something to be heeded. His gaze now bore into Haman’s face with an almost visible force.

  Haman took a deep breath, as though he were too deliberate a man to launch into such a painful subject without enormous reluctance. “I am speaking of the Jewish people. I’ve become aware that during your absence, they have been fomenting a massive coordinated conspiracy against your Majesty’s rule. In the last few hours alone, your Majesty, evidence has come to light that Hebrew killers were responsible for the murder of Memucan. I have sworn witnesses in my custody right now—two experienced Palace guards who detained three men leaving the area of Memucan’s quarters quite late on the night in question. Both men independently swear that the trespassers were clearly Jewish in ethnic origin.”

  “Did they arrest the intruders?”

  “Sadly they did not, your Majesty, and for that oversight they will be punished. But please remember, sir, that they had no idea what had just taken place inside Memucan’s quarters. Besides—the Jews had Palace passes, maybe forged or even stolen—which allowed them access, even if the hour seemed suspicious.”

  “This is most distressing,” Xerxes whispered.

  “Most regretfully, your Majesty, that is far from all. Jewish insolence against your authority has become an open practice, even within the Palace itself. Today I passed a Palace scribe, a Jew who tells everyone who will listen that he bows only before his god. He was resisting obeisance to me at the time, but he could have just as easily been speaking of your Majesty or any authority outside of his cult. He openly flaunts his refusal to stand at my passage, despite your Majesty’s clear instructions.”

  “Is this man in custody?”

  “No, sir. I did not want to tip off the conspirators that we are aware of them. But think of it, your Majesty. Open rebellion, starting within the walls of your very own palace!”

  “What a betrayal,” Xerxes said, shaking his head. “I’ve known and worked with Jews all my life. My own grandfather allowed many of them to return to Israel and rebuild their temple!”

  “Exactly! And how do they repay the Crown’s generosity? With plots and treachery! You see, sir, it is nearly impossible to know just what these people believe without firsthand knowledge. And as a former inhabitant of this area of Mesopotamia, I am intimately aware of their twisted beliefs. They recognize no authority but their own bloodthirsty god. They will work insidiously to undermine any leadership aside from their bizarre priests. They are a rotten plague in the kingdom, relentlessly eating away at its strength, eroding everything you love and that loves you.”

  “I have simply never heard this before,” Xerxes insisted.

  “As I said, your Majesty, they specialize in covering their shrewd designs. It is one of their greatest strengths—their ability to completely mask their evil.”

  “Haman, all my life I have known them as a weakened people. They were brought to Babylon as slaves. They have little organized leadership. They barely have control of their own capital city. Jerusalem, I believe it is called. They don’t immediately strike one as a potent threat.”

  “Yet wherever they’re allowed to breed and settle, they grow stronger. And whenever they reach sufficient numbers, they always seize the reins of power. No treachery is too low, too revolting.”

  “How did you become such an expert?” the King asked.

  Haman paused, and his eyes seemed to fill with tears. “Your Majesty, could I tell you the story of how they exterminated all but a handful of my people?”

  Startled, the King said, “Of course. Tell me all of it.”

  “Well, my ancestors, the Amalekites, tried to make peace with the Jews for centuries. When they first emerged from Egypt, their own women and children starving and emaciated, we offered them food and shelter. They repaid us by stealing our crops and burning three of our villages. Then they settled in our prime farming areas and simply began to take our lands by force. Still, we sought to coexist in harmony. But once their population grew large enough, they chose a king and began to make war against us in earnest. They systematically slaughtered men, women, children, even our livestock, by the thousands. They killed all but a tiny remnant of helpless Amalekites, my own people, my heritage, deliberately trying to wipe us from the face of the earth. And they robed it all in religious excuses. It’s a matter of historical record, your Majesty. I encourage you to have your scholars research it themselves in the royal library.”

  The King shook his head, consumed by dark thoughts. At long last, he looked up. “So what do you propose I do? Eradicate them? They are not only numerous in Susa but all across the Empire. They are well-respected merchants and—”

  “I know, sir. That is part of their plan. To fit into the Persian population and disperse evenly across your districts, waiting for the signal to strike. But they are so relentless, so unceasing in their vile efforts, that the only way to save your kingdom is to make an example of them. Kill them all.”

  “All? You must be joking. Our citizens would never understand.”

  “Leave even a remnant, and it will redouble its struggle to des
troy you.” Haman allowed a thoughtful pause to settle over the exchange. Then he pounced. “And, my King, I have something else to make your decision easier.” He took another of his ponderous breaths. “As it is no secret that my people have an ancient stake in seeing these vermin wiped from this earth, I will pay into the treasury ten thousand talents of silver upon the issuance of a royal edict authorizing their liquidation.”

  “That is a most generous offer, my friend,” Xerxes replied thoughtfully. “And yet, such a rash action. I just returned from a disappointing war. I have hardly the goodwill or the pretext to deploy my troops across the realm to kill a civilian population.”

  “You are king, sir. You do not need a pretext, especially where national security is in the balance. The Hebrew threat is its own justification. And yet—do not send your troops. There is a simmering jealousy toward Jews among your loyal citizens. Simply give them the authorization to kill all the Jews in their midst and take their possessions for themselves. Many Jews are quite prosperous, you know. And remember that my contribution alone will restore health to the royal treasury.”

  Haman smiled his best compliant grin at those words, for he was already planning in secret for his henchmen to plunder the wealthiest Jews upon the chosen day—amply reimbursing him for the outlay of blood money he had just offered the King.

  Xerxes fell into a long, meditative pause. Having been in his post only a short time, Haman was not supposed to know about the treasury’s plight. Yet the King overlooked the unauthorized knowledge as just another fact of Palace life and considered the plan with a slow nodding of his head. The last thing he needed now was a rebellion at home after such a costly and embarrassing defeat abroad. Yes, he thought with a clench of his jaw, he must appear strong now. Or others would arise to exploit his weakness—others who were already watching for the least sign of encouragement.