Return of the Tree of Life and Death
Sometimes there are absolutes and clear choices. Sometimes you point without hesitation at someone who is wicked, and whose actions mean harm. Sometimes it’s not so clear. But not this time.
The Queen’s second private party is underway - with just three place settings - it’s just her, with the King and Haman - when she finally decides it’s time to speak up and plead for her people. Her words are few and effective. The king is horrified to hear of a death sentence against his wife and her people, demanding to know who is responsible. Queen Esther points at her guest:
וַתֹּאמֶר אֶסְתֵּר אִישׁ צַר וְאוֹיֵב הָמָן הָרָע הַזֶּה וְהָמָן נִבְעַת מִלִּפְנֵי הַמֶּלֶךְ וְהַמַּלְכָּה׃
“The adversary and enemy,” replied Esther, “is this evil Haman!” And Haman cringed in terror before the king and the queen.
Esther 7:6
What happens next is fast and furious. Haman tries to beg for mercy at the queen’s feet, but the king mistakes this gesture for attempted seduction of the queen --and it’s over for Haman. He’s done.
This is only the first step towards preventing her people’s persecution. Even Haman’s indictment won’t stop the legal machine that is already in motion. What will happen next will be bloody and messy, good and bad, for generations to come.
It is still a good moment to pause and appreciate this young woman’s strategy and composure. Let’s not forget, per the few facts the scroll gave us, that she is likely still a teenager at this stage in her life.
Jacob Wright reflects on the meaning of this moment for our heroine - and for her people, then, and now:
“To be different in a world that does not value difference, one needs diplomacy, and this book depicts its lead character with a savvy that saves her people…Esther’s initial reluctance and hesitation are crucial to her success. We like our heroes bold. We want them to leap into action like Superman or Wonder Woman, wholeheartedly embracing the cause. We want them to take a stand and not back down.
At the beginning of the book, both Esther and her community are passive, seemingly helpless in the face of Haman’s deadly decree. Yet as the story unfolds, both evolve into active agents, ones who take control of their individual and corporate lives. With confined agency both at home and abroad, Jewish communities had much in common with Esther.
In his study of this book, Aaron Koller suggests: “It was with the female that the Jews of the Diaspora likely identified. The female may be taken as a symbol of the less powerful and less confrontational, but potentially more subversive and more effective in resisting.”
Biblical writings hold up women as identification figures and role models for their readers, and one of the reasons they do is that both women as a gender and Judeans/Jews as a nationality were in weaker social positions. They therefore needed to adopt more cunning means if they wished to achieve their goals. With the loss of political autonomy, the received models of martial valor, mirrored in Mordecai’s defiance, had to give way to alternatives.”
Esther’s feminine mystique and wisdom helped her convince the king of the problem and get the solution into motion. What happens next requires more help from her friends in the palace:
Another eunuch whispers a few words in the king’s ear:
וַיֹּאמֶר חַרְבוֹנָה אֶחָד מִן־הַסָּרִיסִים לִפְנֵי הַמֶּלֶךְ גַּם הִנֵּה־הָעֵץ אֲשֶׁר־עָשָׂה הָמָן לְמׇרְדֳּכַי אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר־טוֹב עַל־הַמֶּלֶךְ עֹמֵד בְּבֵית הָמָן גָּבֹהַּ חֲמִשִּׁים אַמָּה וַיֹּאמֶר הַמֶּלֶךְ תְּלֻהוּ עָלָיו׃
Then Harbonah, one of the eunuchs in attendance, said, “Furthermore, a wooden gallows stands at Haman’s house, fifty cubits high, which Haman made for Mordecai—the man whose words saved the king.” “hang Haman on it!” the king ordered.
Esther 7:9
The Hebrew word for ‘gallows’ is ‘Etz’ - the same word for ‘tree’ or ‘wood’.
And while this ominous pole has been set up for an execution and for death, readers through the ages recognized two other trees here - created for wisdom, and for life.
When Esther points at Haman and names him ‘evil’ she is clearly naming the bad guy, marking differences between good and bad. The link between these binaries and the presence of the tree in the following verses sends scholars and mystics back to the first scene of human troubles -- and to yet another threesome - as Adam, Eve, and a serpent - encounter a tree.
The express command to Adam back in Genesis was not to eat of the specific tree that contains the knowledge of good and evil. When the snake seduces Eve who then feeds Adam -- their eyes open to realize that there are options, beyond the simple truths they knew - beyond what’s clearly good or bad.
Some mystics claim that the tree erected by Haman, on which he will hang, is the descendant of that tree in Eden, and that by speaking up for what is right - Esther picks up where Eve left off, and the king, as Adam, follows her command instead of blaming her. Haman as the serpent - will once again be blamed and punished.
In some strange mythic way - the scene in Esther’s banquet is perceived as the transformation of the original scene in Eden. A medieval Jewish commentary, Daat Zekenim, writes that
‘When Adam sinned by eating from the fruit of the tree in Eden, God said - I ought to hang you on it - but I will forgive you - and one of your descendents will hang on it instead.”
Reb Zadok of Lublin wrote that
“From the beginning the world was created with a choice between good and evil, and the root of the choice was in that tree of knowledge..Haman’s choice was also in that tree and that’s why he hung from it..”
Chapter 7 begins with a banquet and ends with an execution.
Good for some, bad for others, relief and horror intertwine.
Night falls on the empire and the story, like all stories, is never quite done.
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