I heard that the Vilna Goan (Rav Eliyahu Kremer of Vilna, c. 1750), was asked, "Where is it hinted in the Torah that we should make noise when the name of Haman is mentioned during the reading of the Megillat Ester on Purim?" He answered, "It says in the Torah, 'Vehaya Im Bin Hakot Harasha' [if the evildoer deserves to be hit] (Devarim 25:2)." Said the Gaon, "The last letters of the first three Hebrew words in this verse spell out the name 'Haman.' The following two Hebrew words read as, 'hit the evildoer!' (This hints that when Haman is mentioned, we hit or bang on the nearest object in order to demonstrate our distaste for hearing the mention of his name.)"

(Rav Tzvi Shlez, in "Nifloat Mitorat Hashem," Warsaw 1879)

If we take a look at the broader context of the verse they cite, we find that it is more than merely a clever hint for our noisy reaction to hearing Haman's name. As we shall demonstrate, this verse actually alludes to many of the details of the Purim story.

When there will be a quarrel between men, they shall approach the justice, who will judge them. They will prove the righteousness of the one who is righteous and the evil of the one who is evil. And *if the evildoer deserves to be hit*, the judge shall throw him down and flog him as befits his wickedness. He shall be flogged forty times... .

(Devarim 25:1-3)

1. "When there will be a quarrel between men..."

   The first verse of the above passage can clearly be seen as a reference to the quarrel between Mordechai and Haman -- which was at the root of the entire Purim story (see Megillat Ester 3:6). In fact, the Gemara (Megillah 12a) points out that both Mordechai and Haman are referred to as "a man" ("Ish") in Megillat Ester. If so, the "men" of the verse in Devarim may very well be the ones referred to as "men" in Megillat Ester, or Mordechai and Haman.

2. "...They will prove the righteousness of the one who is righteous and the evil of the one who is evil...."

   As the story of Ester and Mordechai opens, the Jews had sinned before God and were deserving of the punishment that Haman had decreed upon them (Megillah 12a). During the story, however, the Jews returned to Hashem and mended their ways. As a result, Hashem once again accepted the Jews as his righteous people. Hashem decreed the punishment upon Haman rather than upon the Jews.

   Originally, Haman could not be considered "evil" for destroying the Jews, since Hashem had decreed for them to be killed. Mordechai -- as the representative of the Jewish people -- could be called the "guilty" party, that was to be punished. But when Mordechai led the Jews to repent, the righteous Mordecai was proven righteous, and the wicked Haman was proven wicked. (It is interesting to note that still today, we refer to Mordechai as "Mordechai the Righteous," and to Haman as "Haman the Wicked." This is, in fact, the way they are referred to in the Talmudic literature -- see Targum beginning of Chapter 6; Gemara Megillah 10b, etc.)

3. "...And the judge shall *throw him down* (root: 'Nofel')... ."

   This verse suggests Haman's eventual punishment. In the Purim story, Haman's final downfall came when Ester the Queen revealed to Achashverosh the King that Haman was out to destroy her and her nation the Jews. While the King left the palace to consider the matter, Haman fell on Ester's couch and begged her for mercy. When the King returned, he found Haman fallen on the couch at Ester's feet. The King turned to Haman and said 'You even want to take away my Queen!' Haman was immediately sentenced to death (Megillat Ester 7:6-9). The Gemara tells us that Haman had meant to stand up when he saw the King returning, but Hashem did not allow him to stand up (Megilla 16a). Hashem sent an angel to come and push him down, and he remained fallen ("Nofel") on the couch of Ester where the King found him. The verse in Devarim suggests to us this episode. The judge -- meaning Hashem -- threw Haman down.

4. "He shall be struck according to his wickedness."

   This certainly applies to Haman, who was punished exactly according to his wickedness, measure for measure. In the Purim story, Haman, who had meant to kill Mordechai and his people, was himself killed along with his sons. In fact, Haman and his sons were hanged from the very tree upon which Haman had planned to hang Mordechai, measure for measure (Megillat Ester 9:7-10).

5. "He shall be struck forty times"

   The Torah prescribes a punishment of forty lashes for the evildoer. This can be understood to refer to the punishment that Haman received in several ways. Haman was hung along with his sons from a fifty cubit tree that he himself had prepared. According to the Targum (9:14), Haman and his sons, hung one after the other, took up *forty* cubits of the fifty cubit tree. Thus, Haman was "struck" by the "forty" cubits. Secondly, according to the Targum Sheni (2:5 -- Targum Sheni is an Aramaic Midrash on Megillat Ester) Mordechai was exactly the *fortieth* generation after Yaakov. Thus Mordechai and his generation were the "forty" that struck Haman. Thirdly, Rabbenu Bachye (Bereishit 36:12) tells us openly that these very words, "he shall be struck forty," hint to us that there is a name of G-d which has forty letters. This name is the one Hashem uses to punish Esav and his descendents. Haman, of course, was a descendant of Esav. Thus, it was the *forty* letter name of Hashem that struck Haman.

At the conclusion of Parashat Ki-Tetze we are told that the nation of Amalek -- Esav's grandchildren -- attacked the Jews as they were leaving Egypt. The Megillat Ester tells us that Haman was a descendant of that very Amalek (Megillat Ester 3:1). The last verse in the parasha discusses our command to erase the name of Amalek forever, to fight against Amalek in every generation throughout the ages.

The verse that we have been discussing ("...if the evildoer deserves to be hit...") that spells out Haman's name, is exactly the eighteenth verse from the command to destroy Amalek at the end of the parasha, counting backwards. According to the Targum in Megillat Ester, Haman was exactly the eighteenth generation after Amalek (Targum 5:1; Targum Sheni 3:1). Perhaps this verse is hinting that after eighteen generations, Hashem will cause Amalek's plans to wipe out the Jewish people to be *reversed* (i.e. to backfire). As it says in Megillat Ester, "It was *reversed*, so that the Jews were the ones who had power over their enemies" (Megillat Ester 9:1). In the Purim story the plans of Haman, Amalek's descendant, were reversed. The day that Haman had set aside for the destruction of the Jews became instead the day the Jews saw victory against Haman. This is why the Torah hints at the downfall of Haman eighteen verses back from the verse that tells us to destroy Amalek!

And the Jews ate "HaMan" [= the Manna] forty years, until they reached settled land. They ate "HaMan" forty years, until they reached the edge of the land of Canaan."

(Shemot 16:35)

Haman drew lots in order to decide which month would be best for his decree to kill the Jews (Megillat Ester 3:7). We learn from the Gemara(Megillah 13b, Ester Rabba 7:14) that when Haman saw that the lots chose the month of Adar he was tremendously happy." He felt that since Adar was the month in which Moshe died (Moshe passed away on the seventh of Adar), Adar would be a successful month in which to exterminate the Jewish people. However, concludes the Gemara, Haman didn't realize that although Moshe passed away on the seventh of Adar, that was also the date on which Moshe was born. (Therefore, instead of being a day of loss for the Jews, it was a month reserved for redemption and salvation.) The seventh of Adar was the day that originally encouraged Haman to bring about the destruction the Jews. But Hashem *reversed* the outcome of that day and made it into the opposite, into a sign of the triumph of the Jewish people over their enemies!

The second date referred to in the verse was the sixteenth of Nisan. According to the Gemara (Megillah 16a, see Rashi s.v.), the day that Haman built his gallows and came to tell the King to hang Mordechai (in Megillat Ester 6:4), was the sixteenth day of Nisan. Of course, at the end of that day it was not Mordechai who was hanged, but rather Haman himself was hanged from that very tree. The sixteenth of Nisan, too, marks the *reversal* of Haman's evil plans.

As we learned above, that verse in Shemot 16:35, which is eighteen verses before the story of Amalek, hints at the reversal of Amalek's fortune after eighteen generations (in the time of Mordechai and Haman). Now we see that the verse in Shemot not only hints at the destruction of Haman. It also refers to the two days that saw the reversal of his fortune!

May Hashem redeem us from all our enemies, and allow us to see his Divine Hand, soon in our days!