Study Megillah folio 14A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
משל דאחשורוש והמן למה הדבר דומה? לשני בני אדם, לאחד היה לו תל בתוך שדהו ולאחד היה לו חריץ בתוך שדהו. בעל חריץ אמר: מי יתן לי תל זה בדמים! בעל התל אמר: מי יתן לי חריץ זה בדמים!
The actions of Ahasuerus and Haman can be understood with a parable; to what may they be compared? To two individuals, one of whom had a mound in the middle of his field and the other of whom had a ditch in the middle of his field, each one suffering from his own predicament. The owner of the ditch, noticing the other’s mound of dirt, said to himself: Who will give me this mound of dirt suitable for filling in my ditch; I would even be willing to pay for it with money, and the owner of the mound, noticing the other’s ditch, said to himself: Who will give me this ditch for money, so that I may use it to remove the mound of earth from my property?
לימים נזדווגו זה אצל זה. אמר לו בעל חריץ לבעל התל: מכור לי תילך! אמר לו: טול אותו בחנם, והלואי!
At a later point, one day, they happened to have met one another. The owner of the ditch said to the owner of the mound: Sell me your mound so I can fill in my ditch. The mound’s owner, anxious to rid himself of the excess dirt on his property, said to him: Take it for free; if only you had done so sooner. Similarly, Ahasuerus himself wanted to destroy the Jews. As he was delighted that Haman had similar aspirations and was willing to do the job for him, he demanded no money from him.
״ויסר המלך את טבעתו״, אמר רבי אבא בר כהנא: גדולה הסרת טבעת יותר מארבעים ושמונה נביאים ושבע נביאות שנתנבאו להן לישראל, שכולן לא החזירום למוטב, ואילו הסרת טבעת החזירתן למוטב.
§ The verse states: “And the king removed his ring from his hand” (Esther 3:10). R' Abba bar Kahana said: The removal of Ahasuerus’s ring for the sealing of Haman’s decree was more effective than the 48 prophets and the 7 prophetesses who prophesied on behalf of the Jewish people. As, they were all unable to return the Jewish people to the right way, but the removal of Ahasuerus’s ring returned them to the right way, since it brought them to repentance.