We are accustomed to high ranking politicians having advisors. Which is quite understandable. You can have experts in different fields advising you on their different expertises. You can have a financial advisor, a public relations advisor, a communications advisor, a foreign affairs advisor, internal affairs, military and so on and so on. While this is a very good practice to ensure that you are properly briefed about a various number of issues that would be impossible to have a proper grasp on without the advisors. But sometimes one can go overboard and that is precisely what Haman seems to have done.
The Midrash, Yalkut Shimoni states that Haman surrounded himself with a lot of advisors, a whole lot of advisors. 365 in fact. Why did he feel that he needed that many people and what where there jobs?
The number 365 is the dsame amount of days in the solar calendar. We know that Haman relied heavily on the constelations and astorlogy. Each one of these advisors was in charge of a particular and specific day. Each one was responsible for his day. If the day was considered lucky by the stars, Haman was willing to take a risk. If the day was considered unlucky, Haman was likely to just stay in bed.
To fully understand the implications and greatness of the Purim story, we should look at the the fact that when Haman came to the King to request permission to kill Mordechai, he had probably been advised that this was a great day for him, all systems were go. He was on top of the world and then on that very day, was when all things started going downhill, fast.
He was told to take Mordechai around town on the royal horse, calling out in front of him for all to see. He got the sewage poured on him from his on daughter and was brought to the feast of Esther that brought about his demise
Maybe having so many advisors wasn’t such a good idea after all
The epic story of the Purim story tells of how the wicked Haman wanted to kill, to destroy, and totally annihilate the Jewish people. Unfortunately, a theme that constantly had repeated itself through the ages. What was unique about Haman’s final solution was that he wanted to accomplish that feat all in one day.
He cast lots to determine the most opportune month to carry out his murderous plan. The month that was chosen, was Adar. This was repeated many times in order to confirm that it was not just happenstance. If you pick a month out of a hat, it has to land on one of them. Repeatedly, the month that came up was Adar, the 12th month of the Jewish calendar.
Haman was very excited that he had discovered the month that was so auspicious for him to carry out his evil plan. He felt that it was truly a good month because that is when Moshe Rabbeinu died and he felt that it was very auspicious He then went about choosing the day. The most obvious choice would have been the first day of the month. Haman’s hatred to the Jews was so strong that it is hard to understand why he would not have wanted to fulfill his desire at the earliest time. But in truth, the day that he chose was the 13th.
The question is why. If it wasn’t the first of the month, the next logical day would be the seventh, the day that Moshe Rabbeinu died. That was the reason that he was so thrilled when the lots landed on Adar so why not on the 7th?
The answer is that the 7th was indeed the best day, but Haman was afraid that the merit of Moshe would remain in this world for the seven days of mourning, following his death. Hence he waited until that period had passed and then was confident that he would succeed.
It might be for this reason that 13 is looked upon as an unlucky number. Many buildings don’t have a 13th floor and other silly superstitions are based on the number 13. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_the_13th for more info on this topic
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We are all familiar with the Purim story. The Jews sinned, Haman plotted against them, the Jews repented, the Jews were saved, and Haman was hung. But few people know when did that occur? Many mistakenly think that it has something to do with the Purim holiday. That is incorrect. The true answer is that it was on the 16th of Nissan, the second day of Pesach. Some people have the custom to make a special seuda on that day to comemorate the demise of Haman.
After the Jews fasted for three days (including the first day of Pesach, see http://www.shalach-manos.com/mishloach_manot_israel_blog/which-mitzva-did-mordechai-command-not-to-fulfill/ ) the evil decree was rescinded, and Haman was hung. It wasn’t until nearly a year later that the story of Purim came to completion, when the Jews were able to destroy the rest of their enemies, and kill Haman;s sons