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In the book of Ester (6:1), Achashverosh can't sleep and asks to bring the book of records to him. Rashi says that the reason why is in case he was done a favor by someone and didn't repay it and that person was plotting against him or ignoring a plot against him. It turns out that he forgot to repay Mordechai's favor of saving the king's life, so he immediately sets out to repay it.

My question is why the king thought that Mordechai would be so bothered that his favor wasn't repayed, but he didn't think that Mordechai would be bothered by the fact that there was an outstanding decree to destroy every single Jew, Mordechai included.

msh210
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b a
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  • This is a question on the Midrash. – mevaqesh Aug 01 '16 at 19:56
  • @mevaqesh Rashi's explanation can be taken as pshat. – b a Sep 25 '16 at 17:05
  • Rashi admitted that his commentary incorporates too much Midrash to even fit his own standard of peshat (let alone that of the likes of Rasag, Ibn Ezra, Rashbam, etc.) You can take his commentary however you like. Furthermore, Rashi himself quotes mutually exclusive Midrashim, so it does not appear that even he assumes that they are to be taken as factual. – mevaqesh Sep 25 '16 at 17:53
  • @mevaqesh His explanation is pshat. That has nothing to do with whether or not he is a pashtan. – b a Sep 30 '16 at 10:56
  • His explanation is pshat. That is a meaningless tautology. – mevaqesh Sep 30 '16 at 14:42
  • @mevaqesh It's no more a meaningless tautology than to say that this is a question on the midrash. – b a Oct 01 '16 at 21:11
  • Yes it is. I was linking a page that present a complex picture of Midrash, which likely obviates the question. (I wasn't making self justified claims based on arbitrarily defined terms.) – mevaqesh Oct 02 '16 at 03:01
  • @mevaqesh His explanation stands without requiring belief in midrashim. Belief in midrashim is totally irrelevant – b a Oct 04 '16 at 20:49
  • It is not just about belief in Midrashim in a binary sense, but to repeat myself a complex picture of Midrash, which likely obviates the question. – mevaqesh Oct 05 '16 at 00:42

1 Answers1

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2 potential answers, neither of which has been researched. First, psychological: Achashverosh didn't want to owe anyone anything. He didn't actually care about Mordechai or his people; he cared about his record (the potentially public knowledge that he doesn't repay his debts).

Second, textual: As far as I can tell, Haman never identifies his target as the Jewish people He describes a people and asks for permission to kill them. His scribes, in his name, identify the Jews but the king never mentions them. Maybe Haman didn't identify the because he knew the king would object because of his debt to Mordechai.

Bruce James
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rosends
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