Musar su Salmi 124:78

The Talmud's discovery of an allusion to Mordechai in the Torah can also be viewed in this light. The passage in the Torah dealing with the various ingredients of the incense offering is written after the tax of the half shekel was imposed which every male Jew above the age of culpability, i.e. the age of 20, had to give to the Temple treasury as part of the expiation for his share in the sin of the golden calf. The Torah anticipated that Haman would offer an amount of 10,000 talents of silver (600,000 half shekels) to Ahasverus to secure permission to kill the Jews. The amount that Haman offered equalled the amount contributed by the Jewish people in Moses' time in expiation of their sin. There is therefore a conceptual bridge between the place in the Torah where we find a reference to Mordechai, and to the happenings during his lifetime. The whole subject of the half-shekel the Jewish males had to contribute to the building of the sockets of the Tabernacle as a symbol of their expiation could be explained in terms of the Mazzalot, the signs of the zodiac. The system of the zodiac signs presupposes that history is predetermined, i.e. הכל קצוב, שקול לומדוד ומנוי, "everything has been pre-cut, weighed, measured and counted." Haman drew lots in order to find out under what zodiac sign the Jews were most vulnerable. He miscalculated, for he did not know that if someone had paid כופר נפש, the name used by the Torah for this half-shekel payment of atonement, he would be immune to the horoscopic constellations governing his fate. Isaiah 43,4 refers to this ואתן אדם תחתיך ולאומים תחת נפשך, "I give men in exchange for you and peoples in your stead." The prophet continues by telling us not to be afraid since G–d is near us, etc. We have proof of G–d's protection during the Haman period from Psalms 124,2: לולא ה' שהיה לנו בקום עלינו אדם, "Were it not for G–d who was on our side when man assailed us." The verse does not mention persecution by a king or kingdom but by אדם, in this case Haman who was not a king. Here we have the mystical dimension of how the כופר נפש, the soul's ransom paid by the Jewish people frees them from the influence on their fate exerted by the signs of the zodiac. Instead of Haman governing our fate, a "king," i.e. G–d, took our fate in hand. This is why the legislation of the half-shekel contribution had to precede Haman chronologically. The Mishnah Shekalim 1,1 tells us that on the first of Adar each year people were reminded to contribute the shekels. The plural of the word shekel used here is indicative of the fact that these contributions covered both of the sins the people were guilty of during the reign of Ahasverus.

When the righteous man hears these things he rejoices and accepts his death happily. It was in light of this that the rabbis incorporated into the Ma’amados for Monday the petition, “And take me out from peace to peace.” This is a prayer that one should merit the death of the righteous described above. For it is stated, “For this, let every man of devotion pray to You, in a time when You may be founds” (Tehillim 32:6). The Sages explain: “This is the day of death” (Berachos 8a). In other words, let him pray that bands and camps of holy and pure saints come to greet him so that he may go with them to be crowned among them in great joy and happiness. The verse continues, “…indeed, when mighty waters threaten, they will not reach him.” These are the “waters of the wicked” mentioned in Tehillim 124:5, that is, the bands of destroying and damaging angels, Heaven spare us, that prevent the soul of the evildoer from beholding the light of the Shechinah. But as for the soul of the righteous person, who can relate the honor he will enjoy?