The Megillah and Rampant Emotions

I had a nice Purim, my first here in NJ. It didn't have the same punch as I had the first time I started to really fall in love with Purim and first realized just how much there is to the story, but it was good. I'll write a little later about the women's megillah reading. (Yes, I read.) Unfortunately right now I'm swamped with preparing for parent-teacher conferences and don't have time to download the pictures.

Besides, on the day before, I bought myself this commentary which I've been wanting for awhile. It wasn't groundbreaking for me, but I did learn a lot from reading parts of it. There is some fascinating stuff about the "coincidences" that take place. At Yom Kippur they used to cast lots on two goats. One would be sacrificed in a holy way. The other died a terrible death. In many ways that same essence hangs over the megillah of Esther. Mordechai is supposed to be hanged, but thanks to one thing after another that can only have come from Hashem, Haman is hanged instead. (This is not news to most people, but the Malbim goes into some surprising depth with it.)

But here's what I noticed this year. And I haven't studied this, just noticed it so comments are VERY welcome if you have more. The royalty in the Haggadah are very easily swayed by emotions. Take Haman. He is promoted as high as he can actually go without acting BECOMING king and he is very happy until he leaves the palace. The moment he sees Mordechai and remembers that Mordechai will not bow down to him, he becomes too angry to focus. A sure sign of an unhappy person who will never be happy with his lot.

Achasverosh is similar. At the end when Haman's plot is revealed, the king becomes angry out of control so that he has to leave the room just to calm down. He stays mad and highly emotional until Haman is hanged. It takes this external event to make him feel better. Kind of petty really. He's not upset for the sake of the Jews. He's upset at his position being slighted. In fact, even after Haman is executed, Esther still needs to ask the king to take back the decree against the Jews. It's like he completely forgot the whole point of her bringing up Haman's plot. And how does she get his attention? Not by quietly reminding him, but by throwing herself at his feet and sobbing. For such a modest person it is unlikely she is making a scene like this for her own theatrics. She knows that this is the best way to get his attention.

I didn't notice anywhere in the text that Jews get ANGRY like the king and Haman. They have joy and gladness at the end. And during the story there is mourning. But anger? What does this say about our identity? What does this say about anger? What does this say about people in power?