Thank you, Haman

I know this sounds perverse, but it occurred to me that we really owe quite a bit to Haman, and by extension to his forefathers, Aggag and Amalek.� Without this Jew-hater acting on his desire to exterminate our people, we would never have had the triumph that is celebrated in the holiday of Purim.�� And as a result of the Purim episode, we gained an entire sefer in the canon of TaNaCh—Megillas Esther, and that leads to much more Torah to explain the halachos involved in the holiday and the fast the precedes it, as well as insights into the megillah.�� So we do seem to owe quite a bit to our oppressor, who came from the person who represents absolute evil that must be destroyed without mercy.� Perhaps� the Torah and mitzvos that we gained did form a type of zchus for him after all.� The Gemara relates that bney banav shel Haman lamdu Torah biBnei Brak