My sister is sweet and hilarious and has decided to campaign for the title of TAC (Torah Activities Council) Vice President on the streets of Chicago....vote for her!
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Response To The FlyerTalk Forum
I thought that no one in FlyerTalk was interested in doing anything except scolding me until I read the post written by MrAndy1369 who said exactly what I was trying to convey- that both I and AA were in the wrong. That having been said, I thought I would address some of the questions people had/ points people made, as maybe they were being sincere.
1. We could not fly Thursday night. It was not possible due to my husband's schedule. If we could have flown on Thursday, we would have and we would then have avoided the debacle of flying on Friday.
2. $324 for a round-trip ticket, while not necessarily expensive from the point of view of someone who is a businessman, is expensive on a teacher's salary.
3. We are aware (which is why we said so in the blogpost) that it is OUR FAULT that we were late to the airport. We take full responsibility for that. Regarding check-in of baggage, in other airports we've flown in (such as LGA and ORD), you can check baggage on the same floor as the security check-in and gatepoint is at. We weren't familiar with this airport and thus didn't know we would have to go to the third floor to check in baggage.
4. The section where I describe the situation that occurred regarding check-in, the patdown and so forth was not intended to blame AA. It was just intended to show that things kept going from bad to worse and that we were becoming more frustrated due to what was happening.
5. We had not known that airlines reserve the right to allow their planes to leave 15 minutes early. This is why we were surprised (and upset) to discover the plane left at 8:10am rather than 8:20am, when it was scheduled to leave.
6. We were not told the airport was doing us a special favor by putting us on standby. This was treated as being the routine procedure/ next step. This is why we did not know being put on standby was a privilege. It is also why we felt 'entitled' (to use your term) to fly.
7. We did try to pay more money to book tickets on a different AA flight rather than just staying on standby. No flights were available.
8. We did not, contrary to your impression, yell at people in the airport, swear at them or otherwise insult them. We just explained to them what had happened and what our needs were in order to be able to fly that day (leaving on the 3:40 pm flight at the latest). And then I got emotional (started crying) when I saw that there didn't seem a way for this to happen. That's it.
9. When it comes to the part most of you are vehemently upset about, namely that I would like AA to perhaps take into account the customer's religion- as I said, they don't have to do that. I'm aware of that. I just think it would have been nice as a gesture of goodwill to do that. I think it would have made a great story that I would have been happy to share about how kind, caring and accommodating and easy-to-work-with they were. I was also frustrated because with the exception of one woman, the people at the gates did not say, "I am sorry to hear your story although I cannot help you" but instead just said tersely "It's your fault you missed your flight." Just hearing that someone cared about our situation, even if they couldn't help us, would have made us a lot happier. It's about customer service and what could have been- but wasn't.
10. The rest of this has to do with mistakes AA made. The woman named Pamela said we could still fly the second round of our flight, we did not receive any email, call or text saying it was cancelled, did not know it was cancelled and indeed received an email saying our flight was available for check-in. All of this was extremely misleading. This is why AA sent us vouchers.
11. Finally, I am extremely appreciative to AA for the vouchers and would like to post the email they sent us to show an example of kind and respectful customer service. This is why I emailed them to thank them and ask whether it would be okay to post their email, since it says the information in it is confidential. I have not received a response from them yet.
The reason I didn't really respond to you before this was because so many of you were so busy attacking me and just making me out to be a 'kettle' and 'do you know who I am' foaming-at-the-mouth person (which I'm not) that it didn't seem to be worth it. But since MrAndy1369 was kind, I'm taking the time to respond.
1. We could not fly Thursday night. It was not possible due to my husband's schedule. If we could have flown on Thursday, we would have and we would then have avoided the debacle of flying on Friday.
2. $324 for a round-trip ticket, while not necessarily expensive from the point of view of someone who is a businessman, is expensive on a teacher's salary.
3. We are aware (which is why we said so in the blogpost) that it is OUR FAULT that we were late to the airport. We take full responsibility for that. Regarding check-in of baggage, in other airports we've flown in (such as LGA and ORD), you can check baggage on the same floor as the security check-in and gatepoint is at. We weren't familiar with this airport and thus didn't know we would have to go to the third floor to check in baggage.
4. The section where I describe the situation that occurred regarding check-in, the patdown and so forth was not intended to blame AA. It was just intended to show that things kept going from bad to worse and that we were becoming more frustrated due to what was happening.
5. We had not known that airlines reserve the right to allow their planes to leave 15 minutes early. This is why we were surprised (and upset) to discover the plane left at 8:10am rather than 8:20am, when it was scheduled to leave.
6. We were not told the airport was doing us a special favor by putting us on standby. This was treated as being the routine procedure/ next step. This is why we did not know being put on standby was a privilege. It is also why we felt 'entitled' (to use your term) to fly.
7. We did try to pay more money to book tickets on a different AA flight rather than just staying on standby. No flights were available.
8. We did not, contrary to your impression, yell at people in the airport, swear at them or otherwise insult them. We just explained to them what had happened and what our needs were in order to be able to fly that day (leaving on the 3:40 pm flight at the latest). And then I got emotional (started crying) when I saw that there didn't seem a way for this to happen. That's it.
9. When it comes to the part most of you are vehemently upset about, namely that I would like AA to perhaps take into account the customer's religion- as I said, they don't have to do that. I'm aware of that. I just think it would have been nice as a gesture of goodwill to do that. I think it would have made a great story that I would have been happy to share about how kind, caring and accommodating and easy-to-work-with they were. I was also frustrated because with the exception of one woman, the people at the gates did not say, "I am sorry to hear your story although I cannot help you" but instead just said tersely "It's your fault you missed your flight." Just hearing that someone cared about our situation, even if they couldn't help us, would have made us a lot happier. It's about customer service and what could have been- but wasn't.
10. The rest of this has to do with mistakes AA made. The woman named Pamela said we could still fly the second round of our flight, we did not receive any email, call or text saying it was cancelled, did not know it was cancelled and indeed received an email saying our flight was available for check-in. All of this was extremely misleading. This is why AA sent us vouchers.
11. Finally, I am extremely appreciative to AA for the vouchers and would like to post the email they sent us to show an example of kind and respectful customer service. This is why I emailed them to thank them and ask whether it would be okay to post their email, since it says the information in it is confidential. I have not received a response from them yet.
The reason I didn't really respond to you before this was because so many of you were so busy attacking me and just making me out to be a 'kettle' and 'do you know who I am' foaming-at-the-mouth person (which I'm not) that it didn't seem to be worth it. But since MrAndy1369 was kind, I'm taking the time to respond.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
The Lightning Strike
I discovered a new song by "Snow Patrol." It's called 'The Lightning Strike' and has three parts. Part 1 is called 'What If This Storm Ends?' Part 2 is called 'The Sunlight Through the Flags.' Part 3 is called 'Daybreak.'
Of course, of the three I only like Part 1. I like the chaos and darkness and the illumination of the savior figure. I don't generally like the calm after the storm. The storm itself is more exciting. That's the trouble with people who love literature, generally. We love all the roiling and darkness and tumult. Resolutions can bore and generally signify the end of a book. (Unless, of course, the resolution has a twist, or is bittersweet. Then I like it.)
Of course, one must take care to ensure that one's actual life is not merely a quest to create trouble in order to have the experience of living through it. This is more difficult than one would think. If you feel most alive in the midst of a storm, you would want to go storm-hunting. To sit back and say 'Let me refrain from that' is difficult.
This is nothing new, of course. In Judaism, self control is seen as the greatest indication that one is strong. 'Who is strong? One who conquers his inclination.' Especially in our modern-day society, this is not easy.
I love these lyrics:
Painted in flames
All peeling thunder
Be the lightning in me
That strikes relentless
What that comes back to is the need to be awoken. Most of us crave awakening. We need to be awakened from the dullness of our lives, which is why we look to literature, films or music to shock our systems. I sometimes think of it as similar to the way that you have to shock the heart, when it is failing, back into its rhythm. The difficulty is that we always crave more sensation, more stimulation. It's like drugs- you start off with a bit, and then you become addicted.
We joke sometimes about being addicted to drama, but I think that the reason some of us accept the flashiness and explosions of media is because we sense a lacking deep within ourselves. We are looking for something to awaken us and we haven't found it yet. In the meantime, to quell that sense, we watch things blow up and hope that will suffice.
It won't.
Of course, of the three I only like Part 1. I like the chaos and darkness and the illumination of the savior figure. I don't generally like the calm after the storm. The storm itself is more exciting. That's the trouble with people who love literature, generally. We love all the roiling and darkness and tumult. Resolutions can bore and generally signify the end of a book. (Unless, of course, the resolution has a twist, or is bittersweet. Then I like it.)
Of course, one must take care to ensure that one's actual life is not merely a quest to create trouble in order to have the experience of living through it. This is more difficult than one would think. If you feel most alive in the midst of a storm, you would want to go storm-hunting. To sit back and say 'Let me refrain from that' is difficult.
This is nothing new, of course. In Judaism, self control is seen as the greatest indication that one is strong. 'Who is strong? One who conquers his inclination.' Especially in our modern-day society, this is not easy.
I love these lyrics:
Painted in flames
All peeling thunder
Be the lightning in me
That strikes relentless
What that comes back to is the need to be awoken. Most of us crave awakening. We need to be awakened from the dullness of our lives, which is why we look to literature, films or music to shock our systems. I sometimes think of it as similar to the way that you have to shock the heart, when it is failing, back into its rhythm. The difficulty is that we always crave more sensation, more stimulation. It's like drugs- you start off with a bit, and then you become addicted.
We joke sometimes about being addicted to drama, but I think that the reason some of us accept the flashiness and explosions of media is because we sense a lacking deep within ourselves. We are looking for something to awaken us and we haven't found it yet. In the meantime, to quell that sense, we watch things blow up and hope that will suffice.
It won't.
Monday, April 09, 2012
The Real Story About Round-Trip Airline Tickets
UPDATE on April 10: American Airlines responded to our complaint and gave us vouchers. I emailed to ask whether I can post the full content of their email. I was very happy to finally get to have someone listen to us.
I've written a response to the FlyerTalk forum addressing your points here.
~
We decided to save some money by taking the bus to the metro to the airport. This was a big mistake as we ended up in the airport at 7:50am. (Yes, we freely admit it was our fault that we were late to the airport). Nevertheless, since our flight was at 8:20am, we figured we'd still make it. After all, we were there a half an hour in advance. We tried to get in line to check in but then were told that the place to check baggage was upstairs. We went upstairs and were told it was too late to check our baggage. We headed back downstairs with the baggage, which we were now told they would accommodate by allowing us to take as a carry-on. An airline lady was trying to assist us and she went on ahead to try to get to our flight while we went through the security checkpoint. During the checkpoint, they discovered liquid in our baggage-turned-carry on and decided to look through the entire suitcase. The TSA also asked me to remove my hat. When I explained that I was a religious Jew, they took me aside and had a female pat down my hat to make sure I wasn't carrying anything problematic within it. We wasted about 10-20 minutes during this time.
When we finally got to the gate, it was 8:10am. The person manning the gate informed us our flight had left without us, despite the fact that it had been scheduled to depart at 8:20am. I had not known that planes reserve the ability to depart 15 minutes before departure time (as we later found out when my husband spoke to the manager). The gentleman manning the gate told the woman who had tried to help us that she ought to have called ahead and he would have held the plane for us. I got extremely upset and started crying. The man told me that it wasn't a problem; he would just roll us on over to Standby.
We then endured waiting for the following American Airlines standby flights: 10:00am flight, 12:00pm flight, 2:10pm flight and finally the 3:40pm flight. (Yes, we were in the airport shuffling around for over 7 and 1/2 hours). Due to the fact that this was Easter, Good Friday and Passover all rolled into one, American Airlines had overbooked and oversold all their planes. What this meant is that we were consistently bumped to being #6, 7, 8 or 9 in the standby line because passengers with actual tickets were the first five people on the list.
My husband talked to the manager about our situation. She said that they could issue us a refund for our tickets and we could reschedule them for a different day, but that was it. This wasn't exactly an option due to the fact that Passover and Yom Tov was happening that evening.
So instead, we waited as time and time again we were not called as standby passengers. I became very emotional and told the lady manning the booth that if we did not get on the 3:40pm flight, we would end up stranded in DC because we were observant Jews. As observant Jews, we cannot fly after sundown, and the 3:40pm flight was the last flight that would enable us to get into Chicago with enough time for us to get home before sundown. The lady said she would try to get us out of there but guess what...once again, we weren't called.
At around 3pm, I decided we needed to find a different way to get out of there- since American Airlines wasn't allowing us to rebook our tickets or fly standby. We booked one-way tickets on a 3:35pm United Airlines flight. It cost us $600 total. We got to Chicago in time to celebrate the Passover holiday.
Meanwhile, my father called American Airlines and spoke with a woman named Pamela. He explained that we had missed the first leg of our round-trip flight and he wanted to know whether the returning leg of the trip still stood. She told him that yes, that would be fine, and we were good to go with no additional fees or changes. Reassured, my father went into Yom Tov with good and happy spirits.
Last night (April 8) after Yom Tov had concluded, my husband received an email saying 'Your Trip is Now Eligible for Check-In.' When we attempted to check in, we received a red warning saying that this ticket could not be processed online and that my husband would have to see a ticket agent. I was worried about this and decided to call the airlines to figure out what was going on. I was then informed that in fact, if you miss the first leg of your round trip ticket the entire ticket is void and gone. The only way to proceed is to pay the difference between the amount you paid for your round-trip ticket and what is now a one-way ticket, plus a $150 change fee.
We protested that a) my husband had been told by the American Airlines manager in DC that he could get a refund for the ticket b) my father had been told by Pamela that we could still take the second leg of the trip and c) we had at no time been notified of this policy. In fact, we had received the very misleading automated email that said 'Your Trip is Now Eligible For Check-In' which in no way informed us that in fact, our trip had been cancelled and was now gone and my husband's seat had likely been sold to someone else. (You can read more about this unpleasant and irrational phenomenon here and here). When speaking to two extremely unhelpful supervisors (especially the female one), we were informed that this information regarding the round trip policy had been in the fine print of the agreement we made with the airport when we purchased our tickets. Furthermore, she claimed that our first ticket had not been a standby ticket and that the airport had been doing us a favor when they tried to have us fly standby in the first place because they were under no obligation to do so.
Here are my questions on this matter:
1. Why is it that no one in DC, including the man who rolled us over to standby from our first missed flight, told us that they were doing us a favor and that this was not standard policy? We were told that this was standard.
2. Why is it that even though we explained to every single person that would listen that we were observant Jews and thus had a certain time past which we could not fly, that was not taken into consideration when it came to the order of passengers on the Standby list? There were other passengers who could easily have taken 5pm flights; we, on the other hand, could not.
3. Why did the American Airlines manager in DC claim that we could receive a refund on our ticket?
4. Why did Pamela tell my father that we could still fly the second leg of our trip even if we had missed the first leg of it?
I feel very frustrated by the lack of transparency and the unwillingness to work with the customer in this situation. When it comes to your driver's license, you amass points; it doesn't necessarily automatically get taken away the first time you are caught speeding. Yet even though this was the first time that I or my husband had ever missed a flight (and we've taken many flights on American Airlines), we were treated like we had deliberately attempted to defraud them.
Furthermore, while I am aware that it is not necessarily the airline's responsibility to accommodate the religious beliefs of its customers, surely if it had been explained to the people who were first in line on the standby list that there were two people who would literally be stranded without food they could eat for the Passover holiday unless they got on a flight by a certain time, they would have been willing to allow us to take their places. It would certainly have been nice of the airline to at least consider the religious customs of its consumers.
Third, while it may be true that the fine print that you click when you buy a ticket online tells you this information about your not being able to take the second leg of your flight if you miss the first leg of your flight, I would wager that the majority of consumers do not know this unless they are frequent flyers. Thus, there ought to be an automated system that sends an immediate email notification to a customer who has missed their round-trip flight that says 'You have missed the first leg of your flight. Your round trip is now void. Please take the following steps to reschedule.' Had we received such a clear, transparent email about American Airline policies, we would then have been able to take the steps that would have prevented me from being in a situation where, since I reached out to them tonight, I was informed I would have to pay $400 on top of the $324 we had already paid in order to take a 6:40am flight tomorrow morning from Chicago to DC.
And fourth, there was no consistency when it came to the message we were given. The manager in DC claimed we could get a refund. Pamela said we could take the second leg of our flight and all would be well. The supervisors I talked to tonight told me that if you miss the first leg of your flight, you are screwed. Why is there not one clear, easy-to-read policy that every employee is aware of so that they can all give the same, non-contradictory answer?
What this comes down to is that my husband and I have now spent over $2000 to fly from Chicago to DC and back for this Passover holiday. We might as well have booked an international trip. And all of this because we missed....one flight.
The moral of the story? Never be late to the airport. But more importantly, never fly American Airlines.
Monday, March 26, 2012
Bully
Dear God,
So I sit here on my sofa starting at an empty room and I think to myself: I should be grading papers. But really what I focus on is that I wish "Smash" would hurry up and start playing because then I could focus on the glitz and the glamour and the story of the young ingenue-in-training, all of which would be a perfect escape from what I'm currently thinking. I like escapes, because they are another way of working on avoiding, and avoidance is important.
So I'm listening to "Breathless" by Dan Wilson and figuring I should say hi.
There's a new film coming out. It's called "Bully." It's a really important movie. And just watching the trailer brings back a lot of memories.
A lot of memories.
We never really outrun or outgrow our pasts, now do we? Instead we carry them with us, as the turtle carries his shell.
I will always be that sensitive kid. It was my weakness and now it's my strength. It's what makes television and movies and books a totally different experience for me than it is for most people. It's what makes me see through to issues and morals that others don't carry with them. It's what makes my life more difficult and more complicated. It's also what makes me hate confrontation and feel like my only option is to shut down when it comes to that. I don't cry anymore, but I laugh...nervously. Nervous laughter is my weapon of choice because I still don't have the tools for more sophisticated ones.
I find it ironic that I teach 7th grade. That was the worst grade of my existence, the loneliest grade of my existence, the year of my life I would never repeat over, not for all the money in the world. It's like in this, too, God takes my hand and shapes my life and says that out of ashes there will come the phoenix, and all things build on one another.
Because in my life, they always do. Don't they, God. Everything is just another step to take me to the next level in the drama in which I star.
Some days I see that fully, understand it, respect it, work with it. Other days I struggle.
There are the days where I feel like crying, but instead I laugh. In the face of an absurd and difficult existence, I laugh. I feel like Gandalf at the maw of the bridge. "You shall not pass," I declare to my Balrog. "I shall conquer you." I wander through catacombs and mazes in search of the path that will finally lead me out of here and into somewhere brighter. I will get there through sheer effort of will and of course, with Your help.
I have my "The Show Must Go On" days where I wonder, "Empty spaces- what are we living for?" But in the end, as always, I concede to the song and determine that indeed, the show must go on, the curtain must rise, and it's time to dance my way across the stage again. (To be sure, I sometimes invoke a bit of the Black Swan when I do so. No one ever pegged me for a cooperative mortal.)
Let there be meaning! is my warcry. For in the absence of any, I find that I fade.
Thanks for the lessons,
Chana
So I sit here on my sofa starting at an empty room and I think to myself: I should be grading papers. But really what I focus on is that I wish "Smash" would hurry up and start playing because then I could focus on the glitz and the glamour and the story of the young ingenue-in-training, all of which would be a perfect escape from what I'm currently thinking. I like escapes, because they are another way of working on avoiding, and avoidance is important.
So I'm listening to "Breathless" by Dan Wilson and figuring I should say hi.
There's a new film coming out. It's called "Bully." It's a really important movie. And just watching the trailer brings back a lot of memories.
A lot of memories.
We never really outrun or outgrow our pasts, now do we? Instead we carry them with us, as the turtle carries his shell.
I will always be that sensitive kid. It was my weakness and now it's my strength. It's what makes television and movies and books a totally different experience for me than it is for most people. It's what makes me see through to issues and morals that others don't carry with them. It's what makes my life more difficult and more complicated. It's also what makes me hate confrontation and feel like my only option is to shut down when it comes to that. I don't cry anymore, but I laugh...nervously. Nervous laughter is my weapon of choice because I still don't have the tools for more sophisticated ones.
I find it ironic that I teach 7th grade. That was the worst grade of my existence, the loneliest grade of my existence, the year of my life I would never repeat over, not for all the money in the world. It's like in this, too, God takes my hand and shapes my life and says that out of ashes there will come the phoenix, and all things build on one another.
Because in my life, they always do. Don't they, God. Everything is just another step to take me to the next level in the drama in which I star.
Some days I see that fully, understand it, respect it, work with it. Other days I struggle.
There are the days where I feel like crying, but instead I laugh. In the face of an absurd and difficult existence, I laugh. I feel like Gandalf at the maw of the bridge. "You shall not pass," I declare to my Balrog. "I shall conquer you." I wander through catacombs and mazes in search of the path that will finally lead me out of here and into somewhere brighter. I will get there through sheer effort of will and of course, with Your help.
I have my "The Show Must Go On" days where I wonder, "Empty spaces- what are we living for?" But in the end, as always, I concede to the song and determine that indeed, the show must go on, the curtain must rise, and it's time to dance my way across the stage again. (To be sure, I sometimes invoke a bit of the Black Swan when I do so. No one ever pegged me for a cooperative mortal.)
Let there be meaning! is my warcry. For in the absence of any, I find that I fade.
Thanks for the lessons,
Chana
Sunday, March 25, 2012
The Hunger Games Is Morally Bereft
I went to see "The Hunger Games." I found it sickening. This was surprising, given that I had read the book and found it to be moving, important and value-driven.
I'm trying to pin down what I found so horrifying about the movie adaptation. As I was considering, I remembered learning 2 Samuel 2:14 in 6th grade.
Here, too, murder is considered a game. Here, too, there are 24 people who must fight to the death. The difference is that they are grown men and 12 are on Avner's side representing Ishboshes and 12 are on Yoav's side representing David.
I remember that when we learned about the bloodbath that ensued, the teacher pounded it into our heads that this was a horrific tragedy and that both Yoav and Avner die horrible deaths in part because of the fact that they were too lenient with the lives of these men. Even if their intentions were only to have the men duel with one another, the fact that it turned into mass murder was considered their fault.
The difference between "The Hunger Games" movie adaptation and this section of Tanakh is that in the movie adaptation, Peeta and Katniss survive and seemingly, move on. We don't see their remorse. We don't see the nightmares that keep them awake at night. We don't see their grief and horror. We just see them smiling sweetly at Caesar on a talk show and then heading back to their district. We have to imagine their inner torment.
And that's where I think the movie gets it wrong. If your point is to show how violence is wrong and how children should not be in a position where they are killing other children, you can't leave the inner torment to the imagination. You have to demonstrate it. Show it. Let us see the toll it takes to be the survivor, even though the game is not of your making. Let us understand how horrible this is. Don't let our last image be of a triumphant Peeta and Katniss in a big poofy gown and a nice suit, heading home.
Kafka said that "a book should be the axe for the frozen sea inside us." But in order for a book- or a movie- to accomplish this, it needs to really be that axe. "The Hunger Games'" moral should be about the toll and horror that these games take on everyone, even and especially the survivors. Otherwise, what is the point? To have us root for District 12's potential love story? Is everything okay- all the macabre violence I just witnessed acceptable- so long as these two make it out alive?
I find that idea extremely troubling, and I think it is absolutely the wrong message to send to young kids. Perhaps I feel this more personally as someone who has read and learned so much about survivor's guilt due to its prevalence in Holocaust literature. But I think it's wrong to end such a disturbing movie on this seemingly happy note. If you're going to talk about horror, take the horror all the way through. Make it matter. Don't try to feed us the message that everything was bad, and kids killing kids was bad, but it's okay because these two nice-looking kids survived so it's all hunky-dory.
Granted, adults who understand subtleties and nuances will be able to fill in these gaps, but I'm willing to bet that most children won't. And that most kids will just leave talking about the Gale-Peeta-Katniss love triangle, untouched by the carnage that took place before their eyes. Which to me is simply a new means of teaching indifference of the highest degree- ironically, the exact antithesis of the presumed goals of these books and this movie.
Sunday, March 04, 2012
Slaves and the Megillah
I was learning alongside a student of mine, who for purposes of this post will be called Yankel, when I realized the following thing.
It had always bothered me that Esther made the following statement:
The answer to this question occurred to me due to my student reminding me of the following tale regarding Mordechai and Haman based on Megillah 15a: "There was a tradition that Mordecai once went with a deputation to the king of Persia to ask permission for the Jews to rebuild the Temple, v. Jast. [Rashi: One (Mordecai) came as a rich man, the other (Haman) as a debtor. Haman according to the legend had sold himself during one of the wars as a slave to Mordecai for a loaf of bread.]"
Per the more elaborate rendering of this legend in Legends of the Jews by Louis Ginzberg, Mordechai used to show his shoe and/or his kneecap, where the contract had been written regarding Haman selling himself as a slave to Mordechai, which provoked him.
What is clear to me now is that Esther is saying the following: "I understand that Haman was incensed by Mordechai's constantly reminding him that he once sold himself as a slave to Mordechai. Therefore, it would have been understandable if Haman in return decided to enslave Mordechai and all the Jews. However, Haman has gone even farther than that and has decided to exterminate the Jews. At this point, I must step in."
It had always bothered me that Esther made the following statement:
- ג וַתַּעַן אֶסְתֵּר הַמַּלְכָּה, וַתֹּאמַר--אִם-מָצָאתִי חֵן בְּעֵינֶיךָ הַמֶּלֶךְ, וְאִם-עַל-הַמֶּלֶךְ טוֹב: תִּנָּתֶן-לִי נַפְשִׁי בִּשְׁאֵלָתִי, וְעַמִּי בְּבַקָּשָׁתִי. 3 Then Esther the queen answered and said: 'If I have found favour in thy sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request;
ד כִּי נִמְכַּרְנוּ אֲנִי וְעַמִּי, לְהַשְׁמִיד לַהֲרוֹג וּלְאַבֵּד; וְאִלּוּ לַעֲבָדִים וְלִשְׁפָחוֹת נִמְכַּרְנוּ, הֶחֱרַשְׁתִּי--כִּי אֵין הַצָּר שֹׁוֶה, בְּנֵזֶק הַמֶּלֶךְ. {ס} 4 for we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my peace, for the adversary is not worthy that the king be endamaged.' (Esther 7:3-4)
The answer to this question occurred to me due to my student reminding me of the following tale regarding Mordechai and Haman based on Megillah 15a: "There was a tradition that Mordecai once went with a deputation to the king of Persia to ask permission for the Jews to rebuild the Temple, v. Jast. [Rashi: One (Mordecai) came as a rich man, the other (Haman) as a debtor. Haman according to the legend had sold himself during one of the wars as a slave to Mordecai for a loaf of bread.]"
Per the more elaborate rendering of this legend in Legends of the Jews by Louis Ginzberg, Mordechai used to show his shoe and/or his kneecap, where the contract had been written regarding Haman selling himself as a slave to Mordechai, which provoked him.
What is clear to me now is that Esther is saying the following: "I understand that Haman was incensed by Mordechai's constantly reminding him that he once sold himself as a slave to Mordechai. Therefore, it would have been understandable if Haman in return decided to enslave Mordechai and all the Jews. However, Haman has gone even farther than that and has decided to exterminate the Jews. At this point, I must step in."
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