Did Haman Speak to Achashverosh in Loshon Hakodesh?

Question

Shalom aleichem Rabbi Lauffer. Thank you for answering my last question. The Artscroll “Purim” brings “Oheiv Yisrael” as saying that when Haman requested Achashverosh’s permission to kill out the Jews, he used the word “l’abdam,” which can mean either “to destroy” or “to enslave” depending on whether the word has an aleph or an ayin, both words being pronounced the same. Haman used this word because if Achashverosh balked at killing such a large portion of the population of the kingdom, Haman could say he meant “to enslave,” rather than “to kill.” But this only makes sense if Haman was speaking in loshon kodesh to the king. Was Haman in fact speaking to the king in loshon kodesh, rather than Persian? Thanks a lot.

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Answers

  1. Possibly. There is one opinion that they did speak in Lashon Hakodesh at least for a few phrases like the one you mention. However, it is also plausible that the dialect they spoke in shared the same etymology as Lashon Hakodesh for various words.

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