What Was the Point of the Gallows Being 50 Amos High, The Eye Doesn’t See That High?
ותאמר לו זרש אשתו וכל אהביו יעשו עץ גבוה חמישים אמה
“Zeresh his wife and all his friends advised that he make a gallows 50 cubits high.” (Esther 5:14)
Why did Haman want to make such a high gallows, there doesn’t seem to be any logic behind it. In the end Haman and his ten sons were hung on it, and it needed to be that high. However, surely Haman never knew about this, and certainly Zeresh didn’t, so why did she tell Haman to build the gallows so high?
The simple answer would be, so that everyone could see what happened to Mordechai for not listening to Haman and they would become scared and fearful of him. However, the Gemara in Eruvin (2a) says that eye doesn’t notice things above 20 amos. If so, people wouldn’t notice it, so it would seem there was no gain in hanging him so high, so why did the gallows need to be so high? (R’ Tzadok HaKohen, Inyonei Purim asks the above.)
The Alshich HaKodosh answers: Haman saw how in the past Yidden were saved from tragedies. For example, he saw how Doniel was saved from the lion’s den, and how Chananya, Mishael and Azaryah were saved from the fire. Therefore, he wanted to: לצרף חמשים כחות הטומאה אשר לעומת חמשים שערי הקדושה – “To use the 50 levels of tumah to override the 50 levels of kedushah”. Therefore, he built the gallows 50 amos high, somehow including in it the kochas of tumah to override the kochas of kedusha, and since there are 50 levels, he built it 50 amos high.
Rav Yonasan Eibshitz (Yaaras Devash, Vol. 2, pg. 123) answers based on a Mishnah in Bava Basra (25a). The Mishnah says: מרחיקין את הקברות מן העיר חמישים אמה – “We distance graves from the city 50 amos”. Rashi explains, that this is because of the bad smell. Haman wanted to kill Mordechai in the city, but he didn’t want it to smell, therefore, he built the gallows 50 amos high.
