On this daf, we find some teachings about Homon.
The Kabbalists reveal that Homon—archenemy of the Jewish people—was markedly lacking in human kindness. Since we find that chesed is the cornerstone of the world, this attribute made him inhuman and there’s a hint to this in his name. “Homon” is a conjunction of the letters hei-mem, which have a numerical value of 45, the same as adam, a human being. These are attached to a letter nun, which stands for nochosh, the Hebrew word for snake.
Rav Nosson of Breslov explains that Haman wanted to damage our humanness, which is expressed in our speech. What we do with our intellect and our power of speech is what determines our spiritual direction. We need to counter the spiritual snake, which wants us to follow the path of the hatred of Homon. Instead, we need to be understanding and use our capacity to speak for spiritual growth.
It is always a good time to crush the force of the primordial serpent that latches onto the heel of adam by begging Hashem to help us. Every word of prayer nullifies Homon and is another powerful step in our journey towards becoming an adam (Likkutei Halachos; Siach Sarfei Kodesh).
