Ha'achashtranim Bnei Ha'ramachim

Ron traces the interpretive history of ha’achashtranim bnei ha’ramachim, a phrase in Esther 8:10 that the Talmud (Megilla 18a) itself declares beyond translation. Saadia Gaon and later commentators read achashtranim as mules bred of mares, prized for their strength or lineage; other sources understand ramachim as the riders rather than the animals, or as “runners” whose spleens were surgically removed for speed, following a description of King David’s son Adonijah’s couriers. Rashi instead reads achashtranim as a swift breed of camel. One medieval commentator even describes an eight-legged folkloric steed drawn from European legend. Modern scholarship derives achashtranim from the Persian khshatra, “royal,” yielding a sense close to “the king’s own swift horses” - confirming that whatever its precise referent, the phrase conveys the extraordinary speed with which Ahasuerus’s decree was disseminated.