The Purim story occupies a surprisingly prominent place in Talmudic and Midrashic literature. Not only does the Talmud supply a wealth of commentary and explication of the Book of Esther, but the number of midrashim based on the Megillah is far greater than on any other book of the Bible. The following narrative, which constitutes an expansion of the last chapters of the Book of Esther, has been compiled from several different sources: Abba Gorion, Targum Sheni, and the tractate Megillah of the Talmud. The selection is taken (with slight stylistic changes) from The Purim Anthology, edited by Philip Goodman and published by the Jewish Publication Society of America (1949).

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When Haman had satisfied himself that the tree intended for his enemy was properly constructed, he repaired to the Bet ha-Midrash, where he found Mordecai and all the Jewish school children, twenty-two thousand in number, in tears and sorrow. He ordered them to be put in chains, saying: “First I shall kill off these, and then I shall hang Mordecai.” The mothers hastened thither with bread and water, and coaxed their children to take something before they encountered death. The children, however, laid their hands upon their books, and said: “As our teacher Mordecai liveth, we will neither eat nor drink, but we will perish exhausted with fasting.” They rolled up their sacred scrolls, and handed them to their teachers with the words: “For our devotion to the study of the Torah, we were to be rewarded with long life, according to the promise held out in the Holy Scriptures. As we are not worthy of this, remove the books!” The outcries of the children and of the teachers in the Bet ha-Midrash, and the weeping of the mothers outside, united with the supplications of the fathers, reached to heaven in the third hour of the night, and God said: “I hear the voice of tender lambs and sheep!” Moses arose and addressed God thus: “Thou knowest well that the voices are not of lambs and sheep, but of the young of Israel, who for three days have been fasting and languishing in fetters, only to be slaughtered on the morrow to the delight of the arch enemy.”

Then God felt compassion with Israel, for the sake of His innocent little ones. He broke the seal with which the heavenly decree of annihilation had been fastened, and the decree itself He tore in pieces. (Abba Gorion 37-38)

On that night, Ahasuerus became restless, and sleep was made to flee his eyes, for the purpose that the redemption of Israel might be brought to pass. The archangel Gabriel descended, and threw the king out of his bed on the floor no less than three hundred and sixty-five times, continually whispering in his ear: “O you ingrate, reward him who deserves to be rewarded.” . . . (Abba Gorion 38-39)

That night the throne of the King who is King of kings, the Holy One, Blessed be He, became unsteady, because He saw that Israel was in great distress. The sleep of the king on earth fled, for he had seen in his dream Haman taking the sword to slay him. He became agitated and arose from his sleep. . . .

He spoke to his servants: “Call Haman to me.” They said to him: “Behold, he is standing outside.” The king said: “The thing is true which I saw in my dream; he has come only in this hour to slay me.” He continued: “Let him come in.” Haman entered before the king. The king said to him: “I wish to exalt and aggrandize a certain man; what shall be done to him?” Haman said in his heart, for the seed of Esau speak in their hearts but never reveal their secret with their mouths, as it is said: And Haman said in his heart (Esther 6.6): “He does not desire to exalt any other man except me. I will speak words so that I shall be a king just as he is.” Haman said to the king: “Let them bring the apparel which the king wore on the day of the coronation, and the horse upon which the king rode, and the crown which was put upon the head of the king.”

The king was exceedingly angry because of the crown. The king said: “It does not suffice this villain, but he must even desire the crown which is upon my head.” Haman saw that the king was angry because of the crown; he said: And let the apparel and the horse he delivered to the hand of one of the king’s most noble princes (Esther 6.9).

The king then said to Haman: “Make ready, and go into the royal treasure chambers and take from the wardrobe a purple covering, a raiment of fine silk, adorned with fringes and costly stones and pearls, having bells of gold on its four corners, and golden pomegranates on every side. Bring also from there the large golden crown which was brought to me from the Macedonian province on the first day that I ascended the throne, and go invest Mordecai the Jew with all these marks of distinction.” Haman answered and said: “There are many Jews in Shushan the capital by the name of Mordecai; to which of them shall I go?” The king said: “Go to Mordecai, the Jew, who spoke well about the king, and who sits at my gate.”

When Haman heard these words he was in great trouble, his countenance was changed, his sight grew dim, his mouth became distorted, his thoughts confused, his loins languid, and his knees knocked one against the other. He addressed the king: “My Lord King! There are many Mordecais in the world, and I do not know about which of them you have spoken to me.” The king in reply said: “Have I not told you that I mean Mordecai who sits at my gate?” “But,” rejoined Haman, “there are many royal gates, and I do not know of which gate you have spoken to me.” “Have I not told you,” said the king, “that I mean the gate which leads from the harem to the palace?” Haman said: “This man is my enemy, and the enemy of my fathers; I would rather give him ten thousand talents of silver; only let not this honor be done to him.” The king replied: “Go and give him ten thousand talents, and he shall rule over thy house, and this honor shall also not be withheld from him.” . . .

Haman said: “Messengers with letters and decrees have already been sent out to all the provinces of the king to destroy the people of Mordecai; let these letters be revoked and let not this honor be done to him.” The king answered: “The letters which I sent out I invalidate, and this honor shall not be withheld from him.” . . . (II Targum 6.10-11)

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Then Haman took the apparel and the horse and went and found Mordecai with the rabbis sitting before him.

Haman said to him: “Arise and put on this apparel and ride on this horse, for so the king desires you to do.” He replied: “I cannot do so until I have gone into the bath and trimmed my hair, for it would not be good manners to use the king’s apparel in this condition.” Now Esther had sent and closed all the baths and all the barbers’ shops. So Haman himself took him into the bath and washed him, and then went and brought scissors from his house and trimmed his hair. While he was doing so, he sighed and groaned. Said Mordecai to him: “Why do you sigh?” He replied: “The man who was esteemed by the king above all his nobles is now made a bath attendant and a barber.” Said Mordecai to him: “Wretch, and were you not once a barber in Kefar Karzum?” (So a sage recorded: Haman was a barber in Kefar Karzum twenty-two years.) After he had trimmed his hair he put the garments on him, and said to him, “Mount and ride.” He replied: “I am not able, as I am weak from the days of fasting.” So Haman stooped down and he mounted by standing on his back. (Megillah 16a)

Then Mordecai returned to the gate of the palace with great honor and dignity; but Haman went to his house covered with shame, sad and his head covered over. (II Targum 6.11-13)

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