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Esther Petitioned the Sages Twice to Add Her Book to the Bible

After Purim, Esther asked the sages to inscribe her story in the Hebrew Bible. They refused twice. Then she quoted Moses to them.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. The Request After the Victory
  2. Why the Refusal
  3. The Argument From Moses
  4. What Finally Moved the Sages

The Request After the Victory

The feast was established. Haman was dead. The Jews of Persia were saved. Mordecai had been installed in Haman's position. The annual celebration of Purim had been set in place with letters going out to every province, fixing the dates and the obligations. Everything that needed to be done had been done.

Esther was not finished.

She went to the sages with a new request: write this down. Place the Book of Esther permanently inside the Hebrew Bible. Make it part of the Tanakh alongside the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings, so that every generation would have access to what happened in Persia.

The sages said no.

Why the Refusal

The Tanakh was divided into three sections. Torah, the Five Books of Moses. Nevi'im, the Prophets. Ketuvim, the Writings. Adding to it was not simply a matter of deciding that a story was important enough. The question was whether the story carried divine inspiration in the technical sense, and whether including it served the tradition's needs across all future generations in the way the existing texts did. The sages were not hostile to Esther or to Purim. They were worried about precedent. Every significant event in Jewish history could be presented as deserving permanent canonical status. Where did that end?

They refused the first time. Esther came back. They refused again.

The Argument From Moses

Her third approach came with a text they could not easily answer. She quoted Exodus 17:14, the command Moses received after the battle of Rephidim: Write this as a memorial in a book. The instruction was specifically about the Amalekite attack. Haman was an Amalekite descendant. The Purim story was precisely the kind of event Moses had been commanded to document when he received that instruction. Esther was not asking for an exception to any principle. She was asking the sages to follow through on a command that had already been given.

Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, the midrashic text that traces Haman's lineage back through Agag to Esau, provides the genealogical foundation for this argument. The chain from Esau's hatred of Jacob through Amalek through Agag to Haman had been running for centuries. The defeat of Haman was not a local Persian political event. It was the latest fulfillment of something that had been promised and fought over since the tent of blind Isaac. Writing it down was part of the original obligation.

What Finally Moved the Sages

The tradition records that the sages' final concern, after the precedent question was addressed, was a practical one: if the Book of Esther entered the canon, it might cause problems with other nations, who would find in it a permanent record of their ancestors' defeat. This was not an idle concern. Jews lived under those nations' authority.

Esther's answer addressed this too. The Purim story had already been made permanent, she argued, in the sense that it had already been read aloud in every province during the feast. The nations already knew. Placing it in the canon was not exposing a secret. It was acknowledging a reality that was already public.

The sages accepted this. The Book of Esther was inscribed.

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From the tradition

Sources

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The texts this telling draws on, in full. Open a card to read inline, or expand it for a wider, quieter read.

Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 49:3Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer

Jewish tradition certainly has. Let’s consider a particularly potent example from Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, Chapter 49, a text filled with dramatic narratives and moral teachings.

Here, we find Samuel, the prophet, standing before God. What’s on his mind? The sins of Esau. Yes, that Esau, Jacob's twin. Samuel implores God: "Do not forget the sin which Esau did to his father, for he took strange women (for his wives), who offered sacrifices and burnt incense to idols, to embitter the years of the life of his parents."

It wasn't just about marrying outside the faith. According to Samuel, these wives actively practiced idolatry, causing immense pain to Isaac and Rebekah. And Samuel doesn't stop there. He asks that Esau's sin be remembered “unto his sons and unto his grandsons unto the end of all generations." This echoes (Psalm 109:14), "Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the Lord."

The narrative then shifts to Agag, the Amalekite king captured by Saul. Agag mistakenly believes he's escaped the bitterness of death, proclaiming, "Surely the bitterness of death is past!" (1 Samuel 15:32). He's wrong.

Samuel responds with a chilling pronouncement, linking Agag's fate to the actions of his ancestor, Amalek. He declares: "Just as the sword of Amalek thy ancestor consumed the young men of Israel who were outside the cloud, so that their women dwelt (as) childless women and widows, so by the prayer of the women all the sons of Amalek shall be slain, and their women shall dwell (as) childless women and widows.”

In other words, the violence inflicted by Amalek upon Israel will be repaid in kind. The text continues: "And by the prayer of Esther and her maidens all the sons of Amalek were slain and their women remained childless and widowed, as it is said, 'And Samuel said, As thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless among women' (1 Sam. 15:33)."

The cycle of violence, the echo of past deeds – it's a stark reminder of the interconnectedness of generations. But what are we to make of this? Is it simply about retribution? Or is there something deeper at play?

Perhaps it's about accountability. About understanding that our actions, and the actions of those who came before us, have real and lasting effects. That the choices we make today shape the world our children and grandchildren will inherit.

It’s a heavy thought, isn’t it?

The story of Samuel, Esau, and Agag compels us to examine our own legacies. What kind of ancestors will we be? What echoes will our actions send through time? It's a question worth pondering.

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Legends of the Jews 12:242Legends of the Jews

She wasn't done. This time, she wanted her story, the story of her courage and her people’s deliverance, enshrined within the Holy Scriptures.

The sages hesitated. Big time. Adding to the Tanakh, the Jewish Bible, which is traditionally divided into the Torah (the Five Books of Moses), Nevi'im (the Prophets), and Ketuvim (the Writings or Hagiographa)? It was a monumental decision. A big deal. They were reluctant, to say the least. They had already established a "triple Canon," and changing it wasn't taken lightly.

Esther, she was persuasive. She knew what she was doing. They refused her… again. But she persevered. She quoted from (Exodus 17:14), "'Write this for a memorial in a book,' spoken by Moses to Joshua, after the battle of Rephidim with the Amalekites." See, Haman, the villain of the Purim story, was considered a descendant of Amalek. Esther cleverly argued that just as Moses was commanded to record the victory over Amalek, so too should her victory over the "Amalekite" Haman be memorialized.

The sages, as the story goes, began to see the bigger picture. It wasn't just about adding another book. It was about recognizing the ongoing battle between good and evil, between the Jewish people and those who sought their destruction. It was about acknowledging God's hand in history.

And, according to the tradition, there was something more to it than just historical accuracy. The sages realized that the Book of Esther was no ordinary historical account. As the verse says, it couldn't have been composed without divine inspiration, without a touch of the Ruach (spirit) Hakodesh, the holy spirit.

The final decision, the canonization of the Book of Esther, was "resolved upon 'below'" – meaning agreed upon by the earthly sages – and then, crucially, "endorsed 'above.'" A heavenly seal of approval! And this is according to Legends of the Jews!

The implications are profound. Because the Book of Esther became an integral and indestructible part of the Holy Scriptures, the Feast of Purim, the holiday celebrating the events in the book, is destined to be celebrated forever. Not just now, but in the future world as well. Esther, through her courage and her righteous actions, earned herself a good name, not only in this world, but in the world to come.

So, what does this all mean for us today? Perhaps it's a reminder that even seemingly small acts of courage and faith can have lasting consequences. Perhaps it's a call to recognize the divine hand at work in our own lives, even when we don't see it clearly. And perhaps, most importantly, it's a evidence of the enduring power of a good story, especially one that's been endorsed both here and in the heavens.

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