136 texts in Midrash Rabbah
“The text of the document was that an edict be issued in every province, to be publicly displayed to all the peoples: Be ready for that day” (Esther 3:14). “The text of the documen...
“The couriers went out urgently by the king’s command, and the order was issued in the Shushan citadel; the king and Haman sat to drink, and the city of Shushan was confounded” (Es...
“Mordekhai knew everything that had been done, and Mordekhai rent his garments and donned sackcloth and ashes. He went out in the midst of the city and cried a loud and bitter cry”...
“And in each and every province, any place where the word of the king and his decree reached, there was great mourning among the Jews” (Esther 4:3).Is there great mourning and mino...
“Esther’s young women and her chamberlains came and told her, and the queen was greatly shocked” (Esther 4:4).The Rabbis from there2From Babylonia. say: She menstruated. The Rabbis...
“Esther summoned Hatakh, one of the king’s chamberlains whom he had set before her, and commanded him to go to Mordekhai to know what this is and why this is” (Esther 4:5).“Esther ...
“Mordekhai told him everything that had befallen him [karahu]” (Esther 4:7). He said to Hatakh: ‘Tell her that the descendant of karahu6Amalek, the subject of the verse in (Deutero...
“For if you are silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, and you and your father’s house will perish; who knows if it was for a time ...
“Esther said, to respond to Mordekhai” (Esther 4:15). She said to him: “Go, assemble all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast on my behalf; do not eat and do not drink for...
“It was on the third day, Esther donned royalty and stood in the inner court of the king’s palace, facing the king’s palace, while the king was sitting on his royal throne in the t...
“The king said to her: What troubles you, Queen Esther, and what is your request… Esther said: If it pleases the king, let the king and Haman come today to the banquet… The king sa...
“Haman said: ‘Indeed, Queen Esther gave a feast and besides the king she did not bring anyone but me. And tomorrow too I am invited by her along with the king” (Esther 5:12).“Haman...
After he erected the gibbet, he went to Mordekhai and found that he was sitting in the study hall with the children sitting before him, with sackcloth on their waists, engaging in ...
“That night, the king’s sleep was disturbed; he said to bring the book of records, the chronicles, and they were read before the king” (Esther 6:1). “That night, the king’s sleep w...
“The king said: Who is in the court? Haman had come into the outer court of the king's palace, to tell the king to hang Mordekhai on the gibbet that he had prepared for him” (Esthe...
“Haman entered, and the king asked him: ‘What is to be done to the man whom the king wishes to honor?’ Haman said in his heart: Whom would the king delight to honor besides myself?...
“The king said to Haman: Hurry, take the garments and the horse; as you have said, do so to Mordekhai the Jew who sits at the king’s gate. Do not omit anything that you spoke of. H...
Another interpretation: “Haman took the garments and the horse....” (Esther 6:11). He came to Mordekhai and said: ‘Rise and get dressed.’ How unlucky is this man; last night I was ...
“Mordekhai returned to the king’s gate and Haman hastened home, mourning and covering his head” (Esther 6:12). Mordekhai returned to the king’s gate; [this phrase] teaches that he ...
Mordekhai returned to the king’s gate and Haman hastened home, mourning and covering his head” (Esther 6:12) – Mourning for his daughter, and covering his head because of what had ...
“Haman told his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had befallen him. His advisers and his wife Zeresh said to him: If Mordekhai, before whom you have begun to fall, is...
“The king rose in his fury from the wine banquet to the palace garden and Haman stood to plead for his life from Esther the queen, for he saw that the king has resolved to do him h...
“And you, write about the Jews as is pleasing in your eyes in the name of the king” (Esther 8:8), and send to all the provinces “to destroy and to kill and to eliminate” (Esther 8:...
“The Jews gathered in their cities in all the provinces of King Aḥashverosh, to lay hand on those who sought their harm. And no one stood against them for the fear of them had fall...
“And Mordekhai went out from before the king in royal dress of blue and white wool, and a great gold crown, and a robe of fine linen and purple. The city of Shushan reveled and rej...
Rabbi Berekhya said: The Holy one blessed be He recorded the redemption of Israel in the Torah, as it is written: “If a stranger who is a resident among you shall prosper…” (Leviti...
Rabbi Ḥiya Raba and Rabbi Shimon ben Ḥalafta were walking in the valley of Arbel and they saw the breaking of the dawn’s light. Rabbi Ḥiya Raba said to Rabbi Shimon ben Ḥalafta: So...
That is what is written: “Say to God: How awesome are Your works” (Psalms 66:3). How terrifying are Your wonders. [Those slated to be] killed, kill those who would be their killers...
The Book of Esther opens with a single verse that the rabbis of Esther Rabbah read as a cry of anguish: "It was during the days of Ahasuerus" (Esther 1:1). But to understand why th...
A single verse from Deuteronomy captured the entire emotional arc of Jewish exile. "In the morning you will say: Would that it were evening, and in the evening you will say: Would ...
God told Israel three separate times: do not go back to Egypt. According to Esther Rabbah, they violated every single warning and paid for every single one. Rabbi Shimon ben Yohai ...
God made a promise embedded in the Torah's harshest chapter of curses, and the rabbis of Esther Rabbah turned it into one of the most powerful statements of divine loyalty in all o...
The prophet Amos described a man who fled from a lion, only to be attacked by a bear, and when he finally made it home and leaned against the wall, a snake bit him (Amos 5:19). The...
The Hebrew Bible contains a hidden signal that tells you, in a single prefix, whether a king's reign brought joy or catastrophe. Rabbi Yitzhak discovered it buried in the grammar o...
King Saul was told to destroy Amalek completely. He did not. Centuries later, according to Esther Rabbah, the Jewish people paid for that moment of misplaced mercy with a genocidal...
Cyrus, king of Persia, began with one of the most generous decrees in biblical history. He ended with one of the most foolish. Esther Rabbah traces exactly where his words went wro...
Ahasuerus was a hypocrite. Not in the casual sense of the word, but in the specific, devastating way that Esther Rabbah defines it: a ruler who kills his wife for his friend, and t...
From the very first moment of creation, God assigned every major figure in history a specific role. Esther Rabbah preserves a remarkable list, attributed to Rabbi Berekhya, that re...
The rabbis of Esther Rabbah made a stunning claim: every time the Hebrew word vayhi ("it was") appears in the Torah, it signals disaster. Rabbi Tanhuma, Rabbi Berekhya, and Rabbi H...
The exile of the Jewish people under Ahasuerus was not an accident. According to Esther Rabbah, it was prophesied in detail centuries before it happened, embedded in verses from Is...
