Haman wrote one of the most chilling documents in Jewish legend. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle translated by Moses Gaster in 1899, Haman composed a letter "with the consent of all the prefects, governors, rulers, and all the kings of the East," sealed with the ring of Ahasuerus. In it, he compared Israel to a great eagle whose wings once spread over the whole world until the Medes broke them. Now, Haman warned, the eagle was growing new feathers.
Haman distinguished his plan from every previous attempt to destroy the Jews. Pharaoh had targeted only the males. Esau wanted to kill Jacob but keep his sons as servants. Amalek pursued Israel but attacked only the weak. Nebuchadnezzar exiled them but promoted some to power. Sennacherib relocated them to a land like their own. Haman proposed something total: "to destroy and to blot out all the Jews, young and old, women and children, and all on one day, so that there be no seed left in the world."
He rewrote Jewish history from the enemies' perspective with deliberate distortion. Moses was a "wizard" who plagued Egypt through "enchantments." Joshua defeated Amalek by whispering spells. The Israelites were thieves who robbed their neighbors before leaving Egypt. This inverted narrative was designed to convince the nations that Israel had always repaid kindness with treachery.
The nations wrote back with an unexpected response: "We fear lest they do the same to us as they did to our forefathers. Whoever touches them touches the apple of God's eye. Their God has called them the stone of foundation, and whenever it is moved He shall replace it." Haman wrote again, arguing that God had grown old and weak, unable to save His people from Nebuchadnezzar. The nations finally consented. But Mordecai met three schoolchildren that day, and their Torah lessons gave him the answer he needed: "Take counsel together, and it shall be brought to nought."