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 that verse carried such weight, the midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) first turns to a terrifying prophecy buried in the Torah's curses.
Rav connected the Esther story to a verse in Deuteronomy that describes escalating dread: "Your life will be suspended before you, and you will fear night and day, and you will not be assured of your life" (Deuteronomy 28:66). The rabbis and Rabbi Berekhya disagreed about the literal meaning of these three stages. One opinion said they describe a person who buys wheat for a year, then only from a retailer, then only from a baker. Rabbi Berekhya stretched the scale further: three years of supply, then one year, then a retailer. When the rabbis pressed him about the baker, he replied with a devastating punchline: "The Torah did not speak of the dead." Someone dependent on a baker is already beyond hope.
Another interpretation mapped the verse onto the Roman legal system: prison in Caesarea, then trial, then execution by hanging. But Rav took the entire prophecy and laid it directly over the events of the Purim story. "Your life will be suspended before you" referred to the day Ahasuerus removed his signet ring and handed it to Haman, authorizing him to do whatever he wished to the Jews (Esther 3:10-11). "You will fear night and day" described the moment Haman's letters were dispatched across 127 provinces (Esther 3:13-15). And "you will not be assured of your life" pointed to the chilling instruction "to be ready for that day" (Esther 3:14).
The midrash treats these escalating stages as a precise match. The ring transfer was abstract menace. The letters made it concrete. The appointed date made it inescapable. What Moses foresaw as a curse centuries earlier, Haman executed as policy.
“It was during the days of Aḥashverosh; that Aḥashverosh who reigned from India to Kush, over a hundred and twenty-seven provinces” (Esther 1:1).Rav began: “Your life will be suspended before you, and you will fear night and day, and you will not be assured of your life” (Deuteronomy 28:66). The Rabbis and Rabbi Berekhya; the Rabbis said: “Your life will be suspended before you,” that is one who purchases wheat for a year. “And you will fear night and day,” that is one who purchases wheat for himself from the retailer. “And you will not be assured of your life,” that is one who purchases for himself from the baker. Rabbi Berekhya said: “Your life will be suspended before you,” that is one who purchases wheat for himself for three years. “And you will fear night and day,” that is one who purchases wheat for himself for one year. “And you will not be assured of your life,” that is one who purchases wheat for himself from the retailer. The Rabbis objected to Rabbi Berekhya: What of the one who purchases from the baker? He said to them: The Torah did not speak of the dead. Alternatively, “your life will be suspended before you,” that is one who is placed in the prisons of Caesarea. “And you will fear night and day,” that is one who is taken to judgment. “And you will not be assured of your life,” that is one who is taken out to be hanged. Rav interpreted the verse as relating to Haman:1Specifically, relating to the effect of Haman’s decree on Israel. “Your life will be suspended before you,” – on the day following the removal of the ring.2Aḥashverosh removed his ring and gave it to Haman when he authorized him to do as he saw fit to the Jews (Esther 3:10-11). “And you will fear night and day” – when the letters were dispatched.3Haman sent written orders to all the provinces for the people to prepare themselves to kill the Jews (Esther 3:13-15). “And you will not be assured of your life” – “to be ready for that day” (Esther 3:14).
