A Post-Mosaic Festival

R. Jeremiah in the name of R. Samuel bar R. Isaac: What did Mordecai and Esther do? They wrote a letter and sent [it] to our rabbis.¹ They [Mordecai and Esther] said to them [the rabbis], “Do you accept upon yourselves these two days every year?” They answered them, “Are not the troubles that come upon us enough, that you want to add to ours the trouble of Haman?” They insisted and wrote them a second letter. That is what is written: to confirm to them this second [Purim] letter (Esther 9:29). What was written in it? They told them, “If this is your fear, already it is written and deposited in archives,” [as the book of Esther says:] Are these not written in the annals of the kings of Media and Persia? (Esther 10:2). R. Samuel bar Naḥman in the name of R. Jonathan: Eighty-five elders, and among them more than thirty prophets, were sorry about this matter. They said, “It is written: These are the commandments that the Eternal commanded to Moses (Leviticus 27:34). These are the commandments that we were commanded by Moses’ saying. Moses said to us, no other prophet will reveal to you anything afterward—and Mordecai and Esther want to introduce something new?” They did not move from there but discussed [the matter] until the Holy One illuminated their eyes and they found it written in the Torah, in the Prophets, and in the Writings. This is what is written: The Eternal said to Moses, write this in a book for remembrance (Exodus 17:14). This refers to the Torah, as you say: This is the Torah that Moses put before the children of Israel (Deuteronomy 4:44). Remembrance refers to the Prophets: A book of remembrance is being written before Him for those who fear the Eternal, etc. (Malachi 3:16). In a book refers to the Writings: Esther’s word confirmed the matter of these Purim days, and it was written in a book (Esther 9:32).