If it please Your Majesty, let an edict be drawn for their destruction, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver to the stewards for deposit in the royal treasury.”
Thereupon the king removed his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the foe of the Jews.
And the king said, “The money and the people are yours to do with as you see fit.”
Esther Chapter 3
- The verse states: “And the king removed his ring from his hand” (Esther 3:10). Rabbi Abba bar Kahana said: The removal of Achashverosh ’s ring for the sealing of Haman’s decree was more effective than the forty-eight prophets and the seven prophetesses who prophesied on behalf of the Jewish people. As, they were all unable to return the Jewish people to the right way, but the removal of Achashverosh’s ring returned them to the right way, since it brought them to repentance.
Talmud, Tractate Megilla 14a
Kol Hator Chapter 4 on the 4 Modes of Redemption (as translated by http://www.israel613.com/books/KOL_HATOR.pdf )
“Everything has its season, and there is a time for every desire” [Koh. 3:1]. According to the Gaon, the season and time accord with the desire, and that is what is meant by “every desire.” In the Talmud we note four sections regarding the mode of Redemption:
A) If the people repent, they will be saved; otherwise, they will not be.
B) If they do not repent, God will place a king over them whose decrees are harsher than those of Haman; so the Jews will repent and be saved.
C) The redemption will come at first by the return of the captivity of Zion, even if there is only “one from a city or two from a family” [Jer. 3:14], according to Reb Yehoshua. This is what is meant by the Revealed End.
D) The Redemption will come in any case at its designated time, which is referred to as “the concealed end.” However, beforehand one must consider that all of the views expressed are those of the Living God.
Therefore the Gaon told us that we must progress and select the mode that is within our power, that is, the third mode. Should we accomplish this and fulfill this mode, then there will be no need for our Sages’ warnings regarding harsh decrees. Since the fulfillment will stimulate general repentance, there will be no need to set up a king whose decrees are harsher than Haman’s decrees. The revealed end will thus hasten the culmination of the Redemption.