If we cannot have it all, would we rather none at all?
Chazal have a tradition that the main characters of the Purim story can be found in veiled allusions throughout the Torah, written prophetically many years before the events of Megillas Esther (Chulin 139b). Where is there a Biblical reference to Haman? The Gemara identifies the verse at the beginning of Chumash in which Hashem chastises Adam and Chavah for eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil: “Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” (B’reishis 3:11). The Hebrew words in this verse, “ha’min ha’eitz (from the tree)” can also be vowelized Haman ha’eitz, referring to the wicked Haman who would later be hanged on the wooden gallows (eitz) he had prepared for Mordechai.