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Esther Commanded Israel to Fast Through Passover

Mordechai told Esther her fast fell on Passover. She told him to fast anyway. If Israel was destroyed, what use was the festival?

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. The News That Broke Her Body
  2. The Messenger Who Was Also Daniel
  3. The Decision About the Fast
  4. What Esther Understood

The News That Broke Her Body

The word came through her maids and her chamberlains. Mordechai was mourning in the street, dressed in sackcloth, weeping in front of the palace gate. The queen was greatly distressed. The Hebrew word the scroll uses for her distress is vatitchalchal, an unusual word, stronger than alarm, stronger than grief, a word that suggests something physical rather than just emotional. Esther Rabbah, the midrash on the Scroll of Esther, pressed on that word and found what it was describing.

The Rabbis of Babylonia said the shock brought on her menstrual flow. The Rabbis of the Land of Israel said it caused a miscarriage. Rabbi Yudan son of Rabbi Simon added that she had been using contraception throughout her marriage to Ahasuerus, and after this shock she never gave birth again. The news from the street had not just frightened Esther. It had hit her body like a blow. Whatever Haman had purchased from the king, whatever decree was now spreading through all 127 provinces from India to Ethiopia, it had found her through her skin before she even knew what it said.

The Messenger Who Was Also Daniel

She sent Hatakh, one of the king's chamberlains assigned to her service. The rabbis knew immediately who Hatakh was. His name was not really Hatakh. He was Daniel, the same Daniel who had been a high official under the Babylonian government, who had been demoted from his prominence, cut down from his position. The word hatakh in Hebrew means to cut. Daniel had been cut. The word also means to decide, to determine, to cut through to a resolution. The man Esther sent to find out what was happening in the street was a man who knew what it meant to have his life rearranged by a king's caprice, and who had survived it.

She wanted to know what was happening and why. Mordechai's answer, brought back by the man who was Daniel, was complete and terrible. Haman had made his purchase. The decree existed. The date had been set by lot. There was nothing legal or procedural that could undo it now. What Esther did next would determine whether the decree was executed or not.

The Decision About the Fast

She told Mordechai to assemble every Jew in Shushan and fast on her behalf. Three days, no eating, no drinking. Mordechai got the message and sent back a single objection: but isn't the first day of Passover among those three days? The thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth of Nisan. The festival given to Israel to mark the liberation from Egypt, the eight days in which leavened bread was forbidden and the story of the Exodus was told at every table. This was not a minor liturgical inconvenience. This was the central festival of Jewish memory, and Esther was asking the entire community to observe a public fast straight through it.

Her answer came back without hesitation: "Elder of Israel, why is it Passover? The festival of Passover was given to Israel. If Israel is destroyed, of what value is the festival? It is better to desecrate Passover once so that it may be observed forever more."

Mordechai heard her. The midrash notes that he conceded to her contention immediately, and that the word the text uses for his going out and acting on her instructions, vaya'avor, carries the word for passing over in it. He passed over his own objection. He accepted that the crisis was larger than the calendar.

What Esther Understood

The rabbis who read this exchange in Esther Rabbah were interested in more than the logistics of a three-day fast. They were interested in the logic Esther applied. She was not dismissing Passover. She was extending its logic. Passover exists to celebrate the survival of Israel. If Israel does not survive, Passover has no one to be celebrated by. The festival is the vessel. The people are the contents. Without the people, the vessel is empty and its emptiness is a worse loss than a single year's observance.

There was also a harder question underneath the request for the fast, a question Esther sent through the same messenger about what had gone wrong spiritually with Israel that such a decree could exist at all. Had Israel denied the declaration by the sea, "this is my God and I will praise him"? Had they denied the tablets? The fast was not only preparation for Esther's approach to the king. It was an acknowledgment that something had broken and needed to be repaired before anyone could stand before the royal throne and ask for anything.

EstherMordechaiPassoverHamanPurimPrayerFastingMidrash
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From the tradition

Sources

3 sources

The texts this telling draws on, in full. Open a card to read inline, or expand it for a wider, quieter read.

Esther Rabbah 8:3Esther Rabbah

The passage from Esther Rabbah, the midrash on the Scroll of Esther, expounds the moment when news of Mordecai's mourning reaches the palace, "And Esther's maids and her chamberlains came and told her, and the queen was greatly distressed" (Esther 4:4). The Hebrew verb for her distress, vatitchalchal, is unusual and strong, and the sages probe what so violent a shock did to her body, reading the word as describing a physical convulsion and not only emotional alarm.

The Rabbis of Babylonia say the shock brought on her menstrual flow. The Rabbis of the Land of Israel say it caused her to miscarry a fetus, and that after this miscarriage she never gave birth again. Rabbi Yudan son of Rabbi Simon adds a detail about her marriage to Ahasuerus: she would use an absorbent cloth as a form of contraception while engaging in relations, a measure that fits her reluctance toward the king. The same sage offers a striking genealogical claim, that the last Darius, the Persian king under whom the Second Temple was completed, was the son of Esther, and so was pure on his mother's side, being of Israel, and impure on his father's side, being of the gentile king. The stake of these readings is to show that Esther's body and bloodline were bound up with the destiny of her people, even her private suffering folded into the larger story of Israel's survival and the Temple's rebuilding.

Full source
Esther Rabbah 8:4Esther Rabbah

“Esther summoned Hatakh, one of the king’s chamberlains whom he had set before her, and commanded him to go to Mordekhai to know what this is and why this is” (Esther 4:5).“Esther summoned Hatakh” – The Rabbis from there say: Hatakh is Daniel; because they demoted him [ḥatakhuhu] from his prominence5Daniel was a high ranking advisor in the Babylonian government. he was called Hatakh, [similar to] ḥatakh. The Rabbis from here say: [He was called Hatakh] because he decided [ḥatakh] matters [of state].“To know what this is [ma zeh], and why this is [ma zeh]” (Esther 4:5). She said to him: ‘Go and say to him: In all the days of Israel they never encountered trouble like this. Perhaps Israel has denied “this [zeh] is my God and I exalt Him” (Exodus 15:2), or perhaps they denied the tablets, in whose regard it is written: “From this side [mizeh] and from that side [umizeh] they were inscribed”’ (Exodus 32:15).

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Esther Rabbah 8:7Esther Rabbah

“Esther said, to respond to Mordekhai” (Esther 4:15). She said to him: “Go, assemble all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast on my behalf; do not eat and do not drink for three days” (Esther 4:16). These were the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth of Nisan. He sent her [in response]: ‘But isn’t the first day of Passover among them?’ She said to him: ‘Elder of Israel, why is it Passover?’7The festival of Passover was given to the Jewish people; if they are destroyed, of what value is the festival of Passover? It is better to desecrate Passover once so that it may be observed forever more (Etz Yosef). Immediately Mordekhai heard and conceded to her contention; that is what is written: “Mordekhai went on [vaya’avor] and acted in accordance with everything that Esther had commanded him” (Esther 4:17). There they say: That he violated [shehe’evir] the first day of Passover with a fast.Regarding that same trouble, Mordekhai prayed to God and he said: ‘It is revealed and known before Your Throne of Honor, Master of the universe, that it is not due to haughtiness or arrogance that I did not prostrate myself to Haman; rather, it is due to my fear of You that I acted in this way, and did not prostrate myself to him. It is because I feared You, and did not wish to grant the honor due to You, to flesh and blood, and I did not want to prostrate myself to anyone other than You. For who am I not to prostrate myself to Haman at the expense of the salvation of Your people Israel? For that, I would be prepared to lick the shoes on his feet.Now, God, rescue us from his hand, and let him fall into the grave that he dug, and let him be ensnared in the net that he concealed at the feet of your pious ones. And let this instigator know that You have not forgotten the promise that You promised us: “And despite this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not have spurned them and will not have rejected them, to destroy them, to violate My covenant with them, as I am the Lord their God”’ (Leviticus 26:44). What did Mordekhai do? He assembled the children and deprived them of bread and water, he dressed them in sackcloth and sat them in ashes. They were shouting, weeping, and engaging in Torah study.At that time, Esther was very frightened due to the evil that had developed for Israel. She removed her royal garments and her glory, donned sackcloth, loosened her hair and filled it with dirt and ashes, afflicted herself in a fast, and fell on her face before God and prayed. She said: ‘Lord, God of Israel, who has ruled since the days of yore and created the world, please help your maidservant, as I have remained an orphan from my father and my mother, and am comparable to a poor woman begging from house to house. So, I am requesting Your mercy from window to window in the palace of Aḥashverosh.Now, Lord, please grant success to this poor maidservant of yours, and deliver the sheep of Your flock from these enemies who have arisen against us, as You have “no restraint to save by many or by few” (I Samuel 14:6). You, father of orphans, please stand to the right of this orphan, who has relied on your mercy, and let me be viewed mercifully by this man, for I fear him. Lower him before me because You lower the haughty.’

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