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Esther Put On a Joyful Face and Walked Toward the King

Esther dressed for death and approached the throne uninvited. The midrash fills in what the four sparse verses of Esther do not say about what happened next.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. Three Days of Fasting Before She Dressed
  2. What She Carried and How She Walked
  3. When She Crossed the Threshold
  4. What He Saw That Made Him Run

Three Days of Fasting Before She Dressed

On the third day she rose from the earth, from the dust of three days of fasting and prostration and prayer, and she prepared to die. That was the realistic calculation. The law of the Persian court was absolute: anyone who entered the king's presence uninvited, without being summoned, was killed. The only exception was if the king extended his golden scepter. He might do this. He might not. The law made no distinction based on rank or love or previous favor. It applied equally to queens.

She had no way to know what Ahasuerus would do until she was already standing before him.

She dressed carefully. The legends of the Jews say she put on a magnificent silken gown embroidered with gold from Ophir, shimmering with diamonds and pearls. A golden crown on her head. Golden shoes. She adorned herself the way a woman adorns herself when she wants to be seen at her most powerful, which is to say she adorned herself with everything she had, because she was walking toward a moment that required everything.

What She Carried and How She Walked

She took two handmaidens with her. The first walked at her right side, and Esther placed her hand on this woman's shoulder, leaning on her in the manner of Persian royal women, a posture of composed authority that concealed the fact that her legs were shaking. The second walked behind her, carrying the trailing edges of the embroidered gown so that the gold would not drag along the ground.

On her face she wore a joyful expression. In her heart she carried terror. The midrash names both things with equal precision and does not try to resolve the contradiction. The joy was real: she was a woman who chose to walk forward knowing what might happen, and the choosing itself had a kind of joy in it. The terror was also real. They coexisted in the same body, in the same steps, across the same floor toward the same throne.

She masked the worry in her heart. The Hebrew verb the midrash uses suggests something actively concealed, not simply absent. This was not a woman at peace. It was a woman who had decided that fear was not going to direct her movement.

When She Crossed the Threshold

She reached the inner court facing the king's palace. The king was sitting on his royal throne in garments of gold and jewels, facing the entrance. He was watching.

The midrash says that when Esther crossed the threshold and his eyes landed on her, Ahasuerus felt something he had not expected. The presence of the divine was on her. She had prayed three days; she had clothed herself in the spirit of her ancestors as she clothed herself in gold; she had walked forward with something beyond human courage animating her steps. And the king saw it.

He did not feel the anger that the law required. He felt something that moved him from the throne. He ran to her. Not a king extending a scepter at a distance, but a man who got up from his seat and came toward her, alarmed by whatever it was he saw on her face or in the quality of the air around her.

What He Saw That Made Him Run

The legends expand on this moment. When Esther entered the throne room, she saw two figures standing on either side of Ahasuerus, and she recognized neither of them as his advisors. Terrifying presences. Divine fire in their aspect. She nearly collapsed.

At the same moment, the king's face changed. The expression he had worn, the composed cruelty of a Persian monarch whose law could not be questioned, shifted. The legends say that an angel struck his face and gave him a different aspect, something softer, something that looked at Esther as a man looks at the person he loves rather than as a king looks at an uninvited supplicant.

The scepter came out. He reached it toward her. "What is wrong with you, Esther? I am your brother. Do not be afraid."

She fainted. The legends say he jumped from the throne and ran to hold her up, afraid that she was going to die in front of him. His advisors stood back. The two terrifying presences had not been his allies. They had been hers.

EstherPurimCourageRoyaltyHaman
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From the tradition

Sources

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

Esther Rabbah 9:1Esther Rabbah

“It was on the third day, Esther donned royalty and stood in the inner court of the king’s palace, facing the king’s palace, while the king was sitting on his royal throne in the throne room facing the entrance of the palace” (Esther 5:1).“It was on the third day, Esther donned” – the garments of her beauty and the jewels of her glory. She took her two young women with her; she placed her right hand on one young woman and leaned on her in accordance with the royal custom, and the second young woman walked behind her mistress supporting her jewels, so that the gold would not touch the ground. She put on a joyful face, masked the worry in her heart, and came to the inner courtyard facing the king, and she stood before him.The king was sitting on his royal throne in garments of gold and jewels. He lifted his eyes and saw Esther standing before him, and his wrath was greatly enflamed because she had violated his protocol and she came before him without being summoned. Esther lifted her eyes and saw the king’s face, and his eyes were like fire, blazing from the great fury in his heart.Esther recognized the king’s anger and she was greatly panicked, and her spirit grew faint. She placed her head on the young woman supporting her on the right. Our God saw and took pity on His people, recognized the suffering of the orphan who had placed her trust in Him, invested her with grace before the king, and added beauty to her beauty and magnificence to her magnificence. The king rose from his throne in a frenzy, ran to Esther, hugged and kissed her, and placed his arm around her neck. The king said to her: ‘Queen Esther, why are you afraid? This protocol that we instituted is not incumbent upon you, as you are my beloved and my companion.’ He said to her: ‘Why, when I saw you, did you not speak to me?’ Esther said: ‘My lord the king, when I saw you, my soul was startled due to your greatness.’

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Legends of the Jews 12:175Legends of the Jews

Legends of the Jews turns to Esther Adorns Herself in Gold Before King Ahasuerus.

Before her fateful meeting with King Ahasuerus, Esther knew she had to prepare, not just physically, but spiritually. After a rigorous three-day fast, she rose from the earth, from the very dust of humility and repentance. Then, she adorned herself, as Legends of the Jews tells us, in a magnificent silken gown, embroidered with gold from Ophir and shimmering with diamonds and pearls gifted from Africa. A golden crown rested upon her head, and golden shoes graced her feet.

This wasn't mere vanity. This was a queen preparing to face a king, a Jewish woman preparing to plead for her people's survival. The extravagance was a statement, a visual prayer.

As she completed her attire, Esther poured out her heart in a powerful prayer. "Thou art the great God," she began, "the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the God of my father Benjamin." This wasn't just a generic plea to a distant deity. She invoked the God of her ancestors, the God of covenant and promise.

And then she made a startling admission. "Not because I consider myself without blemish, do I dare appear before the foolish king, but that the people of Israel may not be cut off from the world." Esther understood her own imperfections, her own vulnerabilities. Her motivation wasn't personal glory, but the survival of her people.

Why this desperation? Because, she argued, Yisrael – Israel – has a unique role in the world. "Is it not for the sake of Israel alone that the whole world was created," she implored, "and if Israel should cease to exist, who will come and exclaim 'Holy, holy, holy' thrice daily before Thee?" The Zohar echoes this sentiment, emphasizing the interconnectedness of Israel's existence and the world's spiritual well-being.

Esther drew strength from the past. "As Thou didst save Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah out of the burning furnace, and Daniel out of the den of lions, so save me out of the hand of this foolish king, and make me to appear charming and graceful in his eyes." She remembered the miracles, the acts of divine intervention that had saved her people before. She prayed for a similar miracle now.

She acknowledged the harsh realities of exile. "I entreat Thee to give ear to my prayer in this time of exile and banishment from our land. By reason of our sins the threatening words of the Holy Scriptures are accomplished upon us: 'Ye shall sell yourselves unto your enemies for bondmen and for bondwomen, and no man shall buy you.'" She recognized the consequences of their actions, the fulfillment of prophetic warnings. As we find in Midrash Rabbah, the Jewish people’s history is a constant dialogue between action and consequence, sin and redemption.

The decree of annihilation loomed large. "The decree to kill us has been issued. We are delivered up unto the sword for destruction, root and branch." Esther painted a stark picture of the impending doom, emphasizing the totality of the threat.

She pleaded for the innocent. "The children of Abraham covered themselves with sackcloth and ashes, but though the elders sinned, what wrongs have the children committed, and though the children committed wrongs, what have the sucklings done?" This heart-wrenching question echoes throughout Jewish history – the cry of the innocent caught in the crossfire of collective sin.

The image of the nobles of Jerusalem emerging from their graves, as mentioned in Legends of the Jews, is particularly poignant. "The nobles of Jerusalem came forth from their graves, for their children were given up to the sword." It's a powerful metaphor for the weight of history, the responsibility of the present to the past, and the future.

Esther's prayer is more than just a plea for survival. It's a powerful affirmation of faith, a recognition of responsibility, and a evidence of the enduring hope of the Jewish people. It reminds us that even in the face of overwhelming adversity, we can turn to our traditions, our history, and our God for strength and guidance. What would such a prayer sound like from your own lips today, facing your own personal trials?

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