Esther asks for a fast, and Targum Sheni lets the whole world feel it.
In (Esther 4:16), she tells Mordecai to gather the Jews of Shushan for three days and nights of fasting. The targum expands the scene. Bridegrooms leave their chambers in sackcloth. Brides cover their heads with ashes. Men, animals, and sheep do not taste food. Infants are separated from their mothers' breasts.
Then the assembly is inspected, and twelve thousand young priests are found. Each takes a trumpet in the right hand and a book of Torah in the left. They weep toward heaven and ask what will become of God's name if the beloved people cease from the world.
The cosmic response is immediate. The sun and moon are imagined as darkened because they were created for Israel. The people fall on their faces. The trumpets sound. The cry rises until the hosts of heaven weep and the patriarchs stir in their graves.
The fast is therefore not private desperation. It is a ritual alarm that shakes heaven, earth, ancestors, priests, children, and animals together.
Hitherto I went to the king against my will, but now I go willingly. And a daughter of Israel who is violated by a Gentile is a lawful wife to her husband. Let the bridegroom go out from his sleeping-room covered with sackcloth, and let the bride likewise leave her nuptial chamber with her head covered with ashes. Let men and beasts and sheep not taste anything for three days, and let the babes be separated from the breasts of their mothers." Immediately they inspected the assembly, and they found in it twelve thousand young priests. These seized trumpets with their right hand and the books of the law with their left, and then wept and cried towards heaven, and said: "O God of Israel! behold the law which Thou hast given us. Behold, Thy beloved people is about to cease from the world. Who will read therein and speak of Thy name? The sun and moon will be dark, and not give their light, for they were created but for Thy people Israel." They then fell upon their faces, and cried: "Answer us, Father, answer us! Answer us, King, answer us!" And they blew the trumpets, and the people cried aloud after them, so that the hosts of heaven wept, and the patriarchs were moved in their graves.
