Summary of the day

The Fast of Esther falls on 13 Adar, the eve of Purim (and if the 13th is Shabbat, it moves back to Thursday). It is an ancient custom that came to be treated as an obligation, in remembrance of the fast kept by the Jews in the days of Haman as they prepared for battle. The fast runs from dawn until nightfall, and the sick, nursing and pregnant women are exempt when necessary.

The mitzvot of the day

• Fasting (no eating or drinking).
• A remembrance of the half-shekel: three half-coins, before Mincha (see Shabbat Shekalim).
• Selichot and “Aneinu” in the prayers, and reading “Vaychal Moshe”.
• Preparing for Purim: in the evening we hear the Megillah.

Origin in history

When Haman issued the decree, Esther turned to Mordechai, who asked her to go in to the king. She said: “Go, gather all the Jews who are in Shushan, and fast for me… and so I will go in to the king, which is not according to the law; and if I perish, I perish” (Esther 4:16). The tradition connects this to the fast the Jews kept on 13 Adar as they gathered to defend themselves (“the matters of the fasts and their cry”, Esther 9:31). By the time of the Geonim the fast is already mentioned as an established custom.

The message for today

Before every great victory there is a moment of vulnerability: Esther goes to the king uninvited. The fast teaches that when we know we have no strength alone, we grow stronger as a community: “gather all the Jews”. And in the fast itself we remember that “who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14): each person in his place, in his time.