When Queen Esther was informed of Haman’s decree to eliminate the Jewish people, she decided to approach King Ahashverosh and persuade him to reverse the Royal edict. But the execution of her plan was not so simple. According to rabbi Moshe Almosnino (yede Moshe) Ahashverosh’s attitude towrd the jews was ambivalent and Esther did not know if Ahashverosh and Haman were on the same page, or if the King was tricked by Haman to carry out the terrible edict. Esther planned to invite the King together with Haman to a feast (5:4) for “intelligence gathering”. If she would find out that Ahashverosh was in complicity with Haman, she would try to dissuade Haman. If she would find out, however, that Ahashverosh was tricked by Haman, then she would expose Haman’s plot in front of Ahashverosh, hoping to gain the King’s favor (7:4). As risky as this mission looks, there was one, even more dangerous step that Esther had to take beforehand: in order to invite the King, Esther had to talk to the King. We would probably think that talking with the King was the easiest part, especially for the Queen. But Esther knew that in the Kingdom of Ahashverosh things were different. By law, it was the King’s exclusive prerogative to summon one of his subjects, including the Queen. And Esther was not called by the King not even once in the last month (4:11). No one, even the Queen, had the right to ask for an audience with the King unless one would trespass into the “King’s security area” (hatser hapenimit), uninvited, and at one’s own risk. Let me explain. The Persian Kings had guards to the sides of the throne, armed with long axes, and ready to execute on the spot any trespasser. Persian Emperors were obsessed with their personal security, and rightly so. Ahashverosh himself was assassinated by one of his own bodyguards, Artabanus, in 465 BCE. The Persian law (dat) established that anyone entering Ahashverosh’s restricted “security zone” should be immediately executed (4:11), unless the King himself stops the executioners and decides to pardon the trespasser, extending his scepter as a sign of Royal forgiveness. Esther knew that this King had already caused the execution of his previous Queen, Vashty (1:19 ). She feared for her life but she had no choice. There was nothing anyone else was able to do to gain access to the King and do something to stop Haman’s decree. Esther then decided to risk her life (4:16) embarking in her suicidal mission to trespass into the King’s “death zone”.
