Page 250 - Tzurba M'Rabanan Volume1

248 · Hilchot Purim Tzurba M’Rabanan

According to the Rema, it seems that even one who has a headache or similar minor ailment on Ta’anit Esther
would also be permitted to eat, even if they are not ill.
The Mishna Berura cites the reason for this fast in the name of the Levush.

a Mishna Berura 686:2 ב:ופרת | הרורב הנשמ 3 .
For in the times of Mordechai and Esther the Jews gathered on רדאב ג”י םויב ולהקנ רתסאו יכדרמ ימיב יכ
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the 13 of Adar to fight for their lives and they needed to ask שקבל ןיכירצ ויהו םשפנ לע דומעלו םחליהל
for mercy with supplications, that Hashem should help them …םהיביואמ םקנהל ’ד םרזעיש םינונחתו םימחר
avenge their enemies … and it is called the fast of Esther in ךרבתי םשהש רוכזל ידכ רתסא תינעת ארקנו
4
order to recall that Hashem, may He be blessed, sees and hears הנעתי רשאכ ותרצ תעב שיא לכ עמושו האור
every person in his time of strife when he fasts and returns to .םהה םימיב השעש ומכ ,ובבל לכב ’ד לא בושיו
Hashem with all his heart, as He did in those days.

According to the Levush and the Mishna Berura, Ta’anit Esther commemorates the Jews’ fasting and praying
on the 13 of Adar immediately before they went to war to defend themselves (since the king’s decree
th
permitting the killing of the Jews was still in effect, as recorded in the Megilla in chapter 8). In addition, it
seems from the Mishna Berura that in the merit of Esther specifically, who prayed intensely to Hashem and
repented on this day, the fast is named after her to teach that Hashem responds favorably to those engaged
in such prayer.

4. The Mishna Berura also notes (in the section not quoted here) that in such situations, the custom was generally to fast, such as when according to
the Midrash, Moshe fasted on the day the Jews fought with Amalek after leaving Egypt. For this reason, our custom is specifically to fast, not just to
recite additional prayers. [Addition of the editors of the English edition]

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