Megillat Esther: Esther's fast

Megillat Esther (4:16) records that Esther told Mordechai that he should tell all the Jews of Shushan to fast for three days and nights and that she and her maidens would also fast. This fast included not drinking water as well as not eating. 4:17 records that Mordechai did as Esther commanded and 5:1 records that Esther went to see Achashverosh on the third day, which presumably was the third day of the fast. This fasting is difficult. How many people can survive 72 hours without food or water? Was this a reasonable request by Esther for all the Jews of Shushan to fast for three days? How could Esther been able to see Achashverosh after three days of fasting?

Ibn Ezra (on 4:16) attempts to limit the fast since he notes that she came to Achashverosh on the third day which means that she “only” fasted two full days. He notes that even by the third day, her face would have been gaunt from fasting but that she trusted in G-d and not in her beauty. Yet, even two days of fasting is difficult, and the people who acceded to her request to fast for three days would not have known to stop after Esther met Achashverosh.

S. Goldman (1946, on 4:16) writes, “The fast need not have been a continuous fast for three days. The Midrash asserts that food was taken at the sunset of each day.” I do not know the source of this Midrash, but it seems difficult because 4:16 explicitly records that the fast was for days and nights. Instead, Goldman’s first suggestion, that the fast was on three separate days, seems very reasonable. Esther went to Achashverosh on the third day that she fasted, but she was able to speak to him and was her usual radiant self since she had "only" been fasting for half a day.

There is an interesting support for this understanding from Masekhet Soferim (9th century? 17:4 and 21:1, see also Shulchan Arukh, Orah Chayyim 666:3), which quotes that by Purim there was a three day fast but it was not continuous. The fast was on Monday, Thursday and Monday, and the custom in Israel was to have the three day fast after Purim. This custom of fasting on three separate days might have developed since it was considered too much to ask people to fast for three consecutive days, even though people could eat at night, or maybe the idea of fasting three separate days was because it was thought that Esther’s fast was also on three separate days.