We are now in perek ה of Megilat Esther. The Jews had been fasting for three days, וַיְהִי בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁלִישִׁי וַתִּלְבַּשׁ אֶסְתֵּר מַלְכוּת
And on the third day, Esther cloaked herself in kingly clothing.
Rashi explains that she dressed in this royal clothing (the Midrash says that she put on Bigdei Shabbat/ Shabbat clothing) because during a down time, a person has to find the ability to realize that he is still a king. Esther dressed herself up, and she went in with confidence and a regal air. She was going to fight against Haman, who comes from Amalek. The numerical value of Amalek is 240, which is the same numerical value as the word Ram which means uplifted/Romemut.
Amalek uses Romemut for evil, as it says, he dove into the bubbling bath and attacked when the Jewish people were on a high. In order to fight back, one has to have what is called the Romemut of kedusha/The uplifted-ness of holiness.
Esther went in with confidence and bitachon , and that is what brought her the salvation.
Rabbi Galinsky tells the following story, about when he was in Siberia, in a slave-labor camp, which had a mixture of Jews and goyim.
He noticed that one of the goyim got up early every morning and put on an old army uniform that was hiding under his pillow. He would salute, and then take off the uniform, put his slave labor garb back on and put the uniform back under his pillow. The rabbi wondered what this was about, and one day he asked the man about it. The man answered that he had been a general in the Polish army, and now that he was in captivity, he did not want to forget who he really was. So he puts on his general’s clothing and saluted every day, to recall his true loftiness.
That is what we have to do in Galut, and when we are in a challenge. No matter how physically oppressed we may be, our spirit has to one of Lavsha Malchut/She wore kingly clothing.
Furthermore, it says that when the King saw Esther, she found Chen/Grace in his eyes. And whenever it says the word HaMelech/the King, in the Megilah, it is really referring to Hashem.
Esther lifted herself up above her lowly situation and did not get depressed. She put on her Bigdei Malchut/kingly clothing, and that is why she found grace in the eyes of Hashem.
That is what Hashem wants of us. He wants us to maintain our lofty level. Then the King stretches out His scepter and brings us closer.
This means that she got help from Above, to bring her closer. The Chatam Sofer says that one of the reasons that Esther made a party was because she was celebrating the Yeshua/salvation, before it happened. From Esther, we learn the power of bitachon, which brought her to the level of “Lavsha Malchut/clothed in kingly clothing.”
Esther is compared to the Jewish people, and it’s interesting that Esther used the words 4,16) “Ubechen/and with this, I will come to the king,” with the fasting and the merits..
The Avudarham points out that we start our prayers on the high holidays with this word- Ubechen, in order to remind ourselves of how Esther went to the king. Just like we go before the King, Hashem, she too went to the King Hashem. And we learn from Esther how to go in.
On Rosh Hashanah, we don’t wear clothing of depression or sadness. We wear fine clothing, because this is what Hashem wants. He wants us to be uplifted. After we blow the shofar we use a pasuk, “We uplift ourselves.” This is how Hashem wants us to act in situations of challenge. He doesn’t want us to act broken but rather to remain in kingly clothing.
These thoughts come from the sefer Vaveh Melech, commentary on Megilat Esther, by Rabbi Eisenstein a’h, of the Forest Park shul in Lakewood.
Have a wonderful day.