The Fast of Esther

We have waited patiently for the Lorn, and He has turned toward us and heard Is. 26 our cry. And on the path of Your laws, Lorn, we have waited for You, for it is Your name and Your memory that are our souls’ desire. DMD As a father has compassion for his children, so, Lorp, have compassion for us. Salvation is the Lorp’s; on Your people is Your blessing, Selah! Ps. 3 The Lorp of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our stronghold, Selah! Ps. 46 Lord of hosts, happy is the one who trusts in You. Ps. 84 Lorp, save! May the King answer us on the day we call. Ps. 20 > Forgive, please, this people's iniquity, Num. 14 in the abundance of Your kindness, and as You have forgiven this people from the time of Egypt until now, and there it is written: Congregation then Leader: And the Lorp said, I have forgiven as you asked. Continue: 79:1 Give ear, my God and hear; open Your eyes and see our desolation, and the Dan. 9 city that bears Your name, for it is not on the strength of our righteousness that we throw down our pleadings before You, but on the strength of Your great compassion. Lorp, hear me; Lorp, forgive, Lor, listen and act and do not delay — for Your sake, my God; for Your city and Your people bear Your name. Our God and God of our fathers: DI When a man rose up against us, convulsions of trembling seized us. When he attached himself to a government of flattery, we almost stumbled and fell. They cheerfully closed an agreement to sell us, as a person with an unwanted mound gives it away quite freely to one with an unwanted pit. There was no defense. They said, “Come, let us annihilate them from among nations: the name of Israel shall Ps. 83 be recalled no more.” My eyes turned heavenward and I called on You to curse my enemies: “Cut off name and remnant; expunge their name, let it rot. And be Enemy to my enemies; bring them down in the very deceptions with which they deceived the people of Jacob.” And they said, “The Lorp will not see; the God of Jacob willnot Ps. 94 comprehend.” Yet God tormented the scattered ones and made them mournful — but did not mean to destroy them utterly. They were guilty on the face of things, and so He terrorized them. By the taking off of a ring, He made them tremble. But God ful- filled the good of His word, raising them up in the view of nations. “In their enemies’ Lev. 26 land He did not reject them, and did not detest them to the point of destruction.’ He revealed the premonition of events for a nation begrimed and scratched over. He wrote “I shall surely hide (astir) Myself” to hint at Esther, and fragrant “pure myrrh,’ translated “mar-dokh,” to hint at Mordekhai; all to put an end to Haman on the