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When Mordechai told Esther that two of the King's guards were plotting to kill him, she went right away to tell the king directly.

Yet when Mordechai later asked her to approach the king to save all the Jews, she resisted and said she couldn't approach him without having been summoned.

What happened?

I can think of a couple plausible explanations, but I don't know if any of them is correct:

  • Esther just happened to be summoned before the king in the first instance. (But if so, why didn't the Megillah tell us this, since in the later instance it tells us just how dangerous it is to go without being summoned - wouldn't this be yet another instance of hidden Divine assistance?)

  • Esther was admonished for approaching the king without having been summoned in the first instance. (This could explain her rather lengthy explanation later, not to mention her emphasis that, "everyone in the kingdom knows that you can't do this.")

  • A twist to the second scenario above: the first instance resulted in a change in the law (and/or a widely publicized announcement of the law).

  • It was simply due to the nature of the assignment: the first being to save the king, the second being to save herself and her people.

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Mightn't the first case have been accomplished with a note or a messenger? Or, perhaps she was being called to the king regularly at the time, but explicitly wasn't ("these thirty days") later on. – Isaac Moses Feb 25 at 20:09
@IsaacMoses, maybe. That could answer my question. But as for Peshat, there's nothing to indicate that. Hence, my question. – Seth J Feb 25 at 20:11
Rephrase: As for Peshat, there's nothing to indicate that or anything else that might explain the difference. Hence, my question. – Seth J Feb 25 at 20:37
What about the third time, after Haman's hanging? – Double AA♦ Feb 25 at 21:01
@DoubleAA, it sounds like they were in the middle of a conversation or a meeting, or else having frequent meetings, at that point, no? hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=39922&st=&pgnum=130 – Seth J Feb 25 at 21:20
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The Persian kings had a well-established process—a secret police, even—for reporting threats against the crown. (Source: Rabbi Yehuda Landy’s Purim and the Persian Empire, quoting historical sources.) Esther may have used those channels rather than approaching the king directly.

This may explain why Mordechai was not rewarded immediately: although his name was entered into the record (since Esther told the king—or his agents—in Mordechai’s name), initial credit for the report would have been given to Esther.

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Interesting. Except it says she told it to the king in Mordechai's name. – Seth J Feb 26 at 17:08

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