However, your question could be asked with a different twist: Why does Esther fast before going to the king? Wouldn’t that make her less pretty and lessen her chances of finding favor in the king’s eyes?

Let me answer with a story. A rich man had the custom to invite all the poor people of the city to his home for feasts. At the end of each feast, he would offer each of his guests the opportunity to take one thing from the table. Some would take a silver spoon, a plate—whatever caught their fancy.

She viewed her actions like a check: its value depends on the amount of money in the account.

The next week, the poor man invited all his friends to a huge feast at his hovel. They all came and sat around his empty table. Where’s the food? Be patient, it’s coming. The poor man took the tin bell and gave it a ring. Nothing happened. No servants came in with platters of luscious foods. The poor man was shocked, not to mention greatly embarrassed. He ran to the rich man’s home and shouted, “You tricked me! You gave me the wrong bell!”

The moral of the story is that sometimes we forget the main thing and focus on the secondary thing. In the case of Esther, she knew that salvation would not come because of her efforts, but by G-d’s blessing. Her appearance was only the tool, the ringing of the bell, that would allow G-d’s blessing to have a natural path to be fulfilled. So she prayed and fasted, knowing that the main thing was to elicit G-d’s blessings through good deeds. She knew that the vessel, the tin bell, was only secondary. She viewed her actions like a check: its value depends on the amount of money in the account.