Faced with Mordecai’s heavy mourning, Queen Esther recognizes that a highly unusual and significant event is unfolding. To uncover the truth, she launches a secret investigation, entrusting the mission to Hathach, a royal official appointed to attend her. He is not a simple servant, but a loyal, high-ranking authority assigned to assist the queen [יוסף אבן יחיא, ביאור שטיינזלץ]. By selecting such a prominent figure for this task, Esther signals to Mordecai just how seriously she is treating the crisis [אור חדש]. The primary approach among commentators identifies Hathach as the biblical Daniel. According to this view, his name was changed to reflect his circumstances: he was either demoted from his former greatness—highlighting the king’s wickedness in humiliating righteous people—or the name indicates that all royal decrees were decisively determined by him [תורה תמימה, אור חדש, מנות הלוי]. Conversely, some reject this identification due to historical timelines, noting that Daniel would have been extremely old at the time. Instead, they view the comparison metaphorically, suggesting that Hathach was a righteous and faithful official in his own right, much like Daniel was in his generation [אבן עזרא].
The nature of Hathach's mission is highly nuanced. Esther instructs him to stand firmly by Mordecai's side, assisting him swiftly in his time of distress [יוסף אבן יחיא, מנות הלוי]. At the same time, the mission requires absolute secrecy. Because Esther has not yet revealed her national origins, she cannot openly inquire about Mordecai's situation. Therefore, she directs Hathach to investigate the matter indirectly, instructing him to stay close to Mordecai and carefully extract his secret through subtle hints [מלבי״ם, צאינה וראינה, ישע אלהים].
Esther’s inquiry is twofold, reflecting her profound astonishment. She seeks to understand both the external reality and the internal motivation behind Mordecai's behavior, asking why he is wearing sackcloth, and why he refused the replacement clothing she had sent while crying out so bitterly [אור חדש, מנות הלוי, עמנואל הרומי]. In this way, Esther acts like an expert physician diagnosing an illness. She realizes that to resolve the crisis, she must identify not just the immediate symptoms of the distress, but its underlying root cause, knowing that the outcome cannot be changed without first eliminating the source of the problem [מלבי״ם, מנות הלוי].
On a deeper level, Esther understands that a righteous man like Mordecai would not react with such intense emotional turmoil over personal suffering alone; she concludes that this must be a national emergency [ישע אלהים]. She suspects a decree of total annihilation and questions whether the Israelites have committed severe sins to warrant such a fate. Specifically, she wonders if they have violated the Torah or denied God, recognizing that a merciless decree of complete destruction could only stem from a fundamental betrayal of faith, which renders a people vulnerable to total ruin [תורה תמימה, אור חדש]. On an allegorical level, this entire interaction represents an internal human struggle. The messenger symbolizes the faculty of judgment and decision-making, sent inward to investigate why a person is experiencing spiritual distress and whether they have been led astray by their evil inclination [מחיר יין].