When Esther was contemplating whether or not to approach King Achashveirosh on behalf of her people, Morderchai told her (Esther 4:14) that if she does not go before him, “relief and rescue will arise for the Jews from elsewhere, and you and your father’s household will perish.”
The fourth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Shmuel of Lubavitch, explained the verse as follows[1]:
Relief and rescue will arise for the Jews from elsewhere: G-d has many emissaries to send salvation to the Jewish People.
You and your father’s household will perish: If you do not seize the opportunity, you will lose the merit.
It is forbidden to squander the great merit of being G-d’s emissary to do a kindness to another Jew.
[1] Igros Kodesh, Previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, Vol. 4 Pg. 47
