The aforementioned Gemara in Megillah (15b) says that as Esther entered the area which was filled with idols, she felt the Shechinah leave her, so, ותעמוד — she stood and prayed: א-לי א-לי למה עזבתני — “My G-d, my G-d, why have You forsaken me?” We mentioned above the Medrash. The Gemara offers a different peshat, the Gemara says that she ascribed the Shechinah's departure to the fact that she had displayed disrespect to Achashveirosh (a king appointed by Hashem to rule) by asking Hashem to save her from ‘the dog’ (as recorded in Tehilim 22), a mistake that she immediately rectified by referring to him as 'a lion'.
In the words of R’ Yisroel Reisman: “I would like to understand Esther. That’s not a fine thing to do - can you imagine a Gadol B’Yisroel using the expression - not a rosha - but using the expression dog?! That’s not even a nice expression to use. Why did she use that expression?”
R’ Yisroel Reisman then explains as follows: Rav Hutner (Pachad Yitzchok, Maamar 60) says the following: Chazal (Beitzah 25b) say: שלשה עזין הן – “There are three that have chutzpah”, one of the three is a dog. What is the chutzpah of the dog? Rav Hutner explains, the chutzpah of a dog is that he’s man’s best friend. Why is that chutzpah? The chutzpah is, that he could look at a human being as being on the same level as himself?! The chutzpah of a dog is not when he’s a wild and rabid dog, the chutzpah of a dog is when he’s a warm and friendly dog! The fact that, a dog sees man as his best friend, oy vey!
The special uniqueness of: ולכל בני ישראל לא יחרץ כלב לשֹנו, is not that dogs didn’t attack the Jews, why would a dog attack the Jews, they didn’t bother the dog. It’s that the dogs didn’t even have a friendly bark for the Jews. When Klal Yisroel left Mitzrayim on the morning of Pesach, they were so uplifted, derhoiben, that even a dog that looked at a member of Klal Yisroel saw that, that’s not my friend! Chas vesholam! A friend - it’s le’eyla ule’eyla! A man doesn’t say that a Malach is his friend, and a dog doesn’t say that a person is his friend. Somebody who has no boundaries, inappropriate relationships, fails to see himself where he is. Someone who can be friendly with a dog, has fallen very low.
Esther says Achashveirosh is a dog. So, we think, like a truck driver calls someone a dog. What!? Esther is one of the seven Nevios! If she said dog, she had depth to what she said, a lot of depth. She didn’t call him a dog, like a bum in the street calls people a dog. She said the middah of a dog, because he has relationships that crosses a boundary, where it’s inappropriate. Achashveirosh thinks that he’s a shidduch for me!? Achashveirosh thinks that Esther HaMalkah - even if he didn’t know that she’s Jewish, but he saw her fine middos, he saw her extraordinary personality, he saw her yiras Shomayim, he saw her ahavas habriyos, and he thinks that he’s a shidduch for me? Hakodosh Boruch Hu, save me “miyad kelev” - what’s kelev? Kelev is, the danger to me is that he’s acting like a kelev, he sees me as someone on his level. Oy, hatzilah.
