08 Mar PARSHAS ZACHOR (VAYIKRA): THE GREATEST ACCOLADE GIVEN TO MORDECHAI:

The last pasuk

[verse] in the

Megilla reads

“For Mordechai,

the Yehudi, was

viceroy to King

Ahashuerus; he

was a great man among the Jews,

and found favor with the multitude

of his brothers (ratzui l’rov echav);

he sought the good of his people and

spoke with peace to all his posterity.

(v’dover shalom l’chol zar’oh)” [Esther

10:3]

The Ibn Ezra makes two very interesting

comments on this pasuk. He

says regarding the phrase “he found

favor with the multitude (literally the

majority) of his brothers,” that because

of jealousy, a person cannot

find favor with everyone. It is impos sible

to be perfectly popular.

Then the Ibn Ezra comments on the

buildup of praises that we have in the

pasuk. The concluding, and seemingly

greatest praise is that “he spoke

with peace to all his posterity.” The

Ibn Ezra comments that this means

he was on good terms with all his

children and grandchildren.

This seems anti-climactic. Is this

the greatest thing we can find to say

about Mordechai HaYehudi? The

Ibn Ezra says this is indeed a great

praise.

Think of all the children and grandchildren

that Mordechai had. Did

each one turn out exactly like Mordechai

would have wanted? If Mordechai

would have wanted all his

children and grandchildren to become

Torah scholars, do we expect

that is the way it would have worked

out? Or, if he wanted them all to be

expert businesspersons, do we expect

that is the way it would turn

out? Maybe there would be a black

sheep in the family that became a

scholar!

And yet, he spoke in peace to all

descendants. He was able to maintain

a peaceful relationship with all

his children and all his grandchildren.

This, the Ibn Ezra tells us, is a

great thing. Because of the natural

fear that children have towards parents,

it is not always true that there is

a loving relationship between parents

and children. Therefore if Mordechai

could maintain such a relationship,

this is indeed the highest

accolade that the Torah can offer

him.

I think this is a great ethical lesson

for us. We try to raise children, and

we have certain ideals and standards

of how we would like our children to

be. It does not always turn out like

that. But we should always strive to

maintain a relationship where we

can, at least, speak peacefully with

all our offspring.

—————————-

One Who Gladdens Hearts on

Purim is Compared to G-d

The Ramba”m in the Laws of Yom

Tov [6:18] speaks about the nature of

the Mitzvah of Simchas Yom Tov.

The Ramba”m says, “when he eats

and drinks, he has to feed the stranger,

the orphan, and widow together

with the other poor and unfortunate

people. However he who locks the

gates of his courtyard and sits down

to feast with his wife and children

but does not provide food for the

poor and embittered of spirit — such

is not the rejoicing of Mitzvah; it is

the rejoicing of one’s own stomach!”

In the Laws of Megilla [2:17] as

well, the Ramba”m speaks of the

mitzvah of rejoicing on Purim. There

the Ramba”m writes, “It is preferable

for a person to be excessive when

it comes to the Mitzvah of giving

gifts to the poor rather than to be excessive

when it comes to feasting

and sending food portions to friends,

because there is no greater or more

glorious rejoicing than to gladden

the hearts of the poor, the orphans,

the widows, and the strangers, for

one who gladdens the hearts of these

unfortunate individuals can be compared

to the Shechina (G-d’s Divine

Presence) as it is written [Yeshaya

57:15] ‘to revive the spirit of the

humble and to revive the heart of the

crushed.’”

It would seem to us that if we would

speculate when there is a greater

mitzvah to gladden the hearts of the

widows and orphans — on Yom Tov

or on Purim — we would logically

think that on Yom Tov there would

be a bigger mitzvah. Yom Tov, after

all, is a Biblical command. Purim is

Rabbinic in origin. Yet the Ramba”m

goes out of his way and says something

that he says very rarely in the

entire Mishneh Torah — “that one

who gladdens the hearts of these can

be compared to the Shechina!” He

does not say that concerning the

laws of Yom Tov.

What is the Ramba”m telling us

here by saying that a person who

makes the less fortunate happy on

Purim is comparable to G-d?

The Medrash in Esther says on the

pasuk “to know what is this (mah

ZEH) and about what is this (v’al

mah ZEH)” [Esther 4:5] that when

Esther queried Mordechai she was

alluding to something. She said

“What’s happening? What have we

done? Never in Jewish history has

there been such a decree as Haman

has issued. Have they perhaps denied

the pasuk ‘This is my G-d’

(ZEH Keyli) or perhaps they denied

the Ten Commandments about

which it is written ‘from this way

and that way (m’ZEH u-mi’ZEH)

were they written?”

The Medrash continues that Mordechai

responded and said that the

reason the Jews were suffering was a

result of the grandson of ‘Karahu.’

Who is ‘Karahu?’ ‘Karahu’ refers to

Amalek about which it is stated,

“Who happened to you (asher Korecha)

on the road” [Devorim 25:18].

Our Sages tell us that Amalek represents

the antithesis of Belief in this

world. Amalek denies the existence

of a Creator of the world.

When Mordechai told Esther that

the Jews are suffering because of

‘Karahu,’ he was saying that the

Jews were suffering because of a terrible,

terrible, lack of Emunah (belief).

This is a lack of belief that even

in our own times we don’t see. What

do I mean? We have Jews today who

do not believe — do they ‘believe’

more than the Jews in the time of

Mordechai and Esther?

What I mean is as follows: The Talmud

says that the reason the Jews

were deserving of destruction, was

that “they enjoyed the banquet of

that evil one” [Megilla 12a]. What

was so bad about partaking in the

banquet of Ahashuerus?

Was it Treife? Heaven Forbid! “The

drinking was according to the law,

nothing was forced” [Esther 1:8]. It

was Kosher as could be, according to

every stringent opinion. So what was

the sin? The sin was that the Jews attended

a Feast given by the gentile,

at which the gentiles took out the

Vessels of Service (Klei Shares) of

the Beis HaMikdash — and the Jews

sat there and kept on feasting!

Even Jews who today are totally assimilated,

who would not think twice

about eating at a non-kosher feast…

if their non-Jewish hosts would serve

them on the utensils stolen from the

holy Temple, their reaction would

be: Stop! “These are the utensils of

the Holy Temple.” Which Jew would

not get up and yell, “These are my

utensils! These are the vessels of our

Beis HaMikdash!”?

The fact that the Jews in Shushan

could sit there through a meal and

use those vessels was a terrible sin!

What was wrong with them? What

was wrong with those Jews was that

they were ‘hopeless Jews.’ They

were Jews who had lost all hope.

They had counted the 70 years of the

Exile, and knew that the Exile was

supposed to be over and yet the Redemption

had not yet come. Those

were Jews who had seen the building

of the Second Beis HaMikdash

stopped in its tracks. Those were

Jews who had come to the conclusion

that there would be no Redemption.

Those were Jews who said

“Moshiach is not going to come.”

Those were hopeless Jews.

The difference between those Jews

and the Jews of our day is that today,

as non-observant as a Jew may be,

he can still can believe in Judaism,

he can believe in G-d and redemption,

and he knows that there is hope.

That is what the story of Purim restored.

There was a decree. The Jews

were motivated to do Teshuva and

the Ribbono shel Olam came back

and breathed life into this dead body

of the Jewish people and gave them

hope. That is what happened on Purim.

G-d took His breath of Life and

restored hope to a forlorn nation.

Rav Hutner said there is a mitzvah

to emulate G-d. If G-d on Purim

brought the dead back to life, if He

took hopeless and down-trodden

Jews and gave them hope, it becomes

our Mitzvah on Purim to do

the same thing. Therefore the

Ramba”m says that on Purim there is

no greater mitzvah than to gladden

the hearts of the unfortunate and

downtrodden. The essence of the day

is to give hope, meaning, and comfort

to broken-spirited people… because

that is what

G-d did. A person therefore who

does this will be comparable to G-d.