We are in Chapter Ten, the final chapter of Megilat Esther. All the worries are gone and the salvation has come. It says
כִּי מָרְדֳּכַי הַיְּהוּדִי מִשְׁנֶה לַמֶּלֶךְ אֲחַשְׁוֵרוֹשׁ וְגָדוֹל לַיְּהוּדִים וְרָצוּי לְרֹב אֶחָיו דֹּרֵשׁ טוֹב לְעַמּוֹ וְדֹבֵר שָׁלוֹם לְכָל־זַרְע
“Mordechai is the viceroy to king Ahashverosh. He was great among the Jews, liked by most of his brothers, always looking to do good for his people, and speaking peace to all of his seed.”
There is an important lesson here.
Rashi infers (and it comes from the Gemarah) that Mordechai was like by most of his brothers, but not all. His fellows on the Sandhedrin slightly distanced themselves from him, because he wasn’t learning as much as he should, now that he was busy with the government.
What does that mean, how are we to understand this, and why are these the parting words of Megilat Esther? It’s almost like a downer on Mordechai.
We have to go back a few chapters to explain: A few chapters prior to this, is says, “The Jewish people reaccepted the Torah during the story of Purim.” Our rabbis tell us that on Har Sinai, the Jews were forced into receiving the Torah. It wasn’t done willingly. The Torah has two parts- the Written Law and Oral Law. The Written Law, the five Books of Moses, is pretty easy. They accepted that willingly. But to accept the Torah Sh’B’Al Peh, the Gemarah, and the endless learning that is involved, the continued decrees and additions by the rabbis… that they were not so comfortable with. But they reaccepted at the time of Purim, because Purim was all about Mordechai showing us that you’re successful when you listen to guidance of the Torah scholars, such as Mordechai. He told them not to go to the party but they didn’t listen…. And he was right. He said not to bow, but they didn’t listen… and he was right. In the end, they saw that Mordechai became the hero. He was directing Esther the whole time, and he knew what he was doing. He was being guided by God’s Divine Spirit.
This was important, because as they entered the era of the Second Bet HaMikdash, they no longer had prophets- so following the lead of great Torah Scholars was extremely important.
This was the era that the Mishna and Gemarah were introduced- in the time of Purim.
Mordechai brought this out in a very powerful way: On the night before he was supposed to be hung, Haman came to get him and found him up at night, learning with his students before he was about to die, before the people are ready to be killed.
He was just learning. When Haman asked him what he was learning, he explained that he was learning the laws of Kemitzah, the laws of scooping of the Omer, in preparation for the rebuilding of the Bet HaMikdash.
Haman exclaimed in defeat, “Your scoop of flour overcame my thousands of silver bars.”
Haman realized the power of Mordechai’s learning- just like all good Nazis do.
Rabbi Scher used to keep a small paper in his pocket, which described how a great Nazi referred to Orthodox Jews.
In the Sephardic Heritage Hagadah of Artscroll, this memorandum is quoted. It was dispatched by I.A. Echhart, yimach shemo, the chief of the German Occupation Power on October 25th, 1940, from the central office of the German Security Forces, to the Nazi district governors in Occupied Poland. It instructed them not to grant exit visas to Jews from Eastern Europe.
The reason behind this order was clearly spelled out. There was a fear that because of their orthodoxy, these Jews from Eastern Europe would allow dir rabina and Talmud-lerer the rabbis and teachers of the Talmud to create the spiritual regeneration of the Jews in America and throughout the world. The Germans realized that they would not succeed in fulfilling their dream of physically exterminating all the Jews, but they did deem it possible to spiritually annihilate all Jews throughout the world. That’s what they tried to do when, they did not want to let out, “those learners.“ The Nazis, who come from Amalek, know the power of Torah Sh’B’Al Peh.
That is what Mordechai showed us. The way you beat the enemy is only through learning Torah, specifically Torah Sh’B’Al Peh/Oral Law.
Mordechai had no choice, he had to get involved in the government. That was his job. But even so, the Sanhedrin didn’t want people to make the mistake of thinking that the greatness of Mordechai was in his political activism.
Mordechai’s greatness was that he was a learner. Yes, he had to be a political activist, but people wouldn’t walk away from the Megilah with the wrong message, thinking that what made Mordechai great was his activism. What made him great was that he sat and he learned.
That learning is what protected the Jewish people.
Have a wonderful day and Purim Sameach.
Baruch Hashem, we had a Dvar Torah on every perek.
Thank you to the young lady who had the idea!