Q&A: Mordechai Provokes Haman: A Rash Act or a Proper One?
Mordechai Provokes Haman: A Rash Act or a Proper One?
Question
Mordechai would neither kneel nor bow down.
The result: almost a Holocaust for the Jewish people.
The Scroll does not praise his act, nor does it criticize it.
In your opinion, was this a proper act?
Or a grave act that should never have been done?
Answer
I don’t know how to judge it. You need to live in that period in order to determine whether it was justified or not. There are situations in which it is indeed proper to bend (assuming this was not idolatry, and opinions differ on that). But there are situations in which, despite the danger, it is not right to do so, in order to educate the public. Especially since Mordechai did not know that his action would bring consequences for all the Jews. At most, he took a risk on himself.
Discussion on Answer
With God's help, 18 Adar 5781
Mordechai held a senior position in the king’s court (as mentioned in the book of Daniel, where the one who sat at the king’s gate was appointed over all the wise men). By virtue of his office, Mordechai knew very well the law that exempted Jews from the idolatrous rites performed in honor of the king, and all the more so that he was exempt from an idolatrous rite in honor of the king’s viceroy.
A complaint by Haman against Mordechai would, as was customary, have been brought before the high court of the “seven who see the king’s face,” and it would have been dismissed out of hand as contrary to law and procedure. Haman knew this, and therefore did not dare put Mordechai on trial. A demand to destroy the Jewish people as well should have been deliberated before the high court, except that Haman and Ahasuerus invented, at the wine feast, a kind of “route that bypasses the Supreme Court,” as the Sages wondered: “For one wretch, according to law, but for an entire nation, not according to law?”
Such a move, in which the king himself would simply thumb his nose at the accepted laws and procedures—Mordechai could not have anticipated. And he publicized what had happened in public *), in order to stir even the Persian nobles to protest the breaking of the legal order.
Best regards, Yaron Fishel Ordner
*) For the decree of destruction was not publicized openly. “A copy of the writ was to be disclosed to all the peoples” said only “that they should be ready for that day.” Only the senior officials of the empire, including Mordechai, knew the detailed plan, and Mordechai leaked the secret publicly in order to arouse decent Persian nobles to use their influence to cancel the injustice. As Justice Brandeis said: “Sunlight is the best disinfectant.”
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… in Daniel 2:49, where the one who sat at the gate…
Rabbi Dessler devoted an essay to this question in Michtav MeEliyahu, in the context of the topic of faith in the Sages (after the Holocaust). I don’t remember exactly, but in short: clearly Mordechai acted properly, even though to us it seems improper. See there.
Did he have the status of a pursuer?