Lesson 6 : The Heroism of Mordechai and Esther

Purim is upon us and it is time for a midrash or two to celebrate. In this lesson, we will try to discover a little about what the sages saw in Modechai and Esther to rank them as religiously heroic characters. Again, as is our practice, we are only going to focus on a verse or two from the Biblical story for the impetus for creating the midrashim which will be our focus.

Mordechai

1. From the story of Mordechai, we will take but a snippet of which we are interested in one particular verse.

Questions and Things to Notice

1. We are interested in verses 5 and 7. In verse 5, we are interested in the fact that Mordechai is described as an ” איש יהודי ” which is translated here as a “certain Jew” but which could also be translated as a “Judean man”. At the end of the sentence, he is described as an ” איש ימיני ” – a Benjaminite. Our midrashic antennas should perk up here. How can someone be both a Judean and a Benjaminite. Of course, according to the plain sense of this verse, he is a Jew who is a Benjaminite, but our reading offers us creative opportunities!

2. A word of background to explain the inherent animosity between Mordechai and Haman is in order. Mordechai, as a Benjaminite is a descendent of Saul, the first king of Israel. Saul was commanded by God through the prophet Samuel to destroy the tribe of Amalek. Saul only partially fulfilled this command, leaving the king, Agag alive. The prophet Samuel completed the job. (See 1 Samuel 15.) Haman is an Agagite. So now we see where the animosity stems from. It has always surprised me that this very basic information has rarely been supplied to readers.

The midrashim for this week’s lesson come from the second part of Esther Rabbah which means that as midrashim go they are rather late, probably from around the 9th century. They were composed in Eretz Yisrael.

Midrash 1

Questions and Comments

1. This first midrash is a peticha. It starts with a verse from elsewhere [Psalm 106:3-4] and works its way back to the verse from Esther. This peticha interprets this verse two separate times – separated by the words: ” דבר אחר ” – “another interpretation”.
2. The verse from the psalm is:

In verse 3 we are particularly interested in how we might understand the words – “at all times”. What is the pshat or plain meaning of these words in this verse?

In the midrash we want to test out a different meaning. We want to take these words “super-literally. What would these words mean if we read them super-literally?

1. In the first part of the midrash we test out this super-literal meaning 3 times to see if it is possible to understand it this way. We first test it against two professions which were considered acts of Tzedakah – teachers and ritual scribes (what we call sofrim and what they called kotvim.) What is the conclusion of the midrash with regard to these two examples.
2. The 3rd example is one who raises orphans. What is the conclusion this case?
3. What does Rabbi Elazar Hamodei do in his interpretation of the verse from Psalms?
4. Of the three examples why was this one given last, immediately before the second part of the midrash?
5. In the second part of the midrash, we interpret the verses from Psalms a second time. What is our point of reference for interpreting these verses?
6. When we interpret verse 4 of the Psalm – “Remember me when you favor Your people”, who is stating this according to the midrash?
7. The answer, of course is David. He is asking God to take account
   of “his merits” when it comes time to save Esther, Mordechai and the rest of the gang in Persia. We call this concept ” זכות אבות ” – “the merits of the forefathers. The midrash wants to say that the Jews in Persia were saved because of David.
8. Where would they possibly come up with this idea? Remember when we analyzed this verse from Esther at the beginning of our lesson. In it we said that one could read this verse as self-contradictory. How could Mordechai be both from the tribe of Judah and from the tribe of Benjamin. This midrash tries to solve this dilemma. How does it accomplish this?
9. When you have solved this riddle, you will be at the end of the peticha which ends with the verse from Esther.

Midrash 2

Questions and Comments

This midrash is a word by word commentary on Esther 2:5. The object of your studies in this section will be to determine what is the issue in the verse which inspires the comment on each verse? I have numbered each comment in the midrash for easy reference.

1. Lines 1-8 use the word ” איש ” – “man” as a jumping off point for a comparative study of Modechai and Moshe.
2. Lines 9-12 pay close attention to the word order in announcing the name of Mordechai and attempt to draw a lesson from it.
3. Lines 13-20 try to answer the same question raised in the first midrash, namely, what is the purpose of calling Mordechai a “yehudi” when he is a Benjaminite. Notice the word play on “yehudi” spelled with a “hey” and “yehidi” spelled with a “het”. The sages are making a play on the similarity both physically and in sound between these two letters. (And you thought that only Hebrew school kids toy with the difference between “hey” and “het”.
4. Lines 21-26 plays on this same them comparing Mordechai to Abraham for having similar qualities to the master architect of faith in God.
5. Lines 27-28 reiterate the theme of 13-26.

Things to consider

1. This midrash tries to paint a portrait of Mordechai. How would you characterize that portrait?
2. How does this portrait change the story as it is found in the book of Esther?
3. What is the purpose of this makeover?

Questions and Comments

1. The midrashim on “Esther” here are based on portions of Esther 2:7, cited above. Each midrash attempts to wring out added significance from the words of the verse.

Conclusions

As a preliminary remark, I just want to remind you that I have given you only a selection of the midrashim having to do with Mordechai and Esther. It would therefore be difficult to draw any firm conclusions about how the sages viewed these heroes of our story.

There were two selections concerning Mordechai. The first midrash was a peticha using a verse from Psalms which talked about tzedakah. This midrash has two parts, the first part discusses tzedakah and the second part dealt with Mordechai.

1.

In the first part the midrash focused on the words “at all times”. At first the midrash read this phrase in a super-literal way, meaning. 24/7 and asked if anyone was able to perform tzedakah in this manner. The midrash goes through a number of examples, teachers and scribes, noting that neither of these acts of tzedakah can be performed “all of the time”. It then, settles on those who cares for orphans but concludes that even they do not for the children all of the time. So the sages are now stymied and need help in solving this riddle. They then call upon Rabbi Eliezer HaModai to save the day. He does this simply but elegantly by reverting back to a common sense understanding of “at all times”, taking it to mean “on a constant basis”. Consequently, those who take in orphans proves to be one who does tzedakah at all times since he or she cares for feeding the child on a constant basis.

The conclusion of the first part of this midrash segues well with the second part which starts by portraying Mordechai in his role as guardian of Esther. The midrash then focuses on the next verse from the Psalm: ” Remember me, O Lord, when You favor Your people; Think of me at Thy salvation’ . This verse is associated with David since, he, traditionally is considered the author of the Psalms. David asks that he be remembered when the Jews are redeemed. This seems to come out of the blue. What could David possibly have to do with the redemption of the Jews in Persia.

The answer to this question is to be found in the verse from Esther which describes Mordechai. There Mordechai is described as a “ish yehuda” – a Jew or Judean and an “ish yemini” – a Benjaminite. The midrash sees this as a contradiction and thus interests the “ish yehuda” to be David. What does David have to do with Purim? Simple, his merits provided the “money in the bank” which served as the antidote to the money Haman paid to Achasuerus to kill the Jews. With this association the midrash draws to its close.

2.

The second midrash is based on the same question found in the verse from Esther – how to accommodate calling Mordechai both an “ish yeshudi” and an “ish yemini”? Here the answer is different. Moredchai is both. How do we solve the problem? We interpret “yehudi” to mean something different. “Yehudi” becomes “yekhidi” – the “hey” becomes a “het” since these two letters look similar – so Mordechai is a yehudi because he is a yekhidi – one who unifies God’s name.

The rest of the midrash is about illustrating in various ways how Mordechai proclaims God’s oneness by standing up to Haman. As I saw in your comments, this infuses religious themes into the story by making Mordechai into a religious heroic figure likened to Abraham instead of just a national political hero.

3.

There are two separate midrashim on Esther. The first is a midrash on her Hebrew name – Hadassah which derives from the word – hadas meaning myrtle and then describes Esther symbolically using the qualities of myrtle.

The second midrash contends with a problem raised by describing Esther as being without father and mother. In halacha, a child whose father and mother are unknown has a problematic status. This midrash comes to remove this status from Esther.