Bringing Light to the Nations
Purim, 5764
Shmuel Herzfeld
The Book of Esther tells the story of intrigue and backroom dealings in the royal palace.
In many ways, it is a secular work (e.g. no mention of God’s name) meant as a political
commentary. The Jewish people for the first time since they were enslaved in Egypt are
in a foreign land in service to a foreign empire. They face enormous challenges to
survive politically. The Book of Esther comes and offers them guidance. What is this
guidance?
Most commentators understand the Purim story as correcting King Shaul’s failure to wipe
out Amalek. The first king of Israel was Shaul the son of Kish. He was appointed king
by the prophet, Shmuel. Shmuel commands him to wipe out Amalek—to kill all the
people, as well as all the animals. Shmuel defeats Amalek, yet he shows mercy upon the
King of Amalek, Agag, and allows him to live. In addition, he takes the best of the
animals as booty. When Shmuel hears this he tells Shaul, “karah Hashem et mamlachut
Yisrael me-alekha, God has torn away the Kingship of Israel from you.” Thus, Shaul
loses the kingdom on account of the fact that he did not kill Agag and the Jews took the
booty of Amalek.
Mordechai is a descendant of Shaul. He is Mordechai ben Yair…ben Kish, from the tribe
of Benjamin. Mordechai does battle with Haman the Agagite, a descendant of King
Agag. Mordechai defeats Haman and kills not only him, but also his ten sons.
Mordechai shows no mercy upon Agag’s descendant Haman. Furthermore, the text tells
us that in Mordechai’s battle the Jews did not touch the booty at all, u-va-bizah lo
shalchu yadam.
As most commentators explain, Mordechai fixes the damage done by Shaul’s sin. Where
Shaul could not kill Agag, Mordechai kills Haman; where Shaul took the booty of
Amalek, Mordechai does not allow the Jews to take the booty of Haman.
That is one way to read the story, but it is not the only way. Let’s take another approach
and see where it leads us.
Perhaps Mordechai still comes to repair the sin of Shaul; but, maybe, it wasn’t only the
sin of Amalek. Maybe it was a much more fundamental sin.
The fundamental question that the narrative books of the prophets deal with is the issue
of monarchy. The Jews approach the prophet, Shmuel, and say (I Samuel 8: 6), “Simah
lanu melakh le-shaftenu ke-khol hagoyim, Give us a king to judge us like all the nations.”
Shmuel reluctantly agrees to give them a king, but first he tells them what this king will
do to them. The king will take your sons for his army and he will take your daughters to
be in his service. He will take your crops and vineyards and give them to his servants.
The king will abuse your rights.
Despite this warning, the Jews ask for a king. Shaul is a weak king. But, most of the
kings are weak. In the end, the Temple is destroyed, the Jews are exiled, and they end up
as subjects to Achashverosh.
This is the background to the Purim story. The story is actually a continuation of the
request of the Jewish people. They had asked for a king, ke-khol ha-goyim. Well, now
they were subject to a king who was king over all the nations (kol ha-am, 1:5) of the
world.
Achashverosh was the living embodiment of what Shmuel warned about. Achashverosh
took the people’s money to throw a six month party; he kidnapped the women of the
kingdom and then assigned them to perpetuity in his harem. He was a king who made
evil decrees and invented harsh, new laws. He was an evil, cruel, calculating king.
The Jewish people told Shmuel, ve-hayinu gam anakhnu ke-khol ha-goyim, we want to be
just like all the nations. Be careful what you ask for, because this is exactly what they
got. They were now in a secular kingdom being ruled over by a king who was ruler of all
the nations.
The great mistake that the Jewish people made—the mistake that led to their exile—was
that they asked for a king like all of the nations. The first king they appointed was Shaul.
Mordechai’s role as a descendant of Shaul was to reverse this giant mistake.
Consider the following:
Mordechai is in many ways the anti-king. He is the gadfly. He is the political outsider
who sits at the gate of the king. He refuses to listen to the king and publicly violates his
commandments (over et mitzvat hamelekh, 3:3). He is much smarter than the king and in
fact the king owes his life to him.
Mordechai is offered the opportunity to join the royal palace. Esther sends garments to
clothe Mordechai, va-tishlach begadim le-halbish et Mordechai. In the Bible to dress
someone in garments is a sign of kingship. Esther wants Mordechai to become a king or
a prince. Instead, Mordechai willingly tears his garments. Tearing garments in the Bible
is a symbol of losing royal power. Saul knows he has lost the kingdom for good once
David tears his garment. On his own accord, Mordechai disdains the kingship; he wants
no part of it. Even at the end of the story when he becomes powerful, Mordechai still has
no interest in setting up his own kingdom.
Shaul is ultimately replaced by David; Mordechai is also figure who replaces Shaul. In
fact, Mordechai is described as dod Esther, the uncle of Esther; but the word dod (daled
vav daled) is sometimes spelled exactly the same way as the word David. Mordechai is
the David-like savior who has arrived on the scene to replace Shaul. He has come to
clean up the great mistake of the Jewish people.
Ultimately, Purim is a holiday where we are fixing the sin of wanting our government to
be ke-hol ha-goyim, like all the nations. We are not like all the nations. We have our
own mission and our own responsibilities. We should not judge ourselves by the
standards of others.
We should not be ke-khol hagoyim, but or lagoyim, a light onto the nations. The message
of Purim is that as Jews we have higher responsibilities, and we must hold ourselves to
higher standards. As the end of the meggillah states, Layehudim haitah orah, From the
Jews there was light. Only once we root out the desire of being like all the nations will
we be able to bring light to the nations.
The message of Purim is to replace the desire of ke-kkhol hagoyim with the dream of or
lagoyim.