Was Mordechai a Yeshivish, Machmir Person Who Caused Trouble for the Rest of the Jews?

I recently saw a movie (gasp!) called Esther, about, you guessed it, the Purim Story. It was relatively accurate, though it had some embellishment, as Hollywood is wont to do.

It got me thinking about Mordechai. There is a Medrash about Mordechai and Haman travelling through the desert, Modechai's shoe and the contract Haman signed on it, stating he would be Mordechai's servant for a portion of Mordechai's water, which Haman needed since he had guzzled all of his own water. So we all know that from the get go, Haman had reason to hate Mordechai. When Haman came to power and started demanding that all bow to him, Mordechai was the only one who wouldn't bow.

Was Mordechai being obstinate? Was he taking on a needless chumra, as so many do today to the point where they can't even enjoy Orthodox Judaism to its fullest extent? What kind of an example was he setting? After all, the Jews were in exile. They weren't free to declare themselves independent of the laws of the land, any more than we are today!

No. Mordechai was not trying to stand out. Rather, he was trying to make a point to the Jewish people. Not too long ago, the Jews had partaken in Achashverosh's feast, falling into a Golus Mentality - a mentality of "let's make the best of a situation and just accept it, without really trying to change it in any way." The Jews sat at and partook from this feast as though they belonged there. Mordechai saw all this, saw the Jews were falling into a Golus life, no longer striving to go back to the Eretz Yisrael. Mordechai knew he needed to make a stand, to jolt the Jewish people back to reality, to remind them that no matter how good Golus is, it is still exile. He knew the only way to create this jolt was to do something so drastic that no one would be able to escape the situation Haman would create, that no Jew anywhere in the known world would be safe from the Amalekite's wrath.

And, of course, it worked. Brilliantly. Unlike many people today who take on chumra on top of chumra on top of chumra, making their Jewish experience miserable because they don't know any better, making things that are actually mutar (permitted) Assur (forbidden), Mordechai didn't take on a chumra knowing full well the result could be disastrous. He made a stand not in order to destroy the Jewish people or put them in mortal danger. He made a stand to save the Jewish people from their own complacency.

This complacency can also go in the other direction: Many people today, especially those on the right, follow their leaders blindly, unquestioningly. They have learned to stop thinking for themselves and let their leaders do the thinking for them. I personally know many such individuals who are no longer individual people. Rather, they are part of a group mind, and everything their leader says is emes from the Torah.


Next: Lo Sasur Yamin O Smol - do not veer right or left