The pressure of maintaining one's individualism in the face of a growing trend can be enormous. Politically correct views and ideas are repeated so often that they become the accepted norms. And then there are those who defy the convention. Mordechai personified that kind of individual. He opposed a trend among his fellow Jews in his time, a trend that posed a threat to the wellbeing of the Jews.



In the ancient Persian empire, the Jews were in a transitional situation. The horrid suffering of the Jews in Judea at the time of the destruction of the Temple in 586 BCE was in the past. Under the rule of the seemingly tolerant Persian Empire, the Jews were one of many respected minorities. The Jews as a whole did not want to be seen as a pariah within the empire, and so there was a temptation to undergo a process of 'Persianization', whereby the Jews would relax some of the barriers of separation between themselves and the Persians.



Now, facing a prolonged exile from their land, the question beckoned: what would be of the future of the Jews? Would they wither away and become another footnote in history, as so many other nations? Would they be beaten into submission? Neither would be their destiny. As assured in the Torah, the Jews, as a people, would endure. (Leviticus 26:44)



Mordechai understood the challenges now facing the Jews. When King Achashverosh invited the Jews of Persia to attend his illustrious feast, which would no doubt be replete with the events of immorality that accompanied such events, Mordechai urged them not to attend. They, in turn, mocked him as a rabble-rouser.



It would not be very politically savvy to refuse the king's invitations. To refuse could alienate the Persians. However, during the feast, the Jews were indeed reminded of their true place in Persia, when the utensils of the destroyed Jerusalem Temple were brought out for display. King Achashverosh chose the occasion to celebrate what he thought was the expiration of the seventy-year period that the prophet Jeremiah had predicted between the destruction of the first Temple and the construction of the second. He thought he was celebrating the final vanquishing of the Jerusalem Temple, and that there would be no Jewish return to Zion. He had, in fact, calculated that period from the wrong time and was off by eleven years.



The Jews, seeing their holiest vessels in mocking display, maintained their composure and watched the horrid spectacle. They continued to participate in the event, hardly fazed, when just decades earlier, their fathers, the exiled Jews of Babylon, sat by the rivers and wept over the loss of Zion and the treasured Temple, which was destroyed by the Babylonian Nebuchadnezar. With the passage of time, much was forgotten. The years seemingly dulled their fervor.



But Mordechai would not be silenced by his critics. Nine years later, the masses of Shushan bowed to the rising star, the powerful, wealthy, diabolically evil minister, Haman, who wore an idol around his neck. Mordechai's refusal to follow suit enraged Haman, as well as Mordechai's Jewish brethren. Once again, Mordechai's brethren were agitated by the stand he took, which they perceived as threatening to their status within Persia. His refusal to bow could incur the wrath of their 'friends'. In their minds, he was recklessly endangering the Jews. Mordechai, who understood that Haman had planned their destruction from the start of his rise to power, also understood that such commands were tearing at the fiber of the Jews.



Mordechai is referred to throughout the Scroll of Esther as "Mordechai the Jew". The term, "Jew" there implies that Mordechai ardently repudiated idolatry. (Megilla 13A) "Mordechai the Jew" stood apart as a zealot and took an uncompromising stand; one which sent a message to his fellow Jews. While initially his actions were not well received, eventually, his message resonated. When Haman's edict against the Jews was published, the Jews heeded the decree by Esther and Mordechai to fast and repent. They had also realized that they should have listened to Mordechai nine years earlier.



Mordechai may have (initially) stood alone in his generation, but he certainly is not alone in the annals of Jewish history.



In Egypt, Bitya, the Pharaoh's daughter, rejected the idolatry of her father's palace. At great risk, she immersed herself as an act of purification and conversion to Judaism in the waters of the Nile - the very river worshipped by the Egyptians.



Bitya eventually gave birth to Caleb - also a rebel - who, as one of the spies sent to the Land of Israel, withstood the enormous pressure of ten of the other spies and, at great risk, spoke out in support of the conquest of the Land of Israel. In the Torah, Caleb is referred to by G-d as "My servant". (Numbers 14:24)



In Babylon, just following the destruction of the first Temple, three Jewish servants of the King, Chanania, Mishael and Azaria, refused to pay homage to the king by bowing before a golden statue that represented the Babylonian empire. Even though that act, according to Talmudic and Medieval rabbinic opinions, was not considered idolatrous, they zealously repudiated any act that even resembled idolatry and put their lives at great risk.



These individuals all had a profound impact upon the history of the Jews.



Purim is a reminder to follow the ways of Mordechai. To resist the trends and embrace the G-d-given traditions that comprise being a Jew.