Who Are These People?!

Queen Esther and her uncle, the heroic Mordechai.
I have always envisioned the two Purim main characters as Esther being so beautiful that the king could not say no to her, and so loyal to her people and Mordechai as being this wise, Rabbi-type guy who is the perfect Jew who guides Esther throughout the story and saves the Jews. Man, was I wrong. Just this last weekend, my perceptions of who these people were and what they might have looked like were shattered. Now I see Mordechai as this strong, cunning, political leader and Esther as a manipulating queen with quite a few tricks up her sleeve.

Let's begin with Mordechai. He's the guy who won't bow down to the evil Haman, who watches out for his niece, Esther, everyday and gives her advice, who foils a plot to kill the king because he's just that great, and is finally given Haman's job at the end. Now we have the best Jew ever with all this power in the Persian government, right? No. Wrong. Was Mordechai even all that great? Did he really save the Jews? Was he a good Jewish leader? Eh. Yes, he did help Esther take the first move in going to the King and asking him to save the Jews, but he doesn't actually do much else. He doesn't bow down to Haman, which could have gotten the entire nation killed. He saves the king and gets paraded around on a horse (but that whole story is meant to show us how the king was getting suspicious of Haman and all that--not really about Mordechai). After everything and Haman is hanged, Mordechai is given the ring and Haman's power. So, what does he do? He puts out another decree that lets the Jews defend themselves from their enemies. That day comes and the Jews end up killing about 76,000 people. That's not just defending--call me crazy, but that sounds like one bloody massacre. You would think with all the power Mordechai now had and with how smart he was supposed to be he could figure out a way to spare all these innocent lives. The tzadik-grandfather-type Mordechai I keep picturing would not be cool with letting all those people die.

Mordechai was powerful enough to orchestrate the killing of over 76,000 people. If he could do that, imagine how much power the guy has. If you remember, the Jews are not in the best situation right now. It is possible the Beit Hamikdash is build already in Israel and we know Coresh has already allowed the Jews to return to Israel--yet all these Jews are still in Persia. Mordechai--the Eish Yehudi--is supposed to be in Israel! All of these people should be in Israel, yet they were in Persia. Mordechai is now in such a powerful position, you would expect him to do something to help the Jewish people, maybe send them to Israel? Anything? Nope. Nadda.

Esther is one master of manipulation. She manipulates the king when she goes to see him (risking her life) and asks for him and Haman to attend a party she is making for him. She uses an ambiguous pronoun on purpose to throw him off and get him thinking. The king gets paranoid and anxious and let's it all get to his head. He starts getting suspicious of Haman and it's all because Esther was playing with his mind. Esther knows the king makes decisions based on his emotions, even though he wants everything to think he goes strictly by the law. She uses this to her advantage. After she violates the law with an overt emotional approach, she makes a more subtle emotional appeal to get the king to save her people. It ends up working and Mordechai gets the ring so he can write a new decree. Esther uses the king's insecurities against him. She makes him more paranoid and suspicious. Because of her, the Jews are saved.

Who would have thought that Mordechai was not a grandfather with a long beard who did everything like the perfect Jew should? I don't remember seeing that in the magnifying glass in the Artscroll Megilla..