Circumspect Mordechai

 

For if you persist in keeping quiet at a time like this, relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another place, while you and your father’s house will perish; and who knows whether it was for such a time that you attained the royal position? Esther 4:14

Undoubtedly, when we read (or hear) Megilat Esther, it is clear to us that indeed it was for such a time that Esther attained the royal position, and it is reasonable to assume that Mordechai, as well, believed that Esther was chosen queen of Persia and Media through the hand of God. Yet, Mordechai does not pretend to understand the ways of God, and he therefore takes great care in wording his comment. Despite his personal belief, Mordechai will not state as a categorical that he understands God’s secrets, and therefore merely suggests the possibility that it is God’s providence which brought Esther to the throne of Persia in order to save His chosen nation.

In his careful and circumspect choice of words, Mordechai teaches us a valuable lesson. In our times, there is no shortage of those who “know” that the scourge of traffic accidents is the result of desecrating Shabbat, and that rockets were fired into southern Israel because of breaches of modesty. Mordechai’s approach is restrained, and follows the statement of the Sage (quoted in Sefer Ikkarim by Rabbi Yosef Albo [1380–1444], and attributed by some to Maimonides) concerning the nature of God: “were I to understand Him, I would be Him.”