Mordechai did not bow and did not prostrate himself” (Esther 3:5) There is a certain people, scattered and dispersed among the peoples… whose laws are different from every other people. … So let them be destroyed.” (Esther 3:5-9)

Mordechai did not bow and did not prostrate himself” (Esther 3:5)

There is a certain people, scattered and dispersed among the peoples… whose laws are different from every other people. … So let them be destroyed.” (Esther 3:5-9)

Let us be honest with ourselves. We must cease constantly seeking to prove ourselves in order to win the world’s love. We must stop trying to accommodate and to conform, stop trying to be accepted.

It has never succeeded and it will never succeed. History has taught us that it is wishful thinking. It is a totally futile enterprise.

We must stop feeling persecuted and playing the victim card. Antisemitism will never end and we should stop expending all of our energy and resources in fighting it.

Our focus should be on the privilege of being Jewish, on thriving within our own covenantal calling.

As Bret Stephens wrote in The Wall Street Journal: “Jews have the honor of being hated by the world’s worst people.”[1]

We may not know what actually happened at Sinai, but we cannot deny that something unprecedented occurred to our forefathers which shaped our people and commanded us to be God’s witness in a world of madness; even when we deny His existence.

Our success is not when a lot of rich assimilated Jews are doing well, feeling safe in their host countries, only to be slapped in the face by reality when they realize that they were never really accepted. Even our remarkable contributions in the fields of science and the humanities are denied. Even Holocaust education at many universities has become judenrein.

We are the most irritating nation in the world. And we should be proud of it. We irritate because we represent a world which many people cannot tolerate. It is too disturbing and too demanding.

Israel stands for the holiness of all that appears – on the surface – trivial, the nobility of the common, the grandeur of the spirit in all worldliness. The mission of the Jewish people is a biblical vocation. It is a destiny to be more than just human. It asks us to surpass just being civilized. It is a call to eternity within the finite.

Subconsciously the world knows we are different and that we are a nation apart. But to admit that requires courage and honesty and that is too much for them. It would be an admission of failure on the part of the nations of the world to look in the mirror and ask themselves why actually they hate the Jews.

Antisemitism, in a way, is a fear of ghosts. It is a fear of the unpredictable, of what does not fit. It is a fear of surrendering to the unique. It is the fear to admit that no man is average, but sublime.

The fight against antisemitism often becomes a smokescreen, leading Jews astray. They too do not want to see who they really are and what they really should stand for. Like our enemies, many Jews resist the idea of historical and moral exclusiveness. In particular, they resist the idea that Jewish destiny is the realization of the Divine acting within human history.

All Jews—including Israeli Jews—have to wake up from their slumber. Secular Jews are thinking behind the times. It is what Daniel Bell called the “exhaustion of modernity”, that it is the failure of technology and “culture” to function as a substitute for Judaism.

Religious Jews do not seem to understand that Judaism is made from spiritual boldness. As Rabbi A. J. Heschel wrote:

Observance has, at times, become entrusted with so many customs and conventions that the jewel was lost in the setting. Outward compliance with externalities of the law took the place of the engagement of the whole person to the living God.”[2]

Observance has, at times, become entrusted with so many customs and conventions that the jewel was lost in the setting. Outward compliance with externalities of the law took the place of the engagement of the whole person to the living God.”[2]

Secular and religious both have their fill of all-rightniks. For them, their ceiling of aspiration has been so lowered that they are drowning in a sea of complacency and cliches.

Blindness and short-sightedness have overtaken us. He has the greatest blind side who thinks he has none, says a Dutch proverb.

What is required is radical thinking throughout the Jewish people to unearth the grandeur of Jewish religious living.

Never has the need for Judaism been so clear.

It is not the eradication of antisemitism which should be our ultimate goal but the honor of being hated for the right of reasons.

Mordchai would have agreed.

Questions for the Shabbat Table

Why do you think Mordechai refused to bow? Was it political defiance, religious conviction, or something deeper about identity?

What does it mean to be “a nation apart” (Numbers 23:9)? Is this something you celebrate—or struggle with? Or maybe both?

Rabbi Cardozo suggests that being disliked may sometimes be a sign that we are standing for something meaningful. Can you think of examples in your own life where doing the right thing made you unpopular?

In Esther 3:8, Haman describes the Jewish people to King Achashverosh:

“There is a certain people, scattered and dispersed among the peoples… whose laws are different from every other people.”

“There is a certain people, scattered and dispersed among the peoples… whose laws are different from every other people.”

Haman presents Jewish distinctiveness as a threat.

And yet, throughout Tanach, distinctiveness is framed as a mission (cf. Isaiah 43:10; Exodus 19:6).

Does the Book of Esther portray Jewish distinctiveness as something to hide (Esther 2:10) or something to reveal proudly (Esther 8:16–17)? What changed—and why?

[1] Bret Stephens, “The Honor of Being Hated,” The Wall Street Journal, May 21, 2021.

[2] Abraham Joshua Heschel, God in Search of Man, p. 326

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