Daily Chidush: Mordechai Teaches Us Why HaShem Delays Payment To Righteous And Reward The Wicked Now

0:00Hello everyone, how are you? I hope you're having a great week. Just wanted to give you the daily chiddush. We have about an hour or so left before we have to read the Megillah. But we made a great shiur last night with a lot of midrashim and chiddushim about the Megillah. I still highly recommend you watch it sometime tonight or tomorrow. But definitely a must-watch. A lot more details than we had in the shiur we had last year. Today we're going to talk about some of the things that are relevant to our life and how we connect it to the Megillah, to the Torah, and to our day-to-day life. One of the most common questions that people ask is actually the question of why there are people who are righteous but don't have money and don't have success in this world, and on the other hand, there are many very wicked people. that you see driving Ferraris, Lamborghinis, and choppers, and having enough money to burn. And it seems like there's no justice in the world. This is one of the things that we see in Megillat Esther as actually a way for us to get the answer of how Hashem works. Hashem does not work based on our own logic. Hashem works on a completely different logic. When He says, "My thoughts are not your thoughts."

1:16He's telling us in the Torah that He doesn't even think like us. And if you're clever enough to think something really, really brilliant, just remember, it's not even the smallest thought that Hashem has. Hashem doesn't think like that at all. His thoughts are beyond what you have. So one way that we see Hashem providing the cure before we even know we have an ailment, before we even realize we're sick, He already provided the cure, is in the beginning of the Megillah. After Achashverosh takes Esther to be a wife, Esther says to him, you know, it's an amazing kingdom you have, but you're missing something. Achashverosh says, I'm missing only one thing, I'm missing an assistant, someone that's going to be an advisor to me, just like the Chacham that Nebuchadnezzar, the Rasha, had. He obviously didn't say Rasha; he thought he was nice. But just like Nebuchadnezzar had, who is this... Advisor Nebuchadnezzar had Daniel the prophet, and I wish I had someone like him. That's what Nebuchadnezzar said. So, Esther obviously didn't tell him she was Jewish, and she didn't tell him that her real husband is Mordechai, but she said, "Okay, listen, there is someone who is one of the heads of the Sanhedrin, one of the smartest, wisest, and most righteous men living today, and..."

2:41And the Midrash tells us that Mordechai was the Moshe Rabbeinu of his day. And he says, there's a guy by the name of Mordechai. You should use him. He says, you know what? He takes her advice and hires him. He makes him one of the main people in his court. Now, this puts Mordechai in a very unique position where he's able to be around the kingdom at all times. And one day, we hear the story, the common story, that Bigtan and Teresh, two of the servants, the chamberlains for Achashverosh, become very, very upset at Achashverosh and decided they're going to poison and kill him. Why did they get so upset? The first reason they were very upset was because they wanted the position that he gave Mordechai. So, of course, jealousy is always a key to all diseases and all problems in life. And the second thing is that he was overworking them. Since he was constantly trying to wine and dine Esther all night, he was constantly calling them to serve him, bring him wine, bring him this, bring him that.

3:58These people couldn't sleep, and anybody who doesn't get any sleep knows the value of sleep, so they decided, "We're going to kill him now." While they're talking, Mordechai is right next to them, but they talk right next to Mordechai. How can they dare do this? I mean, technically, part of the plan is against Mordechai. They spoke an ancient language that was very rarely spoken at the time, named Tarsian. And they figured Mordechai, this Jewish guy, he's not going to speak Tarsian, they didn't realize the value of a Jewish education. People think, "Oh, Jewish education, maybe you need to learn science, maybe you need to learn math, maybe you need to learn medicine." They don't realize that when someone is really devoted to Jewish education, they learn everything. And Mordechai... got to such a high level that he became part of the Sanhedrin. And one of the requirements of being part of the Sanhedrin is you had to speak fluently 70 languages. Seventy languages! Obviously, there's no one in the world that speaks so many languages today.

5:01But this gives us a little bit of an idea of the wisdom that Mordechai had. Why did he need to speak 70 languages? Because if there's ever a court case where someone comes in and tells you things in a different language, you can't use an interpreter. Why? Because there could be a misunderstanding. You need to understand him in his own language. These were the rules of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish court. So anyway, he hears this plot to kill Ahasuerus. He tells Esther, and Esther tells Ahasuerus in the name of Mordechai. And instead of rewarding Mordechai for saving his life, he just puts it in the book. That's it. No special parties. I mean, Achashverosh ruled the entire world. The Gemara says he's one of the very few people in history who actually ruled the entire world, 127 countries. Yet, when someone saved his life, he doesn't even give him so much as a drink. Now, to us, this seems ridiculous. This seems like there's no justice in the world. How could you save this flesh and blood king and not get rewarded for it? But later on, we see how Hashem worked His amazing ways to make sure that Mordechai not only does not get paid then, but he gets paid when he needs it, not necessarily when he wants it. Because later on in the story,

6:28When the plot of Haman is to destroy Am Yisrael, and we're running out of time. After Esther has the first night's dinner. Achashverosh has problems sleeping because Hashem sent him angels to throw him off the bed every few minutes, to the point where he's starting to have bad dreams. And he's dreaming about Haman cutting off his head and killing him, and he doesn't know—maybe it's a plot. Is he trying to kill me? Is someone trying to kill me? What do these dreams mean? The Gemara says, by the way, in regards to dreams, that most dreams are complete nonsense. The only times that... that you should even consider a dream of any value is if, number one, you've had it three times, and two, you had it in the early hours, meaning right before you woke up, right before you woke up in the morning. But anyway, this is Masechet Berachot. Anyway, we see here that Achashverosh is now questioning himself, he's questioning his ways. He says, "Oh, you know what, maybe Haman is trying to kill me, maybe somebody is trying to kill me, why wouldn't anybody tell me? I'm the king, I have so much money."

7:34could I, could I, could pay them? I could give them rewards. Maybe, just maybe, I didn't pay somebody one time and everyone knows I didn't pay him, except me. So let me check. And that's why they're not telling me; they figure it's not worth it to tell me. They want me dead. So he checks in his, uh, book, and he finds out, and he, uh, finds out that there was a guy by the name of Mordechai that saved his life, and he didn't pay him. Now, if the story ended there, it wouldn't necessarily be such a big deal. But what ends up happening is that at that very same time that he finds out this name, he finds out about Mordechai, he has this bad dream about Haman. At the very same time, Hashem places Haman in his own doom, where he's already working outside of the castle, putting the wood together to hang Mordechai there the next day. Hasn't told us real shit. He was planning on going to his house, going to the castle, and asking him for permission in the morning. But this woke up Achashverosh again. He said, "Who's there? Who's there?" And he, you know, come on, and already he was saying, "What is he doing next to my house at such a weird hour? Is he really here to kill me?" So he starts asking him questions. "What would you do to honor a person? You know, for me."

9:01He says, "Oh, I would give him your clothing, I would give him your horse, I would give him your crown." All three of those things were what Haman was wearing in the dream. So now it is almost certain that Haman is trying to kill him and the dream is actually a prophecy. So, obviously, Haman... completely insulted, completely embarrassed by making him do all of those things that he described that he wants to do for himself. He does them for Mordechai. This is one key part of the beginning of the downfall of Haman, and we see that had Mordechai been paid on time, or what we think is on time initially, Hashem would have woken up, looked at the book, and nobody would have been there, or maybe He would have found a different name, and Haman would have done something else for that other person. However, it would have had no connection whatsoever to the whole saving of Am Yisrael, because the fact that Mordechai saved the king's life, yet Haman is there wanting to destroy them, obviously twists the entire picture.

10:23This twists the entire picture to the point where now Achashverosh is questioning the deal that he had with Haman for 384 million dollars just, you know, days before that, to destroy the Jewish people. To connect this to the Torah and to answer the ultimate question of why there are some people that get a lot now and... They are wicked, and while other people that are righteous don't get what they deserve, we have to go and fast forward to Parashat Va'etchanan. This is in Deuteronomy, Chapter 7. Hashem says, "Veyadata ki Hashem Elokecha Hu ha'Elohim, ha'El ha'Ne'eman, shomer ha'brit v'ha'chesed le'ohavav u'le'shomrei mitzvotav le'elef dor." So here in verse 9, Hashem is telling us, or Moshe is telling us, you must know... Hashem, your God, He is the God, the faithful God who safeguards the covenant and the kindness for those who love Him and for those who observe His commandments for a thousand generations. First, He's telling us here, just remember, Hashem pays His bills. He doesn't have any debt to anyone. Whatever He says, it's a promise; it comes to fruition one way or another. He never, ever, ever...

11:45Doesn't pay somebody for something that he does, and for the people he calls them, the ones who love Him. Who are those who love Him? The ones who love Him are those who observe the commandments. So now we realize what it means to love Hashem. Loving Hashem doesn't mean we kiss the mezuzah 87 times a day and maybe the Sefer Torah once a year when we go on Yom Kippur. It means that we observe His commandments, and He says to those that love Him. He pays them for a thousand generations, meaning that the beginning of the payment is already, you know, longer than this obviously lifetime; it goes beyond this lifetime. Okay, so we continue here. It says something very critical for us to understand. He says he repays his enemies... Now we know who His lovers are, so His enemies are obviously the opposite. He repays them to their face in their lifetime to make them perish. He shall not delay for His enemy; in their lifetime, He shall repay them. This answers the question; this answers the ultimate question that everyone has: why is it that there's a wicked person that has money? Why is it that there's a righteous person that doesn't have money?

13:11As for the wicked person, which is usually the one that bothers most people, unfortunately, when someone is wicked and he starts getting benefits in this world, he's the most miserable person in the world and doesn't know it. He's the guy that has the disease but doesn't know he's gonna die soon. He's the guy that's about to lose everything but is going on vacation while it's happening. Why? Because Hashem has decided that He's gonna pay him everything right now in this lifetime. make him perish, meaning he says he pays them in this world and that's it, no olam haba for that person. So when a person benefits so much from this world while going against Hashem, this is as bad of a sign as it could possibly get. And this is one of the things that we have to understand about our life. Yes, of course, it doesn't necessarily mean that everyone needs to suffer. It doesn't mean that all Jews need to be in poverty. There are many tzaddikim throughout history and today that were very, very wealthy. One very notable one is Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi. The one who put the Mishnah together was extremely wealthy. Moshe Rabbeinu was very wealthy. There are many other people throughout history and even today.

14:21There's very rich religious Jews. So just no one should misunderstand and think that just because you're religious, it means that you need to be some miserable guy in the corner collecting coins. No. But what it does mean... is that when someone is not righteous, when someone is not doing what Hashem wants, at some point or another, Hashem runs out of patience. At some point or another, Hashem is telling him, has given him an extreme wake-up call. If you would have just read this parasha, this is the pshat, this is the very simple literal Torah. This is not a big mystical teaching; this is not the Zohar; this is not a Gemara even; this is very basic Chumash. Anyone that went to yeshiva has read this at least 15 times. This is basic teaching from Hashem: If you do My will, I pay you for eternity. If you don't do My will, I get to a point where I'm going to run out of patience, and I'm going to pay you for everything because you did a few mitzvot here and there. You made a bar mitzvah; you got a mitzvah. You didn't have to die three times in your life; you got a mitzvah.

15:27You made a blessing for an apple because you wanted to impress your girlfriend at the time. Okay, you got a mitzvah. You made a few mitzvot, so for those mitzvot, I'm going to pay you here. So when you come up there, you say, listen, but I did a bar mitzvah. Okay, that's why you got a building. Okay, but I didn't let you let the dime. Okay, that's why you got three kids. Oh, but I kept Shabbat one time in school. Okay, that's why you got a whole company that's worth a billion dollars. That's it. I paid you for it. I don't owe you anything else. But the one, the guy that's doing the mitzvot, the one that's called ohavo, the one that's called the lover of Hashem, Hashem is telling him, I'll pay you for a thousand generations. And a thousand generations means both this world and the next. So much so that Hashem even pays his children, and his children's children, and his children's children's children until the end of the world. All of them benefit from that person's mitzvot. Hashem pays us everything on time, not necessarily when we think we want it, but when we actually need it. That's the key that we have to understand. What we learn from Megillat Esther is that Mordechai received the payment on time. Unfortunately, it would have meant doom for Am Yisrael because he received it at the right, precise time—the divine time, the time that Hashem picks.

16:52It was not only a great kavod, a great honor, and everything else that you want in this world, but it also saved the eternal life for him and the rest of Am Yisrael. Chazakim u'beruchim. Thank you for learning with me. Enjoy the Megillah. Enjoy Purim. There's a lot of celebration, B'ezrat Hashem, starting tonight. Enjoy it. Wear costumes. Eat a lot of food. Get a little tipsy. Enjoy the family, and B'ezrat Hashem, maybe you'll learn a little bit of Torah. Kol Tuv.