אשר הגלה מירושלים “Who had been exiled from Yerusholayim.” (Esther 2:6)
The Gemara in Megillah (12a) relates that R’ Shimon bar Yochai’s talmidim asked him what Bnei Yisroel did wrong that caused the gezeirah [decree] of Haman – a question of theodicy. He put the ball back in their court and asked them what they thought, to which they replied that it was enjoying the seudah of Achashveirosh that was the problem. Rashbi countered that if that was the case, then only the people of Shushan were guilty. Why was everyone else included in the gezeirah? Rashbi then gave his own answer – it was bowing to the idol of Nevuchadnetzar years earlier that was the issue. The talmidim countered that if Klal Yisroel was indeed guilty of avodah zorah, why did they merit the miracle of being saved? Rashbi answered that it wasn’t really avodah zorah – they bowed to the idol only out of fear. It only superficially looked like avodah zorah. Therefore, they experienced the “superficial” threat of Haman’s gezeirah, but were sure to be zocha [merit] to a miracle and saved.
There’s a lot that is unclear here. What was the hava amina [initial thinking] of the talmidim that everyone was at fault because the Jews of Shushan participated in Achashveirosh’s party? According to Rashbi, why should a cheit [sin] of avodah zorah done literally decades earlier rear its head now? And if it really wasn’t avodah zorah, then why should there have been any gezeirah?
R’ Sholom Gold has an autobiography (Touching History: from Williamsburg to Jerusalem) in which he recounts that R’ Shneur Kotler was once the guest speaker at a dinner for Ner Yisroel Toronto (which R’ Gold help found) and he addressed himself to this Gemara. Here is a brief summary of what he said:
Close to 70 years before the Purim story Klal Yisroel went into galus [exile] and cried: על נהרות בבל שם ישבנו גם בכינו בזכרנו את ציון – “By the rivers of Bavel, there we sat and wept, as we thought of Tzion”. What a difference 70 years made! The problem with the party of Shushan was not that the food wasn’t glatt or the wine not mevushal – it might very well have been. The problem was that participation in such an event meant that we had become acclimated to life in Bavel. We were, if not happy, certainly content. The tears that we cried as we were led into galus had long since dried up. It may have been that only the Jews of Shushan partook of the meal, but their participation was a siman that something had changed in our attitude toward galus.
Rashbi agreed in principle – it was acclimation and acculturation which were the causes of the gezeirah. What he disagreed with is the talmidim’s identification of Achashveirosh’s seudah as the catalyst. It was decades earlier, explained Rashbi, when Nevuchdnetzar set up his pseudo-avodah zorah and demanded that people bow, that the Rubicon was crossed. Had anyone asked a shailah whether it was really avodah zorah, the answer would have been a resounding “No” (see Maharsha). Nonetheless, even if bowing didn’t violate the letter of the law, to do so should have broken the hearts of those who had just entered galus. How could someone who so recently cried: איך נשיר את שיר ה' על אדמת נכר – “How can we sing a song of Hashem on alien soil?”, bow even to a “kosher” idol? Yet they went ahead and did it. They already accepted such behavior as just an acceptable part and parcel of being a Jew in galus. It was then that the seeds that led to Achashveirosh’s party were planted.
Rav Gold added to this thought a beautiful idea of his own. The Gemara on the next amud (12b) has a discussion regarding the lineage of Mordechai. On the one hand, he is called “Ish Yehudi,” implying that he came from the tribe of Yehudah; on the other hand, he is called, “Yemini,” implying that he came from the tribe of Binyomin. Rav Gold suggested that Mordechai was one of the few who never acclimated to Bavel; he lived with the memory of what life was life before galus and yearned to return to Eretz Yisroel. Therefore, he is the only one who could awaken the Jews to their error; he is the hero of the Purim story. "Ish Yemini" means that Mordechai remembered the vow: אם אשכחך ירושלם תשכח ימיני – “If I forget you, Yerusholayim, let my right-hand wither”. Mordechai never forgot Yerusholayim, never forgot Eretz Yisroel, never forgot where home really was.
With this idea, we can also understand the pasuk we started off with: אשר הגלה מירושלים - “Who had been exiled from Yerusholayim.” Why is it necessary to know what happened to him many years ago?
Based on the above idea we can explain, that as time goes on Jews start becoming accustomed to galus, and start to settle and become acclimated to their surrounding and have no yearning for Moshiach and the geulah. However, Mordechai who was the example of what a Yid should be like wasn’t like this. He was never content there and always regarded himself as a galus Yid – a Jew in exile - and eagerly anticipated the return to his homeland - Yerusholayim.
We must learn from the mistake made at the time of the Purim story and remember that we are in galus. If we don’t, then Hashem may chas vesholam have to send us a reminder.
