Tiferes Shlomo on the Parsha

The concluding verse of the Megillah reads כי מרדכי היהודי משנה למלך אחשורוש וגדול ליהודים... דורש טוב לעמו, “For Mordechai the Yehudi was viceroy to Achashveirosh the king and was a great man among the Jews”.

The word משנה can also mean different or opposite, meaning that Mordechai was the “opposite” of Achashveirosh, who was only interested in his own benefit and aggrandisement, not in the needs of his people. He made his feast only in order to show-off his greatness.

Mordechai was the opposite. He was דורש טוב לעמו seeking the good of his people. The Megillah’s description that Mordechai was גדול ליהודים, literally “a great man among the Jews”, can also mean that Mordechai’s greatness was only to be ליהודים, “for the Jews”, to seek their goodness.

This quality is the hallmark of true Tzaddikim, who like Mordechai, live only to serve their generation and seek their benefit.

This idea is hinted to in the opening of Parshas Ki Sisa. The Parsha opens with the words כי תשא את ראש בנ"י לפקודיהם ונתנו... כופר נפשו לה', “when you will lift up the heads of (count) the Jewish people... they shall give an atonement for their soul to Hashem.”

The “heads of the Jewish people” refer to the Tzaddikim and leaders of Klal Yisroel. When the Tzaddikim are “lifted up” to their position of leadership, the Torah teaches ונתנו, they must be “given over” for the benefit of their people, even to the extent of sacrificing themselves on their behalf when they are lacking or sin, to be כופר נפשו and seek atonement for them.