Mordecai Did Not Kneel Because the King Did Not Order It!: Forensic and Legal Investigation

By Ilan Sendowski

Mordecai Did Not Kneel Because the King Did Not Order It! takes a fresh look at the people and events depicted in the biblical book of Esther. Author Ilan Sendowski employs methods of analysis from rabbinic scholarship and insights from the practice of law to uncover the main purpose driving the decisions made by Mordecai, the primary subject of the study. He shows how Mordecai worked to save the scattered Jews from extinction, avoiding the fate that had been suffered by the Ten Tribes of Israel.

This exploration describes the inner thoughts of figures in the book of Esther. It explains how Mordecai worked his way through complications presented by courtly practices and social customs. Finally, it uses an array of analytical tools to uncover a method for responding to problems with wisdom and knowledge.

If you desire to learn from the book of Esther how to attend to the hidden nuances of difficult circumstances, how to take advantage of your insights, how to avoid suffering harm at the hands of dangerous people, or how to rely more fruitfully on knowledge and wisdom, then Mordecai Did Not Kneel Because the King Did Not Order It! can serve as a guide. Whether you are engaging the amazing story in Esther for the first time, seeking insight for daily life, or digging into this new reading of the biblical book, Mordecai Did Not Kneel Because the King Did Not Order It! can address your questions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Aug 31, 2015
• ISBN: 9781490893167

Ilan Sendowski

Ilan Sendowski became a registered patent attorney prier to retiring from a career as a computer engineer. After his wife encouraged him to attend Bible study classes with her, he cultivated an interest in using analytical tools and legal expertise to explore and explain the events in the biblical book of Esther. He currently lives in California.

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Copyright © 2015 Ilan Sendowski.

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ISBN: 978-1-4908-9315-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-9316-7 (e)

WestBow Press rev. date: 08/12/2015

Contents

1. Proving that Haman’s Order Was Not Valid

2. The Kneeling Order Was an Invalid Hearsay

3. The King Did Not Approve a Killing Decree

4. Haman Is Falling into the Trap

5. Haman’s New Plan to Kill Mordecai

6. Haman Was Seeking Royal Honorary Respect

7. The King Acknowledged that Mordecai Knew Everything

8. Summary and Conclusion

9. Epilogue I: Mordecai’s Plan to Crown Esther

10. Epilogue II: Why Were Haman’s Dead Sons Hanged?

11. Bibliography

Acknowledgments

Writing this book, confronting common assumptions and presenting new concepts, was a great challenge. Numerous people helped me. They read, listened, objected, criticized, ridiculed, ignored, rejected, corrected, improved and gave moral support. To all who were involved, I give my deepest thanks for bringing life to this book.

Special thanks to my dear teacher Rabbi Yitzchak Etshalom who opened my eyes to the Bible.

Deep thanks to my dear wife, my dear mother and my good friend Amikam Glass for their involvement in this venture.

I respectfully thank Prof. Ziony Zevit, writer Aviram Mishali, Dr. Ora Yitzhak, Mrs. Sara Har-Shalom, Dr. Nicole Bokat and the team of Crossbooks for their kind support.

Proving that Haman’s Order Was Not Valid

The book of Esther is unclear in many ways. This concealed presentation of the story might have been understood at the time, but later, it created a fertile ground for imaginary explanations. The traditional explanations for the story are that Esther was selected because of her beauty; Mordecai was a holy man who dared to refuse the king’s order to kneel to Haman because of his confidence that the Lord would provide a miracle to save him and his people; the king was an alcoholic drunkard, unable to make up his mind; and Haman was anti-Semite with a desire to kill all the Jews. Such a picture is very funny, but has limited educational value, and it is hard to believe that this is the purpose of the Bible.

The following study will explain the story as a logical, well-thought gamesman’s struggle of courtiers in the king’s palace in which the wiser, informed person gained the upper hand.

One of the major questions in the book of Esther is why Mordecai risked his life, the life of Queen Esther, and the whole Jewish nation with his stubborn refusal to kneel before Haman. There are many explanations for Mordecai’s actions, but none of the explanations are satisfactory. Mordecai himself knew that in Jewish law, it was not prohibited to kneel before a man; indeed, the great Jewish minds refused to follow Mordecai’s action and to establish such a religious rule.¹ I will try to prove that Mordecai—based on his thorough knowledge of the king’s court—concluded that the order to kneel before Haman was not authorized by the king, and his refusal was designed to expose and depose Haman.

Mordecai’s goal was to save the Jews from extinction and to avoid the fate of the ten tribes of Israel, whose people were deported from Israel some hundred years earlier, assimilated, and made extinct. Mordecai followed the guidance of Moses in his struggle to preserve his nation by bringing a possible disaster and trying to avert it.

In order to understand the story, this book will be used as a testimony document, using rules of legal analysis² and the theorems that appear in Rabbi Yitzchak Etshalom’s book Between the Lines of the Bible.³ Using these tools, the inner thoughts of the participants will be exposed, which will teach us how to analyze similar situations in our own society. This book will show that Haman’s desire for respect usurped the king’s power, which led to his untimely demise; Esther, with the guidance of Mordecai, grew from a timid girl to a powerful queen; and Mordecai, the leader of a small nation scattered all over the kingdom, established a network of supporters and succeeded in protecting his cousin and becoming the right-hand man to the king.

In this book, several possibilities will be presented without supporting evidence; nevertheless, I will prove that the participants, in these events, should have thought about or carried out the actions I am imagining for them.

The story of the book of Esther developed around several orders of the king. Because I am not privy to the king’s true intentions, I will read the story very carefully. I’ll demonstrate that the king found Haman guilty of fabricating an order to kill without actual royal authority. But I have no way to prove directly whether the king authorized the order to kneel before Haman. Although a person’s character and habits are legally inadmissible in court, there are several exemptions to this rule when a person is operating from his or her usual habits and modus operandi.⁴ In emphasizing these exemptions, it is well documented that the story is made up of many dual related incidents that explain