A Standing Ovation | Rabbi Menachem Feifer

The pasuk says in Megillas Esther, after Esther told Mordechai to gather together the Yidden, Let them fast for my sake, to daven and fast that I should be successful going in to the Melech Achashverosh. Mordechai was עובר. What does that mean, ‘he was עובר’? So the Gemara brings two Pshatim. In the first Pshat, the word עובר is like the use we say when someone is עובר an Aveira. Mordechai was עובר, he transgressed the מצוות היום of Pesach and instead told Klal Yisroel not to eat Matzah and Maror, not to drink the four Kosos, but rather to pass the day in a fast day. Certainly a tremendous Chiddush that the Nevi’im are telling us, This was Mordechai’s decision. But the Gemara says a second Pshat. ויעבור מרדכי means עבר שלולית של מים. In his trip over to the other side of Shushan to spread the word that Klal Yisroel should fast for the sake of Esther, he was forced to cross across a puddle that was blocking his way. The Manos HaLevi, the Mechaber of Lecha Dodi, R’ Shlomo Alkabetz zt”l asks, I understand the significance of being עובר on the Mitzvos of Pesach in order to fast for the sake of Esther, but what's the significance, why do we need to know that Mordechai crossed over some water, a puddle of water, to get to where he had to go to, to speak to Klal Yisroel? Says R’ Shlomo Alkabetz zt”l, This line is teaching us such a יסוד גדול in life. A Yid that goes through צער למען השם, let it be his feet got wet, למען השם, it's written down, it's not forgotten. HaKadosh Baruch Hu remembers that and that's a zchus for the person. I once heard a story from a man who told me, he’s a Talmid Chacham, who in his youth was not religious, he sold peanuts and popcorn at baseball games. And he was at Yankee Stadium at Old Timers Day, and they brought out a player who no longer was able to walk, he was incapacitated, he was in a wheelchair. When they brought him out, the stadium stood up as one and they were cheering for 5-10 minutes straight. He said he’d never heard such an applause in his life. He saw the man was crying tears of emotion from that tremendous cheer that he got, that applause. And this Yid said, When a Yid is עומד בניסיון, when he stands up to the Yetzer Hara, there’s such an applause in Shomayim. Tens of thousands of Mal’achim are applauding and cheering. This man was עומד בניסיון, was מקדש שם שמיים בעולם.