Lost in the Crowd

Last week, as we read Megillas Esther, one trait took center stage more than any other, and it remains of great relevance to us today. It is called moral courage.

Moral courage? Is that even a Jewish middah? A quick scan of the tables of contents of the Orchos Tzaddikim, the Mesillas Yesharim, and Chovos Halevavos does not turn up a reference to any such ideal.

But of course it’s there, referred to using many different, perhaps more familiar words. All these classic sifrei mussar extol bitachon, trust in Hashem, and yiras Shamayim, fear of Him. They laud emes, standing up for truth, and zerizus, alacrity, while disparaging chanifah and atzlus, flattery and indolence. They all speak of mesirus nefesh.

Perhaps the term “moral courage” isn’t a familiar one, perhaps it’s not yeshivish parlance. But whatever phrase one wants to use, that middah — summoning the inner resolve to do what is right in the face of great opposition — plays a pivotal role in many of the most important events described in Torah: numerous episodes in the lives of Avraham Avinu, Moshe Rabbeinu, and Dovid Hamelech, the stories of Yehoshua and Kalev, Nachshon, Pinchas, Eliyahu, and many more.