3. As regards his place in rahhinical estimation, Mor- decai, as is natural, stands verj' high. The interpola- tions in the Greek book of Esther are one indication of his popularity with his countrymen. The Targum (of late date) shows that this increased rather than dimin-
MORDECAI
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ishefl with the lapse of centuries. There Shimei in Mordecai's genealogy is iilentitied with Shimei the son of (xcra, wlio cursed David, and it is said that the rea- son why David would not permit him to be put to death then was that it was revealed to him that ^lordecai and Esther should descend from him ; but that in his old age, when this reason no longer applied, he was slain. It is also said of Mordecai that he knew the sev- enty laiif/uarjes, i. e. tlie languages of all the nations mentioned in Gen. x, which the Jews count as seventy nations, and that his age exceeded 400 years (Juchiisin ap.^\'olf, and Stehelin, Jiiibb. Liter, i, 179> He is con- tinually designated by the appellation N)?'^'n2, "the Just," and the amplifications of Esth. viii, 15 abound in the most glowing descriptions of the splendid robes, and Persian buskins, and Median scimitars, and golden crowns, and the profusion of precious stones and Mace- donian gold, on which was engraved a view of Jerusa- lem, and of the ])hylactcry over the crown, and the streets strewed with myrtle, and the attendants, and the heralds with trumpets, all proclaiming the glory of Mordecai, and the exaltation of the Jewish people. Ben- jamin of Tudela mentions the ruins of Shushan and the remains of the palace of Ahasuerus as still existing in liis day, but places the tomb of Mordecai and Esther at Jlaniadan, or Ecbatana (p. 128). Others, however, place tlic tomb of Jlordecai in Susa, and that of Esther in or near Baram in Galilee (note to Asher's Jicuj. of Tud. p. IGG). With reference to the above-named pal- ace of Ahasuerus at Shushan, it may be added that con- siderable remains of it were discovered by Mr. Loftus's excavations i:i 18.52, and that he thinks the plan of the great colonnade, of which he found the bases remaining, corresponds remarkably to the description of the palace of Ahasuerus in Esth. i (Loftus. Chuldaa, ch. xxviii). Itwasbuikor begun by Darius Ilystaspis. — Smith. The so-called lumb of Esther and Mordecai at Hamadan has
General View of the Tomb of Mordecai and Esther. (The cut under Estuek gives a somewhat different view of the centra! dome, without the adjoining structures.)
no claim, as Flandin remarks, to a very remote antiquity, for the dome and the general style of architecture corre- spond with those commonly found in INIussidman sepul- chres in Persia. Although the tomb now standing is more ancient than that of Ezra, it is on essentially the same plan, both in its exterior and interior appearance, with such difTerenccs as proceeded from the difference of sit- uation, one being in the midst of a town, and the other on the I)orders of the desert. The bell-shaped dome is also in an older taste than that which the other tomb
exhibits. The stork's nest by which it is surmounted frequently appears upon the highest points of public buildings in that country. The tomb stands on ground somewliat more elevated than any in the immediate neighborhood, and is in rather a decayed condition. It occupies a small space in the midst of ruins, in the quarter appropriated to Jewish families. The entrance to the building is by a stone door of small dimensions, the key of which is always kept by the chief rabbi. This door conducts to the antechamber, which is small, and contains the graves of several rabbles. A second door, of still more confined dimensions than tlie first, leads to the tomb-chamber, which is larger than the outer apartment. In the midst of this stand the two sarcophagi of Mordecai and Esther, of dark and hard wood, like that of Ezra. They are cenotaphs, standing beside each other, distinguished only by tlie one (Mor- decai's) being a little larger tlian the other. They are richly carved, and have a Hebrew inscription along the upper ledge, taken from Esth. ii, 5, and x, 3. The wood is in good preservation, though evidently veri- old. The present building is said to occupy the site of one more magnificent, which was destroyed by Timur Beg, soon after which this humble building was erected in its place, at the expense of certain devout Jews; and it is added that it was fully repaired about IGO years since by a rabbi named Ismael. If this local statement be correct, some of the inscriptions which now appear must, as the resident Jews state, have belonged to the preced- ing building, which, however, could not have 1 cen the orif/inal mausoleum, since one of these inscriptions de- scribes it as having been finished posterior to the Chris- tian a>ra (see P. K. Porter's Travels in Persia, ii, 107).
See AcllMKTIIA.
Mordecai ben-Hillel, of Austria, a pupil of the famous :M(ir of Kothenburg (q. v.), son-in-law of R. Jechiel of Paris, and brother-in-law of IJ. Jacob of Cor- bcil, flourished towards the end of the 13th century, and was martyred in 1310 at Nuremberg. He is the author of the book ■':^"^, Mordecai, also called ""SQ '^Z'ni'Cil, the Booh of Mordecai ; a treatise on the legal code (r":5nri ^SD), embodying all the laws of the Talmuil, wliich was compiled, revised, corrected, anno- tated, and supplemented by Isaac Alfasi (q. v.). The Scplur Mordecai has been printed with the Sepher Ha- ll alachoth (Constantinople, 1509; Venice, 1521-22; Sa- bionetta, 1524, etc.). It has also been published sepa- rately (Venice, 1558; Cracow, 1598, etc.).— Fiirst, Bibl. Jiid. ii, 324 sq. ; De Kossi, Dizionario (Germ, transl.), p. 2.') 1 : Stcinschneider, Catalogus lihr. Hebr. in Jiibliol/iica j:n:ll, iitna, 1C.09, etc, ; Basnage, Hist, des Juifs (Taylor's traii-l.t, ]). G85; Ginsburg, in Jacob ben-Chajim ibn- .\(lonijah's Introduction to the Rabbinic Bible (Lond. 1867), p. 76 sq.; Cassel, Leitfadcn fur jild. Gesch. v. Li- teralur (Berlin, 1872), p. 87 ; Griitz, Gesch. d. .Tuden (Berlin, 1873), vii, 252 sq. ; Yaiw?., lAleraturgeschichte der syMKiiKjithn Voisie (Berlin, 1865), p. 3G4; Die Monalstage des kalnuhrjahres (Beriin, 1872), p. 44. (B. P.)