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BY: ATARA LANGER AND DVORAH RAHIMZADA
(According to Dvorah)
According to Rashi Haman thought of himself as a God. Haman was trying to compete against Hashem, and reinforced his belief by making the people bow to him as they would bow to Hashem. According to this, the struggle between Mordechai and Haman was not a direct religous issue. Since Haman was not technically Avodah Zara it was not okay for Mordechai to put the Jewish people in danger.
Yalkut Shimoni says that some Midrashim criticize Mordechai and say it was wrong of him to not bow to Haman. There is a Midrash that says Mordechai refused to bow to Haman because he was technically his slave. The Midrash continues with saying that at one point Haman and Mordechai were on a boat together, and Haman had no food. Mordechai gave his food to Haman on the condition that Haman become his slave. According to this Mordechai endangered the Jewish people for his pride.
IN CONCLUSION, MORDECHAI WAS THE MOST AWSOME JEW AT THAT TIME.
We like the Midrash's opinion that says Haman had idol engraved onto his clothing.
We like this opinion because we think that Mordechi would never intentionally put the Jews in danger, and this is the most legitimate reason for him not bowing, which resulted with Haman hating the Jews and trying to get them all killed. Mordechi was extremely intelligent, and knew all the Halochot. We believe that Mordechi wouldn't put all the Jewish people in danger for something insignificant like not giving Haman the satisfaction of him bowing, or for his own personal pride. Mordechi completely knew what he was doing, and wouldn't defy someone of power for no reason.
The Midrash states that Haman had a picture of an idol on his clothing, so that anyone that bowed to him was also bowing to his idol. The Eben Ezra and Tosofot both agree with this interpretation of Mordechai's actions. the Midrash also says that the problem between Haman and Mordechai was a religious issue. Another thing this Midrash says that its obvious that Mordechai did not want to bow down to Haman, even if it meant putting himself in danger. His reasoning was that Halacha forbids idolatry even to save your life, so naturally he refused and did not not bow.