Rav Yitzchak Breitowitz: Purim and Eradicating Amalek

You [music] see your [music] tomorrow. [singing] [music] [music and singing] [singing] Okay. Hi everybody. Thank you. And um I apologize for uh having to reschedu this week although I see it actually helps uh some people. Uh first um our dedication is we're praying for the protection of Yami Israel, the lasting unity of the people of Israel which will lead to victory and for all those whose health has been affected by terror. you know, um, more than 2,000 years ago, uh, we had Persia trying to destroy us, and somehow after 2,000 years, it's exactly the same situation. So, war is never good. Uh, but a war with Persia at this particular time of year might be better than most most times of the year. Yes. May we see the downfall of the Rashim. This poem as we experienced it so many years ago. [snorts] Aliat Nama, Rabbi Poston's father, Nataba Ben Schlommo, uh contributed by Gary Schiff. Thank you. The father of Eric Davinski Schlommo Ben He whose yard site was on the sixth of Sarah Regler's father, Irving Leavinski. Israel Ben Yoseph Yehuda whose the art site on the is on the 10th of Ador the father of Nina Bernstein. Uh the art site of her father Abraham Kasanovich Abraham Ben Yitzkut and finally in memory of Rosalyn Bramson Ratza Batna whose yard site is Shushanpurim. Although she had no formal Jewish education she loved learning and listening to Shiorim. Of course living in Silver Spring she was Zoha to know Rabbi Brightwood personally. Yes, a very very sweet fine woman. Enjoyed learning Torah from him in her last minutes of life. It was Rabbi Briters who we called to determine what the proper alik action should be. again Rabbi Bmpson their son was a very very beloved rabbi of my own son and he continues to be a beloved rabbi in Erit Israel and I know uh I knew both of his parents uh very very well and I know that in Maba they are getting much much nas uh from Michael's very very wonderful accomplishments uh finally I has been begun collecting matanote of yonyim to distribute this and you can also include the half shekel minhug uh in in the matonis levonim 100% of the proceeds go directly to those in need families in financial distress single mothers uh orphans and a link to make your contribution can be found in the YouTube description box or on the IBAN website um just a a short uh little point you know the reason I was not here last night was that last night and today until was the yard site the first yard site of the founder of Osame Rabbi Nat Schiller Zakrona. So obviously Osme had a little bit of a program but it was very very interesting that uh there's a certain thought in the migilla that connects to Rabbi Schiller's situation. The very last puk of migill tester remember it's kind of antilimactic peric yud very short perk and it simply says akashes imposed attacks etc and the rest of his story you could see in the chronicles of the kings of Persia and Mai and then it says and Mori continued to seek the welfare of his people uh he was beloved by most of his brethren uh and uh he always sought the good. So Kazal point out what is this most of the brethren? So it says there were actually members of the Sanhedrin who didn't want to talk to Morai. They thought Morai was no longer learning Torah to the same degree that he was. He was too involved in politics. He was too involved in seeking the welfare of the Jewish people. Says what are you doing? You're supposed to be in the base medish supposed to have an open Gora. So they they criticize Morai people. Some people no matter what you do some people are going to criticize you uh for it. Uh so what was Morai's an what would be Morai's answer to that? Morai's answer to that is as important and vital as it is to study Torah, but sometimes there are obligations to the Jewish people and in order to elevate them to help them both in a material way and in a spiritual way, you have to sacrifice the preoccupation with your own spiritual growth because that is how you sanctify God's name by elevating his people and by protecting his people. The kasam sofur says of all of the aos it is only Abraham who is called Ara who loves me meaning Hashem is saying and theam sofur says because Ara lived in a very degenerate generation and Ara could have taken himself in isolation. He could have meditated. He could have prayed. He could have learned. He could have separated himself from the degenerate generation that he was living in. And he could have become so holy and so elevated in his madrega, but he was willing to sacrifice all of the spiritual growth he could have attained in order to make the name of God beloved in the eyes of others. And that is why he is a true lover of God because he gave up his own spiritual levels out of his love for the almighty which necessitated that he spread God's name amongst everybody. And theam cipher says that is the meaning of ms nephesh you know when we think about ms nephesh we think about giving your life for god butam says that's not giving up your nephesh that's giving up your goof. If I die for the sake of heaven that is it is notes [clears throat] is when you give up your spirituality in order to serve God. You know the when um until his mid-50s he was in living in VNA uh he had no involvement in communal affairs at all. Just learned learned learned. People didn't even know him. I mean he knew that there was this guy who was learning all the time but he was not involved. He was not a RV. He was not a pose. He was not on a basin. Totally devoted to his own spiritual growth. And at some point he was wondering is it time for him to get involved. So he went to meet with who was much older than him. But before he had his time for his private meeting, he just went to hear the was giving a talk and the was talking about the responsibility that you have not only to yourself but to the Jewish people and the said you no longer have the luxury to just worry about you. There's a them out there [clears throat] that you have to think about. And the said it sounds like a joke. He said, "You know, if I would have focused said this, if I would have focused on myself and my learning, says even I could have become a Torah scholar." Says, "But I was willing to give that up, right? But even I, you know, it's not what's the big deal to become a if all you're doing is learning." And the didn't even have to meet with the those words themselves gave him the message that it was time to be involved. And he shortly afterwards he came to Erit Israel and he really became the gut of Joy. The last 20 years of his life the first 50 years he was occupied in building himself up and then he hit the ground running and he was able to become the great leader that he became. Uh we saw Solanter uh you know when he was growing up this is the um the mid 19th century maybe even earlier maybe the first decades of the 19th century. So in Lithuania at the time there were certain religious Jews who literally lived like hermits. They went into the forest. They didn't talk to anybody. All they did the entire day and learn and learn. Dav and learn. They lived on dry bread and water. They would only visit their families on Shabas. And even when they visited their families, they didn't talk because they wouldn't talk on again whether you're allowed to do that in terms of family life. That's a that's a very good question. But this was the life they led a life of total separation from the world. So it is recorded that as a young man Ravi Saul Solant was very attracted to that way of life a life of a sashem no distractions total focus imagine what type of life that could be if you're cap many people are not capable of it but if you're capable of that type of life in many many ways you know we might look at it like deprivation but it was like if I could use nirvana maybe I'm mixing religions here but uh it really would have been a totally wonderful experience. But then he said, "That's good for me. What does that do for everybody else? And don't I have a responsibility to help the Jewish people in some way?" So he abandoned it and he spent much of his life wandering from different cities like Abraham to try to bring people to Hashem. Razor Salanter was from Salant which is a suburb of VNA but he didn't spend most of his time in VNA. He spent most of his time in France in Germany in communities that had very very few if any religious Jews and on a onetoone he tried to bring them to Hashem. He had all sorts of projects. He wanted to translate the Talmud into German. uh whatever a lot of his projects turned out not to be successful but this is what he was thinking about always so the reason I bring this up oh thank you is this is exactly what I think about with Rabbi Rabbi Schiller Rabbi Schiller I don't know how many people of you know him but uh brilliant mind absolutely brilliant brilliant minds and uh if he would have stayed just in pure learning the world of yeshiva he would have could have been a real real God borra But he saw a world where the vast majority of [cough and clears throat] the Jewish people were very mandutak. They were very severed from holiness and from Torah. And he said he had an obligation to do what he could. Now I want to point out that today kirav is a wellaccepted idea. Idea of Jewish outreach bringing people to Torah. All you know everybody knows Kiraov is important. But you know when he founded Orsame shortly after the six day war many people thought that was a crazy by the way I want to point out that Orsame was founded Noah Weinberg was a founder of Orsome with Rabbi Schill Nobi Weinbach and Rabbi Rosenberg later they split. So uh Rab Noak did and Rev Rosenberg had malmo. So without sounding too parochial or is the originator uh the pre the the precursor of both Asia Torah and Mah Schlommo because the four founding Roshibas Revinebach Rav Schiller uh Ra Noah Weinberg and Ravak Rosenberg uh so too Rabbi Schiller Rabbi Weinbach remained in Arsame and the other two founded their own great great most but what I'm saying about Raf Schiller is true about all four of these great almost founding fathers of of Jewish outreach in Erit Israel and that is they made real sacrifices in terms of what they might have attained. They they became great anyway, but how much greater would they have become in the world of abstract learning, but they felt that for the Jewish people, it was worthwhile to give that up. And uh that's an important lesson. And that's exactly Mora. That's that's the final that is the final lesson of Miguel Tester with Morai that some people criticized him for it. You know, there were people who thought Kiraov would was was was a fool's errand because they said, "Listen, 85% of the Jewish people are totally disconnected from Judaism and that's the way it's going to be. We're sad over it. Nothing we can do about it. So, let's take our 15% and let's just strengthen them and strengthen them and strengthen them and the other 85, whatever it is, there are going to be casualties in life." So many people said that was it. There's no concept of Jewish outreach. What are you going to do? You going to take a conservative Jew or or a person who's not affiliated at all and make them show merch shave? That it's never going to happen. But um what did Robert Kennedy say? It's I'm not going to get this quote right. He says some people imagine and ask why and other people say, you know, why not? You know, there's the different mindset. Do you look at a situation and say it's impossible or do you look at a situation and say I'm going to try and really great great visionaries. So again, forgive me for taking the time of the the regular share, but number one, it is connected to Miguel Cester a little bit. >> Uh that's my excuse. And number two, uh it is Kadai uh to be Maspit and Adam. Uh you know, and the other thing I'll tell you about, you know, um he was in his 80s and he was traveling traveling maybe three weeks a month, many many months. And but whenever he was in Eratrael, his office was right next I was I was right next to him and um he came in all the time to tell me stories or or what whatever it would be. But the one thing I can tell you which is really amazing because I wish I had that mida is that a lot of things he did had many disappointments. you know, he'd be out there collecting money and and was unsuccessful and there were times he couldn't make payroll and there were times that it looked like the yeshiva was going to close. And not once in the 15 years that I know him well, not once did I ever see any sadness or depression because he knew that Hashem runs the world. And if Hashem wants him to succeed, he's going to succeed no matter what. But if Hashem doesn't want it, that's Hashem's will. His job is to do the best that he can. And if he did the best that he can, there was nothing to be depressed about because he was not in charge of ultimate success. And it's remarkable. I I I can tell you because he had many many reasons to kind of be upset. Uh and I I never saw I mean maybe privately, who knows? But I I never saw it. And uh it really was a very very remarkable mid that I think all of us should try to emulate as we go through the [snorts] frustrations of life uh [clears throat] that that we that we face. Okay. He he's a so again I would like to add his name to the dedications of this year. Okay. Uh so there are really obviously want to talk about purim. Some of you uh most of you will be keeping purim I assume on um Wednesday. Some of you might keep it on Tuesday. Uh you know you shalim you get a little bit of a bonus because normally you're not supposed to eat after tinus Esther until you hear migillah. So those who keep purim uh you know Monday night Tuesday they have a longer tinus Esther right they can't eat until migillah weak can end times on time because we're not going to hear migilla till the next night. So if you need an a reason albeit a superficial reason to move to your shalim this might be uh this might be a minor reason as uh as well. Um but whatever day you observe purim uh purim is really about two different ideas and I want to share one thought on each of the two ideas. Uh one idea is obviously pursuing Nissa meaning Akadesh Boru gave us this wonderful miracle. Our lives were in danger and Akalesh Boru redeemed us and we give gratitude to Akadesh Boru for the hidden miracle. Now Por is called the hidden miracle because there's nothing supernatural that happened. But when all the pieces come together, we see how Hashem is watching out for us. And that's so important because we don't live in a time by and large of open supernatural miracles. Although occasionally we even get those. But that should never be construed as God doesn't care. God is not involved. God is involved in different ways. And Porm teaches us the reassuring presence of Akadesh Bar even when he's not visible in a supernatural way. And that's to pursue a nissa of purim. The second aspect is the downfall of a malik the defeat of the powers of evil in the world. So two different aspects. One is our salvation. The other is the downfall of a malik. So I want to share a thought about each of these things. First let's talk about the persume nissa of purim. The garra in migilla asks an interesting question and that is how come we don't recite halal on purm. After all of course we recite halal on yamt. Purim is not a yamtiff. That's true. But on the other hand let's look at kaneka is not a yamt either but we recite hal on kaneka because god redeemed us from an enemy that was persecuting us. So [clears throat] hallow can either be because something is a or hollow can be because we were redeemed and saved from danger. If that's the case, surely purim was a danger from which we ought to say hal. The gammorra asks the question why is there no halal on purim? So the garra actually gives no fewer than three answers why there's no halal lan purim. Answer number one there is halalpurim but the halal purim is reading the megela. reading the migilla is a fulfillment of the mitzvah of halah which means there is a of halpurim but your y say that with katilla that's answer one I'll come back to that answer two is we don't say halal on miracles that happen we only say halal on the miracles of Israel and not on the miracles of and since most of the Jews were located in 127 provinces. So the garra asks a wonderful kasha on that. Wait a second. What about pes pes? We say hollow because of yeat that was. So the gammor's answer is well that's on the way. Meaning if it's a miracle that's bringing you to Israel. So that's called an eritis miracle as opposed to the miracle of porim that it was not a process of bringing us to Israel. That's answer number two. Answer number three is you only say halal when as a result of the miracle you're out of hot water. So you're out of mitzim. You you've been liberated from antio. In the case of purim, we got rid of hmon but we're still under the rulership of aash. Who says akash is not going to get another ham next week? You're not out of the water yet and therefore it's not shallow. These are three different answers of the three answers the pas like the first one migilla is hollow. Migilla is hollow. So based on this the miri one of the vishim has a very remarkable hala. [snorts] Let's say you're you're on a desert island and you forgot to bring bring your migilla with you, but all you have is a sitter. So you can't read migillah because you don't have a migillah. So says to Mahiri, if you're not able to read Miguela and Purim, you must recite halal with a bra because according to the first answer of the Gmorrah Purim is in but takes the place meaning if you don't have migillah you got to read. Very interesting. Hopefully it's not going to apply to anybody but this is what the miri says that any person who's not going to hear or read the migillan purim must recite [clears throat] halal pur morning in the day. Now the mishnabura however brings such a view but he says we don't follow that view. In other words, not only is migillah a substitute for halal, but migillah is the exclusive halal of purim. You're not yay halal. I'm purim with halal. You are only yay [clears throat] with migillah. So the question becomes why should that be? Oh, I I understand that migilla can be a substitute for halal, but why should it be better than real halal only the substitute? So, Raf Hutner in the offers the following interesting explanation. Rafner says that halal is thanking God for the miracles that he's done for us. Right? Halal is essentially an expression of gratitude and praise. So he says the form of your halal has to mimic the form of the redemption for which you're saying hala. So we have two types of redemptions, two types of miracles. There is a miracle that is called nace nigla. an open and obvious miracle that is something that is supernatural something that goes beyond the laws of nature. The most outstanding example of nace nigla is pesak the 10 makos the splitting of the red sea nace nigla. So the halal thanking God for redeeming us via a nigla has to be an open praise of God which is what halal is. Nigla requires halal galua. Purim by definition is not an open miracle. In purim every single thing analyzed separately if you take every single event in the migillah it can be explained as natural political uh akashro kills vashi okay that's the that's the way these kings behaved the w the woman didn't listen she gets executed uh he chooses Esther well somebody has to be chosen and by the way when Esther was chosen I remember you know from kindergarten the way they used to present uh Queen Esther was uh she was participating in a beauty pageant and she won the pageant like Miss Universe. Well, rest assured that was not the story. This was a tragedy. Esther was seized forcibly. Uh they went somehow they went into her home. She was a married woman anyway and she was at Sadekas and she was married to the Lador and she was physically seized. Right? So that didn't look like anything of salvation. Morai overhearing assassination plot. Okay, he did a good deed. At the time he had no inkling that this would be significant. Hmon decrees destruction of a nation not knowing that it happens to be Esther's nation because she didn't tell her. Now Morai told her not to tell but once again the question is why did Morai tell her not to tell? I mean this is this is before Hmon made his decree. Morai just said don't tell. There's no reason for that either. But all of these pieces come together. The death of Vashi, the tragic choice of Esther, Mori telling Esther not to reveal because if Esther would have revealed her nation at the outset, Hmon would not have been defeated because he wouldn't have proposed this. And then only in retrospect all the pieces come together that result in this great great salvation. This is the prototype of Nace Mister. It's a miracle, but it's concealed. It's not visible to the naked eye. As you as you live through every single experience, which lasted over 10 years, by the way, um you know, the migilla collapses the events as if they're one after the other. They're over many, many years. Slow, deliberate, normal. In retrospect, you see, wow, God was watching out for us. So, this is called Anace Nister, the very name Esther, right? Her birth name was Hadasa. She's called Esther. So, some say, you know, historians like to say [snorts] Esther is Ishtar. It's connected to the Persian moon goddesses and the like. But Kazal say that Esther is her name because Esther means concealment. hiddenness. She number one she hid her identity but number two her whole story is one of hiddenness concealment. That is why the name of Hashem is not mentioned in the book of Esther. I mentioned last week that it says Melik Melik has a double meaning and Hashem but there's no direct mention of God. Very strange. The book of Esther does not mention hakadesh in an explicit way because the whole migilla is about hiddenness. Seeing God when he is concealed, when he is hidden, understanding that all of life is miraculous. Sometimes it's supernaturally miraculous. Other times it's Hashem just running the world. So Rafner says since Purim represents a hidden miracle. The hollow of purim must be a hidden hollow and therefore where yot halal not by open praise of God but by reading the story of the migilla where god is not mentioned although he's ever present. So it's a very nice correlation. Open miracle requires open halal. Hidden miracle requires hidden halal. And that is why we don't follow the mi. The mi took the position that if you didn't read migill you have to read halal. We actually puskin the other way around that if you don't have a migilla too bad you're stuck. You're not going to be yay the halaporim by an open hal. It has to be a hidden hollow. This is what Futner says. And this is why Purim is such an important holiday when we're in Gulos. And the truth is even in we cannot forget this. We are in Golas. Yeah. We're in Israele. We're in. But there's no Bikash. Msiah hasn't come. We don't have prophecy. We are beset with war and enemies. We are still in gullis. We still observe tishabuff even in yushlay. And perhaps even more so we're aware of we're so grateful again simultaneously grateful for what we have. Of course, of course. But at the same time, you know, people go to the koto, right? We have the kotto we can go to. But what is the kotto? The kotto is the remnant of a wall not even of the basikash. the wall of the harabayat in which everything else has been destroyed. So we rejoice that we have that remnant but it's a remnant. That's why is when you see the coel you didn't see it for 30 days at least if you don't live in your shim you rip your garment right so simultaneously with somebody coming from America I saw the ko they ripped their garment in grief and in sadness as as you may know that the men if you live in your so even if you didn't see the coail for 30 days you do not rip your garment [clears throat] actually it's interesting someone asked rebel yash what exactly is the reason for that? It's not it's not intuitively that it's not a logical statement. I mean even if I live here I mean I if I see the coal I should feel that grease Yash said a very sharp bit of muser very sharp I don't know if it's the reason but he says if you live inlay and you let 30 days go by without visiting the kota it's probably because you don't care that much so the grief would be fake the grief would be fake I'm going to rip my garment you don't you didn't bother coming. So if so at least if you live outside of your shalim you can say well it was too far. Okay it's it's a very sharp little muser you know how much do you care you know if you don't visit the coil within 30 days okay so now so it's so important that at a time where we don't have these open miracles that we strengthen our ramuna that Hashem is with us. That's the lesson of Porim. Porm sustains us in the gullus. Porim sustains us in the darkness. Porm reminds us that it's not that God is not here. It's simply God is hidden. And being hidden is very different than being absent. There's no absence. There is hiddenness. But just as a mother might watch her child playing in the street and the child doesn't like to see her parent w is her parent watching. So the parent hides behind the curtain but is aware of everything the child is doing and everything the child needs. So too, as the Pik says in Shiritim, he gazes from the windows. Yashem is behind a window, behind the veil, but he's gazing. This is the great great great promise of Purim. The sanctity of Porm. You know, Purim is a happy day, of course, but Porm is a sacred day. And part of the sacredness is to realize the presence of Hashem in our lives and in the world. That's why it's brought down by the way that Purim is a specially powerful day to have your tilos answered. And they bring an interesting analogy because normally by stuck when a person asks you for stuck you're entitled to some evidence. Now do you have a letter? Not so hard to get letters but you have a letter. to have some substantiation on Purim. If an if a person who says he's an asks you for something, you don't ask question. By the way, this is misapplied because some I the kids learned this in school and they think that, you know, any kid can go over to any adult and say, "Give me money. You're not allowed to turn me down." I mean I mean listen I mean I don't want to be mean. It's obviously you know you have money but the truth is this doesn't mean anybody can hold you up for money. Meaning if somebody claims they're an uni, you don't investigate their credentials. It doesn't mean anybody I can go over to you and say I'd like you know give me some money. You know you can't uh can't go around doing that. But be it as it may on porm you don't ask questions. So they say the whole year when we dares may ask questions are we worthy but on anyone who puts out his hands we give so to gives no a day of great great we shouldn't forget this with all of the partying and all of the uh joy of pur which of course is appropriate it's a tremendous this of as a little aside it's also brought down that you're supposed to start learning hil 30 days before pes and that happens to be on por on the porm of Tuesday you dal it so actually you start learning hilus pes on porm itself uh as a little aside this is a ma nothing to do with what I'm talking about but I'll mention it now rebel yash uh for many many years. Um he used to learn in kind of a tiny little shaw in Mayarim called Osara. The Shaw is still there. Uh and he had the key to it because it was not used during the day. So he had the key and the shaw was locked and he would just be by himself although people found out where he was and they were kept on knocking at the windows and he had a shittita. He had a very strong shittita that he had regular hours for seeing people and he would not allow people to just come to him when he was learning. I mean this was his sacred time and people would yell and bang and they would yell. He wouldn't answer wouldn't he wouldn't answer. So later when he had his public hours the person who was knocking and screaming said I want to apologize to the RV. I didn't want to disturb your learning so much. So says, "Oh, are you the one shouting nephesh?" He said, "Yeah, that was me." He said, "Huh, Pikesh, if it's Pikes, you go to a doctor. You go to a hospital." He says, "What do you come to me? You go to Pikesh." Okay. Um, all right. But be as it may, some people used to just want to watch him. Meaning they would just go to the window. his back would be to the window and the safer would be in front of him and they'd want to watch him learn. They didn't know they didn't make noise. They just would watch him learn. So the person said that I think was either on pur or shortly after porash had the hil open in front of him and he sat on that one page for three hours. Three hours on that one page. So what's so unusual about that? Well, I'll tell you. If you take a and you look at the first page of there is only one sentence on that page and it's not particularly complicated. [snorts] You should learn and investigate the laws of PES 30 days before PES. That's the only thing it says. Revelash was open to that page for 30 for three hours. So the person said I don't know what he was doing with that thing for three hours. I mean I would look at it for one minute and then turn the page. So apparently Rab Yash saw even in what we would think the most obvious of he saw so much depth so much meaning so many in a relatively simple hal. [laughter] The guy said, "I don't know what he was doing there for 3 hours, but that's what he was doing." It's a little reminiscent of what they say about Rabbikar. Somebody told the Khaz [snorts] that the great Rabbi Kagger was so so much of a genius he could learn a thousand pages of Gomorrah in one day. >> So the Kaz says he was greater than that. He could learn one page of Gomorrah over a thousand days. Says that was a greater. says that was even a greater accomplishment to see the depth of every word and the significance. The truth is Kger could do both. The truth is it's not a contradiction. He actually he actually did both at the at the same at the same time. Okay. All righty. So this is why as I say porm is so important. Now this connects to another aspect that is there is a well-known of Purim and Bhisha know this very well even if they don't know other that a person must embibe drink till they cannot tell the difference [clears throat] between the phrase cursed be Hmon and blessed be Mortai you drink until you don't know the difference and this is a that's codified in the now first of all I do want to point out there actually is a if we pass like this because right after this statement the garra gives a story that rabba was making a porm meal with Rabbi Zera and Rabba reached a state of inebriation and he slit Rabbi Zerra's throat. You get drugged fooling around with a knife. So he sees that he has this dead man in front of him. So Rabba was Miss Pal and a miracle happened of Mason. So the next year when Rabba invited Rava to come to his pura meal, [laughter] Rabi Zer said no because he said you know miracles don't happen every day of that magnitude. So I don't want to take a chance. Now the Mi makes the following interesting observation. Why does the Gomorrah give you that story right after it says you have to drink? Because it wants to highlight the dangers of excessive drinking. It could lead to violence, lead to murder, lead and therefore the Gumar is actually telling you not to drink because of the dangers. In other words, it's retracting. On the other hand, some say the proof is the opposite. Because if the the limit of the story is not to drink, then why is Raba afraid to come back next year? In other words, if Rab Z is supposed to learn the lesson, better not to drink, then there shouldn't be a problem. Eli, if there is a problem, it got to be you do drink. And the does you do drink. Now there are many many limitations here. First of all, it's only wine. It's not liquor. Second of all, it's only during the porim meal. During the purim meal, it's not referring to the night before or even the day. It's mamish only during the meal. Third of all, the Ramas says in spite of the language of the Gmorrah, it does not mean drunkenness. It simply means you drink a little more than usual. So you get tired and you fall asleep and then you don't know the difference between cursed is someone and blessed is Morai. And then [clears throat] fourth of all you obviously have to balance it. Meaning when great people get a little sugar they're true. What what does Gazelle say? When wine comes in the secret goes out. Yen and sod are the same gumatria. Yayen is gumatria 60 I'm sorry uh 70 and sod is gumatria 70 wine goes in secrets go out so when a person gets drunk their true personality gets revealed that alone should scare a lot of us so when an adam god gets a little shiker tora insights come out when a person who does not have good meos gets shiker they become you know violent, angry. So one has to be very careful. Um but be it as it may putting aside the issue of drinking and drinking is a big issue. It is a very big issue because unfortunately uh there have been deaths [snorts] due to alcohol abuse on porim especially involving automobiles and uh even other otherwise. So one has to be very very careful. So the thought I'm going to share with you is not emphasizing the drinking aspect but emphasizing more of the rejoicing aspect and that is why are we connecting reach a level of rejoicing where you don't know the difference between cursed is ham and blessed is mortai what is the significance of that being any type of goal to achieve are you achieving some goal by obliterating that difference surely it does not mean we're obliterating the difference between the saddak and the Russia that doesn't make any sense? So what what are you attaining with that particular goal? So uh there is a commentary by Raviakov of Lisa the great uh nivishba who wrote commentaries on migillas [snorts] and uh in the haktama in the introduction to his commentary uh which is printed really in every mroskull uh mig he offers a beautiful explanation. The Gammorian McGillah says if you remember when Hmon purchased so to speak the right the authorization to massacre the Jewish people. So the way his authority was granted was Akash veros removed his signate ring and gave it to Hmon. That was a symbol of royal authority. That's why when Hammond is hung it mentions again the signate ring was removed and given to Morai. Right? That's the way authority was transferred. So the Gomorrah has a very pathy comment. And the Gomorrah says the removal of that ring from from did more for the Jewish people than 48 male prophets and seven female prophets. In Tanakh there are 56 nim that are mentioned. 48 of them are men. Seven of them Dvorra others are women. And this removal of the ring did more for the Jewish people than all of those prophets because what do the prophets say over and over again? Do chuva, do chuva, do chuva, repent, repent, repent, repent. Nobody listens. But what happens when that ring goes on Hmon's finger? All of a sudden, cloud Israel repents [snorts] and [clears throat] accept reaccept. So the Gomorrah remarks almost semi humorously, the removal of the ring did more for the Jewish people than 48 prophets and seven prophetesses because the prophets couldn't bring us to Chuva and the removal of that ring did. So the nifa says the following when we think about what we're grateful for on porm we the thing we think about is uh that what Morai did for us morai and Esther that they were instruments of salvation our lives were in danger and because of their intervention they enolled the decree and we were we were saved but we don't think about oh bar hashem that hman decreed that we would die we would have been happier had that not happened at all. So, we're grateful for being saved, but we're not grateful for having the threat put upon us. But in reality, we owe I don't mean to be grateful to Hmon. I'm not suggesting that, but we have to be grateful to Hashem not only for the redemption. We have to be grateful to Hashem for the gazer because the redemption saved us physically, but it was only the of the gazer that brought us to Chuva. You see, so in an amazing way, part of our gratitude to Akadeshu is not only for the rafua, the healing, part of our gratitude to Hashem is for the for the sickness, for the maka. Soap again putting aside drinking per se but a person should reach a level of joy in God's love that they don't see the difference between the salvation that came via Morai and even the adversity and pain that came through Ahmed because both of them were instrumentalities that brought us goodness. and blessing and that requires a level of sima. This goes back to the statement that a person must accept everything God gives them even the good and the bad because the bad is also good in disguise. The bad is also good in disguise. Now again I don't mean to suggest we owe hum any gratitude. That's not that's not it. But it's the gratitude of seeing that even in the adversity and challenge of life. And that I would suggest is a second aspect of the concealment of purim. Purim is a concealed miracle in the sense that there was nothing supernatural. But it's also concealed because even in the gazer of Hammon, we see a salvation that God is bringing us to enable us to do true. That's a separate aspect of concealment to see even in the challenges and adversities of life. The mechanisms by which God brings out powers and potentials that would otherwise remain dormant. In truth, we see this we see this often and very sadly in Erit Israel. Think about um October 7 and the ways people the nobility and the greatness [snorts] by which people who suffered immense tragedies rose to the occasion and October 7 was not the first time going back before that virtually every year we see people who lose their spouses lose their children themselves get injured talks about uh Shilas he got from who literally lost their arms and the only thing on their mind was how how how can they put on fill in properly. This was their concern. This was their concern. They weren't complaining against God. They weren't attacking God. They weren't saying how could you do this to me? They just wanted to know how can I fulfill the mitzvah to fill in properly. What a greatness. What a greatness there is of people who go through the greatest greatest tragedies and remain strong in their faith. Now, if God forbid someone goes through a tragedy and loses their faith, I dare not sit in judgment on them, how can I sit in judgment on them? How do I know what I would do? Right? What gives me the right to assume that I would be better than them? So the issue is not to condemn those who may not go there but at the same time to elevate and admire the people who remain kept their amuna under the most difficult conditions. That's truly remarkable. And the funny thing is, I shouldn't say funny, but the had there not been the tragedy, that greatness wouldn't have emerged. Victor Frankle writes, and again he was not writing as an Orthodox Jew. He was not an Orthodox Jew, but Victor Franco writes from his own experiences that there were people he knew in uh I think it was Vienna, was the city uh before World War II who were not they were just regular people, business people. They were not uh saints. They were not great sadikim. And they would have gone through their lives just average people. But some of these people in the concentration camps would risk their lives to bring food or medicine to starving men, women, children at great personal risk to their lives because they had to take stuff from the kitchen, whatever would be they they could get killed. Remember, I mean, in a concentration camp, first of all, they didn't they didn't need any excuse to kill you. They could just kill you at random as a game. But certainly, if you were guilty of the nefarious crime of stealing a small rotten potato from the kitchen, that was absolutely grounds for killing you at the on the spot. And these were people who every night risk their lives. And Victor Frankle said it's not that they were great sadik before the war. [snorts] They became saintly people because of the situation they were put in. So I know a person says, "Well, can't God figure out a better way?" It's a good question. It's a good question. I don't know. Apparently not. But sometimes Hashem needs these worst experiences to bring out the best in the human beings that are able to grow from this niss and that is the idea that says that you drink on pur till you recognize that even the auran is part of God's redemptive plan right the removal of the ring is greater than the 48 prophets and [clears throat] the like. So now I just want to mention I had mentioned there were two themes of pur. I guess I'll only mention a few minutes on the second theme. Theme number one was the redemption and that's where we talk about the hiddenenness of the miracle. Theme number two is the downfall of a malik because hmon comes from a malik. [clears throat] Hamman Aagi. Aag you'll remember, was the king of Amalg that Sha was supposed to kill and Sha spared Aag and although Shmo finished him off, but in that small amount of time, Aag impregnated a woman who was not detected and that woman was the ancestor of Hammon. So Hammon is a direct descendant of the Amalachite king that Sha was supposed to kill. That's why the ha to Torah for Shabba is this story. You know, it's so interesting. It just shows you that, you know, Sha spared a because of compassion. He said, "I don't have do I have to kill everybody? What's wrong if I spare somebody? I spare a royal house." That little act of misplaced compassion almost resulted in the total destruction of Ami Israel. Right? You think you do a little thing. What's the harm? Aren't I being nice? Right. The long-term effects, right? Uh of this. And this is what Kazal is saying. Anyone who has compassion when it's appropriate to be cruel will eventually have cruelty to those who deserve compassion. Remember Sha who was the great compassionate person who didn't want to kill a god sha wiped out the whole city of kohanim because they gave some bread to starving right so where was the compassion there right [clears throat] so it says you have raim when you're not supposed to have rakim you're going to have cruelty when you're supposed to have raim okay um but when we look at amalik there's an interesting idea it's an important idea and maybe it really deserves more development than I have time for. So I'm going to be very brief in this. There is an idea that our vulnerability to the external amaliks in the world is a function of an internal amalik that is within us that when there is a certain aspect of an eternalized amalik that makes us vulnerable. So when the Tyra says there's a mitzvah to eradicate a malik on one hand it does refer to the external amalik that is an actual mitzvah although it doesn't apply to every enemy but amalik but in a more spiritual metaphorical sense it also means erase the amalik in you that make you vulnerable to the amalik outside of you. So what aspects of our Malik are within us? So our khazal identify two essential things that make us vulnerable to our malik. The first is a concept of coldness, indifference or complacency in our avodas hashem. [clears throat] Because the idea here is even if a person does mitzvah, let's say I'm an Orthodox Jew, I do mitzvah. I dab three times a day. I keep shabas. I keep kosher, whichem is very good, very good. But sometimes I do it as a burden. I do it as something I got to do, not that I wanted to. I do it without joy. I do it without sin. I do it in a cold, mechanical, unfeilling manner. [clears throat] Now once again I I have to emphasize better to do it that way than not to do it. It still counts that but that makes you vulnerable because you're serving God with coldness, lack of passion. And we find that a malik represents coldness in our hashem. Right? The says which is translated literally they encountered you on the way. But means a malik makes you cold. Coldness in a hashem makes a Jew vulnerable to a malik. We have to try in our avote to be filled with passion, enthusiasm, joy, not to go through the motions. Pesak, right? Somebody once described that in some circles the 613 mitzvos are really 613 problems that we got to solve so I can get to my real life. Now, I have a life. whatever my life is. But neb I got all of these restrictions. [snorts] That's one way of looking at the Torah. So I got to navigate these restrictions so I can do what is really important to me. Again, I am not even demeaning that. That has value too, but it's a very very subordinate value because really it's the opposite. Our lives are keeping the mitzvah. But I have these working responsibility other I have to navigate around them and that's the problem. The problem is not the mitzvah. So one point of vulnerability to our Malik is the coldness in a bodhism and this is this this actually is a very serious problem. Even a person could be very very from very very religious but there's kind of a deadness inside and that's a malik. You're dead. The second Achilles heel if I could mix my metaphor is the hatred and polarization between Jews makes us vulnerable to our Malik. Because when there's hatred between us then a malik who comes from as a amalik is our family. We hate our family our family will hate us. A malik will hate us. So when we talk about eradicating a malik, we're not only talking about eradicating the external amalik [clears throat] but eradicate the amalik within. Eradicate the coldness, complacency, indifference. Embrace the Torah with enthusiasm and joy and love your fellow Jew. Care about them. Do what you can for them. That's why Purim, which in addition to celebrating our salvation is celebrating the downfall of Amalecch. When the kakim enacted the rituals to give thanks to Hashem, they specifically incorporated the rituals that deal with our spiritual work in eradicating a malik. The the theme of unity transcending hatred is very very obvious in purim. Look at the mitzvah of purim. We send food is to create friendship. That's why it's brought down actually that if at all possible you try to send us to somebody that you're not so close to. Although that that can back you have to be careful there because if if you know if people think they're getting because you don't like them. Okay. It's a it's a matter of but the general idea is that you want to create friendship bonds of friendship and relationship of yonim charity raim compassion [clears throat] I care. Why is that so relevant on purim? Because if purim is about defeating amalik and our vulnerability to amalik comes from the amalik inside of us and one of that amalik inside of us is not caring about others. So porim we care about others. Now the first theme though of the inner amalik is maybe a little less obvious in porm and that is the first amalik that I talked about was the coldness and indifference in abodat hashem. How is that addressed on porm itself? The answer is there's something else that happened on purim that we sometimes don't focus on and that is we reaccepted the Torah on Purim. [cough] [clears throat] Why did we have to reaccept the Torah and Purim? Did did we not accept it at Mount Si? [clears throat] And the Gomorrah explains at Hari we were somewhat forced into it. Hashem held the mountain over our head and he said, "If you accept the Torah, that's great. And if not, I'm going to flatten you like a pancake." So, we accept it. On Quran, we accepted out of love what we had previously accepted out of fear. Now, this needs a lot of explanation. And again, I'm sorry that I'm not able to go into maybe I'll carry it over next next week or next two weeks. But but the point I want to make is Purim in addition to migill and everything else is actually a day of hat [snorts] accepting the Torah out of love. Now, one of the major differences between doing something out of fear [clears throat] and doing something out of love is the degree of enthusiasm you bring to the task. If I'm doing something because otherwise I'm scared I'm going to get punished, I'll do it. But I'm not going to do it with excitement, with kishmak, with passion. I'll do it because I want to get it over with. When I do something out of love, I do it because I love Hashem and I do it with joy. So in a sense, it's a tikun. It is a rectification for a malik because if a malik is coldness rectifies the coldness by bringing you a passionate relationship with hashem. Okay. So these are the two basic themes of purim. One is the nace of being saved and the other is the downfall of a malik. These are some thoughts to think about it. Uh the shabas before purim of course is the second of the special four parot and we read about uh a malik para sahar. Um this is the only Torah reading according to most opinions that is a Torah commandment. Interesting. Reading the Torah is not commanded by the Torah. Reading the Torah is a rabbitic requirement, but reading annually about a Malik is indeed a Torah requirement. So, uh it's very important that people hear parat. Now, whether women do it, this is an interesting question. You know, um certainly many many women are very mockbid as well to hear parat and they go to sh special readings and the like. The truth is there are reonim that say that actually say that in spite of being a Torah commandment women are not obligated because [snorts] para is connected to the war against and since women are exempt from combat they're exempt from others say and are two different things. So that that is a makus. So in fact in Europe you may ask your parents or grandparents if they were from in Europe. uh it was many many women did not go to schol even for paras they have to hear miguela but they can hear migillah at home without a minion paras you do need a minion uh and they didn't go to sh uh because they followed the say for but in modern times I don't know I can't say I have done a survey but at least in the United States where I was more familiar with all the different shs uh women commonly did go to para sar my guess is they do it here too as Well uh but you know whatever there are those that say it's not a but nevertheless uh let us remember that when we talk about eradicating amalik let's also focus on the amalik within us and if we eradicate the amalik within us hashem will protect us from the amaliks that are that are outside and as I say um this is a if you're going to if you're going to have a war with Persia with Iran this is a good time to have one even though I They prefer no war at all. So, Bzra Hashem, may Khloe Israel and the whole world see a Yeshua Gdola. [music] My birthday [music and singing] is your [music] [singing] sh [music]