Simchas Yuntif
R' Shimshon Pincus in his sefer on Purim in his maamer titled "Hashlech al Hashem Yehavecha" talks about how there is a mitzvah of happiness, simchas yuntif, surrounding all Yamim Tovim. For example, Sukkos is Zman Simchaseinu. Likewise, on Purim we have a mitzvah of mishteh v'simcha. However, unlike all other chagim, there is a mitzvah of drinking wine until one doesn't know the difference between Baruch Mordechai and Aror Haman. This mitzvah is very different from these other types of happiness we are supposed to experience during the other holidays of the year; it seems to have no shychus to kedusha. And so, says R' Pincus, Purim is unlike all the other moadim.While all the other chagim serve a purpose in Klal Yisroel's journey as a nation, and each year we tap into that potential when we celebrate each Yom Tov, Purim is in a class of its own.
Pesach and Yetzias Mitzrayim is leidas am yisroel. Sfira are the days of chinuch until we were obligated for kiyum hamitzvos. Shavuos is the bar mitzvah of Bnei Yisroel. The Yamim Noraim are the days of courtship between Bnei Yisroel and Hashem, the closeness coming from the teshuva we engage in during that time period. Sukkos is the chasuna; entering into the sukkah is akin to stepping under the chuppah. Shmini Atzeres is the yichud. After the Yamim Tovim there are days of darkness and the "choshech al pnei s'hom" is Yavan who darkened the eyes of Yisroel. Chanukah brought back this light of Torah to Bnei Yisroel.
The whole purpose of all these moadim, this whole journey, is Purim! They all lead up to Purim, which is the ninth and final moed of the year (only followed by the tenth, the time of beas hamoshiach).
Hester Panim
To really understand what Purim is about, we have to understand what "hester panim" is. Hester panim is synonymous with tzaros. During the time of Shlomo Hamelech Bnei Yisroel didn't lack for anything, but when the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed we had klallos, one worse than the next. We cannot understand why things happen and how Hashem runs the world. To our perception bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people. We think the whole world goes according to our maasim. It is a mechanism of action that we know as "teva." Hashem's yad is hidden, and we believe we control things.Purim reveals the truth. With all of the moadim it seems like we did something to deserve the salvation or outcome. By Yetzias Mitzrayim we believed in Hashem and so He took us out; Kabalas Hatorah we said "Naase V'nishama" and we were then given the Torah; Yamim Noraim - we did teshuva and we were forgiven; at the time of the Chanukah story the Chashmonaim had tremendous mesiras nefesh and so we were saved. However, Purim changes this pattern. At the time of Purim there was a sealed decree in shamayim of "kliya" (that Bnei Yisroel would be destroyed). There was nothing we could do to change that. The neis of Purim was that Hashem Himself b'chvodo u'b'atzmo annulled this injunction. It is clear that we did nothing to control the outcome, because there was nothing we could do.
Get Out of the Way!
In order for Hashem to Himself nullify the decree, He needed to get Man out of the way. Hashem needed for Man to stop thinking that what he is doing is manipulating the outcome of events. On Purim G-d waves Man aside; He tells him to go get drunk and remove himself from the picture so that He alone can control outcomes.
People believe that their actions regulate things; they have grandiose illusions of control. The mitzvah to drink on Purim teaches us a lesson. When someone is drunk he realizes that he can't do anything alone. In this realization, he can feel deep simcha, as he then realizes that Hashem is doing everything for him and he need not worry. This, says R' Pincus, is what makes Purim's simcha different from all other chagim.
Rabbi Kagan in his book, The Choice to Be, quotes the Maharal, who brings a slightly different angle concerning this point. He asserts that seichel causes human pride and accords a status separate from G-d. Drinking wine removes this intellect and thereby eliminates this separation, affording us a special closeness and happiness.
In the Torah, everything follows the maasim of Klal Yisroel -- "V'haya im shamoah tishmau" –– but in Megillas Esther, the Purim story, it's different. After everything was said and done, there was no way possible for Bnei Yisroel to be saved, and yet Hashem saved us!
Purim revealed that Hashem can change reality in a second! The story of the Megilla is different from all other stories in the Torah! For this reason, says R' Pincus, after Moshiach comes, all other kisvei kodesh will be abrogated aside from the Chameishe Chumshei Torah and Megillas Esther. All other messages are contained in the Torah, except that of Purim.
Haman was a small guy who accelerated from an unimportant nothing in the king's court to the head advisor almost overnight. He was then given the king's signet ring and free reign to make proclamations and decrees. Yet Haman's luck changed suddenly. He went from Second-in-Command to leading the 'lowliest' man in the kingdom on a horse, during which garbage was dumped on his head. Mordechai, the man who was being persecuted and sentenced to death, was led on a horse and given honors by the Royal Second-In-Command himself.
This neis shows that anything can happen in a second, all without man's involvement.
People believe that their actions regulate things; they have grandiose illusions of control. The mitzvah to drink on Purim teaches us a lesson. When someone is drunk he realizes that he can't do anything alone. In this realization, he can feel deep simcha, as he then realizes that Hashem is doing everything for him and he need not worry. This, says R' Pincus, is what makes Purim's simcha different from all other chagim.
Rabbi Kagan in his book, The Choice to Be, quotes the Maharal, who brings a slightly different angle concerning this point. He asserts that seichel causes human pride and accords a status separate from G-d. Drinking wine removes this intellect and thereby eliminates this separation, affording us a special closeness and happiness.
In the Torah, everything follows the maasim of Klal Yisroel -- "V'haya im shamoah tishmau" –– but in Megillas Esther, the Purim story, it's different. After everything was said and done, there was no way possible for Bnei Yisroel to be saved, and yet Hashem saved us!
Purim revealed that Hashem can change reality in a second! The story of the Megilla is different from all other stories in the Torah! For this reason, says R' Pincus, after Moshiach comes, all other kisvei kodesh will be abrogated aside from the Chameishe Chumshei Torah and Megillas Esther. All other messages are contained in the Torah, except that of Purim.
Haman was a small guy who accelerated from an unimportant nothing in the king's court to the head advisor almost overnight. He was then given the king's signet ring and free reign to make proclamations and decrees. Yet Haman's luck changed suddenly. He went from Second-in-Command to leading the 'lowliest' man in the kingdom on a horse, during which garbage was dumped on his head. Mordechai, the man who was being persecuted and sentenced to death, was led on a horse and given honors by the Royal Second-In-Command himself.
This neis shows that anything can happen in a second, all without man's involvement.
Turn Your Action into Prayer
Esther sent Mordechai clothes when he was sitting in sackclothes and ashes mourning the fate of the Jewish people. Esther told Mordechai to get dressed and do hishtadlus, go talk to the king. Mordechai said "no." There was nothing that Klal Yisroel could do except seek rachamim from HKB"H. This is why Mordechai took the children, dressed them in sak v'efer and they fasted and davened for three days. This was not an act of teshuva, says R' Pincus, but rather a way to be m'vakesh rachamim from Hashem.
Esther Hamalka's hishtadlus too was that of being m'vkesh rachamim. She threw two parties for the king and Haman, but when it came down to it, she broke down and cried, "If I have found favor in the eyes of the King, and if it please the King, let my life be saved and the lives of my people...for it is this man, this wicked man that wants to kill us." Rabbi Kagan brings the famous medrash that states that whenever it says "the King" in the megillah without specifying Achashveirosh, it is referring to Hashem. He explains that Esther was not beseeching Achashveirosh for mercy, rather she was talking to Hashem, asking that her life be spared from Achashveirosh and Haman. Esther had no illusion of control, her action was transformed to prayer.
The v'nahapoch hu was only talui on Hashem. Only when Klal Yisroel turned themselves completely over to Hashem did Hashem save them.
Esther Hamalka's hishtadlus too was that of being m'vkesh rachamim. She threw two parties for the king and Haman, but when it came down to it, she broke down and cried, "If I have found favor in the eyes of the King, and if it please the King, let my life be saved and the lives of my people...for it is this man, this wicked man that wants to kill us." Rabbi Kagan brings the famous medrash that states that whenever it says "the King" in the megillah without specifying Achashveirosh, it is referring to Hashem. He explains that Esther was not beseeching Achashveirosh for mercy, rather she was talking to Hashem, asking that her life be spared from Achashveirosh and Haman. Esther had no illusion of control, her action was transformed to prayer.
The v'nahapoch hu was only talui on Hashem. Only when Klal Yisroel turned themselves completely over to Hashem did Hashem save them.
Hashem is in Complete Control
This is the climax of Bnei Yisroel's journey, realizing that the Boreh is in complete and total control –– taking care of everything in the world.
Purim is about the "pur." When someone makes a gorel, he has no control over the outcome. He is leaving it totally up to Hashem. Haman made a lottery; he wanted the decree to be beyond teva and beyond the mazalos. He made a lottery, and he received approval from Heaven. In order for us to change this decree, we had to rely fully on Hashem; only He had the power to abolish it.
When man is at the end of his rope, he needs to realize that Hashem truly controls everything. On Purim we get drunk and show "I have no control." We get rid of all illusions of control; we remove our intellect from the picture, and it's all up to Hashem.
Purim is about the "pur." When someone makes a gorel, he has no control over the outcome. He is leaving it totally up to Hashem. Haman made a lottery; he wanted the decree to be beyond teva and beyond the mazalos. He made a lottery, and he received approval from Heaven. In order for us to change this decree, we had to rely fully on Hashem; only He had the power to abolish it.
When man is at the end of his rope, he needs to realize that Hashem truly controls everything. On Purim we get drunk and show "I have no control." We get rid of all illusions of control; we remove our intellect from the picture, and it's all up to Hashem.
The Gates Are Open
Perhaps we feel like our fate is sealed and is never going to change, but during the the time of Purim, these shearim are open. We have to believe that things can change. We have to yell out for rachamim.The whole year we live according to a certain seder. Every Yom Tov has mitzvos we are commanded to do (on Pesach - matzah/maror/karbon pesach, Sukkos - sukkah/arbah meinim, etc). On Purim we drink wine and get out of the way. Every chag leads up this one. We have to give it all up to Hashem.
The neis of Purim is that Hashem can do anything even if it seems impossible; He can overturn sealed decrees. That is why tefillah on Purim is so crucial. We have the ability to turn to Hashem and ask Him to rescind sealed decrees.
"Kol haposhet yad, nosnin lo."
A Freilechen Purim!
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