A Kabbalistic Mystery Behind God's Missing Name in Megillat Esther - Rabbi Moshe Borger

Okay, we're coming up very very soon to Purim and um first of all Purim is a time of appreciation for everything that we got. Um so I'd like to say thank you to Habut uh for giving me the opportunity to share some Torah with all of you. Um, purim uh comes from the word um lots. And the reason why it's called lots is because Hmon Arussia, the evil Hmon, the one to destroy the Jewish people said, you know what? Let's just strike it lucky. And the med tells us that he took two roulette wheels. One of them had a month on it and one of them had a day on it. And he just spun the wheels. And being that he was truth to his cause, believing in coincidence, he spun one of the wheels. And when it came out to the month of Nissan, he said, "I don't like that month." That's when the Jew Jewish people got redeemed from Egypt. Let's try another month. And then he tried. And then he said, "Oh, wait a second. There's another pesak in." Yeah. Plus, there's also Marful. There's people who like making bonfires. And then he got and that's when Jewish people got the turn. And each time he spun the wheel, it went on to the next month. And he said, "I don't like that." until he finally came to Adar. He said, "Oh, Adar, I like that month." Why is it a good month? Because that's the month that Moshe Rabenu died. Therefore, it must be a good month to go and carry out my horrific plan of the final solution. But what he didn't realize is that the month of Adar was also the month that Masherbenu was born. And therefore, Adar is really a wonderful month for the Jewish people. It's the end of the year. It can even become a double month. That's how great it is. So, Purim is actually is a time when we begin to consider what's really going on in our lives because Hmon was somebody that he just looked at everything as being coincidence. He said, you know, everything is mikra. Mikra means coincidence. Actually we say it here in Israel you want to say how are you doing say what's happening but we believe that nothing is coincidence we believe that really everything is exactly the same letters mak hashem it's all the source of everything is really good and that's really what the purim story is so is really trying to teach us is this idea that really everything and absolutely everything comes from Hashem and that's why another very beautiful explanation of what what Purim is is really about where the word actually comes from says Ra Ichima Morgan Stone Morgan Stone a very great great cabalist says that the word purim comes from the word the Hebrew word purim which means crumbs because really what you have to do in your life is you have to go and crumble everything down. Once you start looking at all little pieces, you start to realize how grateful you should be for everything that you have. That's really the idea of purim. Another interesting thing about purim is that it really shows us the whole really spans everything. Because if you look at the at the migilla migillas, you find that Purim is um the migilla is not a place where you actually even find the name of Hashem there at all. Yeah. In fact, if you look through from beginning to end, you will not find God's name. Very, very strange for a migill, a scroll for part of our part of our writings. How can it be you don't have God's name there? And so the vagon explains that even though Hashem is not mentioned there, but wherever it says the word mel and specifically hamel the king, it's really talking about Hashem. And actually anytime, for example, when Esther came to to speak to the king, Hamel really refers to Hashem. She really came to speak to speak to God to pray to God that she should be saved that we the Jewish people should be saved. I read an amazing uh amazing idea uh amazing medus all different types of midrashim which are all part of the oral Torah and there's an very interesting one called the medish plea really means the wonder med and a medish has all kinds of interesting statements [clears throat] that are very difficult to to understand and one of the great masters Rab Shimani He actually he he was able to solve he was able to explain the real meaning of these midrashim. One of the things that Esther being the very compassionate woman that she was couldn't understand about the whole situation where a day was set aside for the entire Jewish people to be killed. Strangely enough, her question was, "Why do our enemies need to be destroyed?" In other words, the understanding was in order to defend the Jewish people, our enemies are going to have to be eradicated. Some of them, the ones who are the ones who are a danger to us or a threat. And she couldn't understand that. And Hashem said the reason why is because the Persians, the Medians, Hmon who came from a Malik, they wanted to make the Jewish people mo and rush. Two words in Hebrew, mach and rush. Mock means they wanted to wear us out and rush. They wanted to impoverish us. They wanted to limit us. And that's what they were trying to do. Hashem said, "The reason why our enemies, there's no other choice. We can't go and send them off to planet Mars is because we have to we have to take them away because they're a threat. They're a threat to us over here. And they're making us into mach into withered withered out spiritually and rush and poor spiritually. And that's why Esther or she that's why she responded and she said to Hashem Kaye Kaye my god twice she said it llama of tani why have you forsaken me. So the amazing thing Rav [clears throat] Chimroy explains is that really and truly what she was saying is she was saying Kaye Hashem you've taken away from us. You've taken away from us the letters. Kaye is really a my God. If you take those letters and you combine them with the letters m impoverished, you come out and you spin it around, you actually get the the name of the archangel of the Jewish people, Mikail who gives us protection. And if you take the name rash that we are poor and you add into that ki my god in that case and you spin it around you get that's how we become whole again become whole again it's a very interesting thing as well because we said impoverished withered we were worn out we were worn out spiritually and the way that we become strong spiritually is by being united physically and that is why the whole idea of PM is all to do with unity. Everything everything about the think about it the migilla the the reading of the scroll because we get together we gather together and we read it in public you give gifts give gifts to the poor you give you give gifts to your friends to your neighbors actually really supposed to give believe it or not to people that you're actually not so close to in order to go and build the relationship ship and then you have a mish where you drink you drink until you become beyond beyond intellect where it becomes just a very personal and very emotional connection with God. That's really what it's all about. And that again is together with other people. It's a festival where we we're building bridges. It's a festival where we're giving to each other. There's no coincidence that it falls the month of Adar, the festival of Purim always falls during the paradot that we're talking about, the Mishkan. The Mishkan, the tabernacle is where the divine presence rested amongst the Jewish people. It was where we were able to connect to God. And we have so many different parts of the Mishkan and each of them is symbolic to us has a meaning to each and every one of us individually. And I was thinking it's very interesting. If you look at the Mishkan at the tabernacle, if you look at it from a bird's eye view, you will notice and believe the Vagan says this, you will notice that it actually looks like a face. You have on the right hand side, you have the manura, candalabarra. On the left hand side, you have the table which had the 12 showbreads. In the middle you have the misbeh the altar. Beyond that on the other side of the altar there was the kodes the holy of holies which contained inside of it the ark the holy ark and also the [clears throat] altar for the incense. I was thinking perhaps there's an idea here. You have three of the three of the vessels the main vessels were visible and we know that the whole world stands who was one of the remnants of the great men of the men of the great assembly whose road we're actually on right now here in Jerusalem. He said that the world stands on three things. On Torah, on a on service, which some say refers to prayer, and on acts of loving kindness. So if you look at those three objects, say it looks like two eyes, an eye on either side, and a nose. The altar was actually the the end part of the altar actually went up between the manora and the and the table literally looked like a face and at the very bottom was the kesh kadashim the holy of holies where you had the auron that was like a mouth they say that was remnant of our mouth it says the mouth is the holy of holies have to use our mouths in the right way have to use our mouths to go and build people, we have to use our mouths for positive things. So I was thinking to myself, why is it that the manora and the shulan are like eyes? The right and the left eye. What's the symbolism? So eyes are what we use to look, to see. We use our vision with our eyes. And the manura manura really represented teaching Torah, spreading the Torah to other people. You have to look and you have to see how can I help out my fellow human being? How can I help out my fellow Jew? How can I teach them? What do they need to know? I need my eyes. is they need to look at that. And when it came to the shul onto the table which had the showbreads on it, you had 12 showbreads representing the 12 tribes and each showbread was facing upwards towards the next one above. It says the symbolism was that we have to be facing towards each other. We have to be looking at each other and seeing what we each need. And you had you had the tubes with air holes inside of them which separated the breads from one another. And the symbolism and meaning to us is that you have to give space. You have to give people the ability to have the space that they need. Even if they do need things, it's about how you give. It's about when you give, not just the giving itself. And you have to have the space. And also the reason for those tubes was because it kept the airflow going. And the airflow on the one hand kept the breads fresh from going stale even for seven days, entire week, and even for more, you know, sometimes for nine days. Fresh breads, fresh hot breads. What's a symbolism? So I was thinking that perhaps also the idea of the of the air holes is that the air holes represent breath represents air. Breath the wind which is really which has is our words. Sometimes you also need to use your words as well when you're giving to other people when you're sharing with other people. It's not only like the auron. The a was the the holy ark was the which was in the holy of holies represented us learning Torah. So you need to use your words for that. But you also need to use your words also to support to help other people as well to help your to help your fellow man. That's why it's the eyes. The misbeh was the only sense of the five senses that was not affected that was not tainted by the original sin. Says that Adam and Eve they saw the tree. He listened to her. They tasted from the fruit and they and they uh and and they touched they touched the tree all those four different senses but one of them smell was not affected. So we learn from this that our smell is the most pure of all senses and our sense of smell helps us to identify whether something is good or bad. Yeah, I had some uh leftover soup the other day and uh I wanted to to see whether it was good or not. So I asked one of my kids to smell it and uh because I lost my sense of smell since co and uh yeah and they smelt it and I I knew very quickly it was not good. A sense of smell is shows the realness. And so when it comes to the service of Hashem, when it comes to prayer, it's something where it has to be done with sincerity. Says Rahman, God wants our hearts. He wants your heart. He wants sincerity. He wants true prayer. That's really what's all about. And that's why the misbeh the altar is like the nose where it gives a true prayer a heartfelt prayer especially with a broken heart makes a makes a pleasant aroma to Hashem that pure smell. So I want to share with you just a a story amazing story that there was a um there was a certain family from Ben here in Israel and they had a baby who was seriously ill needed an operation and they went to America for the operation and they were literally waiting in the waiting room for the operation for the surgeon to arrive. And then they heard that the surgeon [clears throat] was on the line and he said he needs another $100,000. Can you imagine another $100,000? And he said he needs it. He needs it today cuz tomorrow he's going on a cruise. What can you do? So they said, you know, we can we can give it in installments. Nope. Wasn't prepared to listen to anything. He said, "If you don't if you don't have the money today, forget about the operation." Yeah. What cruelty? So much so that the secretary was even in tears. He said, "Well, what can I do? What can we do? You know, we've gathered together every penny we can. It was hard enough to do that." So he said, "You know what? Go." There's a certain [laughter and clears throat] wealthy man, philanthropist. Go to him. Maybe I'll give you a loan. So unfair, but maybe I'll give you a loan for the money. Anyway, he went to this estate and he came up the path and he knocked on the door and the and the [clears throat] um uh the uh janitor, the uh the the uh servant came to the door and he said, "No, who are you? Where are you from?" So he said, "I'm a younger man, a young man," meaning a young man that's that's learning from Ben and I've come here because I need some I need some money. Lo and behold, the master of the house came past, gave him a gigantic envelope, felt like it was filled with money, and the time was running out. He went back to the waiting room and they they didn't he didn't know how much it was, but he hoped at least whatever it was was going to be enough to go and push off this [clears throat] uh surgeon and at least allow him to do the operation. He'll pay the rest late later. And amazingly was exactly $100,000 inside. Yeah. Fresh bills. Couldn't believe it. Wow. Yeah. The surgeon came in. Cooly, collectedly, he did this operation. He took his money. Hashem, the child recovered. They went back to Israel. They made a a festive meal to celebrate what had happened. Then the miracle that happened. And he was sharing the story. And all of a sudden, somebody came up to him and he said, "That $100,000 you got belongs to my father." What said, "Yeah." He said, "My father was in America exactly in that city and he went to go to that man, that philanthropist." And he would knew he was getting a lot of money. And what happened that day is that my father got delayed. He had an appointment at 4:00 and he was delayed and he only ended up getting there at 4:30. You in the meantime came at 4:00 and you came and you took the money and the money that was really supposed to go to my father. When he came at 4:30, they said, "I'm sorry, he's already gone." He gave the money, gave the money to somebody else. And then my father came to the office and uh the wealthy businessman said, "I'm so sorry, but I gave it away. Sorry, you can't uh you know, sorry, that's the money that I that I set aside." And that's and it was given. So anyway, what the do religious Jews do when they've got a dispute over money? They go to court. Actually, usually they get quite upset with each other. But this time they went to basin. They went to the Jewish courts and the rav the judge gave a verdict. They're based on a certain incident that happened years ago, a certain president had ruled that if you have two people coming to get money and they're both worthy causes, equally worthy causes and circumstances made that one of them got there first and he took the money. He was the one that was destined to get that money and the other one has no claim against him. It was meant to be. God meant it to be that he was supposed to get it. So amazingly um the father accepted. Now the very interesting thing about this story is actually that the family name the family name of this of this this father was actually Yungaman. So when he came and he said I'm a yung man I'm a young man from Ben the family name of the other person was literally was yung man that's why he gave it to him unbelievable unbelievable divine providence incredible so what happened he couldn't believe it what an amazing story and he said you know what at least I have to call up and I have to tell this wealthy man what he did he saved the life of a baby he should know what happened and he called him up and he got through and he told him the story and the man said to him, "You know what? That's such an incredible story. Look at that. You were supposed to get the money and they got the money instead and they saved the baby." Said, "You know what? I've decided I'm going to give I'm going to donate to your institutions anyway." And he gave him $120,000. So in the end, he even gained. So purim is all about realizing realizing the good says that um we have to go and uh it says a person should get to the point whether it's through inebriation or through joy. I think most people prefer the drinking. They're supposed to get to the point of not knowing the difference between mod and or blessed is and cursed is hon. It seems like a strange concept not knowing the difference between the two, but it says tell us that what it really means is that we should have exactly the same appreciation both for the bar for those good things that happen in our lives that are clearly the good providence of Hashem as when we have those challenges in our lives the or the cursed cursed is h different challenges when things don't go our way when we don't go get the money that we were expecting. When the relationship doesn't work out with somebody that you were hoping was going to end up in marriage, when your kids say [clears throat] there's two different types of cherabs, there was cherabs that were on the a and on the ark that were connected looking down at the cover of the ark which had the Torah in it. And then there's also type cherabs which were standing out the outside the gates of Ganedan wielding swords to make sure nobody would go in there after Adam was banished from the garden of Eden. So say when it comes to kids sometimes they can be like the cherubs looking down at the ark. Sometimes they can be like sword wielding maniacs and it's tough when they're like that. But we have to realize it's also part of the plan that Hashem has for parents. It's part of the plan that Hashem has for children. And it's part of Hashem's wonderful plan. Hashem should help us once comes in and we start to increase more and more and more in sim. And it's supposed to be not only are we happy on Purim itself, but that we remain happy also for the rest of the year. And that's my blessing to you all is continue to go and grow and grow and grow in your happiness. And perhaps you could add to this when you come into increase in sim is the same letters as thought. Sometimes all we need to do is to think a little bit more about the tremendous blessings that we have and then we're able to go and instill that into the rest of our year to be constantly bimha. Have a wonderful day.