Purim: Is History Repeating Itself? - Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein

the story of perm happened 400 years BCE in Persia where Persia at the time was the superpower of the world the King was the king over countries and his word was the final word as the story of PM unfolds itself where King aashish was seeking for a new wife had a beauty pageant and the only one that King aash fos saw favor was Queen Esther in his Courtyard was the great Rabbi morai morai the righteous one morai the most known Rabbi of the time that of the courts was in the king's yard the king also had a wicked advisor by the name of hmon and he required that everyone bowed down to him morai would not bow down to him because it's against Jewish law to bow down to human beings we only bow down to God hmon decided to set a plot and to convince the king to annihilate every single Jew in the world young and old men and women anywhere in the world in one day the word PM is from a Persian word as drawing a lot where hymon draw a lot decided what day he's going to pick to be the day when this worldwide genocide to annihilate every single Jew is going to occur when hmon draw the lot he approached the king and told him that there is a nation amongst you this nation is a one nation they are spread out throughout all your countries they have their own laws and you should not allow them to live AOS who was a very strange King he would go Whimsical from one part from right to wrong in no time he authorized hmon to carry out this decree hmon was given the king seal to send out Messengers to the whole world to announce that on one day every single Jew will be murdered and killed this was a threat that has never happened before the Jewish people have been displaced the Jewish people have been attacked the Jewish people have suffered prog grams and holocausts it was geographically in certain locations but there never ever was an event that occurred internationally in one day that was Hon's plot Queen Esther who was chosen to be the queen now never revealed to the king that she was Jewish until morai approached her and said Esther this is the reason why you are the queen I need you to approach the king and I need you to ask him to erase this decree in the meantime hymon built a huge Gallow in the king's yard where he was going to hang morai and that was going to be the end of Judaism throughout the world Queen Esther fasted for three days M gathered all the Jews and they cried and they prayed to God after three days Queen Esther who wasn't allowed to fast in the Royal Kingdom nonetheless she fasted for days she approached the king Uninvited which is a danger in itself when the king saw her he welcomed her and says what is it that you want she revealed to him for the very first time that she is a Jewish and said you have signed a decree with hmon to annihilate me and my nation and the King said oh my God I did not realize that who exactly is doing this and she pointed the finger at hmon and the King immediately flip-flopped the whole decree and he told Queen Esther this will not happen as a matter of fact I'm going to recall all the messengers who was who was so hastily running to send the decree I'm going to recall them as a matter of fact I'm going to take the Gallow that was prepared from morai and I'm going to hang hmon and his 10 children and I'm going to give the Jewish people unprecedented freedom and free from taxes Etc in one moment and everything got flipped upside down one moment the Jewish people were being annihilated in one day and all of a sudden through the selfless sacrifice of this woman Queen Esther the hero of PM that we read this story it's called a story of Queen Esther that the Jewish people's life was spared not only were they spared but they all repented to God and they all rededicated themselves to God that they they turned a leaf even though they have assimilated so much into the Persian life when they saw this miraculous turn of events they returned back to the roots and they began observing the Torah laws just like it was given at Mount Si it thus has become declared this day to be the happiest day of the year this is the holiday that's celebrated every single year of this miraculous events there's so much that we learn from this story we learn how God Almighty in heaven ultimately controls everything no matter how Bleak our predicament may look it could be flipped over in a second purm is all about flipping things over as a matter of fact many people dressed in masquerade many people think it's the Jewish Halloween has nothing to do with Halloween whatsoever it's masquerade because it reminds us how God's miracle was masquerad and through that concept children come dressed in costumes and adults are dressed up all different types of costumes but how do we celebrate it we celebrate it by retelling the whole story of PM again and again every year we read it two times one in the evening one today but we don't just read the story We relive the story every time we mention Hon's name we pound on the ground to blot out his name and what he stood for but how do we express our gratefulness to God for spearing us the way you do it is through unconditional love and what we do on this day is we share baskets of food of two at least two kinds of foods to each other and this happens throughout the whole Jewish World on the day of purm this year on Sunday how everyone is going to be delivering purm baskets not only that we're also going to give charity to at least two people and then we're going to sit down and have a great feast this is all done with such joy and happiness and to always remember that in any moment everything could be flipped for the better and this is the story of perm yes they wanted to kill us once again and this is a story that repeats itself over and over and over again in history from from Pharaoh in Egypt to the amales on the way to mount siai to to to Israel and the Nations that we had to face as we were making ourselves through the desert arriving in Israel then finally we finally made it to Israel and they still want to annihilate us they still want to kill us and we've been through all the Holocaust programs and genocides all these horrific events but I'm Israel the nation of Israel still lives on so even though they want to kill us they'll never annihilate us because God has blessed us so that we can do what we do best is be creative and be a contributing Nation to the world and given the Jewish people a chance they will continue on contributing to the world and teaching the world about benevolence kindness and teaching the world what it means to accept God the divine presence as a reality to coexist in this physical world with spirituality and that is what pm has taught us during the days of PM many Jewish people have assimilated and they have partaken in the great feast but yet when they realize how God revealed himself they were able to repent and start over again each one of us has that same opportunity we may have slipped and slide in in life spiritually physically or other ways we can always begin a new and that's what PM teaches us it teaches us that we can always flip things around what was yesterday doesn't have to be today may we all celebrate the holiday of PM with much joy and happiness be generous be kind share with what you have when God looks down from heaven and sees us being benevolent to each other God is benevolent to us may we celebrate many such anniversaries and ultimately let's celebrate the greatest joy which would be the revelation of the king messiah speedily in our days amen God bless you God loves you may God protect our soldiers who are fighting for Israel's survival and bring home all the hostages safe and well amen