Purim | Rabbi Berel Wein

after such rousing introduction I can hardly wait to hear what I have to say s I think they may hear better without it thank you anyway M provides us with a window as to how to study tanak if we look at tanak we see a whole bunch of stories and we see uh essays words of the prophets we see predictions we see political assessments but to a certain extent that is not the view that K wanted us to have when we study tanak the Torah itself describes itself at the beginning saer those this is the book of human beings if you want to have any sort of perspective on the past and on the future you have to realize that you're dealing with human beings and human beings make mistakes they're not infallible except for rabbis they're not perfect the book of human beings all the great events that are described in the Torah were events that occurred to human beings and the Torah tells us that reaction of human beings to these events so even though there is a general governing rule that heaven ordains what happens Here We Are Not Mere pawns human beings great history the r in the moits that creates opportunities creates situations what happens with those situations or with those opportunities depends on how human beings react to it if they react one way so then that's the course of history if they react in another way then that's the course of history we see that b mad we all know the medish hung the mountain over their head and he said this is it you want it or not so the Miga teaches us that the acceptance of the Torah nma at was imperfect was forced say here's a great escape Clause so will ask the Jewish people why didn't you observe chabas why didn't you do this why didn't you do that we' say we never agreed to it they'll say you did agree you said nishma they said you had a gun to our head there is a complicated H issue in thear Basra the mafia comes to you the mafia has different forms Mafia comes to you and says I like your apartment I would like to buy your apartment I want you to sell it to me the person is afraid so he sells it we're not talking about selling it at the at the ridiculously low price he sells it at market value the the the mafia tells you you I'll pay you what the what the assessor says it's worth I don't want to sell it to you I like my but if you have a gun to my head I sell it to you sign all the documents few years later the mafia guy gets killed as they all do eventually so I come to bezden and I say I want my apartment back I never meant it they'll be sold under coercion what is the is v v a sale is a sale the gor's logic is impecable anyone that sells anything is doing it under some sort of coercion I'm selling it because I need the money I'm selling it because I have to support my son-in-law there's always an element of coercion in sales I'm selling it because I can buy another one bigger or better for Less so therefore a forced sale is a sale so is a forced acceptance of the Torah in other words did the Rabon make a sail with us he hung the mountain over the head he said you want the Torah good if you don't want it you know I'm going to let gravity take over so we said I S isma right don't give us one give us two but in our hearts we say it's a forced sale the seller always has regrets because the seller always feels if I would have had all the money in the world I never would sell my apartment why would I sell it so therefore Roa says this is an excuse to Jewish people have throughout the ages we don't observe the Torah as we should because really didn't mean it we never really committed to it sure it's a it's a sale it's a sale Etc but in my heart's heart I'm not happy with it so Milla says that the real acceptance of the Torah Wasing he Mal zar then they accepted it willingly so I've always been troubled by that why was it willing where where do we see willingly by poor for in the Jewish people are threatened with Extinction so they fight a war of survival they killed tens of thousands of their enemies does that make them accept the Torah I don't know how many evil people we have killed over the past 15 months but we don't notice a great uptick in royalty to Torah one thing has nothing to do with the other so what is it mean Kimu that they accepted the Torah now willingly there's no sellers remorse here there's no second thoughts therefore this is an eternal Covenant with God so as I prepared for this great lecture about 20 minutes ago I thought as follows the Jewish people both individually and nationally have always had an opinion that somehow we're going to persevere our reaction to every tragedy is never again okay but all of history teaches us that it's again and again and again what do you mean never again you really think so so puring created a realization within the Jewish Nation that they are eternally on the precipice they are ones if in America they used to say that democracy is one generation away from Extinction we could say the Jewish people are one generation away from God forbid extension and we see clearly how it can happen so you have to have all sorts of forces that we do not control that somehow allow us to exist depends who the president of the United States is depends what the armaments are depends on strategy depends on the sacrifice that the Jewish nation is willing to spend but there's no guarantee and that's why the introduction to purin is par remember what what I have to remember is long gone he has many ears but I'm mik is gone what have to remember I'm because that's a reminder that we're one generation away from Extinction I'm is never gone so purin taught the Jewish people that lesson that you shouldn't expect differently that's why it says in the the days of never disappear the rabbi say all the holidays will disappear but P will never what does that mean that's what it means it means the United Nations it means Columbia University it's always here so if that is the given situation so then the question is what our is our reaction so purin tells us the reaction basically of one Jew Mori morai is not a popular figure God forbid he probably was a the med says well the Jews said then what are you doing you're inuring us there's a hat there from greaton you can do it forget it what you're a mad man and then there's eser do you imagine that the a bakov girl is taken to become the consort of uh a dissolute Gentile King and she's living in captivity she can't talk to him unless he stretches forth his scepter he's got a her full of women he doesn't need her I wouldn't can hardly think of a more miserable life shalom in the Nila he does not appear his name doesn't appear wants to see what the reaction of the people what is aser going to do what is morai going to do based upon their reaction so then heaven will do what heaven has to do but at the end of the story the Jewish people have to fight a war you have to kill thousands of their enemies what if they didn't fight the war I'm sure there were calls then not to fight the war too it's a you know it will come to a settlement they'll revoke the decree it'll be all right what's the reaction and that's what the Milla means when it says every day by is every day is how do we prevent falling off the precipice physically emotionally and spiritually how not to be distracted by all the noise the cacaphony of sound that surrounds usem I live here every night almost I have a demonstration outside my window noise drums this shouts Lord has heard with a still Small Voice and that's our inner voice what do I say to what what am I a better person am I stronger in my faith am I more optimistic what do I want for my descendants because he should know you can never leave them enough money and never it's enough that was the downfall of H the says Where do we see in the Torah Because by the H the tree of knowledge it says did you eat from the fruit so is and is so that's but that's a pretty superficial way to look at it but the rabbis meant there clearly a marish is in the Garden of Eden everything is open for him whatever you want to eat eat it's perfect it's Florida and February just don't eat from this tree oh that's the tree I want to eat from that's the one mman says uh to his wife you see the king appointed me look at all of my wealth look at the portfol look at our family look at my power look at everything I have but it's not worth anything because there's one little JW that will about out that's human be that's what leads to his downfall so the Miga wants us to be aware of that to be aware of the important lessons and to see ourselves within the Milla what is our reaction I remember I had a conversation last night with friends of mine uh so I recall that when I became the rabbi in Miami Beach I was there were only 39 families in the synagogue and I was elected by the overwhelming majority of 20 to 19 like 10 years later when I was still the rabbi in the sh and the sh had grown enormously we were 250 families and building with the whole shebang somebody came over to me and he said would you like to know who were the 19 people that voted against you I said I'm not the least bitten interested I am interested in the 20 people that voted for them what did they see what did they think have I disappointed them did they think they made a mistake we were always is interested in those that voted against us should be interested in those that vote for us monester voted for us for of the Milla wrote about them so there are many lessons and we are living through a poing in our time an absolute poing so we have to strengthen ourselves in that belief and realize that our own individual efforts and trains of thought will determine how the miracle of this P him will turn out for all of us so I want to thank you all for coming and have a wonderful and happy pury