Journey To London 2024: Purim - Right Back at Ya {South Hampstead United Synagogue}

this Torah class is brought to you by Torah anytime.com good good morning everyone uh goodes it's really an honor to be here thank you Lori for the uh beautiful introduction um it's pleasure to see my dear friends Howard and uh Brita thank you so much for your warm hospitality and I wish you much in elevating this kahila I would like to share with you this morning a revolutionary approach to the Milla that in the prism of this approach it will forever change the way we look at the events of Migel sester world events and Jewish history in general I would like to take you to the end of the Milla to the third to last p in the Milla not the penultimate who knows how do we say in English in America nobody speaks English very see excellent give this man an extra cant okay the anti penultimate p and the Milla the third to last M reads taxes the people so you read this p and you wonder okay it's nice to know that a taxes the people but who cares the Milla is not a history book the book was not written to give you an appreciation for the historical context of Persia media after all the very next verse reads if you want to know the palace Intrigue you want to know the history of the times you want to know what life was like you got the wrong book you got to go to The Chronicles of Persian media what's the Milla telling me is the Milla actually sending us to the repositories of history in Persia media does Miga not want us to read this document so there was a great Rabbi who lived in London rabalski who explains that this p is a critical message of Millar this PK is telling me how to approach this this do doent don't make the mistake that this is a historical document don't make the mistake that there's information here given merely to have a better appreciation for the history of Persia media this document was written for one reason and one reason only only persum to publicize God's divine intervention you want to know history go to other sources go to The Chronicles of Persia media well in that case why does the Milla end off that taxed the people is this critical to the PM story so friends I would like to share with you this morning okay don't get nervous five words in the gamarra just five words all you need to know is five words in the T and this will open up for us a new understanding and appreciation from ail so the PK says that was coming to the outer Courtyard of the king to tell the king to hang on the tree that he prepared for him literally that hamon prepared for Mori and the gar is troubled there's an extra word in this it should say Al on the tree that he prepared why does it need to say that he prepared for him that H prepared for Mor obviously ham prepared it for Mori we don't need the word L to him obviously he prepared it for him so the gamar comments T it was taught he prepared it for himself hon thought he was preparing the tree for morai when in reality hamon Was preparing that Gallows for himself now this line of the gamarra perhaps at first glance seems like an isolated comment but it's like a flash of lightning to explain the entire story of the Miga where this was not an isolated incident where God took the scheme and the machination of hamon and fired it right back at him I call this year in America because in America we don't need to actually speak English we like speak a slang version of the English language I call the sheir right back at you this was not the only instance where God co-opted and hijacked the plans of hamon and fired it back right back at him this is a paradigm of all the events of the perm story where the ranam says in general you know give me more credit for being the Creator and orchestrator of the universe that do you really think that if there's a wicked person if there's a Russia who's out to get the Jewish people you think my only method of dealing with him is to knock him off no he doesn't scare me I'm not afraid of him you give me the Russia you give me the Wicked Man you give me his plans his schemes his machinations and I will hijack and co-opt his plan his machination and fire it right back at him and this is Case in point hamon thought he was making the Gallows for morai when in reality he was preparing it for his own demise there's a very interesting gamar the gar in sanin tells us there was a man by the name of ovadya ovadya is the smallest of all the books of the prophets it's one chapter long and the gar tells us about the very interesting origins of aadya the gar says aadya was a convert from Edom he was an Edomite convert and he speaks one message of Prophecy in the T what does talk about he speaks about the downfall of aded and thear comments on the fact that isn't it interesting that the prophecy about the downfall of Edom came from a convert from Edom thear saysi was a convert from Edom and he prophesied about the downfall of Edom thear says you know what the explanation for this phenomenon is called there was actually um a Jewish pop singer who took a line from this gamar in one of his songs the gamar says Nara from the forest itself comes the handle for the axe from the forest itself comes the handle that's right from the forest itself comes the handle for the axe what does that mean you have a forest but what's going to chop down that Forest someone's going to cut down a tree from this Forest fashion the tree into a handle and that handle will become the handle of an Axe and that very axe will chop down that Forest so too who's going to prophecy about the downfall of edim we don't need an outsider we don't need a Jew a native Jew even a convert from adom himself will come in prophecy about the downfall of Adon so I want to give you a few illustrations of this from the simple Narrative of here's an example that is so obvious I actually never even said it before in the Merit of this beautiful I'm going to share with you something I never said before it's an obvious Insight you know Joseph y he's having dreams of grandor that one day he's going to be the king and the brothers come to him and they say Joseph you think you're gonna be a king you're going to rule over us you'll never rule over us you'll never be our King we're gonna make sure that nothing ever comes of you so what do the brothers do they take y they sell him they sell him down to Egypt thinking they'll never hear from him again and God is laughing God says you think you're going to stop this man from being the king you will be my medium my agents to bring him down to Egypt to make sure he gets gets to the position of being a ruler quicker not only will you not stop him you will be my sh you will be my agent to ensure that in fact one day ysf will become the king let me give you another example so the Pharaoh sees in his astrological signs that the savior of the Jewish people will be born so the Pharaoh says I will make sure to exterminate the savior of the Jewish people so any Jewish boy that is born were throwing him into the river and God laughs Pharaoh you're going to put an end to the Jewish savior watch this Pharaoh so baby mha's mother throws him into the Nile and he's floating on the Nile he's an adorable baby and he's crying and the daughter of the Pharaoh sees this Jewish child she has Mercy on him and she picks him up and she brings him back into the palace into Pharaoh's Palace and she's knocking him to sleep she adopts the baby and in 2: a.m. Pharaoh says Hey Basia what's going on you have a baby in there she said yeah Dad actually I need to get some sleep would you mind rocking him to sleep tonight so that night the Pharaoh is rocking this adorable child to sleep and an hour later Pharaoh's like the kid's hungry so she said okay please go out to the pharmacy get him some formula get him some diapers he's like who's going to going to pay for this she said you pay for it you put on your American Express card so the Pharaoh is rocking mosha to sleep he's feeding MAA he's caring for Misha and then it's time for him to go to theer and uh Pharaoh foots the tuition bill and Pharaoh sends him to college and actually you know there was another Rabbi who visited London one of the great Ron him the izra you know the Ian Ezra was here in London Legend has it that there's a house at the wall at the old ancient wall of London that was destroyed in the Blitz in World War I Legend has it that Ian Ezra lived in that house in any event Ian Ezra writes that why did mrao have to grow up in the house of the Pharaoh he there was no Jewish Home he could have grown up in says izra if mrao would have grown up with the rest of the Jewish people and have been slaves like everyone else he would have had a slave m ity he would have a low morale and he would not have any Royal bearing and he never would have been able to rise up to be the leader of the Jewish people but now that he grew up in the house of the Pharaoh Pharaoh trained him in royalty Pharaoh would tell him stand tall make sure your tie is straight you're going to be a leader one day so who created mha raenu par if not for Paro we never would have received the Torah you know what it's says in you remember that mishna it doesn't quite say it that way but that's that's the reality the reality is if not for the pharaoh who is out to destroy the savior of the Jewish people we never would have had the savior of the Jewish people so Pharaoh thought he's putting an end to him God says actually I would like to use you as my puppet to groom so this is a general principle that we call from the farest itself comes the handle for the axe I would like to share with you a number of examples of this in the Milla and the story of the Milla itself first of all hon had this ridiculous idea now this is a very beautiful sh it's a tall sh I'm not sure how many tall it is it's maybe about 50 Os tall ham had a seemingly ridiculous idea to make a Gallows 50 Amo tall to hang now you know cannot be higher than 20 Amos cuz you can't see so high you can't have a Suka R Jos is a Bucky and Suka my friend from ra nasan is a Bucky and Suka you can't have these mitos 20 you can't see so high up in the air so why do we need to hang Mor 50 high so H knows that thisy he's a flip-flop he's like an American politician one day he thinks a the next day he thinks B so hamon says I need to catch him when he gets angry with something like steering him in the face that when I suggest that we should hang morai is just going to see this tremendous Gallows and he said okay go ahead hang him so hamon made this 50 Gallows so that when a is angry h just say okay hang him and a will go with it and look how it backfired on him cuz think about it you know ham took one misstep with Esther hamon was in the palace he tripped on the bed that Esther was on and a comes back now if H had his wits about him and says what's going on over here H should have said you know you see this banana over here that I tripped on he pushed he could have come up with any story in the world but by the time he got his act together and there's this big Gallow steering in the face by that time already said hang him and so the whole idea of H came to backfire on him I want to give you a few amazing examples so hon is really irked it really bothers him that everyone bows down to him except for this morai so his wife Zar says here's the deal here's the plan go to him in the morning why go to in the morning you need to be the first one in the door in the morning before anyone spreads any Goodwill about morai you need to be the first one in there you tell that H is a rotten good that that is rotten and that you want to hang him but make sure you're the first one there in the morning but look how it backfired on her cuz that night a couldn't sleep and he said you know probably somebody wants to kill me and I have no loyal subjects there must be somebody that I need to reward who is it and the scribes say you know you never rewarded morai so he says yeah I really got to reward morai you know what first guy in the door in the morning I'm going to tell him he should lead morai in the streets and he'll carry this out for me and sure enough who's the first guy in the door in the morning it's hamon Ham's leading Mori through the streets so Z Z's whole plan backfired on her this is my anti- penultimate favorite example in the mcgilla okay if you examine carefully the PIM in Milla sester you'll notice that every time it talks about the Edict of hamon there are two verses that describe the the edict one verse records that the edict said to annihilate to destroy and to waste the PK says and then it's followed by a the text of the document the text of the document that was open and and apparent to all the people of the land that document said absolutely nothing it said be prepared for that day be you know Beware of the IDS of March be ready for that day yeah and what's going to happen on that day didn't say so how do we understand this why does the first verse explicitly say that on the 13th of Ador the Jews would be annihilated and then it says but the text of the document that was open and apparent to the entire world said be ready for that day the V the vag wrote one of the most important commentaries on millas S he says that hamon had a genius scheme hamon thought to himself if the Jews ever got wind of what I plan to do to them on the 13th of Adar we Jews are are going to do what we know how to do we're going to go to the local Governors and officials we're going to give them money we're going to pay them off and we're going to bribe them and we're they're going to resend the decree that's so we know how to do that so therefore ham said I need to let the governors know what I'm going to do on the 13th of Adar but I can't let the Jews know what I'm going to do on the 13th of M so to the governors and the Mayors and the officials he sent out officially clearly we're going to annihilate the Jews on the 13th of M but the broadsides the posters in the shols on the street corners all they said was be prepared for that day look how this plan backfired on ham because after they killed ham and morer petitioned the king and they say dear kinge please save our lives I have one request this evil man try is trying to kill us please resend the decree says nothing I could do says I can't do anything about it you know why the rule in Persia is when the king signs the decree can never be rescinded so sorry ham may be dead but we can't resend the decree so said but dear King look carefully at what the official decree says it says nothing all it says is be prepared for that day so why don't we just tweak it that instead of be prepare for that day that will get killed the Jews could kill their enemy and a said yeah amen great idea you're right the actual decree did not say anything now the Jews should be prepared to take revenge against their enemy the penultimate favorite example in the Milla this is out of this world you know if you have the privilege to hear enjoyable Tyra it's a great you think you could just come and to a SCH and hear Tyra you have to have a merit to hear Tyra it means your great grandmother when she was lighting the shabas candles prayed that one day our souls should have the Merit to hear tremendous DEA I like that that's like a good intro to you should know that when I give shiram at like key intervals I like to say fasten your seat belts and Josh asks me you know why why Rabbi why do you stay fast in your suit belts so you know the simple reason is when something really in incredible is about to be presented I want people to you know get ready for it but there's actually I discovered there's a halic reason to say fast in your seat belts you know there's an idea in Hal when it comes to kadus when it comes to spirituality you can't just jump into it you need like a formal preparation I'll give you an example you know we come to in the morning we come to and right before we say sh the gets up and he says Hey guys are you all going to bless Hashem you're ready to bless Hashem and we say yeah yeah one second okay here we go we're going to do it what's that all about what do we need invitation for the answer is you can't jump into kadus we need to like prepare ourselves for it we need an invitation or for example for you can't just bench you can't just say you have a leader the leader says okay okay guys you're ready to do this and we say okay you know we we prepare even by Kos we don't just make Kos we say means thing you ready everyone ready brace yourselves so I think in Tyra also it's like sa is fasten your seat belts okay prepare yourselves for what you're about to hear has a problem with his wife now the dictators of old if they had a trouble with their wives what would they do they would move on to the next wife right all the good Kings of England it was like the carbon T sh yeah it was a daily thing you know they moved on they didn't go to therapists they didn't go to marriage counselors if she doesn't listen the next one hopefully will that was the General policy of Kings a has a problem with vashi he says Vash on display yourself she doesn't listen so why in the is the king says to the wise men of the time what is he a liberal Progressive 21st century King that he's speaking to a marriage counselor why doesn't he just knock her off so the villain go explains that means the law was when any whenever something was relevant to the king himself he had to present it the law in Persia was that the king could make a unilateral decision provided that it wasn't relevant to him personally but whenever it was relevant to him personally he had to uh petition he need to to ask the advice of the judicial body so that's astounding because at the end of the Milla when Esther takes the when hamon took a misstep with Esther and is fuming and doesn't know what to do with this hamon so says you know I think you should hang him on the Gallows how could just say hang him what do you hang him how does he have a right to make that decision he should put it to the judicial body after all it's relevant to him what happened did the law in Persia change indeed it did because when vashi didn't listen to there was a man who he owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to this lady this is not just a violation of your will she's messing with all other men here's my suggestion we read these words we don't pay attention to the real meaning this law in Persia that you can't make your own decisions is so archaic and absurd my suggestion is you abolish it and you make a new law from now on you call all the shots even when it's relevant to you even when it's a matter of the Mal you call the shots who's mean ham why did hamon want that law he's trying to put as much power into's hands for his own advancement thank you very much mukan because of your law that you passed in Persia you brought about your own demise now a could hang you but if it was ever brought to the saned of pers they would have voted 42 to 17 to let the guy live and here is my very favorite example in the M we come to the end of the PM story and is up to his old ways he's still taxing the people and we asked of what relevance is it that a is taxing the people and Hashem illuminated my eyes I was learning saer Ezra and in the seventh chapter of Ezra we read about the return of the Jewish people to the Holy Land to rebuild the second temple and there are down shrot in people they don't have resources they don't have funding to rebuild a second temple so they send word to the King of Persia Darius they say dear Darius would you kindly assist us in funding the construction of the second temple so the ptic says Darius opens up his Treasure House of tax money and he funds the building of the second M mdash and I ask you friends where did D get all of this tax money from who is Darius Darius is the king is the son of Aer as soon as aash died Darius hit the jackpot all of the tax money that aash collected that he tax the people now fell into the personal bank account of Darius and Darius now returns all the tax money of 127 provinces and he funds the construction of the second B mikdash so I would say the Milla ends with the greatest Divine irony of the whole story that by the end of the story the story had turned around so dramatically that now aash has become the chief fundraiser to rebuild the second M mikdash but watch how the story has come full circle because how does the story begin is having a party and what's he celebrating he's celebrating the prophet's promise that at the end of the seven 70 years of Exile the temple will be rebuilt and the temple was not rebuilt so said if the temple is not rebuilt it will never be rebuilt aash was celebrating the Eternal state of destruction of the temple so the Story begins aash is celebrating the Eternal destruction of the temple and by the end of the story he's become the biggest fundraiser in Jewish history he exceeds even the uja but it's even more ironic than that because if you would have asked pal what are you celebrating at this party I'm celebrating that the temple will never be rebuilt God says really watch this this meal this party will cause the rebuilding of the second temple you're going to call vashi she's going to refuse you're going to kill her you're going to now marry Esther you're going to have a kid Darius you're going to collect money you're going to give it to him and he's going to rebuild the second temple you think this party is celebrating the destruction of the temple this party is the first fundraiser for the building of the temple that's the Divine irony of the PM story and this is a mode of divine intervention that we've seen throughout history just to give you a few brief examples and then I'll be be happy to take any questions and comments this past summer on one of our trips we visited Spain we were in the Alahambra Palace the palace where the decree was signed to expel the Jews in 1492 we know that King Fernand and Queen Isabella embarked on a mission of Reconquista to conquer the Iberian Peninsula and to rid it of any Jewish influence and to conquer it from the Muslims and finally the last battle the last stronghold until reconquest was complete was the Battle of Granada and Ferdinand and Isabel won that battle and they come back to their palace they said how could they ever repay their God for their success in reconquering the whole Iberian Peninsula the only way they felt they could show gratitude to God was by converting or expelling The Wretched Jews from the Iberian Peninsula so they signed an edict that August 2nd 1492 every Jew would either have to convert or be expelled Theo writes they didn't know that August 2nd was Tish of but it's like heaven orchestrated that they should pick Tish CU Tish in our history is a light ing Rod of Jewish tragedy you know World War I broke out on Tish the communities of England Jews were expelled from England on tshav Jews were expelled from France on tshav when I was a kid the shabas before my Mitzvah my Mitzvah shab the shabas after TSH the shabas before was chabas Tish that fell out on chabas so it's a week before my barah I'm walking to my sh I'm walking with my father and I turned to my said daddy where's the sh the sh had burnt down on Tish the week before my bar mitzvah so throughout history Tish has been a lightning rod of Jewish tragedy and the Spanish Inquisition was set for Tish because Isabella and ferand said there will never again be a Haven for the Jewish people in the records of sevil we have a document that the very next day August 3rd Friday Jews who were on boats ready to be taken out of the harbor to wherever they were going to leave Spain were waving to three boats that were parked at the dock the Nina the Pinta and the Santa Maria Christopher Columbus's Voyage began the very next day August 3rd 1492 and who funded Columbus's Voyage Ferdinand and Isabella because Hashem says really there's never going to be another Jewish uh Haven again you'll see there will be a Haven much greater than Spain ever ever was until America Spain had been the single greatest Haven for the Jewish people in our history you think you're going to eliminate the building of yeshivas the building of Jewish institutions not only will you not be successful you will be funding the discovery of the greatest Haven that the Jewish people ever had in the diaspora so you know you ever hear there's a Yeshiva in New Jersey today the Lakewood Yeshiva you ever hear of the Lakewood Yeshiva there are thousands of thousands of students learning do you know who built the lake with yiva King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella they are single-handedly responsible for Tyra in America today and if they're Jewish institutions and shs and km and schools it's thanks to them they funded the discovery of America because God says you give me the Russia you give me their plan and I will co-opt and hijack their plan give you another example in more recent times who is the greatest butcher in history if for our people and in general Hitler yeah Hitler but even worse than Hitler Stalin Stalin killed more than 20 million people not only that after the Holocaust and now there's a battle between uh the Western World and communism Stalin planed to create a Holocaust in Russia I'm going to talk about that soon in the 19th century the plan of the Russian government was to eliminate the their Jewish population by expelling a third by killing a third and by converting a third and already in the 19th century there was mass immigration millions of Russian Jews either came to America or to Isel and somehow after World War II and Russia won the war Stalin starts to get very nervous of some of the allies especially you Brits he didn't like the fact that there was a British mandate in Palestine it made him nervous that there was democracy in the Middle East so he's thinking to himself when the state of Israel when it came to a vote you know how should he vote did he support the state of Israel and he thought about it and he he came to terms that it's much better for there to be a state of Israel which was going to be socialist and probably communist so do you know that even though in the history of the state of Israel the greatest funer of aggression and terrorism was Russia in 1948 Stalin made the decision to support the war of independence and the ammunition and the aircraft and the forces were funded by Stalin through his proxies without Stalin it's doubtful we would have won the war of independence moreover when it came to a vote whether to vote for the state of Israel Stalin voted to support the state of Israel and if there's a Mira today in is with 5,000 and a Andra in and Security in and we could go to the and and Mar and I know a lot of plaques in these places they forgot to put up a plaque for Stalin because he was our greatest benefactor in reclaiming is so you know the gar tells us that in the second temple there was an area called shushan habira and I can't help but think it's in gratitude to the greatest philanthropists and benefactors who helped build a second temple hamon and aash cuz a lot of's money came from H's that he paid to destroy the Jewish people so really we have to thank them for helping us rebuild the second temple we have to thank ferdinan and Isabella for the United States of America and I wouldn't be here today I'm an American I owe everything to Ferdinand and Isabella and the state of Israel owes a great debt of gratitude to our good friend J Stalin but let me tell you one last story when Stalin began to realize that Israel may be socialist but not communist he did a very quick about face and he accused six doctors of injecting Russian citizens with uh lethal diseases he created the doctor's plot and in March in 1953 Stalin built railroad tracks and concentration camps to bring between 3 and 4 million Russian Jews to the north of Russia where the temperatures are between -70 and Ne 90° that's even colder than this room and and they would die a very agonizing death it was going to take about two weeks for them he was going to kill he had the railroad tracks built the trains ready to go and the plan was going to be ex and when Stalin had an idea he always carried it out without fail the man wasung like steel he was a bull nobody ever stopped him this was scheduled for a little bit after purm in 1953 that year tester fell out on chabas Yim was a chabas March 5th andit a well-known Russian rusnik read the Milla that night to a bunch of inmates and they said Rabbi what's the story all about it he says this story is about us you see 2,000 years ago God saved the Jewish people from hmon and he could do the same thing again nothing is beyond God's ability and there was a man there he said Rabbi this is nonsense that was a humm of 2,000 years ago but nobody stops Stalin why you telling us ridiculous fairy tales from 2,000 years ago this is not relevant to our lives he almost attacked RAB zilber and RAB zilber said at 7:50 p.m. the night of PM it doesn't seem good but Stalin is only Flesh and Blood he doesn't even know what will be with him in 30 minutes the next morning this man came back to RAB zilber he said are you a prophet 33 minutes later at 8:23 p.m. March 5th Stalin had a stroke he became paralyzed and he lost his ability to speak 33 minutes after RAB zilber said he's just Flesh and Blood he doesn't even know what will be with him in 30 minutes Rabbi zilber said if I know toim today by heart it's because somehow God put into my mind the entirety of toim which I said over the next 72 hours until Stalin dropped dead and he said are you allowed to pray for someone to die he said yes you could pray for Stalin to die and I continued to pray until he died and at Stalin's funeral the president of Czechoslovakia came who is a tremendous Rush on his own right he had recently Stalin said made a big mistake he allowed 100,000 Jews to leave and go to AR Israel Stalin was so upset at him so the president caki was under a lot of pressure he personally shot 16 of his officers of his offical he was a well-known son of isra he came to Stalin's funeral to pay his last respects standing there over Stalin's grave he had a massive heart attack and he dropped dead on the spot this is what we call we kill two birds with one stone when did it happen PM 71 years ago on PM you know we have an idea in Judaism that our calendar is a living calendar it's not not just in those days it's when the 14th of AD comes it's a living reality it's a living reality of divine intervention and salvation for the Jewish people so we're living through a very challenging time but we're very comforted now that the month of Adar has come because this is a month it's a living reality it's a month that has been transformed for the Jewish people of great salvation so we look forward our hearts are a flame we look forward to hearing Good Tidings hasem from the land of Israel and from our brethren in Israel and in the Merit of Us coming together to learn T in the Merit of us showing support to this important sh and Torah Center Hashem should bless all of us all of our families our whole community and all of Cl Israel only with yesu good health B and I wish you all a happy and thank you very much you've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by Torah anytime.com