Journey To London 2024: Purim: Stalin, Ferdinand, & Achashveirosh! {Immanuel College}

this Torah class is brought to you by Torah anytime.com one of my proudest moments working in this school youing the trip I took you guys to Poland last November and one of the things that we tried one of the things that we tried to do when we were in Poland was to give you a flavor to give you a flavor of what life was like for Jewish people before the Holocaust we didn't want to just go to visit the concentration camps we didn't just want to go and visit the death camps the ghettos and field the destruction but we wanted to see the vibrancy of Jewish life and one of the places we did that wasin where you will remember we divided up mishas and we made a seeum together we learned and we danced we rejoiced and we celebrated the sweetness and beauty of our heritage of Torah this afternoon you are very honored to have a guest speaker RAB Daniel glatstein who is one of the most eminent raban in North America and around the Jewish World RAB gladin has over 10,400 shim available online shim lectures that he has given online available feel free to Google him afterwards and listen to a few on your way home on the bus and that's equates to about 10 million listeners to those shurin so he has a huge audience in addition I GL is Rob of a Cahill in Cedar Hurst in New York and an author and has recently bought out an art scroll book a new art score book on purm which I'm sure you could look up and maybe buy as a Pur gift one of your friends or for yourself yourself or for your family but most importantly he's taken some time out of his schedule to L in London where he has multiple speaking engagements to come in to Emanuel College to talk to us and it's very exciting I'm very excited because right glatstein is a figure somebody who I've always heard of I've listened to his shim but actually to have him here in Emanuel to me is a really really big deal there will be an opportunity as well for you to ask some questions but I'm going to ask you to give him your your full undivided attention and focus it's a big zus for us at Emanuel College to welcome you and to host you I want to thank my friend Josh Josh MIM who does so much for the community to organize this with us and to partner with us yeah um and Josh is a is a working man he's a sever by day but even though he's a working man he dedicates every waking minute to the Jewish people also I know within the edre community and Beyond um can I embarrass you can I embarrass you just one thing about Josh I want to tell you something amazing about Josh he opens up his home for anyone needs a place to do a Sim if there's a family who are making a b Mitzvah or an engagement party and they need somewhere to do a Sim Josh is says come and do it in our house can you imagine and and we're not saying a one off I think pretty much every weekend there are taking place in Josh's house and this is the type of guy we've got here today he's come here with Robert glatstein thank you so much for organizing this to us and we're so honored you're here right GL Ste over to you you're going to need this I think thank [Applause] you thank you so much G for the very warm introduction friends it's real a real pleasure to be here today we're approaching one of the greatest days of the year the of purm I'm sure you're all familiar with what happened in the PM story but I would like to share with you a revolutionary perspective of the perm story that will forever change the way you look at the perm story Jewish history in general and world history I want to take you back friends to PM 1953 does anybody know who was the greatest butcher murderer probably in the history of the world for the Jewish people and in world history in general someone who even superseded Hitler himself this terrible distinction was earned by none other than a man by the name of Stalin Joseph Stalin 20 M he killed 20 million of his own citizens and in 1953 Stalin was very felt very threatened by the Jewish presence in Russia and Stalin came up with the following plan many people are not aware of this Stalin was going to perpetrate a second Holocaust in Russia Hitler only killed 6 million Stalin said there're between three and four million Jews left in Russia I'm going to knock off the remaining 3 to 4 million Jews so Stalin made concentration camps in the north of Russia he built railroad tracks he had the railroad car is ready to go he was going to deport between 3 and 4 million Jews to the north of Russia where temperatures reached between -70 and 90° by the way that's cold okay and they were going to die over the course of 2 weeks this was not a theory this was not a dream the plan was set into motion Stalin had everything mapped out then he went ahead and created a liel he charged six doctors of injecting a lethal disease into Russian citizens these doctors were charged on uh trumped up accusations they were imprisoned many doctors were imprisoned and this decree was set to go into motion shortly after PM 71 years ago 1953 that year the day before PM AR PM came out on Shabbat the 13th of Adar was a shabas it was Shabbat mat Shabbat Saturday night was PM there was a camp a labor camp one of the well-known Russian refus necks his name was Rabbi y zilber was in this logger was in this camp and they had a Milla with them and they took out the Milla and RAB zilber begins to read the Milla for the inmates and upon conclusion of the reading of the Milla he turns to them and he says do you know what we just read we just read a story just like what was going to happen what's going to happen to us 2,000 years ago there was a man named hamon he decreed to annihilate the Jewish people and in the blink of an eye God brought salvation to the Jewish people he did it back then he could do it again have faith have trust we're not doomed and there was a guy in the crowd who basically jumped Rabbi zilber was going to punch him in the face he said Rabbi why you tell us this nonsense about what happened 2,000 years ago that was hon hon doesn't come close to Stalin Stalin is made out of steel Stalin is a bull he's an animal whatever he conceives he executes he brings to fruition nothing has ever stopped Stalin Rabbi what are you telling us fairy tales about what happened 2,000 years ago this was 7:50 p.m. the night of PM 71 years ago and RAB zilber said to this man Stalin is Bam he's Flesh and Blood no man no human being knows what will be even in 30 minutes that is what RIT Sil said 7:50 p.m. the night of PM 71 years ago that morning this inmate comes running back to R he said you know I just heard on German radio you wouldn't believe it are you a prophet Stalin had a stroke Stalin had a stroke now he was healthy like an ox Stalin had a stroke the night of PM 71 years ago he can't talk he can't move and RAB zilber said he didn't have an actual toim on him somehow God put into his head the entirety of tahim which he recited by heart for three days straight until Stalin dropped dead and he said and if you ask could you pray for someone to die yes you could pray for Stalin to die and Stalin died 3 days later and you should know that morning of PM the doctors who were in prison they literally walked out of their prison cells there were no guards the guards went free Stalin is dying Stalin is dying and actually you know he called the doctors to come but no doctor wanted to treat him because they were afraid Stalin would accuse them of what he accused the other doctors so nobody was there to heal Stalin Stalin dropped dead 3 days later now there was another great anti-semite in Czechoslovakia and he was in kahutu Stalin and he felt so terrible that Stalin died he traveled to Russia he stood over Stalin's dead body and when he got there he had a heart attack and he also dropped de right after PM 71 years ago 1953 friends you know we make a blessing on PM we say the following words God you made miracles for our forefathers in those times at this very time what does it mean at this very time you see the Jewish calendar is a living calendar a living calendar means all of our holidays are not commemorating something that took place 3,300 years ago 2,000 years ago our holidays are more than commemoration when we celebrate a holiday we're reliving reenacting the spiritual energy that we could access that is coming back and reappearing in real time every time annually annually we reach that occasion I would like to share with you a very interesting insight into migil that you have to sort of dig deep and uncover the true meaning of the end of the Miga you see I'm let's have a little uh English lesson over here okay anybody know how to say in the English language the second to last ultimate okay very good give this man a cigar pen ultimate anybody you know how to say third to last anti give him anti anti penultimate very good take care of him okay anti penultimate does anybody happen to know the anti penultimate verse in M the third to last in M the third to last reads that K taxed the people now we have to ask ourselves of what relevance is it that a taxes the people do we need to know this is this important you know the purpose of M it's not a history book it's not a historical document the Milla was written for one reason and one reason only it's called to publicize the Divine or orchestration of the hand of Hashem there is no information written in the Milla that's given to teach us history Palace Intrigue the Royal pageantry of Persia media in fact migil says if you want to know about the history of the times look in a different book go to The Chronicles of Persia media this book The M Miga was written for one reason and one reason only to recognize the hand of hasem why in the world does MiG conclude that taxed the people who cares every politician every corrupt politician taxes the people why do we need to know this about so I want to share with you one line of G talm did you know I've met many people doctors lawyers technicians engineers the greatest work the greatest book The Greatest Corpus of material ever written the most profound stirring document ever composed was the gamarra every word of gamarra is measured there are layers and layers of profundity of depth in every line and word of gamarra every word of gamarra you'll have commentary of Rashi and tvas explaining what does the gamar mean what's the gamar trying to say why did the gamar make this statement and then you'll have commentary explaining the motivation and the background and the and the questions I want to share with you one line of the gamarra the gamar says that when hamon was coming to hang morai listen carefully hamon came to hang morai on the tree Al on the tree that he prepared for him on the tree that hamon literally prepared for morai and the gamar is trouble the gamar is bothered why does it have to say on the tree that he prepared for him obviously hamon prepared the tree for morai why does it have to say for him should say on the tree that he prepared the word for him is extra and you know what the gamar answers the gamar says actually ham thought he was preparing it for Mor but in reality he was preparing it for himself that ham Was preparing the tree for himself ham thought he was going to use the Gallows to hang morai in reality he was going to be hanging himself on that very tree now you read this line in the gamar and you think that this is an isolated comment you think this is an isolated incident you think that okay ham made a tree his plan was to hang M and God threw it right back at him and ultimately ham hang hung on that tree this line of gar is really a prism to view all the events of MiG and really of world history in general I'm going to give you a little example remember Moshe M the greatest rebi of our of our people the one who went up to Hari I'm going to give you a little uh little tidbit over here okay anybody know what year did M go up to Har to receive the T what year in the Jewish calendar you know this yeah go for it 2448 very good 2448 what okay Abraham ainu abrah ainu is born in the Jewish calendar the year 1948 500 years later M goes up to Har to receive the T actually a very amazing tidbit does anybody know how do you write in Hebrew in lash Kadesh the year 244 eight you write baz that's for Bim 2000 T me baz T me actually if you unscramble that it reads his love for them God gave us the T in the year of his love for them did you know that mhu almost never came to be he almost never existed the Pharaoh was looking at his astrological signs and in his astrological signs the Pharaoh was able to see that the Jewish savior would be born and the Pharaoh did not want the Jewish savior to be born so he made the following decree parro decreed that every male that would be born were going to throw them into the river and God is looking down from heaven and God said says parro you think you're going to eliminate the Jewish savior not a chance not only will you not eliminate the Jewish savior you will be the cause to groom and develop and raise the Jewish savior because we all know the story so mosh abu's mother throws him into the Nile and who catches and who finds moshu the daughter of the Pharaoh Basia and Basia takes in This Little Child and Basia brings the child into the palace and you know Basia is Raising this little baby and probably the baby is keeping Basia up in the middle of the night and middle of the night at 2: a.m. basio says to the Pharaoh okay parro okay dad you know would you mind relieving me of the child for an hour or two so basio gives the baby to parro and parro is you know holding this baby cing the baby and Bas said would you mind going out to the pharmacy maybe you could get some formula for the baby would you mind getting him uh what he needs who raised M par who paid for his education par did you know the commentaries teach us that why did Divine pres a Providence haveit that mosh raenu should grow up in the Palace of parro and not with the rest of the Jewish people the commentaries teach us that had mosenu grown up with the rest of the people he would have had a slave mentality he would have had a low morale and he never would have had the Royal bearing to lead the Jewish people so God orchestrated that he should grow up in parro's Palace because parro taught Moser rinu how to be a leader so actually parro thought he was putting an end in eliminating the Jewish savior not only did he not eliminate the Jewish savior parro was the one who created and groomed Moser rabeno so this is the way God operates he takes the plan of the wicked he doesn't have to knock off the Russia he doesn't have to knock off the wicked he says you give me the evil man you give me his plans his machination his scheme and I will hijack and co-opt and harness his plan to bring about what I would like to accomplish let me give you an example from the Milla do you remember in the beginning of the story so a has a problem with his wife Vash is ordered to come out and display herself and a says he threatens her and vashi refuses so a doesn't know what to do with his wife so he has to discuss this with the officers of Persia media the P says the king said to his advisers what should I do with vashi so it's very peculiar it's very odd that a the emperor of the world the king of the whole world would have to discuss what to do with his wife with the officers and the administrators why can't he just make a unilateral decision the answer is if you look carefully in the nuances of theim yeah you're with me me if you look carefully at the nuances of the you'll see the the verse says the king said to the wise men that was the law the law in Persia was that any time the king had to make a decision that was relevant to him he could not call his own shots he had to ask the advice of other advisers you fast forward to the end of the PM story and do you remember the end of the story where Esther reveals her identity and a is really angry and he goes out to The Garden to take a few deep breaths and he comes back from the garden and he sees hon there and he gets angry at hamon hamon took a misstep and Kona says you know there's this big Gallows looming in the background why don't you just hang humm on that and says hey great idea hang him why was a able to make his own decision over there why was able to just to order the death of ham without discussing it first with his advisers what changed you know what changed there's a man by the name of M and M made the following proposal M says you know you have a problem with with Vash I propose from now on you call all the shots from now on you make all the decisions don't ask anybody else does anybody know who was melel Dan Daniel that's my name so I don't like to go with that approach I like to go with the approach that M was H yeah they're various opinions yeah no there are there are various opinions but was ham ham was the one who proposes to to allow aash to make unilateral decisions look how H's plan came back to backfire on him because he proposed to allow a to make all the calls to call all the shots to make all his own decisions by the end of the story because of M's proposal is able to knock off without asking anybody else let's fast forward to the end of the story by the end of the story a comes and he's taxing the people and we began with the question why is a taxing the people why do I need to know about this so I was reading the book of Ezra Ezra is one of the book of KM and in saer Ezra it describes at the end of the 70 years of Exile the Jewish people come and they return to build the second temple and they have a problem you know what the problem was they had no money to build the second temple so the Jews who returned from Babylon from Persia to the land of Israel to return the second to rebuild the second temple they make a request of the King of Persia anybody you know who is the King of Persia close who is the King of Persia after a darus Darius very good Darius is the King of Persia does anybody know who is the who is Darius Darius was the son of aash and Esther Darius was actually a Jewish King he was a Jew and the Jewish people petitioned Darius they say Darius do us a favor would you mind contributing to the rebuilding of the second temple and Darius the Novi says opens up his storehouses and he opens up the Royal Treasury and he gives all the tax money to the Jewish people to rebuild the second temple so I ask you where did Darius get all of this tax money from where did he get this from where did he get all these taxes from the answer is his dad AOS at the end of the perm story he's taxing all 127 provinces aash dropped dead his son Darius inherited all of his money and now all that money went to rebuild the second temple and actually by understanding the Milla this way we appreciate how the story has come full circle because the Story begins a is having a party for 180 days does anybody know what he was celebrating he was celebrating the fact that the prophets had predicted that after 70 years the temple would be rebuilt and it's not being rebuilt said if the temple is not being rebuilt it will never be rebuilt aash was celebrating what he thought was the Eternal destruction of the temple and by the end of the story a had become the chief fundraiser to rebuild the second B mikdash but actually if you would have asked hey pal what are you celebrating here he would have said oh this party we're celebrating the Eternal destruction of the temple and God is looking down and he laughs at a he says you think this party is celebrating the Eternal destruction of the temple this party will cause you to kill vashi marry Esther you're going to have a kid Darius you're going to tax the people he's going to take all your money and he's going to build the B mikdash you think you're celebrating the destruction of of the temple this party is going to be the first parlor meeting to rebuild the B mikdash and this actually is how God operates he doesn't have to knock off you've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by tor anytime.com