Talkline With Zev Brenner - The Secrets of Purim ; Why is it like Yom Kippur

on a regular guest especially on holiday times Rabbi Daniel J glotstein's prolific writer his ninth book is out that's called the concealed and the revealed published by article he has also a Hebrew version called say from Margaret rakia also with Adara and the perm holidays which we are in the midst of that season right now he's the robin founder of Macomb Magid harakia in Cedarhurst New York thank you for joining us again hi good evening thank you I enjoyed your book the concealed and the revealed so let me ask you a question you know we have holidays that we have pesach the Passover one because God skipped over the houses of the Jews it's related to the holiday we have suko because God had us in these protective clouds or actual Sukkot poor armor deals with the lottery so what is it doesn't seem to have the same symmetry as some of the other holidays where we were saved and we weren't saved because of the lottery we saved because of other factors in the perm story I know you talk about it in the book yeah that's the excellent that's an excellent question and that should be like that should be the first question that any thinking person asks about Purim as you mentioned it's really not typical in terms of the line of uh the names of the other holidays so this question is actually raised by the beneath saskar and the way I came to it yourself quotes So to me that was unusual that one of the spartic Giants would quote a safer of hasidos and the idea the basic idea is understanding why did God save us we we sinned we Mordechai told us don't go to the party we didn't listen and that was considered a very severe transgression so why I think the county have resempt if it wasn't kosher food and not Kosher I've seen some source to say it was kosher fruit some people said it wasn't but obviously there's there's a difference of opinion about that yeah but you know whether it was kosher or not but you could imagine the uh environment of the party if the king is ordering his wife to come out unclad you could imagine this was not a a party with uh according to the standards of uh the base Yakov movement shall you say so they were told not to go and they went so why did God save us so there's an idea that God saved us just out of love and when we when we think about that idea why why does Hashem love us why does Hashem don't we have to earn it don't we have to deserve it I remember one time I I told my son after hey naftali you know why Daddy loves you he said he said why I said because I do he said uh daddy that doesn't make any sense but it doesn't it's uh it's sort of what you can say you love me please your son and God loves us because we're his children exactly the the reason why God loves us is because we're his son we're his child and me because it says people we're his where is we're his share we're his portion like we're his number one draft pick in fact you know like the number one draft pick you're wearing the suit you're wearing the hat and goddess we say God who are you going to select I select as my number one draft pick the Jewish people it's sort of just a fact of life we're we're not his biological children but the this form of Kabbalah say that there's something intrinsic about the Jewish soul that is literally a piece of the DNA of the Divine so the reason Hashem saved us is because we're his lottery pick basically we're the The Mattress tells us that when Hashem created the world he created 70 Nations and the Jewish people and their seventy angels and God said okay here let's let's everyone pick your people you know ever you could choose so one Angel picked North Korea you know bad decision one one Angel picked uh Iran one Angel picked Russia one Angel picked Ukraine and God with his number one picked picked us and there's an idea that annually this draft pick um occurs every year and God the the Angels pick or was there a lottery because in your book you're right about the fact that there was a lottery to pick which countries they would go to so it seems like you know you you picked the the lot in other words they didn't pick the country they picked the lot uh which turned out to be the country okay I won Iran I won Russia yeah but it seems like God did choose us he selected us specifically so we being his lot is the reason why Hashem saved us in the times of Purim so the reason it's called Purim is we were saved because of the the fact that we are hashem's uh Choice whether we deserve it whether we don't deserve it irrespective of our actions in fact some software even brings you know what would you say is the the most notable Miracle of the Purim story if you had to isil if you had to identify one miraculous event that that is the miracle of Purim Sam sulfur says what the fact that after church killed his wife in the ancient times the kings were always killing their wife the fact that he married Esther okay she was a beautiful woman he he liked her the fact that Mordecai overheard the plan to assassinate the king each isolated event it's hard to make the case that it was an outright Miracle because some sofa writes the miracle of Purim was that at the time we were sinning so severely and we deserve to be exterminated at that precise moment God was Paving the way that if we repented he would save us so at the time we were sinning Hashem was knocking or vashti putting an Esther in place to pave the way for our Salvation the fact that hashem's love for us was so was immutable that he was looking to save us at the time we were sinning and some silver says this is really the illustration of the opinion of the great town of Mayor who holds that irrespective of what we do we're always considered the children on Hashem but when that listen the fact that we're always children of God we can say the same thing about Passover about pesach the fact the angel said these are idle worshipers these are idle worse why are you drowning the Egyptians saving the Jews so this is not a new theme this is a common theme for God's Sailors because he loves us yeah yeah and actually you know we uh you must want to bring me uh back for another state fair because I have a safe air on the town of Mayor balance and on his opinion there were always the children of Hashem and how it's brought out literally in every single yam Tuff and how it's uh it's really a main theme I'm a very big uh I'm a big fan I don't know if you could see uh in the back over here I have two rows of swarm all the books of the the hidal lived 83 years and he wrote 83 svaram um here you know what I'm gonna do something a little unconventional now but I have this great book it's cool safer model time this is the book of the hidas travels made two major travels throughout Europe where he went each time to approximately 150 cities each time and the hidal was one of the great Jewish Travelers of all time and he would travel to various libraries manage memorize the manuscripts and there are many teachings let's say for instance of nairi that the Miri was not published until this Century the 20th century actually the 20th century but 200 years ago saw the manuscripts of the Miami and he quotes the teachings of iri in his forum but that was a prolific writer and he ultimately moved to Livorno to Italy where the printing presses were and where his sponsors were he wrote many many songs the reason I bring up the hidas Shabbos is the yard side of he's one of the most uh interesting personalities uh of all time um what makes them so fascinating to you well first of all the fact uh a few things then the number of firm that he wrote the subjects that he wrote about so he has a safer about his travels it's a diary about his travels where he writes about his visit to the Tower of London he writes about how the economy in England was plummeting because of the American Revolution he writes about uh visiting the Queen's Jewels he writes about Versailles when he went to France he writes about various godolam that he met throughout his journeys like the prayoshua he writes about uh the pirates that he that he uh try to uh hijack his ship so he's a fasting personality he also is considered the father of modern day bibliography so he wrote a work called Shame in shame it has two parts in part one he lists the names of all the rabbis who lived before him in alphabetical order hundreds thousands of rabbanim then he lists in alphabetical order the names of all this forum that were written before his time now you would think he must have been sitting there with a computer and you know punching in Olive aleph Bayes now he wrote this first of all when he came to Italy he was in quarantine he was in something called Lazaretto so he had no sparm with him so he wrote the entire shame which is considered the first production of great bibliography he wrote the entire book from memory listening all the rabbis who lived before him and all the books that were ever written before him he wrote the whole thing in 40 days from memory so he had a photographic memory apparently yes um by the way whatever happened with him and the Pirates somehow he escaped that ordeal the Pirates of Malta actually this is volume one of his travels and uh here you have a map I mean he started off in Israel he went to Cairo uh then from there he went to lavarno to Italy throughout France he went to England then Amsterdam then Holland then Germany back to Italy then through turkey and back to Israel wow and he each Journey took uh six seven eight years he was calling I don't really have time to write though every all these books he was on the road or the ship all the time it's remarkable it's unbelievable it's unbelievable and so he wrote on halacha he wrote he wrote on Hamish many David um he wrote encyclopedic works of just different concepts so he wrote 83 books and he lived 83 years wow amazing I don't think people know enough about but it sounds like he was brilliant and he was accomplished and did you write it personality and he spoke many languages did you write a new secular books too um not that I'm familiar with he wrote a book on travel um what else he wrote he wrote on on differences and Shas he wrote he wrote you know I'll share with you something interesting that he says um I think one thing that he says really sums up his life and he has a safe which is like uh of sorts for inspire them he writes I don't know why I remember this but an ice he writes that for someone who doesn't waste time there's time for everything I think that really sums up his life you know he didn't waste time and he had time for for everything but one interesting thing we know there's an idea when when the gamara recommends saying with all of your strength but nobody really does that I mean if somebody would walk into a show and and answer I mean on the top of his lungs he would probably be escorted out and then maybe hospitalized institutionalized it's not you know you can't really answer I mean like so we sort of I don't know we we in our minds we dismiss it it means like you know give it a good shot but it doesn't really mean with all your strength addresses us he says you should prepare yourself and summon all of your strength as if you're going to answer with all your strength but when it comes down to it you have to do it in a cordial in a respectable way but but prepare yourself Muster that energy as if you would be answering it with all your strength so he always has a very uh novel take on on uh things Rabbi Gander J glassson is our guest prolific writer he has written his ninth book two of them are on Purim the concealed and the revealed in English she has the companion in Hebrew he is also the founding Rabbi of Mahon Magid harakia and Cedarhurst New York we're looking at perm from a glass scene so what I'm always intrigued it's called Purim and we have another house called Yom kippuram which according to the way I've learned and I know you address it in the book is like Yom Kippur is like Purim even though you're right poor was like Kim Kemper there's another way of looking at but certainly there's similarities and also disparities between these two great days Jim Kipper is considered or was considered to be a happy day in the Jewish calendar even though it's a day of fasting in the days of talmud and the mishnah I think there used to be a dating day which we don't have we don't do that anymore but let's look at the contrast and also the malaria's between perm and Yom Kippur which is greater yeah so literally it's a day like Purim which which seems to indicate that power may even be greater uh there is a teaching of the Ari that the light of Purim is unprecedented there never was or will be such spiritual energy as it was on Purim which seems to indicate that Purim has a certain spiritual power even that surpasses Yom Kippur but like you mentioned there are similarities but in a way they're they're Polar Opposites you know Purim we spend the day in Suda we have a festive meal we drink and Yom Kippur of course we're fasting so in that in that sense their exact opposites so there's an idea that the the villanue and his students bring out is that the day the Torah was given was Yom Kippur because the first luchos we know God gave us on shibuous but they didn't quite work out because uh Moshe broke the luchos so Hashem come on let's try this again said all right come up again samosha goes up on uh first day of ello and he comes down on Yom Kippur and God gave us the Torah on Yom Kippur you know we don't think of it that way but the day of the giving of the Torah was Yom Kippur so the question is well when do we celebrate the giving of the Torah Yom Kippur so the the students of the Grasse well we can't celebrate on Yom Kippur because he can't eat so Purim is the Tash Lumen Purim is sort of the Fulfillment and the makeup for the rejoicing of the giving of the Torah on Yom Kippur because permanent effect was also a day of receiving the Torah it's the day we accepted the Torah out of love so Purim so to speak makes up for what we didn't do on Yom Kippur we also find another parallel Yom Kippur was an atonement for the sin of the golden calf and that sin God took the Jewish people didn't know what our punishment was going to be Moshe was in the heavens and God said to emotion leave go of me and I will destroy them similar language we find in the megillah so we were gonna the destruction of the that only took place in the heavens God told Moses in the heavens I'm going to show Jewish people so therefore when we were saved we celebrate in a Heavenly Way by not eating the destruction of that was impending in times of Purim we knew about down here in this world we knew that Haman had planned lahashment so therefore we were saved from that we celebrate in this world so Purim is like the Earthly version of Yom Kippur so they parallel each other Purim is so to speak the physical Earthly version and Yom Kippur is the spiritual Heavenly version there's sort of two sides of one coin or you have we're supposed to serve god with joy superb is that culmination of what you more joyous day in the Jewish calendars Purim which brings us to really to God because he's supposed to serve god with simcha yeah but they're also the differences also is that on on tour and we have the Fest before we eat in Kepler we eat before we fast right it's uh yeah that's also a Converse we also wear masks on Purim and some say we mask on ourselves in Capri we parade ourselves as being Pious people and them care practice they're also brought down there there I'm sure there's a lot of thoughts comparing Yom Kippur and Kippur but certainly it's a it's a it's a thought that goes beyond just word play yeah yes absolutely any other similarities or things that we should consider between Yom Kippur and perm well we know that uh on Yom Kippur the there's lotteries of course our sages yeah well the the lottery of the Sarasota today there's no jealousy there's no Strife there's no competition it's the day of unity so that Purim as well was uh it's it's interesting that haman's great accusation against the Jewish people were yes we were a disparate we were fragmented we had no unity and the way we counteract that is Esther said okay then we have to gather together points out that throughout the Magilla the tense of the word is unexpected let's say for example it says they gathered plural the almighty it should say the um says or um other instances where it should have said Allah says consistently points out that the in order to counteract Commons accusation against us we had to gather together that's one of the reasons for um to show the unity of the Jewish people actually this is a very interesting uh dispute what is the reason for us you know what what's the reason for that mitzvah says it's to make sure everybody has food for the Suda the man you know it's interesting he wrote a famous commentary on the miguelas club Manos there he says no the the purpose of shahmanas is to show friendship to show unity and actually it makes it has a gramification an anonymous so you open it up what do you like to get what's your favorite food okay we could have wine and Google okay wine and cookies you open up who is who's the giver anonymous do I get the midst of chocolates if you don't know who it came from well it all depends what the purpose of Child come on yeah exactly if it's to make sure he has food for the meal I have it if it's a road friendship I don't know who you are I can't be your friend yeah exactly yeah so so uh usually we try to fulfill both reasons but there are many many uh you know or can I fulfillments if I send you two books you know Food For Thought yeah so if it's to prevent promote friendship maybe it would work if it's to have food so it doesn't work so that's a major discussion in the what's the uh what's the purpose of uh isn't it time I think the students to the rebbies isn't it also a concept yes uh in the in the safe it talks about they used to give Manos on on Rosh Hashanah actually the prehadash who is the rabbi in Jerusalem he he codified that you should give uh before Rosh Hashanah yeah actually there's an interesting thing that the hida brings down he brings that Purim as you said which is the happiest day of the year is the source of all the yamantovan how so the word Purim stands for pesach okay he writes oh okay that's cheating a little bit okay um Rosh Hashanah Yom Kippur and Mata and he has a whole Exposition hell the letter of Love is the perfect uh letter to symbolize the um but there's an idea that perm is really the source of uh all joy and uh you know you had me on Tish above time and I had the opportunity to speak a little bit about my grandparents miraculous survival uh from the Holocaust but it's interesting my grandfather who passed away at the age of 106 his name was Mordechai because his brismila was on panaceester and my grandmother also didn't know her day the day of her birthday so both of my grandparents who survived that Malik celebrate their birthday on Purim and actually my grandfather when he was in Auschwitz he he's he saw Haman and you know who Eichmann invited to into Auschwitz he invited the Mufti from Jerusalem and the two of them were embracing arm and arm the and the Jews would pass in front of them and they would beat the Jew in a way to make sure they would not be able to have children that was their entertainment so my grandfather brought from the swarm of Kabbalah that if asav and Ishmael ever ever got together they would destroy the world the village says if Ace of and Ishmael would ever join forces they would destroy the world that's why at least you know America and Iran they're not good buddies if they would ever come together they would destroy the world my grandfather said you want to know what happens when Ace of any small come together that's Auschwitz the Mufti and Eichmann and I heard of David Cullen of uh brings that that's why it was so dangerous when Haman got together because Paras which the marao always explains that Persia is Ishmael and Haman is is ASAP so when a sub and Ishmael come together you have a gazera of lahashmid La rogueliabad so we have two times in our history we have this Union and you have aichmann and the Mufti and application their plot was thwarted because was it was a foolish King as Louis Asus brought down unfortunately Haman and then the form of Eichmann and the Mufti but the Mufti got involved later on and it was only for a short period of time towards the end of the war but they got together because logically the nacho should have hated the Muslims just like the hated the Jews but when it comes to killing Jews that's where they were able to get together Rabbi Daniel J glassine is our guest uh he's written nine books the latest two armed Purim called the concealed and revealed uh he's also the founder of the rava Muhammad harakia in Cedarhurst New York one thing intrigues me Rabbi gladstein we know that the holidays are connected so for example we spoke about Tish above and we have an atbar system and and relating to pay sucks so whatever they the first day of pesach which is the Olive the group corresponds to the test tissue above and we were able to pick out you know Rosh Hashanah Yom Kippur Etc now perm is also part of the Opera system but in other words the way it works is whatever day the first night of passover is so if it's Sunday night then tishara was Sunday night and all the other holidays are subsequently however when it comes to Purim it's not the subsequent firm but it's reflective the perm that was passed why is Purim different in this system of advosh I think that Purim is counterpart is La boimer actually the counterpart for perm worm I think come out on the same day if I'm not mistaken yeah yeah so actually this year Purim is Tuesday right and black volumer is Tuesday yeah so there's a there's a connection between Purim and [Music] before I go can I share with you what I think is the most stunning discovery on the megilla yes and then I have one more question I will wrap up yes okay okay this I always says my favorite you know the Magilla ends very inexplicably then taxes the people that was my question I was going to ask you really why yes why it ends is in taxes so I'm so happy you brought that up maybe because rumors around April 15th yeah exactly I mean what comes around goes well you know the more things change the more they stay the same so I said this over Saturday night Adam because somebody told me to have this question for 50 years they never got a good answer this is out of this world I mean first of all you text me this irrelevant information and B this is just a bizarre ending to the story okay the theme of it that they said we should also check in the annals of Paris and Monday yeah I mean the history books that why do we need to know that he he enacted taxes and why do we have to check it out in the history books if the Magilla is what we need to know about the perm story uh excellent so so this is really remarkable the theme of the Purim story is God didn't just thwart the plan every plan of Haman God used to backfire against 50 feet 50 almost Hanging On The Gallows and there are many examples that every planet scheme of Haman came back to haunt him came back to backfire against him I was learning safer Ezra and in the sixth chapter we read about the aftermath of the poem Story the Jews returned to the holy land they want to rebuild the Temple the problem is they don't have any money so they turn to the king king Darius they said Darius help us out so that's all right I'll help you guys out and it says he opens up the treasury and he gave them all the tax money and I ask you where did he get all the tax money from and the answer is taxes the people he dies his son inherits it and he funds the building of the second they Summit but watch how the problem story has come full circle The Story begins celebrating the 70 years are up and the temple which was supposed to be rebuilt will now never be rebuilt and by the end of the story akashirsh has become the chief fundraiser to rebuild the second base hamiktas but it's even more than that if you were to ask akashvirosh at the party what are you celebrating I'm celebrating the Eternal destruction of the temple and God's laughing no just the opposite this party you're gonna knock off vashti you're going to marry Esther you're gonna have a kid Darius the party is gonna cause the building of the second base I make fish so that's why the grand finale of the Magilla is the taxing the irony about taxing the people because ultimately it was put to use to rebuild the second base technology wow that's amazing I love that before I left you can you describe the legend between Hammond and his wife it's like very strange I was portrayed in mcgilla so perhaps you can shed some light onto that relationship you know that that must have been some some uh marriage May to say [Laughter] no because it seemed like his loved ones he asked them you know it's like a very very confusing and there's even miss Russian that he had like 50 kids it's like a whole he had a lot of kids he had a lot of kids more than just the 10 that we know about right you know in the Target he brings that he was the one who advised our shares to kill vashti because he wanted I'm serious to marry his daughter and the murderer says that all of a sudden his daughter started emanating a really foul odor from her mouth and officers couldn't take it but uh yeah I think we we need some clinical uh psychiatrists psychologists to analyze their uh that marriage and also the McGill is full of the Russia must so elaborate I think it was probably Mormon Rush from on the mcgillicester than there are maybe any other work in Judaica right that's it's a very beloved story you know it's a very very beloved to the Jewish people even halachically if you hear two people reading the Torah simultaneously you're not say because you can't concentrate but the gumar says so beloved you could even hear two people reading it so I think uh no matter how old you get it's always there's some something very special about the the Purim story if I could just end off there's amazing uh line in Hassam Cipher which is based on the writings of that re that the spiritual light of McGillis Esther is almost if we could say greater than the Torah itself wow there's a lot a lot of beauty listen it's also something enjoyable that people can learn and there's always new inside new midrashram that you can glean from what's your next book going to be okay God willing the next book is uh Haggadah which is uh it's already available in pre-order for Arts girl and if I may sure anybody wants to uh order this uh the book The reveal then concealed it's now on sale for Arts uh by our school you could go to art scroll.com you put in promo code revealed r-e-v-e-a-l-e-d and you get 15 off if anybody wants the Hebrew safer Margaret you could go to our site Rabbi dg.com and it's available with free shipping so uh I'm really happy I met you last year on pesach yes yes as I enjoyed it very much and we've had throughout the year and you enjoy you you listen your sperm your books of such insight and really very comprehensive even the story of the Magilla and the month of Adar is covered very comprehensive covers so much ground so it's and it's easy to read there's so much information that's being brought in there final question is when are you writing a book about I'll take that as a I'll take that as a bracha one day all right I'm looking forward to anyway thank you everybody Daniel J glassine has written his tenth book is coming out just in time for PESA and his latest one language is called the concealed and the revealed you can find that from our squirrel thank you for joining us okay my pleasure have a fairly confirm happy Purim thank you very much all the best thank you for tuning in to talk line with Zev Brenner America's Premier Jewish broadcast the pulse beat of the Jewish community for continuous Jewish programs hawkeylinetwork.com where our 24 hour a day listen line at 641-741-0389 for past shows you can find us on iTunes Spotify Amazon YouTube Instagram and all major podcast platforms or jewishpodcast.org thanks for listening to the chalklinenetwork.com follow us on Facebook