Rabbi Ephraim Epstein - Purim: Unmasking Amalek

you can hear me okay good okay I want to make sure everybody can hear each other um again thank you to khazak and Torah anytime and to the entire kazak and Torah anytime families Robbie aboff Yosef Davis shimekalyako mayor Summers and asano Epstein who is part of our family and the Torani Time family [Music] um the we quote the Magilla every week Magilla is something that we look forward to every year and every time you read it there are more in-depth thoughts that we're able to glean however anytime you make havdala we all cry out like and to the Jews there was light and gladness preciousness and the talmud says and to the Jews there was light means there was Torah and Purim is one of the busiest days of the year the observant Jew does not refrain from going in his car on Purim in the car the streets are full and there's lots of michoacmanas to give out and we want to make sure we get out the matano to have your name and we're hearing the mcgillah and we can forget two very very precious gems that should not be forgotten on Purim and that is the gem of Torah and the gem of tefila the gem of studying the truth and the jam of asking that it says in whoever extends their hand and asks on Purim we give we give why because Hashem gives on Purim how does Hashem give on Purim when we raise our hands and our hearts in prayer so don't let this day go by without infusing some beautiful prayer to celebrate the Day and now we move to the sheer and you have your Source sheet if you're at the table here in our third annual live Torah class on Purim and the class this year is called as I said unmasking amalek because everybody knows that Purim is a Malik everybody knows that hamon is a grand descendant of agag he is the agagi Haman and a God was the king of amalek but who is a Malik and even more than who is a Malik what's a molec doing in the middle of Persia Persia is a completely different Exile a completely different country we don't see a Moen show up in Hanukkah we don't see a moek show up in Egypt wise of Malik the Morales showing up in Persia Who is the samoic we can understand who our Malik is so then we'll know uh Hallie got here what he does and how we can stomp him out which is why we make a lot of noise at the mcgillery number two everyone knows that Purim is the hidden holiday what do I mean by hidden it's the only book in the Torah that doesn't have God's name can you imagine one of the 24 books of Tanaka that doesn't have God's name what's that trying to teach us what's it doing there is there a relationship between a Malik and not having God's name number three what did we do so bad to Warrant near destruction if we know what we did that was so bad that warranted near destruction will make sure never to do it again it's an unbelievable near-death experience for the Jewish people even more frightening in retrospect than the Holocaust Holocaust wiped out one-third of the Jewish people who knows what he would have done could have done if he wanted to do more come on had the entire Jewish people at his fingertips had all of the 127 city-states that akashvarosh was in charge of so what did we do that warranted that near destruction and finally what's our lesson on prayer right we take a few of the Haims we enjoy each other's company we read the Magilla magillet s there we reveal what is hidden you can't let this day go by without imbibing a lesson and not just a libation so let's begin the first thing you need to know is that even billum who was the advisor of pharaoh and the mad cursor of the Jewish people brings up a Malik in by midboard 24 he says racist goyama Malik that amalek was the first nation they're the first ones that came to attack us however eventually they're going to perish forever which is our task to blot out the amalek around us even if our neighbor doesn't have on his mailbox Sama Malik we know that the Embers of amalek are still in the world around us which we're going to understand more shortly so when's the first time we meet a the nation of amalek in the Torah the first time we meet them is right after Mount Sinai where the whole world was frightened the entire world stood at attention amazing thing you may know 40 years later when Joshua sent kalev and pinchas to go and scout out Jericho in order that the Jews should enter the land of Israel they met a woman there named rahaf who either was an Innkeeper or a woman of of the night or whoever she was but she went out of her way to help these Jewish spice and they couldn't hold back and they said how did you have the courage to stand up and help us and she looked them in the eye and she said 40 years ago I heard the world quake 40 years ago I knew when God said I am the Lord your God who took you out of Egypt that God was God and Israel was Israel and if I ever had an opportunity to join forces I would take that opportunity so if even 40 years later there was this impact how could it be number two Israel that I'm mullet even though they knew there was no way to war against the Jewish people they nevertheless went up against us first they went up against us first and was a very strange War Rashi says it's almost like that there was a hot bath that nobody could get into because it was too hot one person jumps into the bath even though they know they're going to get scalded in order that they can cool it down so other people will be able to go in amalek said well we'll get smashed doesn't matter we want to just cool down the Jewish people and it was one of the most interesting Wars that ever takes place and it's quoted in the second peric of Rosh Hashanah as well in the mishnah where it says there was a fascinating phenomenon when Moshe raised his hands the Jewish people would win the war because when Moshe lowered his hands they were losing the war hands were very heavy couldn't hold them up for that long so he put a rock underneath it and our own and held him up and look at what I underlined and his hands were faith right so they don't translate it like that they translated that his hands were faithful they were steady but if you look in the Hebrew that his hands were faith What on earth does that mean what what does it mean that moshe's hands were faith so I'd like to suggest the following after we do the next little piece who's a Malik this insight I saw and several of the insights I'm going to say are written over in a safer that was put together by the knockless dovet or of David of tavil of David it was a primary disciple of the legend who was the disciple of the vilnegaon and he had some insights on the Magilla and on Purim that were so thoughtful and that were so penetrating that I decided I wanted to share them with you today the first is this who is amalek where does a Molly come from so a Malik is a mixed breed a mullig is the grandchild of asaph however take a look Ace of went to Ishmael and he took maklas basis interesting Asaf took the daughter of yeshmael and says the Nautilus David that through the Union of the blood of yeshmael and asaph comes amalek what a hybrid are two sworn enemies and what they have in common Ishmael and asaph is that until today they want to claim they're the chosen people until today the Muslims claim that God that Abraham took Ishmael for the circumcision and not excuse me up the uh haramoria for the akedah he did have a circumcision and nayituk until today the ishmaelites want to say it's us and not the Israelites and until today the Christians no matter how pleasant many of them are want to say that the Jewish people have been discounted that they've been replaced replacement theology and so a mullig being the fusion of ace of in Ishmael want to cast Darkness over the Jewish people and they want to show that there is no relationship between God and the Jewish people and perhaps that's why God's name isn't mentioned in the entire megillah it's a time of Darkness because Haman who's representing a Malik amidst the Exile of Persia it's a two-part punch Persia has a certain decadence to it what did the Jewish people do that was wrong that warranted and near Extinction they did two things number one they desecrated the vessels of the Holy Temple they desecrated that when akashvarish came out in the clothing of the high priest they didn't protest they didn't leave they still went to the party that they were drinking wine and goblets that were from the base amigdush itself and Haman wore some type of idol on his person and everybody bowed down to it and so there was a desecration of God's name and a type of idol worship and Mordechai came to fight that which is why it says they're dying to get in here okay Mordechai would never Bow Down and Mordechai was metake and he fixed that that wrongdoing the second thing that went wrong was that the Jewish people were involved in the licentiousness of the party it was uh it was a Persian party you know vashti was asked to come out without her gown and she was not the only one says that there was a whole crew of people it says in the medrish that were involved in terrible Behavior and you can think amid yourself you could think amidst yourself the challenges that the Jewish people felt should they go to the party or not they thought to themselves how could I not the king is inviting me and that was what they did that was wrong and therefore it was matukan it was fixed up by Mordecai and Esther but now you can begin to understand that you have this incredibly lascivious licentious degrading Idol worshiping environment that that wanted to show that there was no more relationship between God and the Jewish people and on top of that superimposed was hummud who came with the fusion of Darkness to say that there is no Rhyme or Reason well because of that what takes place in the Magilla is a story of intrigue that if you don't look with a Discerning Eye it's possible to miss if you don't look with a Discerning Eye it's possible to miss hashem's hands in orchestrating all that is going on and I'm going to show you a couple of fascinating matters that we take for granted when we learn it the first time that we read it and and when you take a a bigger look at it you can't believe that that's actually what took place so the first one this towards the bottom of the page it's at the end of chapter two and the beginning of chapter three so boom just so happens that these two centuries big sun and sarish decide that they want a mutiny they want to knock off the cake and since Mordecai was a member of the Sanhedrin a new all 70 languages he was able to understand what they were planning and he was able to share that information with Esther Esther shared that information with akashvirus and Akash was able to be saved and he had the two of them hey so who do you think should have been rewarded bordecai yet in the next verse in chapter 3 number three here it says he rather gave a promotion to hamon if this is chronological why should it be that hamon says the knuckles David got the promotion Mordechai should have gotten the promotion answer because he made a husband and he said you know the only reason Mordecai was able to tell Esther who was able to tell me was because Hammond told me to kill my wife vashti since Haman told me to clear up the space to kill vashti therefore that's how enter Esther enter Mordechai and therefore the person who should get the promotion should be Homan well that doesn't sound very logical but you could read through the McGillis 700 times and not not take note of that unless uh pointed it out to us that's number one you can turn your page over if you want to number two there's a certain disease that we've coined hematitis [Applause] haymonitus it's uh they have a special pill for it in CVS hematitis is when you uh overly dramatize and focus on the one thing that you don't have instead of all the good things that you do have because someone the entire world was prepared to bow in front of him and give him the honor he was he craved and there was one Jew ish who wouldn't you know there's a murderous that says that many years prior gemara says Mordecai and Haman were in the Army together and when they were in the army they went out on a mission and they only had the perfect amount to keep themselves satiated and um hummus stupidly drank up his whole uh amount of water so he was going to die and he turned to Mordecai and said could you give me some of yours and Mordechai said yeah but you'll be indebted to me forever all right it'll be like he'll be my servant I said I'll do anything so now fast forward years later someone would say to you know I'm second to the king but one would say no no no you got a bet on it to me and it wasn't enough that hamon had the whole world at his fingertips it bothered him that Mordechai to no end would not bow down to but here's where you see God's finger cover Yahoo involved when you see that Haman said it's not enough if Eva is not enough for me to just take out my frustration on Mordechai alone I want to knock off his entire nation he's Mordechai yehudi I want to knock off all the yehudims make any sense if all the yehudim are playing suit why do you want to knock them off God's setting it up setting it up behind the scenes and then here's something which is really fascinating it's the next line says something interesting that I've never seen anywhere else he said that hamon had a different plan than akashvarish did regarding the Jews even though they both agreed you know puman said I'll pay you ten thousand shekels if you uh if you'll we can knock off the Jews and after sure said you know what I'll give you the money right but there was a difference between them no matter what wanted to knock out the Jews at all costs he was a moek he was the fusion of asav in Ishmael he wanted the darkness didn't like that the Jews were so different than everybody else but if they would change so he would be able to suffer them if they would become better citizens and not always take off from work on calamoid right or on Purim right Gomorrah says that what Haman did is he went to to um said these Jews never work he's a Shabbos every day they have another reason not to come to work it's what do you need these people for so he sent out messages to the entire Kingdom but here it's interesting if you look carefully it says in the first thing that four lines down I'm going to send out actually go above um Herman directed The King satrips to only send to the governors of every Province and to the officials he only sent it to the leaders of the entire each one of this of the states but the text of the document was not sent out to the masses that it should be read by everybody in each one of these city-states it wouldn't be allowed to be opened until that day the 13th of other the following year why is it that Haman did not want this fully open that's why the language as it says um it says and the future they're going to be able to open it up because Haman was concerned that if the Jews around the world heard about this some would do chuva and maybe God would save them and some would say I want to be more Persian and Anders would say well we don't have to kill them and since Haman had a megalomaniac plan of knocking off the Jewish people at all costs he even veered away from the plan that figures this out and begins to realize that Haman is doing his own deal Hamad is running his own ship Muhammad is not following the orders it's an amazing thing but we'll see it right now where it says chapter six I don't know about you but my entire life when the balcore reads out in the chapter six on that night the king couldn't sleep so how about you I thought he just had insomnia you know sometimes Kings can't sleep need a little melatonin good right he had a hard day says no no says you want to know why he couldn't sleep he couldn't sleep because he was worried what did his wife want from him because that morning Esther said to him I want a meeting between you and Hama well that was keeping him up all night long why did he want to have a meeting with she won't have a meeting with him what was that all about what was going to come out at that table and so he was already suspicious of Hama and akashvarish himself started thinking you know what maybe she's upset that I never awarded Mordechai that's why when it was read to him that night from the seafarers the Chronos from the book of memories from the book of of Chronicles he set up to be able to help and give give honor to Mordechai the next morning now I don't know if you notice I noticed this many years ago that when Haman comes early in the morning and says to him how would you give honor to somebody that is seen in favor by the king well he says I would dress him up but I would put him on a white horse and carry him through the trees and I would put on a crown on his head well was a little concerned that he said put a crown on his head and when he told him what to do with Mordechai he left out the crown like there was already some a change between the two of them you ready but the granddaddy of them all the moment where everything falls into place is when we meet this servant of the king one of the eunuchs of the king who just happens to be there whose name was harvona because the second party when Esther finally reveals that there's a great evil man who wants to wipe out me and my people and his name is Hammond out of nowhere this eunuch carvona comes in and says oh by the way you know Mordechai who only wanted to do good for the king look over there in the distance Hammond made a Gallows to kill the person that said such good things about you said you know what Off With His Head instead what are we supposed to learn he comes from nowhere you can read that a hundred times and just say oh isn't that wonderful that there was nobody there named harpona who who made that wonderful we meet carvana once earlier in the Magilla in the first chapter now the mid-russians are even more um incredibly interesting in that one measure says that it was actually dressed up like harvona there's another medrish that says no it was a regular it was the regular one what's it coming to teach us this past summer I was an Archie's thrall on Tish above and on Shabbos hazon Rabbi Yakov Haber asked the question he said when mashiach comes what are we going to do about reading reading Lamentations and he quoted the cutscarebi who said we're still going to read it but to the tune of McGillis Esther we're not going to read it to the tune of Lamentations and if you are listening carefully to the Magilla there are three or four times in the megillah that we have the tune of aha Lim so now we have Esther leaning into Lamentations in the time of mashiach will see Lamentations leaning into the joy of McGillis Esther and I think I heard Rabbi Haber quote the Zoar look at the bottom of this page that if you look at that big word there carvona It's actually an anagram to means it looks like it's being destroyed but it's actually being built is destruction and Bona is building carvona is the symbol of magillas Esther and now you can put it back together on the other sheet what I asked you before what on Earth does it mean that Moshe rabenu's hands are Faith when it says what does that mean well we know what faith is faith is when somebody's ill and somebody's not well and we're sitting and dominating that we are being faithful but when we take our hands and we play Pickleball we take our hands and we work at the office we take our hands and we build something what does that have to do with faith that has to do with me doing what I want to do the way to fight on my leg is to know that even your hands are working because of God that even that which we completely it's so easy to forget a Malik will try to make us forget Yom Kippur a Malik will try to make us forget conscious and forget Torah and forget Mitzvahs and forget stuck on forget everything Purim comes to tell us no Purim comes to tell us it's upside down The Gallows that hamon built for Mordecai ended up being his own Gallows upside down and the Marvel says that the wood for The Gallows was from the holy of holies from the kodeshkadashem in the basement that wood was Holy Wood and it would be the opportunity to bring the ending of a Malik at that time says that there's a formula here the formula is is why first you need a king then you wipe out a mullet then you can build the basement that's what happened first we had King Solomon King Saul Shaul was supposed to wipe out a Malik he didn't so schmuel finished it and then Solomon built the base of mcdush now Mordecai Rises the second in command they wipe out a mole ache and Esther's son is going to commission building this the second base amigdush the Sun from Esther and akashvarosh whose name was Darius is going to Commission the building of the second base of mcdosh so what are we supposed to take from Purim from the Magilla from these insights is that even those matters in life that seems so Earthly King makes a decision and I'll promote Hamman that's a Divine chess game going on to get us where we need to go he can't sleep at night he needs melatonin no it's so that he will read over The Chronicles and end up putting Mordecai on a chariot on a horse and end up hanging Haman in the wood of the vase I make Dash our task this Purim is to pledge to try to see the world with a set of eyes and vision that even when things look horrid and you don't have to be someone knocking at the door to be able to see that the world has its challenges and it's not just the world it's everybody in their own lives who doesn't have things that uh that give them pause and concern don't think anything is beyond the grasp it's Ace of and Ishmael that come to say you don't matter you don't matter at all we matter everybody wants to be the Jews except the Jews somebody called me yesterday they're looking for somebody to do a baby naming I said oh how nice she says well you know uh I married a my son married out and um it's not going to be kosher and I said what are you doing I said I'm not your man you could fall so far away so easily and the world just wants to come and tell you you don't matter that time like whenever you feel whenever we feel that we don't matter it's a mullic taking a Peg and putting it into that side of our brain and we every month say Shabbos remember that we have an eternal connection with Torah would fill in with Chavez with Mila we have this eternal connection that there's no part of our lives that is not infused with a Muna and that's why the war against the moek had to have moshe's hands in the air it says in the mishta because when moshe's hands were in the air everybody was looking to the heavens and knew it came from God but his hands were there to show us that even when we're doing things with our hands that we think it's all our power to actually all being orchestrated by the Divine maestro and Purim McGillis Esther is so relevant in our world not just because Modern Day Iran puts on their Rockets Mavis Lee Israel death to Israel right when we say just as in those days and these days it doesn't get more parallel than that put so much in the world just wants to say that there is no special relationship between God Torah and the Jewish people and when we feel that way we gets dark outside it gets so dark outside that we don't see God Purim allows us to turn the lights on Purim is the one time of year that the lights go on in full when you hear that mcgillah if you understand what it is that's being read it's a shot in the arm it's an eye doctor putting the right lens into your cataract it's it's having that l'chaim and seeing the world through just a little bit of a different angle than you normally do and realizing that Purim even lotteries which we think are so Random are not random at all someone thinks that it's bad Omen for the Jews because Moshe died in Adar and he's excited it is a wonderful Omen because Moshe was also born in Adar and everything that he thought showed his favor ended up being his demise and everything that looked like it was a demise for the Jewish people ended up being in their favor I once heard reviews say in yerushalayim who did more for the Jewish people Haman or Mordechai so you would think Mordecai's exotic and Hamas to Russia so we want to wipe out hominy's garbage commented a lot for the Jewish people he knocked out vashti and he made space for Esther he built his own Gallows right he set himself up made himself completely untrustworthy in the eyes of akashvarosh our worst enemy can be doing the work for us we just have to remain steadfast have faith and do hours we need to have faith but we also have to do ours Esther hesitated when Mordechai sent a message to her saying you know our days are numbered go in to see the king she hesitated and said you know he hasn't called me for 30 days I'm not going in if I go in unannounced it could be off with my head and Mordecai said Al to Dame don't remain silent if you remain silent at this time foreign Jewish people will be saved another way but you and your father's house will be wiped out forever you've got to do yours am I going to tell anybody at this table what yours is right now well the only one I could say that is my wife because this was completely her idea for us to get together again this year and she put it together with her eyes closed you know hopping along the way to get there so a big round of applause for the rabbit set for [Applause] when else do you get to come to a sheer wearing a rabbis can run hat and a purple set of antennas and everybody who's here plays an important role and I hope that not only will you enjoy the taste of the hot dogs for the rest of the day however you will also take with you the message of what a mullik came to do with and why and how he brought darkness and the way that we dispel that darkness is by recognizing harvona that which is coming to destroy is actually coming to build thank you very much for coming all right you can keep it if you want