Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz: Purim Insights

Okay, yeah. Hello everybody. I thank you for coming. Uh again, uh we're not at our usual location uh because um we're doing it earlier than uh the usual time of the sheer. Um I first want to make a few announcements. Uh today's sheer is dedicated and sponsored uh for a refuah shleimah uh for the following people: Chaya Shifra Bas Kalila Yocheved uh Yonatan Yisrael ben Yitzchak and Binyamin Yisrael ben Chanita, the young man that we've uh been praying for for quite a few weeks. And may all of these cholim uh have a refuah shleimah b'toch sh'ar cholei Yisrael. And may the merit of our Torah learning uh be a spiritual benefit for them. Uh in addition, in a few days we have the glorious joyous holiday of Purim. And uh this year the Megillah reading and the charity will be uh the same day for everybody. Normally, Yerushalayim has a different uh Purim celebration. And although Yerushalayim will also have some things we're going to do on Sunday, uh but nevertheless, the Megillah and the Matanot L'Evyonim, the gifts to the poor, are all going to be distributed Well, the Megillah will be Thursday night Friday. Matanot L'Evyonim will be distributed on Friday. Uh Yibaneh, as an organization that's involved with uh chesed as well as Torah learning, uh does have a Matanot L'Evyonim program. I assume the money will be distributed on Purim itself. Uh you can donate online by going to the website and and scrolling down and you will find an appropriate link to the Matanot L'Evyonim. So, let me just emphasize halakhically, you can make your pledge uh now. You don't have to wait until Purim. In fact, I would advise you to do it now. What you're doing halakhically is you're making Yibaneh your shaliach to distribute the funds. And as long as the actual funds will be distributed on Purim day, which uh this year is going to be Friday, so uh you could use a credit card, you can use a PayPal, you can use any type of bank transfer, uh and all of that is going to be fine. So, halakhically, that's a very, very good way, particularly in the time of COVID, when you're not able to get around that much, uh it's a good way to fulfill the very, very important mitzvah of Matanot uh L'Evyonim. So, those are some things to uh to be aware of. Uh we are, as you know, going to be celebrating Purim in a few days. And let me just share with you some thoughts about Purim. It may not necessarily be one big thought, but maybe a few smaller thoughts. Uh number one, the Gemara itself asks an interesting kasha. We know that whenever we have holidays that celebrate redemption, we have an additional prayer from Psalms that is called Hallel. We say Hallel. We say Hallel on Pesach, we say Hallel on Shavuot, we say Hallel on Sukkot. We even say Hallel for a rabbinic holiday like Hanukkah, which is not a full Yom Tov, but because uh we are celebrating our victory over the Greek oppressors that wanted to take us away from the observance of the Torah, we have a full Hallel for eight days. So, the question becomes, why is there no Hallel on the holiday of Purim? You might say it's almost a kal v'chomer. If going from slavery to freedom, we say hallel. Going from death to life, how much more so? Remember Purim, we were faced with genocide. We were faced with annihilation. And God, as it were, allowed there to be a great great redemption through Mordecai and Esther. Should not such a great redemption require hallel? Why is there no hallel on the holiday of Purim? And the Gemara gives no fewer than three answers why there was no hallel. Answer number one is there is a hallel. But the hallel of Purim is not the hallel of King David. The hallel of Purim is reading the Megillah. Reading the Megillah itself, which is indirectly praising God for his divine providence, is the hallel of Purim. Kri'at ha-Megillah zu hi hallel. The reading of the hallel, I'm sorry, the reading of the Megillah is the hallel. That is answer number one. Answer number two and three are also interesting. I'll just mention them in passing, although my main remarks are going to be answer number one. Answer number two is ein omrim hallel al nes shebe'chutz la'aretz. We only say hallel for miracles that occur in the land of Israel. Like the Hanukkah story occurred in the land of Israel. But the miracle of Purim occurred throughout Ahasuerus' reign of 127 countries, and of course the actual miracle happened in the city of Shushan. And that's chutz la'aretz. We don't say hallel on things that happen outside of Eretz Yisrael. So the Gemara asks the obvious question that I'm sure you're thinking of yourself. What about the hallel of Pesach? We left Mitzrayim and we say hallel because we were taken out of Mitzrayim. That's a miracle, the 10 makos and the splitting of the Red Sea. That happened in chutz la'aretz. So, the Gemara's answer is until we came to Eretz Yisrael, every nation would be equal in terms of miracles. But, once we came to Eretz Yisrael, and we then were exiled from it, chutz la'aretz assumes an inferior status. So, the difference would be Pesach was on the way to Eretz Yisrael, and therefore it qualifies as an Eretz Yisrael miracle in terms of its ultimate purpose. Uh Purim, our lives were saved, but it was in chutz la'aretz. Mamila, we don't say hallel on anaysha b'chutz la'aretz. And then the Gemara gives answer number three. And answer number three is you only say hallel when you're out of the hot water. Pesach, we're no longer avdei Paroh. Chanukah, the Chashmona'im established their own monarchy, a Jewish state. But, what happened with the redemption of Purim? Yes, we got rid of Haman, but we're still in peril. We're still under the reign of Achashveirosh. And who knows if the other next day, next week, Achashveirosh will have another Haman-like character to replace Mordechai. We are not We were not out of danger. We just had a respite, and therefore we don't say hallel. And without getting too political, that's sometimes used as a halachic argument why you don't say hallel on Yom Ha'atzmaut. Those who do not say hallel on Yom Ha'atzmaut, so putting aside the ideological arguments, some of the halachic arguments was that in 1948, the Jewish people waged a war of independence, but they certainly never came to a permanent stage of peace. We've been in conflict for many, many years. We We still, so to speak, in the conflict. Although Baruch Hashem things are getting much much better with the Abrahamic Accords, but still based on this idea that if you're still in your predicament, the time is not yet right for Hallel. That is sometimes used as an argument for not saying Hallel on Yom Ha'atzmaut. And maybe we'll talk more about that when we get to Yom Ha'atzmaut. So we have three different answers why we don't say Hallel uh on uh Purim. One is Megillah equals Hallel. The other is we don't say Hallel on a miracle in Chutz La'aretz. And the third is we are still or we were still the slaves of Achashverosh. We were still in a position of precarious vulnerability. Of those three answers the Shulchan Aruch paskens like the first answer. So if you look at Hilchot Purim, you will see the statement in the Shulchan Aruch we don't recite Hallel on Purim because reading the Megillah is Hallel. That's the reason that we paskan like. Based on this the Meiri who is a one of the Rishonim earlier than the Shulchan Aruch, actually has a very surprising Halacha. He says let's imagine you're on a desert island. Right? You're You're shipwrecked. And all you have is a siddur and you don't have a Megillah with you. And it happens to be Purim. So unfortunately, you're not going to be able to read the Megillah. But you have a siddur. The Meiri says, if you're not going to be able to read the Megillah you're obligated on Purim to recite Hallel with a Bracha. Because the first answer of the Gemara is actually saying you're obligated to recite Hallel but you fulfill it through Megillah. So that's only possible if I'm fulfilling it through Megillah. If I don't have a Megillah, the Mivi says I make Hallel, I say Hallel with a bracha. However, we don't pass him like the Mivi. We pass him not only is Megillah a substitute for Hallel, but Megillah is the exclusive way you could be I say Hallel on Purim. Meaning, you can only fulfill Hallel on Purim through Megillah. You cannot fulfill Hallel on Purim through Hallel. And therefore, if you don't have a Megillah, you still don't say Hallel because Hallel doesn't work for Purim. Only Megillah works. So, the question is why should that be so? If the Gamara's logic is that intrinsically Purim is obligated in Hallel, but Megillah takes the place of Hallel, why should a surrogate for Hallel be better than the real thing? One might argue, if the Megillah is only a substitute for Hallel, then kal vachomer, how much more so a real Hallel would be good. So, what's the logic that the surrogate has greater importance, greater significance than the thing that it's representing? So, there's a very interesting thought from the great Reb Yitzchak Hutner, great a great one of the great gedolim of the uh 20th century, also a person who was a great great thinker, a very profound philosopher. And his essays are in a series of books, uh many books that are called Pachad uh Yitzchak. And in the Pachad Yitzchak on Purim, he offers the following idea. He has the idea that Hallel is praise and thanksgiving for the miraculous interventions of God in our lives. But the nature of the Hallel has to mimic the nature of the particular intervention which is triggering the obligation of Hallel. Now we know that there are two different ways that God relates to Am Yisrael. Mitzrayim Egypt is the epitome of what we call the supernatural neis nigleh. Neis nigleh means an open, revealed departure from the laws of nature. Right, everything in Mitzrayim was miraculous. The 10 plagues totally transformed the laws of nature. And then we had the splitting of the Red Sea. And then continuing in the desert with the manna that came from heaven. And the clouds of glory that surrounded us. And the traveling well of water. So Pesach represents a supernatural expression of divinity which is open revealed obvious explicit. So Rav Hutner says when the divine intervention is open, revealed, obvious, and explicit the Hallel which is praising God for that intervention has to be open revealed, obvious, and explicit. Hallel, we are directly praising God openly, explicitly because the miracle of intervention was an open and explicit miracle. When we come to the story of Purim and then this kind of overlaps a little bit with things we touched upon last week the relationship of God to Am Yisrael is much more hidden and obscured. Unlike the Pesach story where you have supernatural changes of the laws of nature there was actually no supernatural miracle in the story of Purim. Every single event taken in isolation could, if you're not a believer, be taken as a happy or a lucky coincidence. And let's go through the main events. Uh the fact that Ahasuerus kills his queens becau- Queen Vashti because she refuses to show up at a party? Well, unfortunately, that wasn't so unusual. That's what kings did when their woman didn't obey their whim. The fact that Esther was chosen, a Jewish woman was chosen as the queen? Well, somebody had to be chosen. And And again, let me remind you that from Esther's perspective, you know, I remember when I was in kindergarten, so we used to do a Purim play. So, the Purim play always was kind of, you know, Esther was uh was in a beauty contest, and she was competing to be chosen for queen, and she was the most beautiful, and she was chosen. It It is not that way at all. Uh from Esther and Mordecai's perspective, being taken forcibly to Ahasuerus's palace was a tragedy of immense. They had They had no idea why this was happening. They didn't yet know of Haman's plot. Haman didn't even devise his plot yet. Imagine a a tzadekes who is married to one of the great great leaders of the generation is taken forcibly to cohabit with a gentile monarch. This was not, you know, the great uh wonderful success of winning a beauty contest. This was a devastating tragedy. But once again, somebody had to be chosen, so it was her. The fact that Mordecai overhears an assassination plot against Ahasuerus and is able to tell Esther who then informs the king? Okay, people hear things all the time. The fact that Haman wants to destroy a nation not knowing it happens to be the nation of the Queen because she didn't reveal it. Wow, what a lucky break. That positions her to be able to get him killed when the king sees that he's trying to destroy her nation. So, and this happened over a a large number of years. This was not like a sudden thing. Gradual, imperceptible. The whole story of Purim is about seeing God not in the supernatural, not in the miraculous, not in the ways that he transcends nature, but to understand that in retrospect, all those little isolated events that you did not think were so significant were orchestrated by the almighty to bring redemption to his people. That is why, as the Ramban comments, if Pesach represents Nes Nigleh, open and obvious miracle, Purim represents what's called Nes Nistar, the hidden miracle, the miracle of the ordinary, the miracle of seeing God in the everyday, of seeing God even when things are not dramatic and sudden. That is why the name of Hashem is not mentioned in the book of Esther, which is very unusual for a biblical book not to mention the name of God. I mentioned last week that according to the Zohar, whenever it says the word Melech, king, it's an allusion to God. But that's an allusion. Explicitly, the name of God is not mentioned at all because God is behind the scenes. That is why the very name Esther comes from again, scholars will connect it to Ishtar or connect it to the Avesta. It's a foreign name because remember Esther's actual name was Hadassah. Esther was her Persian name but Hazal do give it a Hebrew origin. And they connect Esther to Hester. Hester meaning concealment. Everything is about the hiddenness. Even the idea of masks. Of course this year everybody's wearing a mask anyway. But I I did hear that Dr. Fauci in the US has made a recommendation people should wear two masks. So maybe that fits with Purim, right? You can have your regular mask and you can wear a Purim mask over it. But what's the idea of masks? What's the idea of masquerades, costumes? So you know, it's it's it's an expression of frivolity, of joy, of happiness. But all of these children's customs have deep spiritual significance. Because what is a mask or a costume other than a reminder that appearances are deceiving? What you see is not always what you get. Something may look a certain way but that's not what it really is. Right? My face is covered. That's what Purim is. You might think the world runs based on political, social, economic, historical factors. God has nothing to do with it. And why doesn't God split the Red Sea and why doesn't God bring the 10 plagues? And if God is not doing these miracles, that simply means a lump can mean hug or no egg. The world is going the way it always goes, nothing to do with God. Purim says that even when God is hidden, he's still here. Name Esther, Esther. The name of God is not there, but he's still calling the shots. And only with eyes of faith do you understand that all of those disconnected pieces of reality that you thought had nothing to do with each other fall into place. They become a pattern. They become the shores, the root of redemption. That is also why, by the way, the story of Esther is the only story, the only miracle, the only holiday that is a diaspora event in Persia, because God was above all is a time of concealment of the divine. And you have to see God in that concealment. So, the Footner says the following, going back to the hollow question. Since the essence of Purim is hiddenness and concealment, the hollow of Purim has to be a hidden hollow. A hollow that does not explicitly mention God, but does so by indirection. In other words, the Footner basically says the open revealed supernatural miracle requires an open hollow. The hidden miracle requires a hidden hollow. So, a regular hollow doesn't work, unlike the maybe, because a regular hollow works for an open miracle. But for Purim, you need a hidden hollow. Now, in truth, there's a very well-known comment of Ramban in partial spoke in which the Ramban actually says that in Judaism, there's no such thing as nature. So, we normally perceive of there kind of a dichotomy between the laws of nature and what we call miracles. And the way we understand it is there's a law of nature, like gravity, whatever it would be. And every once in a while God intervenes in a supernatural way. And we have two different terms for that. The natural order of the world is called teva. Teva means nature. And the supernatural order of the world is called nice. Miracle. And normally there's teva. And every once in a while there's miracle. The Ramban says a person has no chelek. A person has no portion in the Torah of Moshe Rabbenu until and unless they believe that everything is a miracle. Meaning to say even when it rains normally the fact that we get up, the fact that we live, the fact that we breathe, it's not that God is the clockmaker who set into motion a natural order that just keeps on going. But every single moment and every single second God is decreeing what should be the case. Again, this is actually a very complicated question. Some say that the Rambam disagrees with that. The Rambam does regard nature as kind of a fixed thing that operates uh almost autonomously. God could intervene, but other than that the clock keeps on going. But the Ramban seems to say not that way. The Ramban seems to say, again, this is the term that we use, hashgacha pratit. That God is determining everything that will happen to us. That God is involved at all times. There is no such thing as nature. The only difference between nature and miracle is nature is what normally happens. And miracle is what is extraordinary. But both are the conscious will of God affecting the world, affecting our welfare, determining what it is that is right for us at any given moment in time. And the Ramban even says very beautifully that the very word for miracle, nes, nes, uh comes from the word for banner. Nes also means a flag. Right? We say in the Amidah, Teka b'shofar gadol heruteinu, you should blow the great shofar to give us freedom, v'sa nes, and lift up the banner, v'kabets galuyoteinu, to ingather our exiles. So, the word nes is the same as the word degel, a flag, a flag. Now, what is a flag? A flag is designed to attract your attention. If there's an army, right, and you need to know where your uh battalion is, right, you look at the flag, that shows you to go. So, the Ramban says, "Open miracles are essentially attention grabbers. Every once in a while, we take normal life for granted. So, God will do something unusual, so we'll pay attention. It's a nes, meaning it's not a separate phenomenon, it is simply revealing the way things always work." And in the Amidah itself, we say, al nisecha sheb'chol yom imanu, for your miracles that are with us every single day of our lives. A Jew understands, and really every human being should understand, that life is a miracle. My ability to breathe, to walk, to think, to love and to get love, to experience beauty in the world. To be connected to other human beings. To our Kodesh Baruchu. These are miracles. A Jew does not take it for granted. That is why we make a bracha after we go to the bathroom. You know, one could joke about it. Jews make brachas after going to the bathroom. But if a person has a problem doing that, he'll appreciate why it's something you do make a bracha for. The whole idea of a Jew, you know, I remember in the American Heritage uh dictionary, which has a lot of slang usages, uh Jew is listed in the as a in the South as a pejorative verb about driving a hard business deal. So, a person in Alabama might say, "Don't Jew around with me." And you know, people were protesting, it was anti-Semitic, but the truth is it it accurately reflected a slang usage in the South. People talked that people I don't know today so much, but people talked that way. They weren't even anti-Semitic. They just were just part of their common speech. Now, if Jew is going to be made a verb, I would suggest a different uh definition. Jew means to be grateful. Because let us remember what why what what the word Jew comes from. Word Jew comes from Yehudi. Now, Yehudi technically means a descendant of Yehuda. Now, Yehuda was only one of the tribes, albeit a very important tribe. Why would all Jews be called Yehudim since not all of us come from Yehuda? Right? Why am I a Yehudi? Why are you a Yehudi? So, I'll give you two answers. The historical answer is that the 10 tribes were exiled more than 100 years before the destruction of the temple. And the remaining kingdom of the Jewish people was Eretz Yehudah. So, Yehudi does not mean a descendant of the tribe of Judah, but it means a descendant or a remnant of the kingdom of Judah, which may have included other tribes as well, because there were there was immigration from the 10 tribes there as well. So, when we call you Yehudi, we're not connecting you to the tribe of Judah, we're connecting you to the kingdom of Judah, which was uh the one that survived after the 10 tribes uh were destroyed. That's That's the historical answer. But, the Sfas Emes gives a beautiful spiritual answer. And the spiritual answer that the Sfas Emes gives is that let's go back to the Chumash. Why Leah named her fourth child Yehudah. Right? Leah had a Ruvein, had a Shimon, had a Levi. She then had a fourth son. She wound up having six sons, but number four was named Yehudah. And she said, "Hapa'am now odeh Hashem. I am grateful to God." Now, the question is, why was she grateful with son number four more than 1 2 3 or 5 6 for that matter? So, Rashi explains that Leah had a premonition. Leah had a divine prophecy that there would be 12 sons that Jacob would have who would be the founders of the tribes of Israel. And she also knows that those 12 tribes are going to come from four women. Rachel, Leah, and the two maidservants, Bilhah and Zilpah. So, she figures if you divide 12 by by four, each of us is entitled to three. So, when she had the first three, she was getting what she thought she was entitled to. When you get what you think you're entitled to, you don't feel gratitude. That's just what I'm entitled to. When she had number four, she wound up having six, but when she had number four, she realized no talty, yes, sir, how calky, I have gotten more than my portion. That equals gratitude. She was grateful with son number four because she got more than she was entitled to. So, says the Sfas Emes very beautifully, the reason every Jew is called a Yehudi is we must go through life with the feeling that God has given me more than I deserve. So, the very name Jew, Yehudi, is connected to gratitude. It's connected to thankfulness. It's connected to appreciation. It's connected to looking at ordinary life and seeing its beauty and seeing its wonder and seeing its goodness. In spite of the hardships and in spite of the difficulties and in spite of the challenges. And again, for those uh who are fortunate enough to be living in Eretz Yisrael, there's even an extra measure of thankfulness and gratitude. This is not always the easiest place to live in. Even under the best of conditions. But to have these hooks of being in the land that even Moshe Rabbeinu yearned so much to come to. And was not able to come to. And we can be here. And even if you're in America, you're only you know, 10 or 12 hour flight away. Yeah, 12 hours uncomfortable flight to be sure. But just 12 hours, that's that's about it. You can even sleep a lot of the times if you're lucky. What a merit. What is a hook? What a privilege. So being a Jew is about being grateful. And it's about like the Ramban says understanding that even when God is not intervening in supernatural miraculous ways, everyday life itself is God taking care of us. And that's the beauty of Purim. And that's the joy of Purim. Purim reminds us that we're never abandoned. We're never alone. God is with us. There are times in history where you have the splitting of the Red Sea and the 10 plagues. And there are frankly times that you're not going to get it that way. But you're not going to get it that way doesn't mean God is not here. He's involved. And that is why the hallel of Purim is the indirect hallel of Megillah which doesn't even mention the name of Hashem. By the way, just as an aside, although it's not directly connected to Purim, I want to give you another explanation of why Leah named her fourth son Yehuda. Why why why was she grateful for number four? And I think this will indirectly tie in. When she names her son number one Leah was obviously very very hurt woman in many ways because she felt that Yakov did not love her as much as Rachel. And of course the whole circumstances of Leah's marriage to Yakov involved a lot of deception because Yakov was supposed to marry Rachel after working for seven years. And I mean Rachel was a participant in this. Rachel gave Yakov gave Leah the secret codes so to speak. So one could imagine that there'd be some resentment, some hard feelings. And this hurt Leah very very deeply. Very deeply. So when she has son number one and she names son number one Reuben. So the concept was God has seen my suffering and now my husband will love me. Shimon God has heard Shimon that I am hated and he has given me a son. Levi now my husband will will be with me because I have given him three sons. In other words, the first three sons she's not rejoicing in the blessing of having children. She's using it as a stepping stone to get something else. Essentially, she wants to get her husband's affection in a more intense level. Son number four she realized that although Yakov did love her, but she's not going to be the same as Rachel. And she says instead of trying to get something different than the life that God has given me I am grateful for what I have. Now, that's very, very profound because a lot of our lives are spent never really appreciating what Hashem has given us and we're always looking for something else. The maturity of Leah was Okay. Instead of looking at what I don't have, instead of looking at what I think I was short-changed, instead of looking at what other people have and I don't, I will look at my blessings and cherish them. That is a deep, profound, mature insight. There's a famous mashal, it's not a Jewish mashal, it it emanates from the special education community. It's very, very famous. You can get this uh online on the internet about a woman uh who had a child with Down syndrome. And she became very active in special education. And at some point she became like a big expert and she gave a a speech about the challenges of raising children with severe uh mental disabilities or limitations, whatever the appropriate word is. And she gave a a mashal, it's a very famous mashal, that's become part of the uh community's uh common uh knowledge about a person who all of their life they wanted to travel to Italy. And they would say and they weren't very rich, so they had to save up, you know, pennies, nickels, dimes. And eventually they had enough money to be able to go to Italy. But somehow there was a booking mistake and the plane or the ship, whatever however she got there, wound up in Holland instead of Italy. And this is the only this is the the last chance. If she doesn't get to go to she'll never be able to go again in her life. And all of the weeks she was in Holland, she never appreciated the beauties of Holland because she was so fixated on Italy. But Holland also has its beauties. The tulips, the windmills, the wooden shoes, whatever it would be. But she was so fixated on what she didn't get in life that she never saw the beauty of what she was given. And this woman was saying that every parent has dreams about the type of child they want to have. I want my child to be brilliant. I want my child to be athletic. I want my child to be charismatic. That's what I want. And sometimes God throws you for a loop. Get a child with Down syndrome. You wanted to go to Italy. You wound up in Holland. And now you have a choice. You can spend your whole life being bitter why you didn't get the other thing. But you'll never see the treasure in what God did give you. And her point was that even in the Down syndrome scenario, there are gifts. There are treasures. There's opportunities that God is giving you. It's not Italy. It's Holland. But you know, Italy is not Holland. If Holland is not Italy, Italy is not Holland. There's a gift in everything Hashem gives us. And gratitude means seeing the gift. Now again, I'm connecting all of this to Purim because this is part of the idea of concealment. Two ideas. Concealment in the sense that it's not supernatural. All right, that's the first thing. And concealment in the sense that it's not always going to be an obvious blessing. But if you look long enough, you'll see the blessing even in the challenge. That's also a level of concealment. And in fact, this brings me to it to another This brings me to another point. And that is uh there's a well-known Gemara that talks about drinking on Purim. Chayav adam l'vasumei b'Purya. A person is supposed to imbibe on Purim, alcohol. Ad d'lo yada until they do not know the difference between two phrases. There's a phrase Arur Haman. Haman is cursed. And there's a phrase Baruch Mordechai. Mordechai is blessed. And you drink until you can't even tell the difference between those two phrases. Again, we'll explain what that might mean. Then the Gemara goes on and gives a story, a very disturbing story to be sure. That Rava invited Rabbi Zeira to come to his house for the Purim meal. And Rava slit Rabbi Zeira's throat. Pretty serious stuff. And when Rava was aware of what he did, he prayed. And Hashem did a miracle and revived the dead. Revived the dead? Rabbi Zeira came back? So Rava invited Rabbi Zeira to come back to his house next year. And Rabbi Zeira said, "Mhm, I'm not sure if God does miracles every year. I'm going to hold off." Now, here I don't want to give a whole speech about drinking. I just want to make a few a few basic points. Uh the Shulchan Aruch does pasken this Gemara, a person should drink until they don't know the difference. But number one, it only applies at the Purim meal. Now, interesting, when do we eat the Purim meal this year? Very very interesting. Uh in Yerushalayim, we have what is known as a three-day Purim because Yerushalayim normally keeps Purim on the 15th of Adar. The non-walled cities keep Purim on the 14th of Adar. Now, the 14th of Adar is Friday. The 15th of Adar is Shabbos. So, if you're not in a walled city, your Purim is very simple. It is Thursday night Friday, and that's it. Because that's the 14th of Adar. But if you're a Yerushalmi or you live in a walled city or you're going to be visiting a walled city, like Yerushalayim, it's a little complicated. Because Purim for us is really the 15th. But the 15th is Shabbos. And on Shabbos, you don't read the Megillah because the rabbis were afraid you would carry it, just like you don't read you don't blow a shofar when Rosh Hashanah falls out on Shabbos. So, as a result, Purim is spread over three days. This is the famous, very beloved Purim Meshulash, three-day Purim. And the way it works is Thursday night and Friday, we read the Megillah just like everybody else. So, this year, we are reading the Megillah. The whole world is reading the Megillah the same day. We also give charity to the poor because that's always correlated with Megillah reading. Because poor people would show up to the minyanim, and they would expect that that's where the money would be distributed. So, even in COVID where the minyanim are small, this is the takanah of the chachamim. However, uh the walled cities do not recite the Al Hanisim prayer because it's not really pouring for them. So, we will recite the Al Hanisim prayer shabbos, Friday night and shabbos both in the shmoneh esrei and in the benching. And on Sunday we will have our Purim meal and we will give shalach manos, the gifts that you give to your to your friends. So, Purim Meshulash Thursday night, Friday Megillah reading and on Friday morning gifts to the poor. Shabbos Al Hanisim and for maftir, the Torah reading of Purim. Sunday the meal of Purim and shalach manos, Purim Meshulash. So, the mitzvah of drinking no matter what is connected to the meal of Purim, not the whole all day. So, that would mean that in Yerushalayim and walled cities you would do it Sunday. In chutz la'aretz or anywhere else that's not a walled city, you would do it on Friday. That's the Purim Purim meal. Number two, many opinions say it should be with wine and not with the liquor. So, that is so far already creates a more uh you know, less of an intense intoxication experience a bit more of a dignified uh and number three, one has to be very very careful and this is an issue uh to be very concerned with safety. It is very important, particularly teenagers sometimes have a tendency to dangerously overdo the use of alcohol and in particular if they'll be driving around in a car, there have been more than one case of people getting getting killed. So, it it's much more useful to regard this idea of drinking on Purim not as getting intoxicated but reaching a certain level of joy, happiness, feeling grateful. So, now, based on that idea, let's look at the meaning until you don't know the difference between cursed is Haman and blessed is is Mordecai. What does that mean? That I think Haman should be blessed? Like, what exactly does that mean? So, let me share with you a thought that one of the commentators on the Megillah gives us. And he says, there's an interesting passage in the Gemara. If you remember, when Haman bargained with Ahasuerus to get the license to wipe out a whole nation. And originally, he was going to pay Ahasuerus a huge sum of silver. And Ahasuerus said, "Ah, you can do it for free. You don't even have to pay me." Okay. How was the authority transferred? Ahasuerus took off his ring, and he gave it to Haman. That was the sign of royal authority. So, the Gemara in Megillah comments that gadol hasarat hataba'at. The removal of the ring from Ahasuerus's finger to Haman did more for the Jewish people than 48 prophets and seven prophetesses. The Gemara in Megillah tells us, if you go through Tanakh, you will find 48 men were prophets and seven women were prophetesses. Haman removing his ring, I'm sorry, Ahasuerus removing his ring and giving it to Haman did more for the Jewish people than 48 prophets and seven prophetesses. How is that so? Because, what do the prophets constantly say? Do teshuvah, do teshuvah, repent, repent, repent. Abandon your bad ways. And what happens? Nobody responds. What happens when Ahasuerus gives Haman the ring and Haman decrees that the Jews are going to be wiped out? Chuvah. Right? So the it's almost like a humorous remark. Haman's ring did more for the Jewish people than seven prophets than 48 prophets and seven prophetesses. Now that's an interesting idea. Because when we think about Purim and we think what about Purim are we grateful for? Most of us think we're grateful because we were saved from a danger. Mordecai was instrumental in saving us from a danger. We're not grateful that we were in danger. We're not grateful for what Haman did to us or wanted to do to us. We're grateful for getting out of the problem. We're not grateful for the problem itself. But in reality that's short-sighted. In reality part of our gratitude, I don't mean gratitude to Haman, but our gratitude to God is not only that he took us out of the hot water, but there actually was a benefit being in the hot water itself. Because it was the fear of that danger that brought us to repentance. It brought us to be close to our God support. See, that's a very very significant idea. And therefore when a person reaches a level of joy and alcohol in that sense is simply a means to a heightened joy, he understands that there really is no difference between the redemption of Mordecai and the evil of Haman. Both of them were good things that God put into our lives. It was the evil of Haman that brought us to repentance. And then Mordecai brought us to redemption. Chayav adam l'vasumeh, a person must reach a level of simcha and purim. So we understand that I'm grateful not only for the salvation of Mordecai, but I'm grateful even for the accursed activities of Haman. Now again, I don't mean we're grateful to Haman. Obviously, the resha'im are going to be held to account for the evil choices that they make. But in the sweep of history, even the difficult adversities that God puts into our lives have hidden blessings. This is why the Mishnah says in Brachot, Chayav adam l'varech al hara'ah k'derech shem'varech al hatovah. You must make a blessing to God for bad things that happen just as you make a blessing to God for good things that happen. Now the Gemara explains right away, you don't make the same blessing. For bad things that happen, you make a bereavement. You say Dayan Ha'Emes, God is the true judge. For good things that happen, you make Shehecheyanu. Now, Hatov U'Meitiv. Or Hatov U'Meitiv, depending on on um if it's just for you or it's for other people. Now, this itself is an important point. Because what that means is Judaism, unlike let us say Buddhism, does not regard suffering as an illusion. We recognize the reality of grief, the reality of suffering. That's why we have different brochos. We're not collapsing it and saying, "Oh, the bad and the good are all the same." When a person loses a loved one, we mourn, we grieve. And the halacha institutionalizes that, rather than denying that. And when, you know, our our our child gets married, we dance. In the famous passage in the book of Kohelet, Hamelech talks about life has many different experiences. There's a time to dance and a time to eulogize, and a time to laugh and a time to cry. We don't say it's all the same. That's why it's a different brocha. But we do say that there's an ultimate good even behind the adversity. That the adversity can bring out, as Victor Frankl writes so magnificently in his classic book, Man's Search for Meaning, that we have very little choice over what happens to us in life. But we always have the choice of how we choose to respond. And in making that choice, we discover strength and resilience that we never knew we had, and we can become transformed for the better by it. Now, it doesn't mean it's going to happen. You know, the old cliché that God never gives you a test that you can't pass. I will add another cliché to it. God never gives you a test that's a guaranteed pass, either. In every test, I might flunk. And we flunk quite a lot. But that's our problem. You know, that's our free will, you know, etc. But in every test, there is the potential for greatness. And this comes when one has the simcha in the emunah that Hashem is looking out for them, Hashem is taking care of them. And then you know that even in the orer Hamans in the world, there is the potential for a goodness. And that's what the Gemara means, reach a level of simcha where you understand that at the ultimate highest level, the orer Haman and the baruch Mordechai are all for the good. In fact, the Kli Yakar says, and the early poskim is a big devotee of the Kli Yakar, the Kli Yakar says, on the most famous pasuk of Judaism, Shema Yisrael, Hashem Elokeinu, Hashem Echad. Right, hear, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one. Now, we know Hashem is Yud Kay Vav Kay. That is always the middah of rachamim. Elokeinu is Elokim shelanu, our Elokim. Elokim is the middah of justice and retribution. So, look what the pasuk says. Shema Yisrael, listen, absorb, take in. Hashem Elokeinu, in this world, we sometimes see God as the God of mercy. And we sometimes see God as the God of justice, retribution, punishment, rejection. But that's a mistake. Hashem Echad. The Hashem and the Elokim is ultimately all Hashem Rachamim. Yud Kay Vav Kay. It's not the Rachamim that you're always going to see. It's the Rachamim coming in the guise of Din. And how awesome and how awful can Din be? But if we look at it in the right way, we can become liberated. We can become transformed. Through the awesomeness of Hashem's Din, which has the hidden Rachamim within the Din. And of course, this is also the meaning of the verse, V'haya Hashem l'melech al kol ha'aretz. That when Mashiach comes, God will be the king over all of the world. Bayom hahu, on that day, Yihyeh Hashem Echad u'Shmo Echad. Will be one, and His name will be one. And the Gemara itself asks, "What does that mean? Hashem is one now." But the answer is no. In this world, it's as if there are two Gods. There's one God, but it's like two different faces. The face of Din, the face of Rachamim. But then, eventually, we will understand how all of this Din was in fact Rachamim. And it's not a logical process. That's why indeed the metaphor that's used to reach it is by drinking a little bit. Because drinking a little bit, we're no longer living in the world of pure calculated rationality. We've transcended the logical a little bit. And although normally a Jew always wants to be logical and rational, it's very important that we're in possession of our minds, but there are times in which the rational faculty limits a person's ability to holistically perceive a reality that is greater than can be captured by the Aristotelian syllogism. And in Purim, we want to get a grasp of that deeper and that higher reality. They tell the story of the Mezritcher Maggid. The Maggid of Mezritch was the great talmud of the Baal Shem Tov, and he was the successor to the Baal Shem Tov, Reb Dov Ber of Mezritch, in the leadership of Hasidus. In fact, the Maggid of Mezritch actually created Hasidus as a big movement. When the Baal Shem Tov died, there was only a few talmidim. The Maggid of Mezritch made it an international movement. I mean, maybe I shouldn't use it. Just as Paul is the true inventor of Christianity, the Maggid of Mezritch, not the Baal Shem Tov, is the true creator of the movement of Hasidus. And the story goes that when he was on his deathbed, times were very, very hard for the Jews in Poland and Russia. And his talmidim made their rebbe promise that when he goes to shamayim, he will ask Hashem to annul and cancel all the evil decrees of the czar. And the Maggid promised he would do it. And the Maggid died. I don't I really know the process of what he would do, but the Maggid died, and things just got worse and worse. Nothing got better. So, somehow, they summoned the Maggid back in a dream. And they actually asked him, "I thought you promised you would ask God to annul all the evil decrees that are going on here?" And the Maggid's response was, "I really intended to keep my promise. But when I got up, and I saw things from the heavenly perspective, I couldn't find any bad decrees. I couldn't find anything bad. Because I saw all of the reasons for it and all of the good that it accomplished. Again, some people don't like that story. They say that's a denial of the reality of evil. Okay, I don't want to get into the details of the story. But all I can say is I think it's a double portion of oats that any human being that has been confronted with a challenge, even a tragic challenge, knows that they can develop strengths and resilience that they didn't know they had. And in a sense, therefore, we don't ask for these things, but these are gifts that God gives us. And this too is part of the hiddenness of Purim to understand that even the order of Haman is something to be grateful for. So, I want to wish everyone a happy and joyous Purim. You know, the verse that we recite in Havdalah is, of course, from Megillat Esther. LaYehudim Hayta Orah v'simchah v'sason u'vikar. To the Jews, there was light and sason is jubilation, simchah is happiness, vikar is honor and dignity. And when we say it in Havdalah, we add three more words, kein tihiyei lanu. May it be for us as it was for them. May it be for all of Klal Yisrael, and indeed, may it be for the whole world. Everybody knows how difficult a year this was. And, you know, we're not out of the hot water yet. And we pray that if we emerge from this mageifa in good health, we will have learnt the lessons that Hashem is in charge, we're not in control, and we have to have a moon and token that he will take care of us. So again, Purim Sameach and thank you. Hallelujah.