The Secret Behind the Fall of Iran - Rabbi YY Jacobson

So, I want to begin with a story or a statement in the Gamara that is I think very apropos for today's times, for these days and weeks. It's your first source at Sanhedrin Tzadik Daled Amud Aleph. Tractate Sanhedrin page 94. Bikash Hakadosh Baruch Hu la'asot Chizkiyahu Mashiach v'Sanhedrin Gog u'Magog. Hashem desired to make Chizkiyahu HaMelech, Chizkiyahu the king Mashiach and Sanhedrin who was his adversary who was his adversary. Sanhedrin was the king of Assyria who came to war against Jerusalem. Make him Gog u'Magog. Amrah Middas Hadin lifnei Hakadosh Baruch Hu, which is the final war before redemption. The attribute of judgment came to Hashem and said, "Ribbono shel Olam, master of the world, u'Mah David Melech Yisrael she'amar kamah shiros v'sishbachos l'fanecha, lo ya'aseh Mashiach? Chizkiyahu she'asa seichel l'chol hanisim v'halel v'amrah shirah l'fanecha, ta'aseh Mashiach?" David, the king of the Jewish people who has uttered and communicated so many praises, the entire book of Tehillim, Psalms, songs and praises to you, and him you did not make Mashiach. Chizkiyahu who observed so many extraordinary miracles, cuz when Sanhedrin came to attack Jerusalem, he besieged Jerusalem with 180,000 troops and Chizkiyahu said, "I am staying in bed and I'm going to give this one to God." And basically it was what we call today a pandemic and 180,000 troops were killed. This was the first night of Pesach and the Jewish people were saved. So, he says, "Chizkiyahu experienced all of these miracles and he did not say shirah, you're going to make him Mashiach." That's what the Gamara tells us in that. What do we learn from here? We learn from here that one of the greatest and profound mistakes that can be in history is when we do not say shirah, when we don't express gratitude and celebrate and really rejoice internally and externally when you see such stupendous and grand events in the world and miracles. Now, the question is why didn't Chizkiyahu say shirah? That's an interesting question. Chizkiyahu was considered one of the greatest kings and leaders of the Jewish people. So, maybe we'll get to that. But this is what the Gamara says about Chizkiyahu HaMelech. And that's why today's class I want to dedicate that we shouldn't make the same mistake like Chizkiyahu. We in our times many years after Chizkiyahu HaMelech, 2026, Tashan Pay Vav, 5786, not to make the same error. Today, we must say shirah. We must sing. We must express praise. We must express gratitude. Not only we must, we want to. It behooves us. It's it's exciting. It's enthusiastic. We are living in such extraordinary times and it would literally be forbidden to to to ignore and not and not emphatically accentuate and crystallize and clarify to ourselves and others the extraordinary, stupendous miracles, niseh v'niflaos, wonders that are extraordinary, maybe biblical in nature, perhaps that we are experiencing literally since last class till till this class. It all began Shabbos Parshas Zachor in the morning. Shabbos [snorts] Parshas Zachor this year was Yud Aleph Adar, the 11th of Adar. Purim was Tuesday. Purim, of course, is Yud Daled. So, Shabbos was Am I right? Right. Shabbos was Yud Aleph Adar, the 11th day of Adar. Jews in Israel and of course all over the world come to shul to read and hear Parshas Zachor. We've been doing this for thousands of years. Shabbos before Purim is called Zachor and that's when we read a special parsha and [snorts] even people who often don't come to shul come to shul then to hear Zachor as as Al Lo Amaleik. V'da'ag b'tzeitchem Mitzrayim. Remember what Amaleik did to you when you were leaving Egypt. Al tishkach, lo tishkach. Do not forget it. Usually it's a verbal experience. We read it in the Torah, we listen to it, we think about Amaleik, we remember Amaleik and so forth. And yet that Shabbos morning we had the privilege that uh >> [snorts] >> Jews Jew Jew Jew Jews, Jewish soldiers, Jewish Air Force in Israel went and literally wiped out and obliterated the great Amalekite and Haman of this generation and as in the times of Purim, not only Haman but Haman's 10 sons, which means not only uh the tzorer ha'Yehudim himself, the Amalekite himself, but also his closest men, his closest people, his closest henchmen. Together [snorts] with the tragedies that occurred in recent weeks, the casualties, you have the Betton family, the Cohen family, and other tragedies of those who were murdered by the ballistic missiles that Iran unleashed on Israel and still continue to unleash and all of the wounded, may Hashem heal them and give them a refuah shleimah and protect all of our people, of course, in Israel and and all over the world. It's very, very important to be able to look at these events from a historical perspective, meaning to put them in context. So, I'm going to put I'm going to b'ezras Hashem, I want to put it a little in context, at least the way I see it, the way I understand it. Imagine it's 1938. It's 1938. >> [snorts] >> The president of America 1938 was FDR, Franklin D. Roosevelt. And imagine if in 1938 Roosevelt would kill the following people. He would kill Hitler, Himmler, Goering, Heydrich, Goebbels, Bormann, Eichmann, Hess, Mengele, and another hundred of the leaders of the SS, the Nazi Party, the German Air Force, and the Wehrmacht, the German Army. Then he would conquer the skies of Germany and paralyze the army of destruction that Adolf Hitler, yimach shmo, has created over 7 years from when he was appointed Chancellor in 1933 all the way till the Second World War and onward. Let's say that happened. What would the world look like today? How many Jews if you could just put it on vibrate. How many Jews would have been saved? How many people would have been saved? 60 million people were killed during the Second World War as a result of Hitler. 60 million people. Besides a third of the Jewish people. How would the world look today? Th- This This is how we have to understand what happened literally in the days of Purim, Tashan Pay Vav, 5786. The Megillah says that you may have Purim lo ya'avru mitocham Yehudim v'zichram lo ya'asof mizara. What happened in the days of Purim, its memory will never pass from the Jewish people. Its celebration will never leave our people and the memory of it will never leave our children, mizara. This is what happened this Purim. Lo ya'asof mizara. The memory will never leave us because literally the Hitler of our times, the Amalek of our times, the Haman of our times was eliminated. Now, you might think, "Come on, how could you compare?" I mean it's true. Shabbos Zachor, Tashan Pay Vav, we went back to Shushan Habirah. After many years, we went back to Persia, to the ancient Iran, to Shushan Habirah and eliminated Khamenei, the Amalek of our time. But how could you compare Khamenei to Hitler? Hitler killed six million Jews. He did not. But we have to understand something. He did not kill six million Jews not because he didn't want to kill six million Jews. It's because, thank God, Hodu l'Hashem ki tov ki l'olam chasdo, he could not kill six million Jews. If he had the ability and the resources, he would do it gleefully, enthusiastically. In fact, that was his agenda. The words of Haman in the Megillah that I have one of mission, l'hashmid, la'harog, u'la'abed es kol ha'Yehudim minaar v'ad zaken v'taf v'nashim b'yom echad. To obliterate and destroy and kill and murder, chalilah, all Jews, young and old, men and women, children and seniors, b'yom echad, in one day. That was Haman's agenda. Khamenei also lives in Persia, also lived in Iran, the same place like Haman, added one word, not b'yom echad, but b'rega echad. Not in one day, in one moment. Haman needed machetes, axes, spears, swords, arrows, knives. Khamenei wanted to build, was building a nuclear bomb, so you don't even need yom echad. You don't need a day. You need a moment. And as he said many times, he said it over and over and over, Israel is a cancer and it's going to be eliminated in a few years and wanted literally all seven million Jews in Israel and really all over the world gone. Besides trying to do it through his own bomb, the nuclear bomb that he was building, and countless, countless ballistic missiles, which it takes only a few minutes to travel the thousand miles from Iran to Israel, which is a two-hour flight. It takes only a few minutes for the ballistic missile and if a ballistic missile hits in the right spot, chalilah, chalilah, it could kill 100,000 people, one missile, if it hits the right spot. People don't realize what these ballistic missiles are. In addition to that, he created proxies of terror all over to be able to create a noose around Israel. Hamas in Gaza is an Iranian production. Hezbollah in the north is an Iranian production. Syria sponsored seriously by Iran, literally a noose around Israel. In order to be able to embolden and create the foundation, the tashtis, the groundwork to be able to do what Haman wanted to do and what this Haman wanted to do in our times. Besides spreading terror all over the world with an agenda of ultimately getting rid of the big Satan, which is America as he put it, and the small Satan, which is Israel after Of course, America has 300 million citizens, so it's the big Satan and Israel he called the small Satan. And in the days of Purim, tavshin peh vav, 5786, literally a few days before Purim, he was killed on parshas zachor. Think about the coincidence of that. That on parshas zachor, as it was being read reread in the Torah, literally the Amalek of our time, the Haman Agagite of our time, and his closest people were wiped off the face of the earth. Macha timcha zachar Amalek. And in the following days on Purim itself, and it continues now as we step into the month of Nissan, this regime that had this one agenda, lashmid l'areg ul'abed, Hitler 1938 before the Holocaust, before it happened, was eliminated. And is continuing to be eliminated. So for this we have to say shira. This is not a small thing. People, it's not just a war and Iran is evil. We have to appreciate, just like in 1930, that's why I'm giving that example, cuz we know how that changed the world, cuz Roosevelt did not do that to Hitler. That's why today ein od milvado. To be able to give thanks and gratitude and express our tremendous tremendous joy and gratitude to the creator of the world, to Hashem, for this which we are experiencing with our eyes, v'sachazena eineinu, we are seeing it literally with our Of course, with tremendous gratitude and hakaras hatov to the Israeli army, to the prime minister, to the Mossad, to the security forces, to the air force, to the intelligence, to all the people involved in this, and of course to all of the citizens and all of our brothers and sisters in the land in the holy land who yesterday I was on a Zoom with somebody from Israel for an organization Menucha u'Simcha, and the director of it was gone, there was an alarm, he had to go into the shelter. So like what it's like, you know, we don't really realize. I was with somebody else, it's sorry, I got to run, I got to run. So last night was a three times in the middle of the night, people had to run. So you're talking about, you know, we have to appreciate all of this, what our people what our people are going through in the holy land and to be able to thank them for their for their resilience, for their mesirus nefesh, for their for their sacrifice, for their their dedication, for their strength. It's not just Iran, although that itself is not a small thing. It's a sounding it's a resounding message to anti-Semites and Hamans all over the world, which unfortunately there are more than a few of them, to be able to to observe what is happening, to be able to see this crushing defeat on an ideology of genocide wanting to kill literally millions of people for the one crime that there's blue Jewish blood flowing through their sinews. And to gaze at what happened literally in the last few weeks, the transformation in the Middle East, the transformation in Iran, the transformation of Israel's stand in itself and in the world. That transformation is literally akin to some of the biblical miracles you read in the Tanakh. Another incredible thing is, just like Purim, Esther and Mordechai were not the ones who alone had to take on Haman. It was actually Ahasuerus, the Persian emperor who was a mar says moshel b'kipa, he ruled the world, he is the one who did the incredible work. And all of the Israel unfortunately had to do face many wars, had to confront many enemies, and literally lead many wars from day one. But in all of the previous wars, Israel ultimately was on the front lines alone. And there was always the question and the pressure and the dilemma, will the United States of America come to its assistance? How much will they be afraid of helping too much, not to anger the Russians and not to anger the Arabs and not to get in conflict with others? Even if they're going to help, how long are they going to help? When is the pressure going to begin that you have to stop and you have to compromise and you have to make concessions and you have to pull back and not allow them to do the complete victory. And suddenly for the first time, don't take this for granted, in this war the yoitzerus nishtanu al yoitzerus, everything was changed. The superpower of the world, which is the United States of America, and Donald Trump, who you could compare to Ahasuerus as a moshel b'kipa, they cleared this war together with Israel, seeing Israel as a partner. Not only that, the president of America, they're bragging with the fact, they're bragging, they're they're boasting in a beautiful way that they could partner with the Jewish people to bring down the evil tyrannical regime of Iran. America is a huge empire and has 300 million citizens. Israel is the size of Dallas International Airport. The size of New Jersey, 7 million Jews, a few million citizens. Like a match on a on a on a football field. You're talking about America is a huge empire versus a small country. And now in this time, the United States of America is boasting with the fact that she is a shutaf, she's a full partner with with the Jewish people to subdue Iran and has mobilized all of its forces to eliminate the Amalekites, the Hamans of our generation. To think about the fact that just a few years there was an American president who unfroze $150 billion and allowed Iran to get $150 billion. A president of America just a few years ago who allowed them access to 150, not million, that's also a nice amount, $150 billion, which is exactly what they needed to be able to solidify the grip of terror, violence, not only in the Middle East, but over the whole world. And this came from America in that famous infamous Iran deal. And a few and and be able to organize and strategize how to obliterate the Jewish people in Israel, alav hashalom. And now just after a few years, the same chair, the same throne in Washington, D.C., the same kisei, the Ahasuerus of our time comes and declares unapologetically a decisive conflict and war to eliminate eliminate Iran. This all is part of the grand grand miracles of today. There's also something else. And here I want to go a little deeper into the story of what happened Purim, not just because of what happened then, because of what literally happened now. It's the same It's It's the similarities are are eerily incredible. If you'll take a look at your source sheet, there's a fascinating Rambam, which is from the Chazal, the second source sheet, the Rambam Hilchos Megillah. These are the laws of Purim, Hilchos Megillah perek beis. The Rambam quotes our sages, very perplexing statement. Kol sifrei nevi'im v'chol haksurim asidinly batel l'melech Mashiach chutz m'megillas Esther. All the works, all the books of the prophets and the ksurim. So you're talking about Yeshua, Shoftim, Shmuel, Melachim, Yeshayahu, Yirmiyahu, Yechezkel, and the ksurim. All of the ksurim are going to be batel, are going to be nullified when Mashiach comes, chutz m'megillas Esther. Besides Megillas Esther. Interesting. Really? All the Nach classes, that was the most exciting part of school. The Nach classes, yeah? It's all only Megillas Esther. All the First of all, what does it mean? What do you mean asidinly batel? It's part of Torah. But besides Megillas Esther, v'hi kayemes tachas chumeshei chumshei Torah. She is going to endure like the five books of Chumash, which are not going to be nullified. U'chahalachos sheb'al peh she'einam batelim l'olam, and like the halachos of Torah sheb'al peh, the actual mitzvos, which are also not going to be nullified. V'af al pi she'kol hazichronos she'hayu batel, and even though the memory of all the tzaros is going to be nullified, yemei haPurim lo yibatel. We're going to be in such bliss and ecstasy, who's going to want to remember tzaros? But Purim will never be forgotten, she'ne'emar, yemei haPurim ha'eileh lo ya'avru m'toch hayehudim v'zichram lo yasuf m'zar'am. So the question is, what does this even mean? And what's the uniqueness of Megillas Esther over all of the nevi'im, all of the ksurim? It's true, it's an amazing story, it's a beautiful story. Esther was an incredible person, but this is the only book that's going to outlast even Mashiach's coming. When Mashiach comes, it's still going to be relevant. The pshat is, it says in s'farim, the Baal HaTanya explains and other s'farim explain, it doesn't mean batel, God forbid we're going to throw them out. Batel means the Gemara says shvaga b'tehara mayah chani, when you light a candle in midday, right under the sun, the candle is there, but it's not visible, it doesn't radiate shine because it's subsumed in the overwhelming intensity of sunlight. When you light a candle at night for b'dikas chametz or a Chanukah candle, a Shabbos candle, when it's already sunset or becoming sunset, now the candle is significant. In the presence of the light of the geulah, all these s'farim are going to become nullified in the sense that they'll be overwhelmed by the infinite presence of light of Mashiach's coming. Besides Megillas Esther. Megillas Esther won't be. It will be able to be held up as a candle to the sun that you could see the candle even in comparison to the sun. But why is that? Why? What is it about Megillas Esther and about Purim? And one of the answers for this is it's very profound, and it brings us to another discussion, which is also very strange statement of our sages, very famous in Pirkei Avot, chapter 6. Over there, the Gemara the Mishnah says in Pirkei Avot, the Ethics of the Fathers, which we start learning after Pesach, that one of the 48 ways through which a person acquires Torah, there are 48 skills, or 48 characteristics to acquire Torah, and the last one is omer davar b'shem omro. Not to plagiarize, to say something in the name of the person who said it. So, if I'm quoting somebody, I read it from somewhere, I heard it from somewhere, to say it b'shem omro, the name the one who said it. If you take a look, your third source, Avot perek vav, ha'omer davar b'shem omro, that's the last quality to acquire Torah. I don't take credit for it if it's not mine. I say it over, and I say from whom I heard it, or from whom I read it. And the the here the Mishnah adds one thing, ha'lomadeta. There is something that you could learn. Kol ha'omer davar b'shem omro meivi geulah l'olam. If you say something in the name of the one who said it originally, you bring redemption to the world. In other words, it's not just a small nice gesture. Don't take credit, don't plagiarize, say it over, say the person you heard it from. It's actually relevant to redemption. This is what brings redemption. Wow, that's a big statement. And so, now we have a source about Esther, Esther la'melech b'shem Mordechai. What's the story? Mordechai heard that there were two people, ministers of Achashverosh, who were plan- planning and scheming an assassination attempt against the Persian king. Their names were Bigthan and Teresh. So, Mordechai went, and he reported it to Esther, who was the queen. And the Megillah says, vatomer Esther la'melech b'shem Mordechai. Esther said it over to the king, she communicated this information to the king, in the name of Mordechai. What happens as a result, we know, as the story evolves, in the sixth chapter, Achashverosh can't fall asleep. Balaylah hu nadeda shnas ha'melech, he can't sleep. So, he asks his servants to read the diary, the journal of the palace, the royal diary of events that transpired in the palace, and that's where they find the story that happened years before, quite a few years before, of this ass- assassination attempt, and Mordechai was the one who told Esther, and therefore saved the king from this assassination. Bigthan and Teresh were executed, and the king was saved, and Achashverosh decided to reward Mordechai, and that's when he had Haman schlepp him around Shushan on the royal horse. Kacha ya'aseh la'ish asher chafetz ha'melech l'yakro, this is what we do to somebody that the king wants to glorify, and this was the beginning of the tremendous transformation of events, where Haman was ultimately completely defeated, until he was hung on the gallows, as the story continues. And this all happened because Esther said it over in the name of Mordechai. She didn't just say there was an assassination attempt. So, here's a big question, here's a big question. Okay, it happens to be that over there, it worked out. It worked out that because Esther said it in the name of Mordechai, so as a result of that, good things happened. Does this mean that every time you say something over in the name of somebody else, meivi geulah l'olam, that's like a big word. Like, sometimes it happens, okay, it was a a gevaldike ma'aseh, but from here we're learning a general statement that always, when you say something in the name of somebody, you're bringing redemption to the world. It sounds a little strange. And also, what's the thematic connection? It happened to be that over there, it worked. But is there a thematic connection that when I say something in the name of somebody, I mean, it's a good thing, it's an honest thing to do, it's an authentic thing to do, but that's meivi geulah l'olam? So, I saw in the Mishpacha, I want to be omer davar b'shem omro. I saw an article by my friend Rabbi Eitan Feiner, who quoted a beautiful interpretation of the Maharal of Prague, and this morning I looked it up in the original. The Maharal of Prague has a sefer called Derech Chaim. It's a commentary on Pirkei Avot, Derech Chaim, the Path of Life. It's a very fascinating commentary, and on this Mishnah, the Maharal brings a beautiful, beautiful interpretation to understanding what this really means, and why the Mishnah deduces from this story this general principle, and what's the connection between this and and omer davar b'shem and geulah. Because if you're saying this brings geulah, it means that this is something connected to geulah. He elaborates on it in his own style, a little bit of a complex style, but I want to bring out one of the points that the Maharal makes, together with some other points, which as we will see, is uniquely, uniquely, in a very, very special way, relevant to our time. I'm going to ask one more question from the Maharal, since the next holiday is Pesach, and the Gemara says that whenever there's two Adars, we celebrate Purim the second one, because mismach geulah l'geulah, we want redemption to be close to redemption. So, we do Purim in the second Adar, not the first Adar, so the redemption of Pesach and the redemption of Purim come together, because they're connected. The Maharal asks also a question, why is it that from all events in Jewish life, there's only one event that we have a name for it, and the name is order? And that is the Seder. Now, if you'll ask me objectively, what is the most disorganized night in Jewish life, nobody knows if they're coming or they're going, they don't know if they're exhausted or they're up, they don't know if they hate it or they love it. There could be potential balagans, but certainly, even if it's organized, cuz you're a real balabusta, and you already freeze the food 3 weeks before Pesach, and you already finished cleaning after Chanukah, and already this Monday you're going to be ready for the Seder. Say amen. Okay, you don't have to. But, uh even that, we all know that the Seder night, it's just intense, there's a lot going on, and a lot of preparations are necessary, and to get all the pieces to come together takes something that's similar to the ten makkot, and yetzias Mitzrayim, and kriyas Yam Suf, etc. And to get through to, you know, to Chad Gadya, one piece not falling asleep, is achrei achrei chiddush. And from all events, you couldn't find another event called Seder. Which Seder sounds like, you know, a good Yekkish program of everything is orderly, and organized, and consistent, and predictable, and on time. Already before Kadesh, the wine spilled. They forgot to make the charoses. What about the what happens to the maror? Yeah. Dvei'i b'chlaim had a meltdown. Yanky lost his matzah. The Haggadah got ruined. Whatever it is, that's before Kadesh. This is the Maharal's question, why from all events in the world is this one called Seder? Well, you could say because there's an order. Kadesh, urchatz, karpas, yachatz, there's 15 steps. We spoke last week, last year, what the 15 steps are in our emotional life, all the way Kadesh, urchatz, karpas, yachatz. So, if you want to know what those 15 steps are in your own personal emotional life, you can go to the yeshiva.net, at Pesach last year's class, we did a very it was a fascinating discussion, b'ezras Hashem. But the Maharal says, I can't understand there's a Seder. If there's always a Seder, every day has a Seder. Davening has a Seder, we don't call davening Seder, even though davening also has a Seder. There's pesukei d'zimra, there's the blessings before Shema, there's Shema, there's Shemoneh Esrei, there's tachanun, those are all Seder. Everything has a Seder in Yiddishkeit. This is called Seder. So, another very interesting question from the Maharal. All of this will be understood by understanding, by seeing one very interesting thing in your next source, the Gemara says, every name in the Megillah has a source in Torah. He asked the source for Mordechai, the source of Haman, Hamina eights. And the Gemara says, chulin kuf lamed tes, Esther min ha'Torah minayin? What's the source of Esther in Torah? She namar, v'anochi haster astir panai bayom ha'hu. In parshas Vayeilech, Moshe Rabbeinu says there's going to come a time, God says, I will hide my face on that day. The word Esther comes from the word hester. Hester means concealment. Like in Hebrew you say la'haster, is to eclipse, to cover over, to hide something. So, Esther comes from the word la'haster, haster astir panai bayom ha'hu, that's the source of Esther in Torah. At the first gla- at first glance, it just looks like it's a cute source, you found a word that's very similar to Esther in Chumash. But upon deeper reflection, what the Gemara is really saying is that the pasuk haster astir panai bayom ha'hu tells us something very, very powerful understanding the whole story of Purim and the whole story of Esther. There's a huge contrast between the two miracles of Purim and Pesach. Mismach geulah l'geulah. If you had to observe, if you observed, or you had to write, you were a journalist, and you had to write down the stories of Pesach, the miracles there were all revealed in a very conspicuous way. Water turning into blood is supernatural. Frogs suddenly dominating a country. And the same is true with all the other ten plagues, until the last one that happened on the night of Pesach, makas b'choros, all the firstborn males of the Egyptians suddenly perished. And then, of course, leaving the country, and a sea splitting, manna coming down from heaven, surrounded by clouds of glory, the revelation at Sinai, the whole story of yetzias Mitzrayim, even just leaving Egypt, that itself, and how would they came to that space, it was saturated with supernatural events in a very conspicuous and revealed way. When you look at Purim, let's say the New York Times or CNN would report what happened on Purim. The word miracle, I assume, would not even be there. Why? Because you could report the events, and say there was no miracle here, there was nothing outside of nature. It's just, as they say in English, they say sometimes you're in the wrong time in the wrong place, and here, they happened to be in the right time in the right place. Esther was beloved by Achashverosh. The mazel was that she was Jewish. Okay, good. So, Esther was Jewish and Ahasuerus really, really took to her and was very, very drawn to her. And she was politically astute. She was shrewd. She was wise. She knew how to play Haman's arrogance against her husband's paranoia and insecurity. As we discussed previous years, Esther's tragic strategy, she staged Haman's ego and crazy arrogance against her husband's crazy paranoia and between that, she managed to maneuver things and move the chessboard the way she needed to move and save her people. But if you look at the story of Purim, there's not one moment in the story where YOU COULD SAY, "WOW, this is a miracle." Everything happened in a way that can be explained naturally. So, when you actually look at the story of Purim, you could report it simply as a natural story. Ahasuerus got upset at his first queen. He had her killed. And then there was a contest for a new queen and he got a new queen. She happened to be Jewish. He didn't know she was Jewish. Somebody wanted to assassinate him. Mordecai reported the story. Esther sent it over in the name of Mordecai. Okay, all good stuff. And in years later, there's a Haman who's an anti-Semite and he rises and he convinces the king to kill the Jews. The king himself is no big Jewish lover. And Esther finds out about it and then she figures out how to maneuver a situation in order to revert the situation and she has executed because Ahasuerus suspects that he's trying to conquer the queen in his own home. So, Haman is executed and then she manages to plead. She pleads with him to to at least give Jews the right for self-defense and the whole climate changes and no question Esther gets amazing, amazing credit for brilliant, brilliant diplomatic, political maneuvers that had her save her people. Okay? So, this is called good politicians, powerful diplomacy, using wisdom, attraction, beauty, and knowing how to get your husband to do what you want to do. Well, a lot of women do that. >> [laughter] >> I won't elaborate. What's the truth? The truth is though as it says in Purim, the truth is you could argue that. But when you look at the sequence of events, when you look at the whole picture then suddenly it's undeniable that it's all one long miracle. In fact, it's very interesting because in Megillah, in tractate Megillah, there's a huge argument how much of the Megillah we have to read on Purim. Do we have to read the whole Megillah? Do we have to read only a few chapters? Usually, when we read about a story, we read the story itself. So, Purim, we want to read the story of Purim, what should we read? One opinion in Gemara Megillah is you start from chapter six. happens. The king can't sleep and all good things Another opinion is you start from the decree which is chapter three where Haman becomes a powerful minister and he begins to plan genocide. Okay, that's where the story begins. Another opinion is you start from issue with the story of Mordecai. The is that none of these opinions. It's like a mayor school. You have to read the whole Megillah from the beginning. From and if I miss a word, I have to do it again. Really? Why? Do I have to really In fact, if you read the Megillah and you actually understand what you're saying, when you come to chapter two, I would say it's a pass. Not so comfortable. If somebody would write that today, it would probably be banned. I really have to know about the Persian system of how they chose a woman because of a four-year beauty contest that this alcoholic womanizer created in order to find Four years there was a beauty contest and we have to know who was in charge. There was Shishagaz and there's Hegai and there's the types of perfumes and the type of incense and what happened at night and what happened in the morning. And this Ahasuerus was a busy guy. IT'S A MOMENT. FINE, I UNDERSTAND this is who he was. And if I hear IF I MISS ONE WORD about Ahasuerus' addictions and what was going on at night, the whole night over there for four years. I I wasn't Really? YOU WEREN'T LIKE WHAT? FINE, I UNDERSTAND IT HAPPENED. I understand at the end he got Esther and we're very thankful that he got Esther cuz that's what made miracle. But why IS THAT THE LAW THAT I HAVE TO KNOW EVERYTHING? And then I also have to know that he had a party for 187 days straight. The guy drinks for 187 days. And on the seventh and last day, he got completely inebriated and the smashed, went crazy, needed his wife to come and dance with out clothes. She went crazy and decided to curse him and he has her killed. SHE GOES INTO DEPRESSION. IT'S ALL FASCINATING STORIES, but if I don't hear any of this, there's no I wasn't to the mitzvah. The answer to all of this is one point cuz that is the whole story of Purim. If you look at any event in an isolated detail then you could say, "Yeah, it's good luck, right place, right time, coincidence. Everything happened in the right time." And you know what? Sometimes things work out in the good way. [laughter] Not always Murphy's law. Sometimes it can work out in a good way. But when you look at the sequence of events, in Hebrew it's called from the beginning till the end. You know, we hear the Megillah in 20 minutes. We think the story happened in 20 minutes. It happened over 12 years. It's just time to people are hungry so they don't want to do it over 12 years. So, they do it in 25 minutes. And if you have a guy, he does it in 14 minutes. But even those who do it slow, 30 minutes, 40 minutes, but it didn't take 40 minutes. It took 12 years. Why is that so important? Cuz that's how you have to read the story. There was an Ahasuerus. Nothing to do with the Jews and he was a king for three years and after three years, he decided to make a party for 180 days. Where is the great miracle? There is no miracle. A king wants to party and feast and drink and show off and add and and and create a a popularity where people love him and cherish him as the explains. He had a lot of paranoia. And then after 180 days, he makes another party seven days for all the people in Shushan. AND HE DOESN'T just make a party. He spends a tremendous amount of money on the drinks and on the goblets and on the catering and on the food and on the design, the interior design, the exterior design. IT'S ALL CARPETS. YES. AND BY DRUNK AND HE NEEDS HIS WIFE TO COME AND she doesn't come and he has her killed. AND NOW HE GOES INTO DEPRESSION. HE MISSES HIS WIFE. HE GOES INTO DEPRESSION. SO, now he HAS A BEAUTY CONTEST FOR FOUR YEARS. People don't realize it wasn't three months. Vashti was killed after three years of his kingship. Esther was appointed in the seventh year. Four years later, ESTHER IS APPOINTED AND STILL NOTHING is happening. Esther is now queen. FINE. IN THE 12TH YEAR OF his reign so NOW IT'S ANOTHER FIVE YEARS. Haman comes and makes a whole decree. And suddenly you see, "Aha." And then Mordecai asks Esther to go intervene. She says, "I can't. I'm going to be killed. You have to know who my husband is. You go without permission. You go out without a shoulder." Mordecai tells him, "This is the reason you became a queen." She goes in. And she says, "What do you want?" She says, "I want you should come And Ahasuerus says, "What do you want?" She says, "I want you should come to a party." And he comes to the PARTY WITH HAMAN. "WHAT do you want now?" "I want you to come to another party." AND AT THE SECOND PARTY, THAT'S when she reveals her identity and she reveals who Haman is and everything is transformed. Suddenly, when you look at this, you realize from the first moment when Ahasuerus made the party the first day, it was all one story. Of course, everything isolated, you could say this one, this one. BUT HERE YOU HAVE A WHOLE STORY AND YOU REALIZE it was all a divine a divine web a divine God weaved the story of history, his history is his story, history to be able to bring the miracle of Purim. Which also answers another very mysterious thing and that is in the whole there's only one book that does not have name. And it's a very strange thing. The Megillah that says was written by was written by Mordecai and Esther. They couldn't give him one word. Say one time that it's good. Not once. Even at the end Megillah Esther a whole safer and it's called holy. It's called the HOLY WRITINGS AND THIS is the one that's not GOING TO BE NULLIFIED WHEN COMES. THIS IS THE ONE. WHEN YOU READ THE MEGILLAH, IT'S LIKE A SECULAR BOOK. NOT ONCE DOES IT SAY It says everything that happened. SAY ONE THAT IT'S GOOD. NOT EVEN ONCE AT THE END. NOT EVEN ONCE. THERE'S A DAY THEY CELEBRATED AND WHEN THEY GAVE gratitude to the creator of the world. Mordecai was the head of the Sanhedrin. He wasn't just a religious Jew. He was the leader of the JEWISH PEOPLE. ESTHER TOLD THEM GO GATHER all the Jews and fast. And yet, they won't even mention name even once. How do you explain that? The The wonder about that. Ah. The is that that is the whole of the Megillah of the Megillah Esther. That you're talking about a book in which name is not even mentioned once. That's the whole point. You don't see his name. In fact, you can argue his name is not here. His name is not present. Nothing to do with him. That sometimes politics plays itself out according to the laws of politics and nature and mischievous schemes and relationships. And that's what it is. Finances, hatred, commerce, love, and all of the grand forces that operate in our world that make people make wise decision or stupid decisions. Bury themselves or save themselves. You don't even see a sham's name once. And yet, the whole megillah is one long name of a sham. So, the Gamara says where's Esther and Toda? I'm not sure how comes the Marana and says what's over the sham over there. What was the uniqueness of Esther? It's easy to look at something and take it away from the source. You hear something good and you say, you know what? I'm going to use this and I'm going to give myself credit. The megillah could have even said that it was told over to the Malik Basham Mordecai. Esther the Malik Basham Mordecai. So, the Marana says something very very powerful. Esther's unique contribution was she always asked where did this come from? She didn't just say it over to the king. She said it over in the name of Mordecai. This represents what she did with her whole life. When Esther looked at the story of Putim, she could have easily taken credit. For good reason. She did it. She's the one who did it. It's called Megillah's Esther for a reason. She could have easily said, you know what? I was the right person in the right time. I was very wise and SHARP AND SHE WAS. SHE WAS THE RIGHT PERSON, the right time, very wise, brilliant, dedicated, selfless, and saved her people. What was the uniqueness of Esther was the only way to be a sham over there. She knew that she was a shliach. >> [snorts] >> She knew, of course she was the right person at the right time cuz a sham put her there. As Mordecai told him, me I damn nice cuz I see got the malice. This is what Gula means in the world as we will see. This is what Gula means. It's not a separate thing. Maybe Gula this is what redemption is to the world where you can identify in everything the source. I am a double Basham over maybe Gula over. Now, why do I say all of this? We're already past Putim cuz we didn't pass Putim. I know we passed the Shalach Manos part of Putim. >> [laughter] >> This year Putim didn't end yet. This year Putim didn't end. Because when you when you when you think about this, now we can understand why Putim is going to be relevant even when Messiah comes. Why is the Gamara the Rambam says the one safer that's not going to be nullified and overwhelmed by the revelation of Messiah is Megillah's Esther. Based on this. Whenever you look at a situation like this right now, the war of America and Israel against Iran, naturally you'll see in the Jewish world and it's been like this for a very very long time. There's always two different approaches. There are those who always say miracles, Nissan, everything is Nissan. Look, this is all one big miracle. They right away go to that space. Usually it's based on the education they receive, the type of belief system they grow up with, the types of, you know, the type of culture and the way they live, etc. etc. And then there are those who insist, no, it's a natural phenomenon. Look what's happening now. You have an amazing air force, an incredible air force. You have an incredible Mossad. The intelligence of the Mossad is half of a fellow all over the world including in Iran. You have America. America is a superpower. Has the strongest army in the world, strongest economy in the world, THE MOST POWER in the world, a great CIA, AND A PRESIDENT WHO'S TOUGH AND STRONG AND COULDN'T care less what everybody thinks. And if you argue with him, it emboldens him even more. So, this is all natural phenomenon, the right people in the right spaces. And you have cybersecurity and you have scientists and you have engineers and you have the ability to intercept most of the missiles and you have unbelievable technology and you have AI. So, yeah, when you have all of these things, these are natural phenomena that allow a nation to save themselves. We're very grateful for it, but it's an engine of nature. That's really a whole other opinion. Now, now let's discuss what's the truth. What's the truth? The truth is that when you look at this war, you see everything is happening, so to speak, within natural circumstances. Yeah, you have America on our side. Israel, thank God, has a very very successful and powerful army, a very good Mossad, technology over the top. And with all of these tremendous tremendous developments, an incredible incredible air force, an incredible security system, an incredible military, all of this is happening. And yet, just like by Putim, anybody who looks at the sequence of events sees that this is one grand supernatural divine miracle from beginning to end. Step by step by step by step. And unless somebody is just wants to dafka deny it, fine. People can say what they want, but it's undeniable even from the most objective perspective. If you take number of story number one. Donald Trump, there was an assassination attempt on Trump twice. July 2024 and a few months later, September 2024. July 2024, the bullet came less than an inch to his head. In fact, as he was speaking to the crowd in Butler, Pennsylvania, this is before he was nominated to be elected to be president a second time, he turned his head to the right to point to a chart. Because he turned his head to the right, so the bullet grazed his ear rather than went straight into his head. This was a difference of maybe a half an inch, maybe an inch. You're talking about a centimeter or less. Around that time. What would have happened if he wouldn't have turned his head? The bullet would hit him. But Charlie Kirk was assassinated. Yeah. Charlie Kirk, who so what happened? Yeah. Who would be sitting in the White House today? You'll forgive me, Vashti. >> [laughter] >> Yeah. Yeah. Even la- even laughs like Vashti. Yeah. >> [laughter] >> And who understood this most? Trump who said right afterwards, obviously God wants me in this world. Me I damn nice cuz I see got the malice. He said that. He didn't use the words of the megillah, but he said obviously there's a mission for me. A few months later, as he was playing golf, there was another assassination attempt. They managed to catch this person. Trump said last week, and this was shocking to me, he said before the Ayatollah managed to take me down, I took [clears throat] him down. Because what's being revealed now is that the Iranians wanted to take Trump down and were behind assassination attempts that didn't succeed. So, now just think about all of this. So, if this bullet would HAVE GONE A DROP CLOSER, Israel would be standing alone in the presence of Haman who was close to build his nuclear energy, his nuclear bomb, and ballistic missiles, and perfect them underground especially since after the attack of Lazeroon, Amcalavi. If you take a look at all of the events that happened over all of these years, at the success on all fronts, at the tremendous you're talking about a lamb between 70 wolves. So, the lamb learned how to do a lot of things. True. It learned strategy over thousands of years. But you're talking about a lamb around 70 wolves. If you remember what happened with the beepers with Hezbollah when the beepers exploded. The killing of Sinwar. The killing of Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah. You're talking about hundreds and hundreds and thousands of small and big events that all had to happen in synchronization for the Jews to reach this situation. Even the fact people don't realize that all the planes that went in came back. Nobody understands what that means. These are literally Of course, YOU SAY, OKAY, IT'S GREAT PLANES. Every single plane. A ballistic missile could kill 100,000 people, one ballistic missile. There are tragedies and nobody will ever understand and comprehend that every life is a world and every life that's taken is a loss forever and never mind for the family that's devastated until Messiah comes. There's no question about that. And never shall be so is all the money is a whole universe. Together with that, to be able to see where the Jewish people are today with Haman eliminated and this regime being crushed is literally extraordinary. Think about Israel a day before October 7th. Where Israel was on October 6th. Today, Hamas is in the process of being crushed. Hezbollah is in the process of being crushed. Syria, one of the greatest enemies of Israel, fell apart. And Iran is in the process of of of being crushed. Also, in the past a war like this against Iran would turn into a world war which can cost hundreds of thousands of millions of lives. When you look at all of this together, you say a sham is this is this. He was being a nano. You even think about the fact why did Trump even decide to go to war against Iran? It was against his pledge. His pledge was I'm not dealing with the foreign countries. America first, America first, America first. I saw one of the newspapers who's against the war tries to keep on showing how most Americans are against it. It takes a lot for a president to engage in a war. Why? They weren't a direct threat against America. Iran is a direct threat on Israel. Not a direct threat on America. The truth is that Trump understands evil and good. So, when I met him during his first presidency, I could see it. He understands morality versus the lack of morality, and he feels that he has a shlichus, and he gets it. He understands He understands what it means that Iran should have nuclear bombs and nuclear power and all these successful ballistic missiles. But, the fact that the Iranians tried to assassinate a few times, you understand what that means. That means he realizes either I am on the earth or they're on the earth. That's also a tremendous part of the miracles that are here. So, Trump is dedicated is appointed to be president the first time around. One of the first thing he did was, and he'll be remembered forever, he canceled the infamous Iran deal of Obama, which gave them a from Obama, which gave them 150 billion dollars. They understood immediately that with Trump as president, they will not be able to succeed. Of course, they wanted to assassinate They realized when he canceled that deal, it's either them or him. They understood it right away. Then he loses the elections, or as he says, it was taken from him. DURING THAT TIME, 4 YEARS, Achashverosh sleeps. 4 years. His name was not Achashverosh, his name was Biden. He is sleeping. Mommy's 4 years of sleep. Vashti doing her thing, Achashverosh sleeping for 4 years. Mommy. And that's when October 7th happens. That's when Putin goes to war against Ukraine. It's the whole new parsha that happens. And then comes a second Then comes a second term. He loses one, and then the balaila nodded Achashverosh melech. Achashverosh Trump, but the real melech, malchus as it says in Midrash, the king of the world. And he decides to go out with a full full war against the Hamans of our times, threatening the Jewish people and the Jewish country and the Jewish homeland. So, what do we see from here? We see from here and this is why Purim becomes relevant even as it love life. Sometimes it looks like that a neis in nature is smaller, cuz if it's open, you can't deny it. But, if it's in nature, you could deny it. But, the truth is on a deeper level, and this is why this is so powerful and so crucial. We're learning about a transformation, and this is the definition of transformation of geulah, that nature and miracles are not two separate worlds. And that's why Purim is going to be even when Mashiach comes, cuz that's what Purim revealed. Sometimes, we could make a very deep mistake. And that is Hashem is in heaven, and he could do miracles. Of course, he's all-powerful. What's the big deal? He can create a universe, he can create a miracle, he can create the sun, he can stop the sun. And then we are here doing our thing, everybody in their own limited way. There's AI, and there's scientists, and there's physicists, and there's military work, and there's strategies, and all of these things like that. It's two separate worlds. But, that's a mistake. The first Jew, Avraham Avinu, what does it say about Avraham Avinu? In parshas Vayeira, vayikra es shem Hashem El Olam, he planted a vineyard and he called out in the name of Hashem El Olam. He called out in the name of Hashem El Olam, God the world. So, the meforshim say it should have said vayikra es SHEM HASHEM EL HAOLAM. GOD OF THE WORLD. El Olam in Hebrew means God the world. Like we say in the blessing, baruch Hashem Elokeinu melech HAOLAM, EL HAOLAM, NOT EL OLAM. SO, the Alter Rebbe of Bal Tanya says something incredible. He says, "No, Avraham Avinu, you didn't need Avraham Avinu to tell you that the world has a creator. Any intelligent person who really looks at anything, you could study a cell, you could study DNA, you could study a blade of grass, you could study an ant, you could study one organism, you know there's a creator. The chiddush of Avraham Avinu was El Olam, God the world, it's not two separate things. It's not that there's a world of miracles in heaven and there's a world of nature on earth. Ein od milvado means that teva, nature, is also divine. Elokim, aleph lamed heh yud mem is 86, that's the gematria ha'teva, the nature. So, it's El Olam, so it's not Hashem does miracles, and then we do natural things, as though these two separate domains. It's not. Because even what the person does, it's all divine energy. It's divine energy that flows through every neuron and every atom and every cell. And every all the creative engineering and planning and execution and efficiency and professionalism of the human being is all divine. It's a partnership. When Mashiach comes, it says venigleh k'vod Hashem, v'rau kol basar yachdav ki fi Hashem dibber. That's the haftarah of acharon shel Pesach, Yeshayahu perek aleph, chapter 11 of Yeshayahu, Isaiah. So, literally, it means the cover the glory of Hashem will be revealed, and all the flesh will see that Hashem's mouth spoke. So, the meforshim say, "What does that mean? What are they going to see?" They're going to see that Hashem's promises will be fulfilled. The Bal Tanya says something incredible. He says the pasuk says something much deeper. What's going to happen is ki fi Hashem dibber, you're going to see whatever you look at, you're going TO SEE IT'S ALL pi Hashem dibber, it's divar Hashem shamayim nasu, it's all divine energy flowing through the physical containers. I once read a physicist wrote, it was it was it was it was more humorous and cute, but it brings out such a powerful point. And he says that if you want to take the matter, this is unbelievable. He says, "How many how much how much space do you need in order to put in there all of the matter of our planet?" So, he says you could take the matter of our planet, everything that's matter, gashmi, and you could fit it into a carry-on suitcase. Why? Because all of matter is built from atoms. Atoms are the building block of everything that exists. Everything is atoms which come together in molecules, and these are the building blocks of all matter. 99.9% of every atom is empty space. It's just that so small that our eyes can't deal with it, so our eyes give it a concretized illusion, so that's solid. But, if you use right microscopes and you see the truth, every every single thing, 99.9% of an atom is empty space. So, he says if you would actually want to extract that which really exists in the universe, you could in that planet, you could put it into a carry-on suitcase. What does this mean, 99.9% of the atom is empty space? What is it? It's divar Hashem, it's divine energy. And it's divine energy that's constantly sustaining it and creating it. The Baal Shem Tov says creation happens every moment, B'TUVO B'CHOL YOM TAMID, WE SAY in davening ma'aseh bereishis. So, I'm speaking now. It's You're speaking what It's Hashem doing it. WE'RE JUST CHANNELS, WE'RE CHANNELING THE ENERGY. IT'S NOT LIKE TEVA IS A SEPARATE WORLD WHERE WE ARE creative and we're like we own it, then we figure it out, THEN IT'S LIKE, "WOW, WE DON'T NEED GOD ANYMORE." THAT IS GOD. THE WHOLE IDEA THAT THERE'S TWO SEPARATE THINGS, THAT'S A GOLUS MENTALITY. NOW, come back to Pirkei Avos. Ha'omer davar b'shem omro, mayvi geulah l'olam. So, this I had my myself this zechus to hear from the Lubavitcher Rebbe once said as follows. LISTEN TO THIS. HA'OMER DAVAR B'SHEM OMRO, mayvi geulah l'olam. What does that literally mean? You say something in the name of the one who said it. The word davar means a thing. Davar. What else does davar mean in Hebrew? A word. Why is it that in Hebrew, a word and a thing is exactly the same word, pun intended. Davar in English, there's a thing and there's a word, it's not the same thing. Pun intended. A word is a word, a thing is a thing. But, in Hebrew, davar and dibbur is exactly the same the same thing and the same word. Davar is a thing, and davar can LEAD TO MA'ASEH, ZEH HADAVAR, this is the thing, and davar is dibbur. The answer is, I saw this once in an essay, or Shev Aryeh Moshe Shapiro, the answer is because in Hebrew, you have the truth, and every davar is really a dibbur. Vayomer Elokim yehi or, what is light? What is heaven? What is produce? What is an animal? From a squirrel to a mosquito, from a bee to a lioness, from the black hole to a star, every droplet of water, FLAKE OF SNOW, EVERY ATOM, every neuron, every cell, every single reality in CREATION IS A DAVAR which is a dibbur. It's all dibbur. It's energy, it's divine energy. Ba'asarah ma'amaros nivra olam. But, when I look at it, I say, "No, it's my I have a good brain. I have a good heart. I'm a successful person. We have a great army. We have a good prime minister. We have a GOOD PRESIDENT. WE HAVE A TREMENDOUS TREMENDOUS AIR FORCE." IT'S ALL TRUE. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN, A TREMENDOUS AIR FORCE? WHAT IS THE AIR FORCE? WHOSE MATERIAL IS IT? WHOSE BRAIN IS IT? Whose heart is it? Kol ha'omer davar b'shem omro. Everything in the world has someone who's saying it, who's speaking it into existence. How do we start off OUR DAVENING? BARUCH SHE'AMAR V'HAYA [screaming] HA'OLAM. THE WHOLE WORLD IS SHE'AMAR. Kol ha'omer davar b'shem omro, I said the Rebbe, when you identify in every davar the one who says it, MAYVI GEULAH L'OLAM. YOU REDEEM the world. The word The word olam comes from the word helem. Olam is a world, but the Gemara says in Pesachim that it comes from the word helem, which means concealment, like hester, l'haalim. Right? If you want to say in Hebrew, al ta'alimeni DAVAR, DON'T HIDE IT FROM ME. WHY IS the world called concealment? It's strange that in Hebrew, the name for the world would be concealment. Call it the universe, the cosmos. No, we call it concealment. You know why? Because again, that's accurate the accurate definition of the world is concealment. You have to know what you're looking at is concealing something. What is it concealing? Shame I'm right. Has to ask to upon me. There's no Hashem's name. I could look at the whole world and say it's just another ruin. Nature nature nature. This one has good mazel, this one has bad mazel. I'M HAVING A GOOD DAY, I'M HAVING A BAD DAY. This one is struggling with their kids, THIS ONE IS NOT SO STRUGGLING WITH THEIR KIDS. This one has a good marriage, this one has a challenging marriage, this one has good parnossa, this one has no parnossa. YOU HAVE A NICE HOUSE, YOU HAVE A EVERYBODY do what? You figure it out. And if you're smart and you're creative and you're talented and you were given some gifts and maybe you grew up in a good family and your father has a couple of dollars AND HE'S A MENSCH. OKAY. So you set yourself up a little better. You could live the whole life that way. Comes the Maharal and says that's why it's called seder. Why is it called seder? Not because it's an orderly night. It's the most disorganized chaotic night in Jewish life. He says what the seder shall Pesach does is as you say in Yiddish, samachta seder and cup. The point of the seder is not to have it all organized. If you have it too organized, it's probably a strange seder. This point of the seder is to make a seder in your soul. To make a seder in your head. To think about the fact that if 3,300 years later we are sitting around a table in Monsey or in Yerushalayim or in Bnei Brak or in Tel Aviv or in Tzfas or wherever it is in the world with our children grandchildren and telling over the same story and eating the same food the same food that they ate 3,300 years ago. We know how many people left and who led them. The Maharal says this shows you there's A SEDER. NO, THIS CHAOS. HE SAYS THAT'S WHEN YOU HAVE TO KNOW there's a seder. IF THERE'S NO CHAOS, YOU DON'T HAVE TO KNOW THERE'S A SEDER. HOW DO YOU KNOW somebody's organized? When you have a plan when you have a 6 months to do it, I don't know if you're organized. Even a klutz can get it done. When it has to be done now and you do it, THAT'S WHEN YOU SEE SEDER. PESACH teaches you that there's a inner seder, there's an inner rhythm. Over there was the beginning of history, it was revealed. Esther comes and reveals something even deeper. And that's why maybe go oilam. What does go oilam look like? Go oilam looks like when you will understand nature and miracles are exactly the same thing. They're not different. Omer Davar B'shem Omer maybe go oilam oilam. YOU REDEEM THE OILAM FROM THE HELEM. YOU REDEEM CONCEALMENT. YOU EXTRICATE THE REVELATION from the concealment. In every person's life it means when I could surrender the need to control and the need to say NOT BECAUSE I'M NOT CREATIVE, NOT BECAUSE WE WANT PEOPLE TO BE SHMATAS AND PASSIVE AND JUST LET GOD DO EVERYTHING. NO, ESTHER WAS THE MOST CREATIVE person in the world. But the uniqueness of Esther was WHAT GAVE HER POWER WAS THAT SHE ACTUALLY KNEW SHE WAS A MESSENGER OF HASHEM AND THEREFORE SHE HAD MUCH MORE POWER than without that. It's not like if you have faith, YOU'RE JUST A PASSIVE NOBODY. YOU GOD, YOU DO EVERYTHING. I'M A NOBODY. AND THEN YOU SAY NO, I HAVE THE POWER. THE VISION OF GO OILAM IS IT'S ONE. YOU'RE POWER OF COURSE YOU HAVE POWER. THAT IS HASHEM. YOU'RE A SHUTIF, YOU'RE A FULL PARTNER. YOU'RE SHUTIF THE GEMARA HAS AN expression whoever says Shabbos is not a shutif of my separation. YOU BECOME A PARTNER OF HASHEM in the creation of the world. Since go oilam is to fix this fundamentally, not to make another miracle, to reveal something deeper that everything is one long miracle. And that's why it says by Krias Yam Suf a very interesting thing. You'll realize this. We do it every day in davening. When the Jewish people crossed the sea which we celebrate as Bnei Yisrael b'soch hayam b'yabasha. They went into the sea but it was dry land. At the end of the story it says Bnei Yisrael b'yabasha b'soch hayam. They went into dry land in the yam. Why the change? That's what we say every day by the davening before you shtibach. Bnei Yisrael b'yabasha b'soch hayam. So the Noam Elimelech asks in the beginning they went into the sea and that was dry land. At the end it says THEY WENT INTO DRY LAND THAT WAS THE SEA. So he says something very powerful. He says why did God make the miracle of Krias Yam Suf? B'nei yam, you're coming into the water, you're supposed to drown. No, it's b'yabasha. He says the purpose wasn't that. The purpose was that when they come out and they're walking on dry land, they should realize it's also b'soch hayam. Bnei Yisrael b'yabasha b'soch hayam. I'm walking on dry land, I'm also walking in an ocean. Don't take it for granted. I get up and I step down on the ground and there's a solid earth, really? Do you know anything about science? Do you know anything about geology? Do you know how many billions of things have to be fine-tuned in order for there to be an earth under my legs? We say every DAY A BRACHA. ROIKA HA'ARETZ AL HAMAYIM. Don't we just said roika ha'aretz al HAMAYIM HASDA. DON'T TAKE IT FOR GRANTED. IF I WOULD BE THROWN INTO THE PACIFIC or the Indian or the Atlantic and I would walk through it, I'M LIKE, OH MY GOD, THIS IS CRAZY. BUT THAT WASN'T THE PURPOSE. THE PURPOSE WAS B'YABASHA B'SOCH HAYAM. YOU B'YABASHA. I'm walking on dry land. Everything is predictable. That's also b'soch hayam. NOT TO UNDERMINE the human creativity, on the contrary, to glorify WHAT A PERSON IS. We are the CHANNELS TO REVEAL IN THE WORLD THROUGH OUR CREATIVITY, through our mind, through our heart, through our recesses, through our productivity, through being proactive and not not reactive. And who do you see this most? It is you see this with Esther. Because Esther on one hand she's passive. For the first four chapters of the Megillah she doesn't say a word. She's quiet. She just obeys. Everything she obeys. It says Esther I said whatever he says she says. She does. In fact, everything by her is done passively. It says her parents died and Mordechai took her as a daughter. Doesn't even say he asked her. He took her. She didn't have parents. He took her. And then who else took her? Achashveirosh. She's always being taken. You never hear her voice. She can't even say who she is. She doesn't even say who she is. So what's the profile of Esther? Complete passivity. And then suddenly this passive silent concealed woman really has a transformation. Suddenly she's giving orders to everybody. At some point says Mordechai should see Esther. Now Mordechai is taking orders from her. She tells him exactly what to do. SHE TELLS HER SHE TELLS EVERYBODY WHAT TO DO. HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? >> [laughter] >> I WANT TO KNOW THAT THERAPIST. Who did that to her? Where did this happen? And the answer is it wasn't a therapist. Mordechai told her one word. I see God in the world. Do you understand who you are, Esther? The moment she understood who she was, everything changed. And here she could have made a mistake and say, look, I'm a powerful woman. Look at me. But Esther B'shem Mordechai. Esther was the one who understood Mordechai said go tell go tell the king B'shem Mordechai. Go tell her that it was Mordechai. This was Esther's mindset says the Maharal. So when it came to her own activities she knew it's B'shem Mordechai. She's representing the Ribono shel Olam. Esther, there may be not a single name of Hashem but it's all B'shem Hashem. That's why Mashiach comes. Purim is going to be the Megillah that's still going to be read. BECAUSE THAT'S THE WHOLE OF GO OILAM. THE OF GO OILAM is that nature is miraculous. It's not separate. ACHASHVEIROSH HAS A PARTY AND WITH VASHTI WITH A DEPRESSION WITH A BEAUTY CONTEST WITH A BIG SON WITH A HAMAN WITH ONE PARTY ANOTHER PARTY. WHERE'S GOD? AND YET WHAT DOES PURIM SHOW? THAT THAT IS ALL HASHEM. IT'S NOT SEPARATE. WE'RE NOT AFRAID OF NATURE. NATURE IS DIVINE. NOT BUT OILAM. SO THE MAHARAL SAYS THAT'S THE SEDER. THE seder it makes a person in life is what gets to us in life is that things seem chaotic. You know you have a to-do list? Are you from those who make a to-do list in the morning? Right, usually 93 items if you're a Jewish woman. And if you're a very very multitasker, you usually have 130 items. At the end of the day you took a look and if you took care OF THREE OF THEM, YOU'RE LUCKY. If I took care of one of them, I'm lucky. >> [clears throat] >> We want to control. I want to control and then this word doesn't work and there's a curveball here and a curveball here and a curve especially before Pesach. What's the seder? THE SEDER IS NOT TO SAY, OKAY, I'm giving up. I'm in the spirit. I'm nothing. You know what? I'm a shmata. WHATEVER. THAT'S NOT THE KODESH. IS THAT THE person can show up, can breathe and surrender from a place of strength and say I'm a shliach. That was Esther and she became the most powerful person as a result OF THAT. HER VERY passivity became her greatest power because she knew what it means to be a channel. She knew what it means to BE AN OMER DAVAR B'shem Omer. I didn't create my children. I didn't create my brain. I didn't create my I didn't create my consciousness. What's my job? My job is to show up with my energy, with my love, with my open-heartedness, with my resources and to be able to do what I'm supposed to do. And I want to say something very special happened. Maybe people will underestimate it. I don't because I know about this history. When Ben Gurion founded Israel 1948 in the Megillat Atzma'ut which is how do you say that in English? The declaration of independence. He did not want to put in Hashem's name. The religious representatives in the party made a protest, so they made a compromise. What was the compromise? You could read it. They wrote Tzur Yisrael. That it was founded with the help of the rock of Yisrael. Now, WHAT'S THE ROCK OF YISRAEL? SO, if you're a Yid who goes to shul three times a day, you say, "TZUR YISRAEL V'GO'ALO." THE ROCK OF YISRAEL IS HASHEM. BUT, you can also say Tzur Yisrael means, YEAH, THE MOSSAD. SO, YISRAEL IS KHEIL HA'AVIR. Tzur Yisrael is Golani. Tzur Yisrael is Tzanhanim. TZUR YISRAEL IS CYBER SECURITY. TZUR YISRAEL IS GOOD PILOTS. TZUR YISRAEL IS INTERCEPTORS of ballistic missiles. THAT'S THE ROCK. THE ROCK, RESILIENCE. BUT, they did not forget to mention Hashem's name indirectly. The prime minister last week, last Thursday, made a press conference, the first press conference since the war of Iran. I listened to the speech. Wasn't long. And I started to cry twice. First thing is I heard him mention Hashem four times. At one point, it was so moving when he said, and I quote almost verbatim, it's not mama's verbatim, but uh I'm not a khozer over Netanyahu, but uh I heard it. And he said, "Hakadosh Baruchu natan lanu hisdamnut. Hashem has given us now an opportunity to live in our homeland, to crush our enemies, to protect ourselves, not allow ourselves to be destroyed, not allow ourselves to be exiled, and to obliterate those who want to destroy all of us. This is an opportunity that Hakadosh Baruchu that Hashem gave us, and we are utilizing this gift and opportunity that he gave us." And four times he kept on saying, "Hashem did it b'ezrat Hashem, all of this." And I was standing I was moved because in the past Israeli prime ministers and leaders were afraid to mention Hashem's name. And it was really embarrassing cuz when the Arabs show up, they show up with their garments and their customs and their culture, not embarrassed. Jews were often too humiliated and embarrassed by their Jewishness. But, here obviously he feels that the zeitgeist of the nation has changed. The zeitengeist of the nation has evolved. And when I heard him, this is where I cried twice. He spoke about the synthesis today between the Jewish physical strength and the Jewish spiritual strength. He said the shiluv, the synthesis between the tzad ha'rukhni and the tzad ha'gashmi. The spiritual and the physical. Because that's really what everybody is feeling today. I could say I think with pretty much security, when that Israeli pilot of the air force gets into the airplane and is flying 50 1,700 km from Israel to Iran to obliterate Khamenei, to obliterate the ayatollahs, to obliterate the scientists who have one agenda. What is that pilot feeling in that airplane? I doubt that he's the one of them who's saying, "Wow, look how arrogant. Look how Look how handsome I am. Look how powerful I am." I think every single one of them feels in the core of their bones that they're representing Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov, Moshe Rabbeinu, Rabbi Akiva, Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai, and generations of Jews who are here 3 and 1/2 thousand years later because of our faith and our resilience and our love and our unity and our connection, and realizing that we need to have power as messengers of Hashem. Tzur Yisrael v'go'alo may save our rishus. And knows what we say in the Haggadah, "B'khol dor va'dor omdim aleinu l'khaloseinu v'Hakadosh Baruchu matzileinu miyadam." They're feeling it in the core of their bones. They're feeling it. That's the combination that we're experiencing now, and that's where the the the comparison to Purim is so powerful and even deeper. Because today it may be even in a more revealed way to see all the nissim v'nifla'os, and to realize that it's not through just the splitting of the sea. It's all through the garments of nature, with a Trump and Netanyahu and Iran and everything. And yet, it's one big divine miracle that's completely beyond anybody, and yet completely through nature. That's the synthesis that represents geulah. That is what redemption looks like. That deep deep awareness in our consciousness, in our nervous system. The fact that a prime minister is not afraid to say four times in a press conference. He wasn't speaking to the to a yeshiva. I understand you're in a yeshiva, you you you tell them what they want to hear. This is a press conference for the world, and to say it four times I would say it was it was for me it was an emotional moment that represented a transformation in Jewish life, in Jewish consciousness. Because Netanyahu is not a yeshiva bochur. >> [laughter] >> And yet to see that, it also brought back a moment that I want to share with you cuz I saw this with my own eyes. And it was very strange to me. And somebody texted me this week about it, and it brought it back to me, and then I'm like, "Wow, who I I can't say this for sure, but who knows?" I was 12 years old. It was Simchas Torah, taf shin mem hei. 1984. This was not George This is not Orwell's 1984. This was really 1984. Simchas Torah I was 12 years old. My bar mitzvah was yet My bar mitzvah was that year in June, Sivan. So, this was a few months before, a year almost a year before. I was 12-year-old boy. And Simchas Torah of course is the second night of Yom Tov. In Israel there's no Simchas Torah. They only have Shmini Atzeres, excuse me. My father, aleha hashalom, was a journalist most of his life, all of his life. He was a correspondent of Yedioth Ahronoth in the United Nations. Yedioth Ahronoth is a very secular Israeli newspaper, the largest Israeli Israeli daily, and he was its correspondent in the UN. He succeeded his friend Elie Wiesel. And he had other newspapers, his own Yiddish newspaper, the Algemeiner Journal. That >> [laughter] >> was a Yiddish newspaper, and he worked for for the press for many many years. So, and my father loved it. He loved politics, he loved the White House, he loved going to press conferences, he loved going to the United Nations. I'm somewhat allergic, it's one thing I didn't inherit, but my father he loved that world. He really cherished it. He was good at it, he appreciated it. In 1984 1984 Simchas Torah, there was a new Israeli council in New York, meaning the representative of Israel here in New York in the United Nations. Israel always has a representative in the Nations, and his name was Bibi Netanyahu. This was his first very young man. His first political diplomatic career. He had a good English, he was a Harvard student, you know, he grew up in in Israel. His father is a was a historian, and he came. My father would often bring the Israeli councils of New York to the Lubavitcher Rebbe for hakafos on Simchas Torah cuz they could drive. Cuz by them it's not Yom Tov, so even officially they could drive, so they would come to 770. It was very very inspirational. He felt it was very good for them, it was good for the Jews, it would give them ko'ach. It was a very beautiful event, thousands of people dancing. So, that year Netanyahu came with a few of his helpers. And they would always go to the front, they would give them a sefer Torah, they would dance, they would stay there for a few minutes, then they would go they would go back. I was a kid and I was standing there. And I didn't know who Netanyahu was, my father knew him. My father knew him. And I see that Netanyahu goes up to the Rebbe, and you know, and I thought it's going to be a good Yom Tov and, you know, a blessing and they give him a sefer Torah, he'll dance. And Netanyahu, I was almost a few feet away. The the guy told the Rebbe, "Good chag sameach, ba'iti lirot otcha. I came to see you." So, the Rebbe said, "Only to see me, not to speak to me? You just want to see me?" And he said, "If the Rebbe wants to speak, we could speak." So, the Rebbe started to talk to him. Now, you have to understand this scene. This is 770 Eastern Parkway. There were around between 5 and 8,000 men. Legally you're supposed to have 2,000 people there, but we're not going to get into that. Hope the zoning department doesn't listen. There were probably, I don't know, 5 6 7 8,000. I don't know well I don't know the exact number, but it was huge. People were hanging from beams and from air conditions and from poles and from nails and from tap. You could see the vapor and the steam coming up because it was shreklich. They have you 10 MINUTES. "ATZOL ATZOL ATZOL." The women's section were another few thousand women. And everybody came for hakafos. The Rebbe would lead the hakafos for hours. It was dancing. It was very very inspirational. The Rebbe would dance with ecstasy, and everybody was dancing, and it was very special. Now, the Rebbe was very calculated with his time, naturally. So, I'm there, and Netanyahu is going over, and the Rebbe starts talking to him. It's the middle of the hakafos. 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes. My father was standing right there. It was the Rebbe, my father, Rabbi Groner was the secretary, Netanyahu, a few people. I had a craving to go over, but I didn't think it was appropriate, so I didn't hear the conversation, I just saw. And the Rebbe was talking 45 minutes. And I have to say, I was 12 years old, so I wasn't asking questions, but it was very strange. Yeah, that you you had 7 8,000 people in a room waiting. They weren't part of the conversation. And I knew the Rebbe wasn't talking to him about some deep idea with Simchas Torah hakafos. As my father told me after, it was all about what's happening in the United Nations, what's happening in the Arab countries, security of Israel. And I wondered the Rebbe could have after Yom Tov sent a message, "If you could come over, Netanyahu would be more than happy to come, it was a big privilege, and he could come." And literally the whole shul stopped, and I saw the Rebbe's secretary was trying a few times and it's and the Rebbe was just like ignoring him. Mom is ignoring him. When my father came home after I said, "What was going on over there? What happened? Like 45 minutes? What What was there to talk about?" One of the things the Rebbe told him is that the United Nations is a house of lies. That's what he said. It's a house of lies. And when you go to a house of lies, you're going to be there every single day, you can only light a candle of truth. And a candle of truth will expel lies. But really he was trying to explain to him all the mistakes that Israeli leaders did for decades of compromising and compromising and compromising and saying that this is going to build the terror much more cuz every compromise emboldens them to tell them that they could kill more and more and more and you have to change the whole discotheque. And then somebody texted me this morning and that this morning a few days ago, were you there when Netanyahu came to the Rebbe? I said, "Yeah, I was there. I was 12 years old. I saw the whole thing." He said, "Why do you think the Rebbe stopped Hakafos for 45 minutes when you have thousands people, men and women, little kids? And by the way, you know what time this was?" Hakafos started 1:00 in the morning. So this was approximately 1:30, 2:00, 1:15, 1:30 in the morning. And this kids, what do you have to do this for? I still don't know the answer, but then I realized. A tzaddik has very, very long long vision. And what's happening right now since October 7th is not simple. The One This happened Simchat Torah October 7th was Simchat Torah. I can't say this for sure cuz I'm not a tzaddik, I'm not a prophet, I don't have this. But then I saw who knows what the Rebbe saw. And what he was trying to give the person who we knew might have to stand up to a world including many Jews who are very, very weak and afraid and apologetic. And the truth is he himself made quite a few mistakes especially in this area. But after October 7th he probably realized and woke up. And under his leadership Hezbollah is being dismantled, Hamas is being dismantled, Syria fell apart and now Iran is being dismantled. It's not easy. This takes a lot, a lot of courage. And who knows if the Rebbe didn't feel that dafka right there by Hakafos, by Simchat Torah in that process, in that environment, that's where he has to talk about it. It gives koachus to an neshama in ways that people don't imagine. I once heard Netanyahu tell over the story of that Hakafos after he spoke at the UN about Iran. I heard him say over the story and at the end he said that when he finished the conversation after 45 minutes, the Rebbe took a sefer Torah and went to dance. And he said, "And I saw this man holding a little sefer Torah and 5,000 people dancing." And he says the smoke went up, the vapor. He said it looked like Har Sinai on smoke. And then I understood the power of netzach Yisrael, the power of the Jewish people and what the Torah did for them. What that seed planted in the soul consciously and subconsciously, I don't know. But when I thought about it this week, I realized, you know, there's a seder as the Maharal says is a seder that sometimes a tzaddik is privy to even if we don't always see everything. I also want to mention one more thing which I think is is a right thing to mention. Netanyahu had a father, his name was Benzion. He was a historian. He wrote a book on the Spanish Inquisition and expulsion cuz that was his expertise. He was a real historian. He had a 100th birthday. He was 100 years old and they made a birthday party. This is tough 16 years ago. That's what? Tafshin Ayin, 2010. Now, were you ever at a birthday party of a grandmother, a grandfather, a person who's 100 years old or 95 years old or 99 years old? You know, they're special occasions, right? Even a birthday party 60, 70, 80 is very special, certainly 100. Who comes? Family, old friends, students. So people came for Benzion Netanyahu's 100th birthday. Now, what do you think most people who speak at their birthday 100 years old, what do they talk about? Be'ezrat Hashem when you're going to speak at your 100th birthday uh in 100 years or whatever it is. What do you What What do What do you think people say at their 100th birthday? What would you say? Huh? Yeah. You're thankful, right? You're thankful for your life, for your family, for your for your loved ones, for your friends, for the beautiful That's what people do. They reflect on the personal milestones, whether it's marriage, whether it's family, whether it's youth, whether it's accomplishments. This guy gets up at his 100th birthday and he says, "I have to talk about the most important threat on the Jewish people. From a historian's perspective we have something that nobody is looking at and that's Iran. Yeah, we have our neighbors who make terrorist attacks, but over there in Iran you have a regime that is building building a foundation to destroy every Jew. And this is what has to be dealt with. And he went down. He went down. That's my 100th birthday. I have to say there was one person in the crowd who listened to his father. And that was his son. And to his credit, with his mistakes, but to his credit throughout his career, he did not stop talking preaching, pontificating, screaming in the UN and all over the world about Iran. And now with God's grace and bishlichus of Hashem he was zoche to what very few Jewish leaders were zoche, to wipe out the Haman Harasha of our times, the Amalek of our times. So he listened to his father at that occasion. And that too is an incredible, incredible moment. So now, let's bring it all together here and finalize the point be'ezrat Hashem Yisbarach. And by the way, if you want to be a darshan, you shomus, I mean Purim happened through Mordechai and Esther who came from which tribe? Binyamin. Okay. So Binyamin, Binyamin. He was also zoche to have the name Binyamin and apparently this is somehow connected connected to Binyamin. This is what we say every day, Shema Yisrael Hashem Elokeinu Hashem Echad. Everybody asks, it's a very strange pasuk. It should have said Shema Yisrael Hashem Echad. Hashem Elokeinu Hashem Echad. Why three times? Shema Yisrael Hashem Echad, God is one. The answer is No. You're saying something very deep. We're not just saying that there's one God, there's no 100 gods. We're saying something much deeper. Shema Yisrael Hashem, Yud Kay Vav Kay has three words in it, haya, hoveh, v'yihiyeh. He was, he is, and he will be because Yud Kay Vav Kay represents the creator who transcends time and space. Even according to modern physics and science, time and space began with the Big Bang. Before there was a Big Bang, they'll tell you there was no time and there was no space. Now, we can't imagine what that means. What does it mean there was no time and there was no space? But the truth is that is a dimension of the Big Bang. In Havaya, Yud Kay Vav Kay, it's beyond space, beyond time, so past, present, and future are all one. Elokeinu Elokeinu in Hebrew means our koach, our strength. This is our consciousness. This is the way Hashem's energy becomes the consciousness of the world, which is defined by time and space and nature and the limits of the world. That's why Elokim is bigematria hateva, which is 86, alef lamed alef yud mem. So Shema Yisrael Hashem Elokeinu is Hashem Echad, it's one. And that is Elokeinu, that is our consciousness. The consciousness of every Jew is haya, hoveh, v'yihiyeh, which is l'maala min hateva. That's the seder that the Maharal is talking about. So it's not two separate realities anymore. That is what is being revealed as we speak today. As we speak today, this is what's being revealed. That Hashem Elokeinu Hashem Echad, that perfect synthesis between nature and miracles. That's why Chizkiyahu didn't say shira for whatever reason. But today it behooves us einanu maspikim l'hodos to say shira for these grand miracles and to create that miracle in our own life. What does it mean to create that miracle in our own life? That's sometimes a little harder. Not everybody here is striving planes to Iran to send down what you have to send down to eliminate Amalek. But in each of us, we have this dilemma, we have this struggle, we have this chaos, we have this lack of seder. We often detach the two parts of our life. And the truth is it's all one, ein od milvado. We can create that seder, we can have that courage to be able to surrender and realize to be omer davar b'shem omro. Omer davar b'shem omro, I don't have to take responsibility for that which is not mine. I want to take responsibility for being the shliach to be able to channel the energy that Hashem gives me right now to bring all the love and light and infinite oneness into the world. Until we'll see from this shira to be able to see how Megillas Esther will never be batel even l'moisa Mashiach cuz it's going to bring out this truth. And Hashem should give us that we should be able to continue to see complete victory and complete redemption. Amen. Thank you. Have a beautiful week.