Rabbi Kalman Flaks: PURIM - The Rose of Jacob - Shoshanos Yaacov

[music] [singing] [music] [singing] [music and singing] [singing] [music] [music and singing] [music] [singing] [music] [singing] [music] [singing] [music] [singing] [music] [singing] [singing and music] [music] [singing] [music] [singing] [music] [singing and music] >> Rabbi, will you tell me when I should start? >> [singing] [music] [singing] [music] [singing] [music] [singing] [music] [singing] [music] [singing] [music] [singing] [music] [singing] [music] [singing] [music] [singing] [music] [singing] [music] [singing and music] [singing] [music] [singing] [music] >> Okay, so Arab tov, my holy brothers and sisters. Such a special, special night. Arab tightness. Esther and uh Arab Arab Purim. Give hot. Give hot. So, tonight's limud, of course, is dedicated to the entire Jewish people and the protection of all of Am Yisrael, especially all of our brothers and sisters here in Eretz Yisrael. Should should protect us from anything flying our way. Should should protect all of the chayalim. Um B'ezrat Hashem, as of yesterday at my brothers were called up. Um and actually I told them give me a a little extra time to be with my family and to be with you guys. Get get Purim in there and and there's a good chance I'm going to be joining uh next week uh in uh Shechem Shechem, one of these uh yishuvim that my unit is stationed in. So we're also dedicating our Torah for their protection. And for all of Am Yisrael's protection in these special special days. Tonight is a tfila class as always and we're going to be veering from our normal uh seder where we're in the middle of birchas hashachar and instead we're going to do something Purim-related. Something to deepen our kavana for one of the most special Purim prayers. But but just before we do that, I need to just mention something about tomorrow. Tomorrow is Taanis Esther. And it's one of those fast days that no one's quite sure what's going on. All right, why why exactly are we fasting? It's a little like out of place, you know? It's almost Purim, we're getting ready to get super happy, it's the holiest happiest day of the year, but wait, before we do that, we have to fast. And of course we know our Sages point out before we have a high in Judaism, we always have to have a not low, but a teshuvah. You can't have a real high in Yiddishkeit without introspection. Without getting in touch with your inner kishkes and that's what teshuvah does. And the fasts are there to help us get in touch with our neshama. Kick kick the body away a little bit by fasting so we can focus on our soul and focus on what we need to fix in life. But a lot of people don't That's true in general. But why specifically before Purim? So the classical answer of course is why do we fast before Purim because Well, people most people think because Esther fasted, right? Only problem is, when did Esther actually fast? Pesach time. That doesn't seem to be a sufficient answer. We should fast on Pesach. The base Esther fast What does that have to do with Taanit Esther? So, the Rosh suggests, yeah? The Rosh suggests that and this is brought down in the Mishna Berurah, even though it's not written in the Tanakh, and it's not written in the Gemara, but it must be that on the 13th of Adar the people fasted because they went to war. You know, what do the Americans do before they go to war? They get some good protein bars and eat a lot of fish. But what do Jews do before we go to war? We fast. It's connected to our soul. And so, they must have fasted on the 13th of Adar. And so, we to commemorate that fast, we also fast on the 13th of Adar. That's the first explanation brought by the Mishna Berurah. Still, it seems a bit strange. It's not even mentioned in the text itself. So, I actually heard from Rabbi Goldstein who quotes the Kabbalists. And you'll ask, which Kabbalists? Don't worry, I wrote it down. Um so, Rabbi Shammai Kahat Gross. And then, it was actually originally brought down in the name of the Yismach Moshe of Titelbaum and other It's great song. And he was a great Kabbalist, and they all write the same amazing concept. They say that even though halakhically it seems like Taanit Esther is most lenient of the fast, but spiritually, mystically, this is the holiest, the most important fast day of the entire year. Why? What's so important about it? You see, it says in Megillat Esther, ki k'tav asher nikhtav b'shem ha'melekh ein la'hashiv. Something that was written by the king cannot be erased. And of course on a partial shot level that's referring to Ahasuerus. Ahasuerus when he wrote the decree we can't nullify it so we have to write some new letters. But of course of course we have a tradition from Hazal that whenever it says Melech it's really referring to Hashem. So who is the Melech who really really wrote a decree upon the Jewish people? Hakadosh Baruch Hu Hashem made a decree on the Jewish people to wipe us out. Pretty scary. Why did he make this decree? Now we know there's a big argument in Megillah. Rebbe Shimon bar Yochai asks his students, what did they do that they deserve this decree? The first opinion was that they participated in the Seudah of Ahasuerus celebrating the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash. Right? Second opinion, not really second opinion, Rebbe Shimon bar Yochai says I think a better answer is that they bowed to the Tzelem, to Avodah Zarah. A different kind of related answer, not in the Gemara but I think a close reading of the text might indicate that the the Jewish people stayed in Shushan instead of making Aliyah with Ezra and Nechemiah to rebuild the Beit Hamikdash, they stayed and participated in that feast. Whatever the sin was we need to do Cheshbon Nefesh on Taanis Esther and ask are we do we in any way still taste of that same sin? And we need to nullify that decree because the decree was never completely gotten rid of. We simply pushed it off on Purim. On Taanis Esther we pushed it off and every year we need to push off that decree that still hangs over our head, the decree of Haman. Haman's not gone yet. We still are we we're we're working at every day we're getting a lot closer, especially yesterday. Right? For all of us watching the news we know we got a lot closer. And we know every mitzvah we do has many years says especially when you read Krias Megillah the Ben Ish Hai writes here mama's chipping away big time at Amalek and bringing the Messiah closer as we'll talk more about tonight. But Taanis Esther, we need to fast, we need to do teshuvah. And you know, there were times in our history when it manifested itself. R' Shamai said that on the Khmelnytsky uh terrible Holocaust that terrible pogrom that happened 1648 1649 was alluded to in Megillas Esther. The big letters of Megillas Esther pointed to the Khmelnytsky um pogroms. So, scary days, you know, for those who are listening to the news. We know that scary things are flying over our heads. So, it's an important day to take seriously. I know, don't worry, I'm a pretty happy guy. You can be happy and serious at the same time. Taanis Esther is a happy day. We're happy, but we're serious and we're going to take our teshuvah seriously. So, I just had to say that about tomorrow as we jump into our tfilah regularly scheduled tfilah share and tonight we're going to learn about Shoshanas Yaakov. Okay? So, Shoshanas Yaakov is not only one of my favorite songs, uh but it is to me always one of the climaxes of uh of Purim. Especially in Chutz La'aretz when you're fasting and you're you're waiting for the Megillah to be to hear the Megillah, but also to get to your food. And the Megillah is over and then you don't just run to the food. You dance and you sing Asher Henny, the piyyut. And then at the end of Asher Henny, we have these beautiful words of Shoshanat Yaakov Tzahala VeSamecha Lirot Tamyachad Kehilat Mordechai. Don't worry, we'll sing it at the end. Or you might know the American version. Shoshanat Yaakov Tzahala VeSamecha Lirot Tamyachad Kehilat Mordechai. Chu dam chu dam ay ya la la your version is, it's all good cuz you cuz it's a beautiful song and you're so happy. Only thing is, nobody actually knows what the words mean cuz we only say it once a year and what it's very poetical. It's very hard to understand what's going on. So, don't worry. It's good you came tonight cuz we're going to now deepen our understanding of this tefillah. And not only that, along the way we're going to have all new appreciations of Purim and many of the beautiful minhagim of Purim. So, aren't we glad that we came tonight? Give up. Okay, I'll just say this year uh is based on Rabbi Dr. Nachum Amsel's beautiful article and Rabbi Dovid Cohen of Yeshivas Chevron, the Rosh Yeshiva. Um so, unbelievable divrei Torah coming your way. So, first off, a little history. Who wrote Asher Yatzar? It was written We don't know. We don't know exactly when it was written. Um the Anshei Knesset HaGedolah wrote it according to the Machzor Vitry, the 11th century century student of uh of Rashi. Uh the And in fact, scholars believe that the language and the rhyme and the tone and the meter uh link it to the 5th century, no later than the 5th century. So, we're talking Talmudic times. It's an ancient prayer. Maybe it goes back to the Anshei Knesset HaGedolah themselves. Others want to say maybe it was finished in the 11th century. We don't really know. Not really sure. But, it's an ancient custom. Now, where does it come from to say this at the end of the Megillah of Esther? So, in the Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim taf resh tzadik siman seif taf zayin, the Shulchan Aruch of Yosef Karo brings down, "Tzarich she'yomar arur Haman baruch Mordechai." We have to say, "Cursed is Haman, blessed is Mordechai." You got to say it. "Arurah Zeresh, bruchah Esther." "Cursed is Zeresh, boo, and blessed is Esther. Arurim kol amei Cursed are all the idolaters, blessed are Israel. Blessed cursed are the are all the Iranian dictatorship people and all the ayatollahs and blessed are the holy Jewish people and all the brave fighters and all the good American soldiers helping us out. And don't forget the Harbona. You got to remember the Harbona. And this my friends is a halacha in the Shulchan Aruch. If you forget Harbona, you're in big trouble. You didn't sorry you got to do it. It's in the Shulchan Aruch and that most likely assuredly is where this custom of Shoshanat Yaakov because of this halacha in the Shulchan Aruch even though the song predates the Shulchan Aruch but the Shulchan Aruch is really just quoting the Gemara. The Gemara brings this concept down from the Shavuot that we need to declare and this is strange because we don't find this by other holidays. Do we have on Hanukkah men we go up and we say cursed is Antiochus and blessed is Judah the Maccabee. Pesach we don't have a halacha cursed is Pharaoh and blessed is Moses. It's true you have to say a bunch of stuff but we don't have this particular formulation. So what's what's what's going on? There's got to be something deeper going on. Okay. So we're going to answer that question please God but along the way we're going to unravel a lot of the words the deep words of Shoshanat Yaakov. Let's start from the beginning. Shoshanat Yaakov tzahala vesamecha. The rose or the lily of Jacob she's very happy. When we see together the blue of Mordecai. Okay. salvation was eternal and their hope forever and ever. Very beautiful. What's going on? Who is the shoshana? Who is Yakov? Let's start from shoshana. Who does shoshana generally refer to in biblical speak? I'm sorry. Where did you get that from? Yeah, fair. From Shira Shirim. Hamelech. That the Jewish people are compared to a rose. Rose among thorns. That is the Jewish people amongst the daughters. Okay. So, not only that. Okay. First of all, we are why are we a rose among the thorns? Let's just start partial shot. Why are we a rose among the thorns? Who is the thorns? The non-Jews. The nations who want to kill us. All the Dinajads. Okay. And we are a rose. We're beautiful amongst all these thorns. That's us. Beautiful. And I guess that works with with Purim, right? Because Purim we were going to get destroyed. We survived. Let's eat at once. Okay. But it goes a little deeper than that. Who else is a shoshana? Take the gematria of shoshana. Trust me. 661. What's the gematria of Esther? 661. Very nice. So, maybe it's an allusion to the Jewish people and to Esther at the same time. Very nice. Now, why are the Jewish people here referred to as the shoshana of Yakov? Shoshana Yaakov, of Yakov. Why not the lily of Avraham? The lily of Moses? The lily of Yosef? Why Yaakov? What does Yaakov refer to when it comes Yaakov is somebody who's not. So, in other words, Yaakov is named Yaakov, but at times he's called Yisrael. And they both symbolize different aspects, different elements of Yaakov Avinu. Nachon. Avraham and Yitzchak were the building blocks, but Yaakov actually had the 12 children. So, you're saying he represents the Jewish nation in in in in a strong way. But that can lead us back to Adam's question. Okay, why don't we refer to him as Yisrael? Why do we sometimes refer to him as Yaakov and sometimes refer to him as Yisrael? So, perhaps we can suggest that Yaakov has a particular symbolism. And I'll give you an example of where we get this from. Take this following pasuk. Okay, I erased it from my notes. Oops. But we have right when Yaakov Avinu is going to exile. And he And God calls out to Yisrael, but he says, "Yaakov, Yaakov, don't be scared. I'll Don't be scared. Al tifchad. Yeah, and don't be scared because I'm going to go down with you." In other words, Yaakov symbolizes the Jewish people in their exile, in their struggle in this dark exile with enemies all around us. That's what Yaakov symbolizes. Yisrael is that struggle when we are victorious, maybe back in Eretz Yisrael. But Yaakov is when we're still in the exile and we're struggling. Yaakov is is about the struggle. Another example of this, "Vayeishev Yaakov be'eretz Megureiha Avraham be'eretz Kena'an." Yaakov wanted to sit. What does Rashi Rashi say? "Bikkesh Yaakov lashevet beshalvah." Yaakov wanted to just chill." But Kof so love God said, "No, no, no, no, no. Yakov is all about struggles. No such thing. You'll sleep in the next world. This world you have to fight." That's and and and Sadiq the next world you rest. This world you have to fight. You have to fight and the struggles and there's hard times, but you continue to be faithful to with your amunah. That's Yakov dark times, struggle, exile, Shoshanas Yakov we're still holding on to Baruch. Yeah? >> [snorts] >> We don't sing hollow cuz the salvation is not complete. We're not back in Israel. I think that's one element of why we're talking about Yakov. I think there's a whole different element of Yakov and that comes down to the following theory that when the fight between Yakov and Esau has a reincarnation comes about up again in Jewish history. Can anybody guess when does that original fight of Yakov and Esau come up again? Hint hint, it's coming soon. That too, but I exactly Amalek. The story of Purim is really the reincarnation battle to Rocky 2. Yakov and Esau come back. Let me try to prove this theory of of mine. We know that Yakov and Esau from the beginning they were at it, right? Yakov these named Yakov because he's grabbing at the ankle of Esau. They're destined to be battling over what are they battling over? Over the Baruch. Yakov wants the Baruch. Rifka wants to give it to him. He He to do it through deceit. How did he end up getting the bracha? He had to use trickery. He had to dress up. He had to be deceptive and somehow got that bracha. And then for the rest of world history, we're battling over this bracha. The Zohar writes, "All of world history is really this battle over who's going to get the bracha. Is it going to be the Haman? Is it going to be the Esau? Is it going to be Amalek? Or is it going to be Yakov? Is it going to be Mordechai?" And that can explain a lot of interesting details in uh Megillas Esther. Okay? It all comes down to this principle. Embrace as chof zayin. When Yitzchak Esau begs Yitzchak for just one bracha. And what does Yitzchak say? "Al charebecha tiye. You're going to live on the sword at the chika tavon you're going to serve your brother. Vayaka asher tarid ufarachta ulom al tzavarecha. But there will be times when Yakov goes down, the cycle goes up and then you can cast off his yoke and you can reign over him. That's the bone that he gets thrown by Yitzchak Avinu. So in other words, Esau is not just any enemy. It's a cycle. When Yakov is on top, Esau by nature is down and the opposite. They're all they're interrelated. Okay? Where is the Gemara in Megillah daf vav amud aleph says, "If somebody says to you, 'Caesarea is in ruins.' Caesarea of course was the capital of Rome, of the Roman culture, Esau culture, and Jerusalem is built, believe it. Goes together. Caesarea down, Yerushalayim built. Someone says, 'Yerushalayim is in ruins and Caesarea is in ruins.' Don't believe it. They're They can't be. There's always one on top, one of the other. That's what the Gemara says. They're They're not just any enemy. He's the arch enemy and one cannot be on top without the other one going down. And now, I think with that perspective, we can understand what the whole battle, what this whole Mordecai was doing here. Cuz most normal people No, normal people shouldn't speak that way, but the Gemara describes that at the end of the story, Mordecai is beloved to rove achi, most of his brothers, but not everybody was so happy with Mordecai. Some Jews felt that Mordecai did not act correctly. What was their perspective? Mordecai, why you starting up with this Haman guy? Why you Why didn't you just bow? The end of the day, we've seen the brothers, you you seen Avraham Avinu bow. What's the big deal? A little bow, a little subservience. It's not such a big deal, no? Shalom shalom, but Yaakov Avinu I'm I'm saying Mordecai understands, no. If I'm down and he's up, it can't be. And And Mordecai refuses to bow, even risking his life. Did he know it would risk the lives of all the Jews? I don't know. Maybe a Ruach Hakodesh. Certainly had Ruach Hakodesh Rav Dessler writes. And we'll get back to that, but you can understand why some people were annoyed with Mordecai, but Mordecai says, no. It's I will not bow to this Amalekite. I will not bow to this Hamanite. The Midrash describes how Mordecai actually wrote on the boot of Amalek of Haman Amalek. He He represented the core Amalek, and he could not bow to him. He said, "A very nice Midrash, but do we have any textual proof for this link between Esau and Haman?" I found something really special. We know in Perek Gimmel Pasuk Vav, uh Haman is very, very angry with Mordecai cuz he won't bow down. And what is it say and it was lowly in his eyes to just, you know, smite Mordecai alone. He did not Mordecai. Since then he says I'm going to destroy the whole nation of Mordecai. By now. Does that sound familiar? Does anyone else remember this language of this? He was Yeah. And when I think I think it was when Jacob and Esau Exactly. Parshat Parshat Vayishlach Jacob gave him the soup. And he was disgusted. He threw away the birthright. So now Haman's trying to take it back. Mordecai took it from my great-grandpa, Haman um uh Amalek, Esau. And I want it back. And so I I I'm going to take back and crush Mordecai. I'm going to put him to the down. I'm going to crush the the whole nation of um Mordecai. Actually today a few more little hints to this. I I found a few hints in the even in our parsha. Okay? We have in our parsha the mitzvah of machatzit hashekel. Giving the shekel. So it says in the parsha they knew call of there. This is what you should give. They knew. Call of there to be a stream channel of a mile. You tend to anyone is 20 years old should give a half a shekel. There. So writes the Baal HaTurim something very interesting. You take the word Esrim shana mala you get the words ayin, shin, vav. What does that spell? Ayin, shin, vav. Esau. Esau is hidden in the midst of Machatzis Hashekel. Oh, didn't that beautifully connect to the Midrash which says not the not the Midrash, it's Parshas Shekalim that Haman wanted to give 10,000 shekels to Achashverosh. Midrash says, why 10? And he he said, "I'll give you 10,000 shekels, just let me kill the Jews." Why 10,000 shekels? Because he's trying to knock out the half shekel that the Jewish people are giving to God. Half shekel. You add it up, you do the math, it comes out to 10,000 shekel. 10 talents. 10 talents of gold. 10 talents of silver, sorry. Esau is trying to knock out the Jews. Haman is trying to knock out the Jews. We are trying to knock him out by giving by giving to Hashem. And he is trying to give to Achashverosh in order to knock to nullify, so to speak, our giving. So, it's zeh luma zeh. The zeh. No. Remember that word zeh? Zeh's gematria points out the Baal HaTurim, 12. There were 12 tribes of Yaakov. How many were the chieftains of Esau? 12. Exactly the same. What does uh in the Megillah What does Achashverosh say when when when Esther says somebody's trying to wipe out a nation? He says, "Mi hu zeh? Ve'ay zeh hu? Who's the zeh? Who is it? Who is it? Is it Esau or is it Yaakov? Is it Mordechai or is it Haman? Who is going to rise? Cuz you can't have one without the other. There's only one zeh. Zeh kam ve'zeh nofel. It's gematria of Purim. Zeh luma zeh, it says in Mishlei. You have to You have to have the the kochos of good and the kochos of evil. And this is the eternal battle that's going on on on Purim. And this is what we are declaring every every year. We're reminding ourselves, we're reminding the world Arrogant Barack we're taking it back. We took it back and we're we're taking back the Barack with the Z. They're on they're not the Z. We're taking the Z back. That's what we're declaring when we do this beautiful uh beautiful custom. This also explains Zeresh. Zeresh is asked by by Haman. Haman needs a little bit of advice. And so what does he go to? He goes to the Hachamim. And he tells them Haman and Zeresh and all his friends everything that happened. And what does Zeresh say? And he tells how this this bad thing happened. He got marched throughout town. And Mordecai went on the the horse. What's this whole thing about the horse? And and he had to march him up. Zeresh says, "Ah, if Mordecai is a Jew, you will not be able to stand before him. He will not fall before him. This is an eternal battle. It's not just symbolic. Mordecai is up by definition even Zeresh recognizes that once you have one up, the other one has to be down and vice versa. So this is the battle of Jacob and Esau which is really coloring the whole story of Shoshanat Jacob of of of Megillat Esther. Now, with that in mind, I think we've established that this is the battle. What is the measure of Esau? What what is it about him? And we can say a lot of things, but what sticks out and what do we battle? So I think in the in the prayer itself we have a little bit of an of an answer. And that takes us to the next phrase. The greatness of Mordecai. The greatness of Mordecai. Let's read again. Be'ota sal u'samecha. Again, that's actually referencing the story that all of Shushan was sal u'samecha. They're very, very happy. Internally, that itself is a whole shear. What's the difference between sal and samecha? Internal and external happiness. I don't think we have time to go in depth, but there's very, very deep happiness through the Shoshana of Yaakov. Be'ota myachad cheil of Mordechai. When they see together the blue of Mordechai. So again, on a pashut p'shat level, when is Mordechai blue? Why are we referring to him as the blue guy? When do we see him as blue? Why is he Techeiles? So I think this is referring back to Esther chet tet vav. U'Mordechai yatzah milifnei hamelech bilvush malchut. And Mordechai goes dressed up very nicely. Cheiles vachur u'teret zahav v'dola u'tachrich butz u'argaman v'ayer Shushan sal u'samecha. Same phrase that's used in the song. So Mordechai goes out with all these beautiful clothing articles and the people of Shushan see him dressed in Techeiles. So that's why that's we call him Techeiles Mordechai. Very nice. But why? Why? What's the deeper idea? So where do we see another understanding of what is Techeiles? Why do we wear Techeiles on our tzitzis? Why did the Torah command us we have to have Techeiles? Why is there so much Techeiles in the Beis Hamikdash? Yeah? Blue, but why? Why blue? Why not yellow? Like you said, the ultimately the king is a cover to the different colors. >> Ah, Kavod. So the Gemara in Menachos daf mem amud alef says, "Mani ishtana Techeiles migozei ivanim?" Why is Techeiles different than all the other colors? "Mishum she Techeiles domeh layam." Because Techeiles reminds us of the sea. "V'yam domeh l'rakia." And the sea reminds us of the sky. "V'rakia domeh l'kisei hakavod." And the sky reminds us of the glorious throne in heavens. You know, in the revelation at Har Sinai it said it looked like sapphire, looked blue. So, that's why it's tcheiles. Of course, I have to see the blue here. Oh, and then of course I'm going to remember the sea. And then even the sea is kind of green, but no, I dyed it and now it's blue. And then I'm going to remember the sky and then of course. What? That's that's the that's the p'shat of why we have to wear tcheiles? There's many many beautiful explanations. The one I usually give is that the idea is that we tcheiles that's all idea. It's a little bit of a stretch, but we're connecting every experience we do to Hashem. We're finding a way to find Hashem in every single experience. But here's a beautiful explanation from Rav Amzallag and he says like this. You see, when you go up to the When you look from afar, the sky looks blue. When you go very up in the sky, you realize that up close it's not blue. It's white. When you go to the sea, it looks blue or green. When you go into the water, it's you realize it looks totally different. It looks white. So, what's tcheiles? Tcheiles is of course related to the root word tachlis. Purpose. Tachlis. When you see the tcheiles Mordechai, when you see the whole picture from afar, then you you see the blue. When you're up close, you're almost blinded. You can't see the beautiful blue. That was the Purim story. If we would have been in it, this 11-year story, maybe we too would have been like, "What's Mordechai doing not bowing?" We might have said, "Ah, what's the connection between Vashti and Esther and this decree?" It was a long journey. But Mordechai with his ruach hakodesh, he's looking at it from afar with the eyes of the long game, not the short game. That's Mordechai. That's Am Yisrael. That's us. It's not short-term, but long-term. What's the beginning of the Mesillas Yesharim? What's a Jew is someone who always asks himself I'm going to connect every action I have to netzach, to forever, to what's the goal behind it? Is this going to get me closer to Hashem, to Olam Haba? I'm not just working right now, what's going to make me feel good. What's the tachlis? And with that added to that perspective, that's what makes me a religious person. What's Esau? What does he say? Hali teni nami na adom adom hazah. I don't need the firstbornship. I can't think in the future. Right now, I give me that food, give me that soup. What's Haman? V'chol zeh einenu shaveli. All of this is not worth anything. If one thing is missing in my life, if one thing bothering me, then I'm not happy. But a year and a Mordechai sees a bigger picture, and that's the sal of sameach. That's tcheiles Mordechai, that's the blue that we're referring to. It's seeing the big picture. Which car Okay, you're seeing how it's all connected. Let's go and continue a little bit. Onward. Tzurasam tzurasam hayisah lanetzach. Their salvation was lanetzach, forever. V'tikvasam l'chol dor v'dor. Their hope is forever. What's the one holiday that's forever? Purim. The Gemara tells us that all the other holidays, the Midrash says, the Olam Haba, kol hamoadim yehei bateilim. Midrash Mishlei. The future, we're not going to celebrate any of the other holidays. Some explain, no, we'll celebrate them cuz the Torah is eternal, but it'll be like m'butal, like 1/60th to the holiness of Purim. Y'mei Purim lo yibatelu l'olam, but Purim will be forever. Purim is forever. Just like the war against Amalek is forever. Our time is forever. Purim is forever. More than all the other holidays. More than more than unbelievable. If I would have said to you you would call me a but that's what the says. Purim is something so special about it that it's forever. Why? Because it's the same as Purim. Because what? The same The same as Purim. Oh, it's the same as the same as the same as the after forever. Nice. Beautiful. I like it. Any other ideas? Why is Purim forever more than any other holiday? Yeah? We accepted the the Torah so it came from us. You had dark because we took it upon ourselves. It wasn't forced upon us. Very nice. Another beautiful explanation. We it came from things you do last forever. Beautiful. I heard another nice explanation. That Purim of course represents the of the Hester. Where is Esther in the Torah? Esther Esther. The God is hiding himself. Where is name in the Megillah? It's not there but it's everywhere. Because all the other holidays celebrate open miracles. And that's beautiful but it doesn't last. But Purim is when we see guiding hand in every when we realize that the entire thing that's been happening throughout the has been has been working. The drug is a nice muscle. He says imagine you have a man, a king and his son needs to do to her. He he messed up big. So he kicked him out of the palace and he throws him into the forest to work on himself. The thing is forest is really dangerous. So he sent some soldiers on the outside in the perimeter to make sure no bears or bandits harm this kid. But he makes sure that they they do it in a secret way. So that the kid doesn't realize that the king is protecting him so that he can do work on himself. Yeah, like the Truman Show a little bit. Like so he said that's this world. That's the goal of us. We don't realize it but God is behind the scenes protecting and guiding every little thing that's happening to us. But he doesn't want to reveal it so that we can grow. So that we can work on our gratitude, so we can work on our sham, so we can work on ourselves. If he made himself too obvious, it would ruin the whole thing. Ruin the whole movie. But on Purim we can get to such a state Mormish where we realize I don't know Yada. On a normal day using our simple intellect, we can't we can't get there. But on Purim we're able somehow to see that practice that's everywhere. And that brings me to the final little segment. Tell us to let it be known that all those who hope to you will never be embarrassed. They won't be embarrassed forever those who hope to you. But Mordecai and Yudi cursed is Haman and blessed is is Judah Yuda where Mordecai and Yudi were declaring it. Ahashverosh and Vashti, Esther and Mordecai. Cursed is Ahashverosh and blessed is Esther. By the way, I just have to shh mention something amazing. How many times is Haman mentioned in the Megillah? How many times? No, you're not supposed to know this. I wouldn't know it either if I didn't prepare this year. Don't worry. 52. 52. Okay? How many times is Esther mentioned in the girls Esther? 52. Unbelievable. That unbelievable one one according to the other. How many times is Zeresh mentioned in the girls Esther? Four. How many times is Mordecai mentioned in the girls Esther? 56. 52 plus four. Every little detail you thought that unbelievable unbelievable. And they we I just put out a different year about Purim fast 1946 and the little letters and the big letters every little detail of the girls Esther is so precise. The light of the girls Esther is far beyond even the light of the Torah says the Hashem safer. If I said it you'd you'd kick me out of here but that's what the Hashem safer says every little detail. So borrow Mordecai and and our Esther no no no sorry I am already out of the other and our our Haman I had a I had a I had a moment this week. My my three-year-old as you guys know he's having a little bit hard time speaking and he doesn't talk so much but he there's a rabbi he listens to Rabbi B. And one of the songs Rabbi B says is when I say Haman you make noise and so my kid loves Haman he makes a lot of like you love making noise in Haman. And so I brought Elisha to to to davening for Mincha and and you know I'm shaking and so he doesn't make noise and then we're up to the shots and I say amen. And so Elisha thought I was saying Haman so he said amen amen. So I was in the of Haman my kid saying amen you know unbelievable what a miracle because he knows Haman he's saying amen. Give out give out. If if all if if Haman knew anyways okay I got to tell you in our last 11 minutes a little bit about Harbona and a little bit of my a great story and then we'll sing a song. Okay. The final words are they got Harbona as Haman they got they got they got they got they got >> He's a side character. Who's this Harbona guy? Why do we have to mention him? It He didn't fulfill Purim. You don't mention this random guy. Who is Harbona? So, let's just review. Harbona was the guy if you remember, way back in the second chapter, he is one of the advisors to Memuchan. And who has all these common? We almost reach Shvi'i. On the seventh day, Shabbat, story of Amaleq by Amram and Haman, this is the Harbona da da da with Harbona with an aleph. And he gives advice to get rid of Vashti. Very nice. That's Harbona. Then, at the end of the Megillah, chapter seven, Haman is in big trouble. He falls down on the couch, right? And he's down for the count, and Esther is like looking at this guy, and Ahasuerus, right at that very moment, had come to check out the scene and see what's going on. He came to calm down. And who does he see fall falling down? That Amalekite, that Haman guy. He's falling, no, fell, the same word. But the thing is, you know, Ahasuerus, he's a little bit of a flimsy, whimsical. He could change his mind at any moment. He's really angry at this. He says, "A gam!" What does he say? Are you going to conquer the the queen when I'm in the in the house?" And he's very angry. And right at that moment, steps in Harbona. >> Right at that moment, he walks in and says, "Hey, Haman was making a gallows 50 cubits high." And then Ahasuerus says, "To the gallows and right away." Before he has a chance to change his mind, Ahasuerus kills him. So, we thank Harbona. If not for you, maybe Ahasuerus would have changed his mind. And we hang Harbona. Very nice. But what's the deeper idea? Why do we have to mention Harbona? So, I ask you, friends, what do you think? What does Harbona represent? Why do we have to mention Harbona? So, it seems to me Harbona represents all those little moments, all those little side characters. They themselves might not even realize what a what their place in Hashem's divine plan is. Harbona might have been doing it for political reasons. First, he's trying to knock out Vashti, now he wants to get rid of Haman. Who knows? But Hashem is using him as a puppet, as a pawn to fulfill the will of God. Not as any will of God, to fulfill the will of God that exactly what Haman tried to do to the Jewish people, he will get hung on that exact same way. Right? Same thing with the taxes, by right at the end of the Megillah, it says Ahasuerus we end kind of with the interesting fact that he took he taxed the whole Jewish people. Why do we care about the fact that Ahasuerus taxed the whole Jewish people? Cuz ultimately he's going to take that tax money, it's going to go to the king's treasury. Who's going to take the the king's money? Darius, the the son of uh uh of Esther, and he's going to use it to build the Beta Migdash. Ahasuerus tried to destroy the Beta Migdash. In the end, that same money is going to be used to build the Beta Migdash. Mida k'neged mida, the entire our entire lives, everything that happens to us is mida k'neged mida. And that's Hashem is utilizing the Harbonas. The Harbona is a Shkacha Pratis. Harbona is like the Vilna Gaon, all those little things that the whole year we might not understand why things are happening, but on Purim we are given the opportunity to see beyond the veil and lift ourselves and really our mission is to try to get to a place where we don't see any our Haman, we just see Hakadosh Baruch Hu as as the the the master, you know, playing with the puppets, with those those Harbonas in our lives. And that, I believe, is the message of Shoshanat Yaakov. And now we understand how it all ties through. Again, Shoshanat Yaakov Tzala v'Simcha The Jewish people in our exile, we're rejoicing because we're able to see the big picture. U've'Yad HaYachad Tcheilat, we're able to see the tachlis. We're able to see the big picture in our lives and we're able to see Hashem's big picture. Shua Tamima L'Netzach, our salvation is forever. Purim is forever. Tikvat Am Yisrael L'Dor VaDor Cursed are the wicked ones of of Amalek, blessed is the Jewish people. We're taking the brachas back on Purim. Ah, I almost forgot to say. Now we understand, of course, why we have to dress up on Purim. Why do we have to wear wear costumes? Okay, maybe you don't have to, but it's mentioned by the Ramaz wearing a mask and there's many beautiful explanations why we wear the the mask and costumes. But based on this explanation, friends, when did we first dress up? When was that first time when the Jewish people dressed up with a costume? Yaakov and Esau. Yaakov had to dress up in a costume on that Pesach night. Esther was fast Esther was fasting on Pesach. She pushed it off to Pesach to to get Haman killed. That was the day that we took the bracha by dressing up like in a costume. So on Purim, we're symbolically dressing up in a costume and we're taking the bracha back. We're going like our great-grandfather Yaakov and we're saying, "Hashem, we're Yaakov Avinu, we're taking that back. We're rising once again." And what better time than in our time period when we've with our own eyes, who could have imagined on parshas Zachor the destruction of Kaminy? We could not have in the movies I I I was thinking it had to happen on on Purim, but Hashem outsmarted us all. He did it on parshas Zachor and who knows what's going to happen very soon, please God. What types of salvations we're anticipating? Gevolt, gevolt. Harbona starts with an Harbona with an aleph, which means korban. But ultimately it's Harbona with a hey. Korban boneh. Even in the destructions in our lives, like we spoke about last week, we have to recognize the destructions are also building us. We don't understand why, we'll never understand why, but on Purim we have the obligation to try to lift ourselves higher and recognize even the things that seemingly are korban are really ultimately building us. And we say thank you. Thank you, Hashem, even for the korban things in our lives. One story and then we're going to sing. Okay. Heard the story from our good friend Barack Obama. Incredible story. So they hear this this this we're going to finish, my friends. The Heiliger Heiliger Baal Shem Tov, it was his court in Medzhybizh and of course everyone had to go to Purim by the Baal Shem Tov and the food was ki'ata melech, but nobody really and the wine, of course, but nobody really was coming for the food. Everyone was coming to hear the deep torahs of the rebbe, the holy Baal Shem Tov, whose holy words could transform a person, especially on the holiest day of the year on Purim, when the result is even higher than Yom Kippur, the kodesh hakodashim, which is the the the the Purim seudah. Kiv'at, and everybody's coming from far and wide. This is a true story. There was a man who came from Lemberg. He was actually a great Hasidic rebbe later, and he wrote beautiful sefarim, and he brought with him his son, Shaul. And Shaul was 5 years old, and the Baal Shem Tov took a particular liking to little Shauli. So sweet. So zees. And you know, Baal Shem Tov was feeding him some little honey cake during the meal, and it brought the Baal Shem Tov back to his days. You remember that the Baal Shem Tov before he was a great rabbi, he used to be a school teacher. He used to be a little teacher of the children, because their torah was so pure. And after Purim was over, the Baal Shem Tov goes over to the father and says, "I hope you don't think this is chutzpah, but do you think it's possible that I could take little Shauli and just spend some time with him for a few days?" And so, the man was honored. He said, "The the holy Baal Shem Tov to have some days with me. Just ask my kid." And Shauli said, "Of course, to be with the holy Baal Shem Tov would be the greatest honor. I wouldn't even cry, Tati. Don't worry." And nobody understood exactly what the kavana was for the Baal Shem Tov, but he must have had the holiest kavanas. And indeed, they spent some days together, and the Baal Shem Tov was teaching him torah. And then suddenly, the Baal Shem Tov said, "Chevra, it's time to take a trip. We have to get in the their little horse and buggy in the middle of the snow. We have to go on a journey. We're going back to Lemberg." And they went, and they traveled. But before they went, they went to the an inn. It wasn't any regular inn, it wasn't even a kosher inn. It was a Polish inn, a Polish tavern. And the Hasidim of the Baal Shem Tov asked themselves, "What's the Baal Shem Tov getting us into again this time?" Like, "What's going on?" And they walk in and there is, you know, Igor and uh, you know, Al- Al- Alex and uh, Vladimir and I don't know why the Polish people had Russian names, but that that's just how it was that that day. And Ivan and they're all they're all drinking and having l'chaims and they what's this big rabbi is doing here? But suddenly the Baal Shem Tov claps on the shtender in the bar. Says, "Friends, you think that's singing? Let me tell you a song." Listen to the song of little Shauli. Now, little Shauli, in the middle of the Purim seder, I forgot to mention, he was asked by the Baal Shem Tov to sing the Shoshanat Yaakov song. So, the Baal Shem Tov says, "Shauli, sing Shoshanat Yaakov like you've never sang before." So, he starts singing, closes his eyes and it's coming from a deeper place. >> [music] >> Shoshanat Yaakov >> [singing] [music] >> Shoshanat Yaakov [singing] >> [music] [singing] [music] >> Edut >> [singing] [music] >> V'ata >> [music and singing] >> l'dor v'dor Baruch Hayehudim >> [music and singing] >> Baruch >> [music] >> Suddenly the whole tavern is mumbling singing together give out give out like they never sang before. And at the end of [music] it all he opens up his eyes and they say wow, bravo. Bravo, that was that was something else. >> [music] >> And they leave the bar. And all the the Hasidim are very confused. What just happened? They know something very deep just happened. And the Baal Shem Tov returns little Shauli to his father. And Shauli ends up going up and becoming a great Torah scholar and a great businessman. And very respected by the community, he builds a family. And one finest day as he is on his way back to his family and he's driving back and suddenly he gets pulled to the side by three rough men. And they take out a knife. And they say give me all your money, Jew boy. And they push him to the side and they take his money. And he's about they're about to kill him and he says wait. Can I at least say one last prayer? And they say Jew boy, you can pray whatever you want. It's not going to help you. And he closes his [music] eyes, starts thinking. He tries to say Shema Yisrael. Tries to do viduy. But the thought that really comes to his head, you know, >> [music] >> is the deepest moment of his life when he was singing Shoshanat Yaakov with the holy Baal Shem Tov when he started singing [music] >> [singing] [singing] [music] [singing] [music] [singing and music] >> And suddenly [music] he hears them singing with him. Jew, they're singing with him. Oh. >> [singing] [music] [singing] [music] [singing] [music] [singing] [music] >> Suddenly, he sees their eyes and they're singing with him. He says, "Ivan." What were the other [music] names? "Igor." And he says, and they look at him and they say, "Shauli." [music] And they start laughing. They remember the Ba'al Shem Tov and that [music] day. And they remember the Ba'al Shem Tov's holiness. And they [music] understand that they can't harm this Jew. They can't They're just blown away by the shkacha, by the harvana, by the synac, synchronicity. They say, "This one's on us, Jew boy." And they give him back the money. And they say, "Be on your way. And that was a great song you sang for us." And Ba'al Shem goes home to his family and he writes this book. And you can only imagine [music] the purim that he had with his family, little Shauli, big Shauli. So, we'll sing [music] with Shauli and all the Yidden throughout the world. And for all those Iranians and for all of Am Yisrael and the whole world. >> [music] >> One last time, good purim. >> [singing] [music] [singing] [music] [singing] [music] >> la la la la la >> [singing] >> la la la la la >> [music] >> la la la la la >> [singing] >> la la la la la [singing] la la la >> [singing] >> la la la [music] la la la la la [singing] la la >> [singing and music] >> la la la la la [singing] la la la >> [music] >> la la la la la la la la [singing and music] la la >> [singing] >> la la la la la la la la la la >> [singing] >> la la la la >> [music] >> la la la la la la la la la la la la >> [music] >> la la >> [singing] >> la la la la la la la la la la [music] la [singing] la la la >> [music] >> la [singing] la la la >> [singing] >> la la la la >> [music] >> la la la la