B"H

THOUGHTS FOR PURIM

Dear Friends:

“Mishenichnas Adar Marbim b’Simcha.” With the coming of Adar simcha increases.

What is the biggest simcha? When G-d saves us!

There is an endless list of problems in this world. Every problem has a solution, but when the list gets too long, the solution seems beyond us. How can we cope with it all?

Saving the Jews in the days of Mordechai and Esther was beyond human capability. The Children of Israel were powerless in a vast empire that encircled the globe, at the head of which stood a monomaniac whose consuming desire was to “destroy, to slay and to exterminate all the Jews, from young to old, children and women, in one day … and to plunder their possessions.” (Megilas Esther 3:13)

How did the Children of Israel react?

Did they appeal to the United Nations?

Did they write to the newspapers?

Did they lobby Congress?

What did they do?

“Esther ... said to … Mordechai: ‘Go, assemble all the Jews that are to be found in Shushan and fast for me; do not eat or drink for three days, night or day, and I, with my maids, will fast also. Thus, I will come to the king … and, if I perish, I perish….” (Megilas Esther 4:15-16)

Do you hear this?

“If I perish, I perish!”

This is courage. This is greatness! Queen Esther put the survival of her people before her own survival.

My friends, we are now living in the world of Megilas Esther. Do we understand how endangered we are? Do we understand the weight that is aligned against us? The most powerful and vociferous world leaders are turning against us one after the other? I am writing these words from the Holy City of Yerushalayim. They say that war is brewing in the north. On the streets the children of Ishmael walk unafraid. In Iran a wild man postures and gestures, and the world cringes. Turkey, once Israel’s friend, fires off diatribes of scorn and ridicule.

“Remember what Amalek did to you, on the way when you were leaving Egypt!” (Dvarim 25:17)

Who in the vast world is our friend? Who will stand up for us? And, if one does, is he strong enough to confront the rest of the world, which is bent on our destruction, G-d forbid?

I will tell you who can stand up for us: it could be the smallest, weakest man.

Dovid ha Melech was relatively small in stature, but he defeated Golius because he spoke in the Name of G-d.

Esther ha Malka entered the palace of Ahasueros alone, and she was alone when she came before him and Haman to save her people. One woman defeated the entire evil machinery which was poised to destroy all the Jews! How? Because she spoke in the Name of G-d.

There is a taxi driver in Yerushalayim. Late one night this week he drove us home from a simcha. At every red light, he would turn on the overhead lamp and look down. What was he doing? Peering over his shoulder, I realized that he had a sefer in his lap and was learning Torah at every stop! When we got out, I expressed my admiration, and he looked at me. “Ain brerah!” he said. “There is no choice!” He has learned by heart entire sections of Torah while stopped at red lights!

This man is a mighty warrior of G-d! He may be unknown in this world, but in the World of Truth he is a giant in stature! He carries a flaming sword! He is personally standing in the way of empires which are bent on destroying the Children of Israel! This unknown taxi driver in the Holy City of Yerushalayim is holding the entire world together!

“Ain brerah! There is no choice!”

“Go, assemble all the Jews … and fast for me; do not eat or drink for three days, night or day, and I, with my maids, will fast also. Thus, I will come to the king … and, if I perish, I perish….”

What is wrong with us? Are we living in a fantasy? Don’t we understand that our lives are at stake? Are we greeting each other with love? Do we say “Shalom Aleichem”? When someone says “Shalom Aleichem to us, do we answer? Do we daven for each other?

On a crowded street in Yerushalayim last week, a young lady walked past me carrying a package from which a long tube was protruding. It hit me as she passed. I was not hurt, but she ran back and begged forgiveness!

This, my friends, is greatness! This is the path of salvation!

If we do not become one family again, then on what basis are we going to scream out to G-d, “Ana Hashem hoshia na,” Please G-d, save us now!

When Queen Esther risked her life before Ahasueras, G-d turned the entire, supposedly impossible situation around! The weak were victorious and the strong were vanquished! How? Because in the eyes of Hashem it makes absolutely no difference who is weak and who is strong! Only G-d decides who survives and who flourishes! As we say every day in our tefillos, “What is our strength? What is our might?”

So, at the very moment when “the king’s command and edict were about to be enforced, on the day that the enemies of the Jews expected to prevail over them … it was turned about!” (M.E. 9:1)

SO WILL IT BE WITH US!

On the day when we act like loving friends and family, on the day we are willing to risk our lives for our brothers and sisters, on the day when we take seriously Hashem’s total control of the world, on the day when we understand that there “is no choice” other than to dedicate ourselves completely to Torah and service of Hashem, then the Jews will once again have “light and gladness and joy and honor.” (M.E. 8:16)

It is so real, so attainable! Just the way the Al-mighty G-d has sustained us through all the years of Exile, so will He lead us to the Final Redemption, the day when we will be free forever of the hatred of the nations. Our little grand-daughter heard about the rumors of war in the north, G-d forbid, and said that she cannot bear that people will be killed. Isn’t it time, my friends, that we usher in the era that is without death and suffering? Isn’t it time for “those who devoured you [to be] cast far off and [for] Your G-d [to] rejoice over you like a groom rejoicing over his bride”? (L’cha Dodi)

It is all in our hands. I am sure that our Father in Heaven wants so much to give it to us! Let’s help Him and by our actions merit His eternal reward. At every red light let us study, and, when the light turns green, let us contemplate His Torah. Don’t we say it every day in the Shema? “Let these matters that I command you today be upon your heart…. Teach them to your children and speak of them while you sit in your home and while you walk upon the way….”

Then indeed we will have “light and gladness and joy and honor.”

May we see it soon in our days!