Purim - The story of the Megillah: the true inner essence of a Jew - Rabbi Asher Perkash

00:01 Chassidim tell a story that took place in the days of the Mitteler Rebbe. It was during the “great Purim” in Rogatchov. The Mitteler Rebbe was there, and many chassidim had gathered. A chossid of the Mitteler Rebbe named Yossele the chazzan lived in the area. He led the prayers, served as a chazzan and read from the Torah, and was counted among the Mitteler Rebbe’s leading chassidim. That Purim, hundreds of Jews came from the surrounding area. It was a very large gathering. Years earlier, Yossele the chazzan had received a blessing from the Mitteler Rebbe, who had called him “Yossele the wealthy man.” But despite the blessing, he was, I believe, desperately poor, and remained so for many years. On Purim, the Mitteler Rebbe came to Rogatchov and was in the shul. Hundreds of people came to hear the Megillah. Yossele the chazzan read it aloud with great enthusiasm. When he reached the verse, “Haman said in his heart, ‘Whom would the king wish to honor more than me?’” — that is what it says in the Megillah. Haman said in his heart, “Whom would the king wish to honor more than me?” The reader could not restrain himself. He picked up a shoe from the floor and shouted, “Feh, kelipah!” He threw it down and continued reading the Megillah. The chassidim did not know whether the Mitteler Rebbe would approve, because the Mitteler Rebbe was known for his emphasis on avodas hamochin, serving Hashem through the intellect. He strongly demanded that chassidim not focus on outward appearances or judge by external things. It was an entire way of life: one must live with the inner meaning. So the chassidim did not know whether the Mitteler Rebbe would approve. What happened?

03:00 The Mitteler Rebbe enjoyed it very much. When the Megillah reading was over, the Mitteler Rebbe told everyone present to give a coin. A large bowl was placed on the table, and the Mitteler Rebbe took out a gold coin and put it in the bowl. When the chassidim saw that the Rebbe had put in a gold coin, they too put in coins. Many of them knew Yossele. The whole bowl filled with gold coins. The Mitteler Rebbe took it and gave it to the Megillah reader. That was the kind of chossid he was. But when we read the Megillah, there is the well-known teaching of the Baal Shem Tov about “One who reads the Megillah backward has not fulfilled his obligation.” A person reads the Megillah and thinks it is a story, an account of something that happened with Haman. The Baal Shem Tov says: “One who reads the Megillah backward has not fulfilled his obligation.” The simple meaning of “backward” is that he does not read the Megillah in order: he reads the second chapter before the first, out of sequence. But the Baal Shem Tov says that if a person reads the Megillah and thinks it is a story from the past, something that happened years ago, “he has not fulfilled his obligation”; that is not how one fulfills the mitzvah of reading the Megillah. We must study the Megillah as something happening now. This is one of the foundations of the Torah, says the Baal Shem Tov. When a Jew studies the Megillah, he must pay attention and reflect on the fact that its story takes place in every generation, every year, and every soul. For the entire story of the Megillah exists within every Jew. When a chossid studies the Megillah, he knows that Achashverosh—

04:51 —is Hakadosh Boruch Hu, to Whom the end and the beginning belong. And what is the idea in Chassidus? Achashverosh is Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Who is Achashverosh? Achashverosh is Hakadosh Boruch Hu, to Whom the end and the beginning belong. There are other interpretations of Achashverosh as well: he represents Hakadosh Boruch Hu as He is revealed during exile. This is what the verse says: “And it was in the days of Achashverosh—this is Achashverosh who ruled from Hodu to Kush.” Among chassidim, they sing the entire tune; they sing and farbreng over these words, because a chossid reflects on the fact that Achashverosh is Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And He is “the one who ruled from Hodu to Kush.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu is present in times of “Hodu.” Hodu is related to hoda’ah, acknowledgment: these are times when G-dliness is visible. And there are times of “Kush,” associated with blackness, with a “Kushite servant.” It is dark, black; there is no light. Yet Hakadosh Boruch Hu “rules from Hodu to Kush, over one hundred and twenty-seven provinces.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu extends through the entire chain of spiritual worlds. “One hundred and twenty-seven” alludes to all the levels of the higher sefiros, to the entire order of spiritual worlds. When a Jew knows this, he is always joyful, whatever situation he finds himself in. And this is already at the beginning of the Megillah. Then we go on: there is Mordechai. Mordechai is the—

06:23 —tzaddik, as explained throughout the writings of the Baal Shem Tov’s disciples. There is Mordechai: “Mordechai in his generation was like Moshe in his generation.” So in every generation there is a Mordechai the Jew, the tzaddik, the leader of the generation, who is that generation’s Mordechai. He is a “Jewish man”: his Jewishness shines with full force, and through it he illuminates other Jews. Then there is Queen Esther. Chassidus explains that Queen Esther is the soul. Yes, the name Esther alludes to the soul: the souls of the Jewish people, Knesses Yisroel, during exile. “And I will surely hide My face,” as the Gemara says: “Where is Esther alluded to in the Torah? In the verse, ‘And I will surely hide My face on that day.’” Yes, Esther is related to concealment; Esther is related to exile. These are the souls of the Jewish people as they exist in a state of concealment. And then there is Haman. Haman exists in every generation. He is the yetzer hara, the animal soul, the thinking of Haman the Agagite, Haman’s evil—thoughts of pride and self-importance. “Amalek is the first of the nations,” as explained in Chassidus. Yes, who is Haman? Haman represents everything connected with kelipah and the sitra achra. And there is a Haman who wants “to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews.” It is the force of Haman’s pride and self-importance, which wants, G-d forbid, to take a Jew’s Jewishness away, to uproot it from him. So that is the—

07:56 —story the Megillah tells us: how even in times of exile and darkness, of “And I will surely hide My face,” when Haman is present, if a Jew connects himself to Mordechai, awakens and strengthens his faith and his self-sacrifice—and this was the miracle of Purim—then “on that night the king’s sleep was disturbed,” and everything becomes “the reverse happened.” So when a Jew knows that this is the story of the Megillah—that it is not merely a story from the past, a historical account, but a living story about himself, about his own Mordechai, his own Haman, his own Esther, and his connection with Achashverosh, who is Hakadosh Boruch Hu—the entire story of the Megillah takes on a completely different vitality. That is why we can understand why that chossid, when he reached the verse “Haman said in his heart, ‘Whom would the king wish to honor more than me?’” while reading the Megillah, saw in it the force of the animal soul’s self-importance and pride, and called out, “Feh, kelipah!” Let’s reflect on this a little. As we speak about the Megillah and the way Chassidus interprets it, let’s look at at least a verse or two and see how Chassidus illuminates them for us. In this way, the Megillah becomes something that concerns us, something alive, that we can live with day by day, every day. The Megillah says:

09:31 Among the verses about Mordechai and Esther, the Megillah begins by saying: “There was a Jewish man in Shushan the capital.” There was a Jewish man, “and his name was Mordechai, son of Yair, son of Shimi, son of Kish, a Benjaminite.” This is about Mordechai. Then the Megillah says: “He raised Hadassah, who is Esther, his uncle’s daughter.” So we have two verses here: one speaks about Mordechai and explains who he is; the second speaks about Esther. Let’s pause and understand, according to the Chassidic explanation that interprets these matters in terms of a person’s inner service, who this “Jewish man,” Mordechai, is, with all the details the Megillah mentions. Then we will speak about Queen Esther. First, regarding “a Jewish man,” we need to understand—as the Gemara asks: “It begins with ‘Jewish’ and ends with ‘Benjaminite.’” It calls him “a Jewish man,” as though he came from the tribe of Yehudah. Although all the Jews in the Megillah are called “Jewish,” there are other tribes as well. And Mordechai in particular, as we know, was from the tribe of Binyamin. “Mordechai, son of Yair, son of Shimi, son of Kish”: Shimi was Shimi son of Gera, a Benjaminite, from the tribe of Binyamin. Kish was the father of King Shaul, and he was from the tribe of Binyamin. So the question arises, as the Gemara asks: it begins by calling him “a Jewish man” and ends by calling him “a Benjaminite”? The Gemara says that both are true. One explanation in the Gemara is that his father was from the tribe of Binyamin and his mother was from the tribe of Yehudah. And there is another

11:11 The Gemara explains: “Anyone who rejects idolatry is called a Jew.” But we need to understand the spiritual meaning of this: why does the verse begin with “a Jewish man” and end with “a Benjaminite”? It also says, “the son of Yair, the son of Shimi, the son of Kish.” The Gemara says that many generations separated Mordechai from Kish. Kish was the father of King Shaul, and more than four hundred years—almost five hundred—passed between King Shaul’s generation and Mordechai’s. There could not have been only four generations between them. So why does the verse list only a few? The Gemara answers: “Mordechai, the son of Yair”—he enlightened the eyes of the Jewish people through his prayer; “the son of Shimi”—G-d heard his prayer; “the son of Kish”—he knocked on the gates of mercy, and they were opened for him. These are the details the Torah tells us here about Mordechai. There is a maamar of the Frierdiker Rebbe in which he explains the details of these verses and their meaning in a Jew’s service of Hashem. The Frierdiker Rebbe discusses this in Sefer Hamaamarim 5701. It is a very rich maamar, a wonderful maamar, and it explains what Mordechai represents in our service of Hashem. Later we’ll talk about Esther, right? But first we need to understand Mordechai’s story and all its details. When the Torah speaks about Mordechai, it says, “a Jewish man.” This is what we learn about Mordechai; this was his strength.

12:52 I said earlier: “Moshe in his generation, Mordechai in his generation.” Mordechai was the Moshe Rabbeinu of his generation. Mordechai illuminated the Jews and instilled in them faith, trust, strength, and mesiras nefesh. Thanks to Mordechai, the Jews withstood the test. That is the whole story of the Megillah. The Torah tells us who Mordechai was so that we will know, because every Jew has a spark of Moshe Rabbeinu. The Alter Rebbe speaks about this in Tanya and teaches that every Jew has a spark of Moshe Rabbeinu. Moshe Rabbeinu instills daas in every Jew; that is the role of the spark of Moshe Rabbeinu. Similarly, Mordechai, whose soul was that of Moshe Rabbeinu—there is an aspect of Mordechai in every Jew. And the first thing is “a Jewish man.” The Rebbe explains: “man” means a man of strength. “Jewish”—he was a strong Jew. “A Jewish man” means that his strength and fortitude lay in his Judaism. His Judaism was strong. He stood firm in his Judaism with all his strength. “Jewish,” as we discussed, means that “anyone who rejects idolatry is called a Jew.” And this does not refer only to idolatry in the literal sense. In Chassidus, idolatry is not only the actual sin of idol worship; it means “any service that is foreign”—anything foreign to a Jew.

14:26 Mordechai’s Judaism was firm and strong, with the greatest passion and intensity. “Jewish” is a matter of mesiras nefesh. As the Alter Rebbe says, a Jew neither wants nor is able to be separated from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. What defines a Jew? A Jew neither wants nor is able to be separated from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. A Jew has within him a tremendous strength of mesiras nefesh, and when he faces a test, he withstands it with mesiras nefesh, with all his strength. A Jew does not want to be cut off from Hakadosh Boruch Hu and cannot be cut off from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That is the “Jew,” the “Modeh Ani.” Then the verse says: “There was a Jewish man in Shushan the capital, whose name was Mordechai, the son of Yair, the son of Shimi, the son of Kish.” What do all these details mean? Chassidus explains that the first thing is “Mordechai.” What does Mordechai mean? The Gemara asks: “Where is Mordechai alluded to in the Torah?” And it says that Mordechai comes from “mira dachya.” “Mira dachya” refers to myrrh oil. This is “mor deror,” as stated in the verse in Parshas Ki Sisa—a kind of fragrance, a spice. And this spice is called “mor deror,” “mira dachya.” As discussed in Chassidus, according to some of the Rishonim, this fragrance comes from an animal. According to some of the Rishonim, it is even a non-kosher animal, from which the substance used to make myrrh is extracted. That is myrrh.

16:10 The myrrh that was in the incense of the Beis Hamikdash. Where is the Beis Hamikdash located? On Mount Moriah, the land of Moriah, [unclear], as stated in the Midrash. So Mordechai is “mor deror,” which is “mira dachya.” Chassidus explains something remarkable here: they take it from a non-kosher animal and make incense from it for the Beis Hamikdash. This is the greatest power: taking something from the world, the lowest thing in the world, something non-kosher, and transforming it. This is the idea of teshuvah, transforming deliberate sins into merits. Mordechai’s entire mission, contained in his name, was to transform, to change darkness into light. Yes, and that was the “venahafoch hu”—the reversal—of the entire Megillah. Through his service and mesiras nefesh, Mordechai brought about this “mira dachya”: he took from the side opposed to holiness, from Haman’s darkness, and turned concealment into Esther, darkness into light. He transformed the deepest darkness of the exile at that time into “venahafoch hu,” into the greatest joy—the joy of Purim, of “until one does not know,” about which it is said, “All the festivals are destined to be nullified except Purim.” In a person’s service of Hashem, this is the work of teshuvah. Mordechai revealed the power of teshuvah within the Jews. At that time, the Jews had “enjoyed the feast of Achashverosh.” It was a period of spiritual decline among the Jews, may Hashem have mercy. And what did it mean that they “enjoyed his feast”? They felt good; they felt comfortable in exile,

17:45 they felt they could live a good life, but in the process they mingled a little with the other nations. “There is one people,” as the Midrash says: “There is one people”—they slept; they had fallen asleep. The Jewish people had fallen asleep in exile, “scattered and dispersed among the nations.” Then Mordechai came, “mira dachya,” and transformed the darkness, the bitterness. “Mar” means bitterness. He transformed the bitterness and the darkness; “from bitterness to sweetness”—he made sweetness out of bitterness. He made light out of darkness: “venahafoch hu.” “The son of Yair, the son of Shimi, the son of Kish”—in our service of Hashem, this is the service of prayer. Mordechai revealed to the Jews the power of prayer: “He enlightened the eyes of the Jewish people through his prayer; G-d heard his prayer; he knocked on the gates of mercy.” This is the overall meaning of the service of prayer. Through prayer, a person becomes illuminated, his heart fills with light, and he thereby illuminates his surroundings. And he hears and sees G-dliness; he hears G-dliness, he listens, yes, to what [unclear], to the greatness of Hashem that he contemplates during prayer. And he “knocked on the gates of mercy”—he can knock on Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s door, and many gates of mercy are opened for the Jewish people. And the Megillah concludes: “a Benjaminite.” The Rebbe first asks here: What does “a Benjaminite” mean? It means that he had a “right eye.” Mordechai had all these qualities, but what was his greatest quality? “A Benjaminite.” “Yemini”

19:25 comes from the word for “right”: he looked at another Jew with a “right eye.” He saw only good in Jews. That was Mordechai’s principal virtue, and through it he succeeded in awakening the Jews’ power of mesiras nefesh in that situation, so that they experienced “venahafoch hu.” So, he says, this is the meaning of a Jew’s daily service of prayer. A Jew begins his day as “a Jewish man.” “Jewish” is “Modeh Ani.” A Jew wakes up in the morning, opens his eyes, and the first thing is “a Jewish man”: I am a Jew. That is “Modeh Ani.” As is well known, as the Rebbe cites in Hayom Yom, what is the meaning of “Modeh Ani”? A Jew wakes up in the morning, before washing his hands, while his hands are still impure and he cannot yet say Hashem’s name, and the first thing he says is: “I thank You.” His “Modeh Ani” is whole. What does that mean? Although he is not yet clean, not yet pure, not yet ready, and is still in that state—he is a Jew. And that feeling, “I am a Jew; I stand face to face with Hakadosh Boruch Hu,” is a Jew’s “Modeh Ani.” That is “a Jewish man.” Then comes the service of prayer, which is “the son of Yair, the son of Shimi, the son of Kish.” He begins to pray, to say the morning blessings, and begins to illuminate [unclear], eh? All of, all of, all of

20:49 The verses one says, all the blessings one says, and that is how light begins to shine. But alongside this, as it says in the siddur according to the Arizal’s text: “I hereby accept upon myself the positive mitzvah of ‘Love your fellow as yourself.’” Before davening, a Jew begins to connect with other Jews, to unite with them, and to look at them with a right eye—a favorable eye. That is the meaning of “a man of the right,” the right eye. Through this, he can change the entire situation. And Mordechai had this quality. What does the Megillah say next? “He raised Hadassah, who is Esther, his uncle’s daughter.” What is the meaning of “He raised Hadassah, who is Esther”? There is a wonderful maamar about this. The Rebbe said it at a Purim farbrengen in 5713. It was a wonderful farbrengen, with exceptionally lofty revelations. Among other things, there was a maamar; that was the order of things. The maamar begins, “He raised Hadassah.” It is also based on a maamar of the Rebbe Rashab, of blessed memory, [unclear], Purim. What question is raised by the words “He raised Hadassah, who is Esther”? We ask: throughout the Megillah, we hear about Queen Esther. That is her name. And suddenly, here, a new name appears. At one point, the Megillah tells us, so that we should know, that Esther was not Esther. She was Hadassah. “Hadassah, who is Esther.” She [unclear], eh? The Rebbe brings this in Hayom Yom, eh? So what is the meaning of

20:49 “Modeh Ani”? When a Jew gets up in the morning, even before washing his hands, while his hands are still impure and he cannot say Hashem’s name, the first thing he says is: “Modeh Ani lefanecha—I give thanks before You.” His Modeh Ani is whole. What is the point in both cases? Even when he is not yet clean, has not yet [unclear], has not yet done a thing—he is still in that state, but he is a Jew. And that feeling, “I am a Jew; I stand face to face before Hakadosh Boruch Hu,” is a Jew’s Modeh Ani. That is “a Jewish man.” Then comes the work of davening, which is “son of Yair, son of Shimi, son of Kish.” He begins to daven, to say the morning blessings, and light begins to shine within him—the chapters, my friends, eh? All those verses one says, all the blessings one says, and that is how light begins to shine. But alongside this, as it says in the siddur according to the Arizal’s text: “I hereby accept upon myself the positive mitzvah of ‘Love your fellow as yourself.’” Before davening, a Jew begins to connect with other Jews, to unite with them, and to look at them with a right eye—a favorable eye. That is the meaning of “a man of the right,” the right eye. Through this, he can change the entire situation. And Mordechai had this quality. What does the Megillah say next? “He raised Hadassah, who is Esther, his uncle’s daughter.” What is the meaning of “He raised Hadassah, who is Esther”? There is a wonderful maamar about this. The Rebbe said it

21:39 at a Purim farbrengen in 5713. It was a wonderful farbrengen, with exceptionally lofty revelations. Among other things, there was a maamar; that was the order of things. The maamar begins, “He raised Hadassah.” It is also based on a maamar of the Rebbe Rashab, of blessed memory, [unclear], Purim. What question is raised by the words “He raised Hadassah, who is Esther”? We ask: throughout the Megillah, we hear about Queen Esther. That is her name. And suddenly, here, a new name appears. At one point, the Megillah tells us, so that we should know, that Esther was not Esther. She was Hadassah. “Hadassah, who is Esther.” Her name was actually Hadassah, and she was Esther. The Gemara dwells on this: Was her name Hadassah, or was her name Esther? “Hadassah was her name.” Yes, that is what the Gemara says. But what does it mean here? And what does “he raised” mean? It is precisely here, when the Megillah speaks about Mordechai and what he did—“he raised” her: he educated her, worked with her, yes. “He raised Hadassah, who is Esther.” Mordechai did so because Esther had become an orphan, “for she had neither father nor mother.” And because she was an orphan, without a father or mother, Mordechai—her cousin, as it says, “his uncle’s daughter.” His uncle was Avichayil, Mordechai’s uncle. And Esther was Avichayil’s daughter, so she was, in fact, Mordechai’s cousin. So Mordechai, who was older than she was,

23:20 took her into his home. There are all the explanations; the Gemara discusses this. But that is the straightforward meaning: “He raised Hadassah, who is Esther, for she had neither father nor mother.” What is the Megillah trying to tell us here? Again, we are speaking about spiritual work within a person’s soul. And when we want to understand what is happening to Jews—the situation, unfortunately, is plain to see. These are times when the soul does not shine so brightly. These are times of Esther. “Where is Esther alluded to in the Torah? As it says: ‘And I will surely hide My face.’” The soul does not shine. The soul is in a state of exile, of darkness, of concealment and haze, and we do not see the truth. We do not see the light; it does not shine. In exile, outwardly, it seems that even the virtues of the Jewish people cannot be seen. Their truth cannot be seen—the genuine truth hidden within them. About this, the Megillah says that Mordechai, the leader of the generation, “raised” her. “Raised” means that he instilled these things, rooted them deeply, conveyed them in their full depth, educated and guided, planted and engraved in the mind and heart of every Jew that “Hadassah is Esther.” Hadassah—these are the tzaddikim. Hadassah is the state in which the soul stands in Gan Eden: the soul above, the soul connected to the forefathers. Hadassah is the idea of the three hadassim, corresponding to the three forefathers. And further, as the Gemara says, each hadas has three leaves, representing Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov. Hadassah

25:33 is associated with fragrance. “They have a fragrance”—these are good deeds. This is when a Jew is in an elevated state, a state of good deeds, when he is like a fragrance and brings pleasure Above, to Hashem, through his service. That is the meaning of Hadassah. But there is also the state of Esther. Jews are in exile, in concealment, in hiding. Mordechai comes and reveals the inner self of a Jew. Mordechai says: “Hadassah is Esther.” That very Hadassah is that very Esther. When you look at a Jew, you must know that even if outwardly that Jew looks like Esther, within is Hadassah. Inside are the Hadassah, the fragrance, the pleasure brought before Hashem. Inside are the three forefathers and the strength of self-sacrifice. They do not shine openly. But it was plainly evident, and Mordechai knew it, that even when the Jews were asleep with regard to the mitzvos, when they were in a state of concealment, their capacity for self-sacrifice had not been taken from them. They revealed the Shechinah, the beauty of a Jew, which exists even in times of darkness, concealment and haze. How did they reveal it? “He raised Hadassah, who is Esther.” That was Mordechai’s strength. For Mordechai was a man of the right. He had a right eye, and he looked at a Jew with a right eye. And through

26:56 looking at a Jew with that right eye, he revealed the Jews’ true beauty, their true inner selves: Hadassah is Esther. The Megillah continues: “For she had neither father nor mother.” This is the condition of exile. A Jew, poor soul, is left like an orphan in exile—“she had neither father nor mother.” Chassidus explains that “father” is chochmah and “mother” is binah. Father and mother are the chochmah and binah of the soul. In other words, when a Jew grasps something through binah, understands and feels lofty G-dliness, and stands in awe of Hakadosh Boruch Hu—that is a Jew’s service when these qualities are present in him. But that is a time of Geulah. In exile, there is a state of “she had neither father nor mother”—he is left like an orphan, poor soul. “My father and my mother have forsaken me.” There is no father, no mother, no grasp, no understanding, no feeling; everything is utterly dark for them. As the Alter Rebbe says in the maamarim on Megillas Esther, the whole point of exile is that even if a Jew lacks love and awe, and lacks binah, there is still the cry, “For You are our Father”—the cry of the Jew, of the soul: “I am a Jew, and I do not want to be separated from Hakadosh Boruch Hu.” This is the “Hadassah is Esther” that Mordechai revealed. And this is what the Baal Shem Tov says about the verse, “For you shall be to Me a cherished land, says Hashem of Hosts”: “A cherished land” is said of every Jew. Just like the earth,

28:27 Within it lie treasures—the greatest treasures, which even the greatest sages have yet to discover; the deepest and richest treasures in the world. In the same way, it is impossible to discover just how deep and rich the treasures within every Jew are, and how many treasures he holds, even when he appears to be a simple Jew. This is the story of Purim, the story of Megillas Esther. Megillas Esther teaches us that there are times of darkness, times of concealment, times of exile. There is Haman, and Haman’s rule grows powerful. It looks as though Haman is succeeding. There are times when we see the animal soul caught in the darkness of the world, and the exile becoming harder, blacker, and darker. We must know that there is a “Jewish man,” whose Jewishness shines with full force. He brings that light to every Jew and teaches us, too, to stand firm as Jews. And there is a “man of the right,” who looks at a Jew with a favorable eye. Then “he raised Hadassah, that is Esther” becomes a reality: In every Jew, even one who outwardly appears to be an “Esther” Jew, we must see that “Hadassah is Esther”—that deep within, there is Hadassah. And when this is revealed, then

29:49 “the Jews had light and joy, gladness and honor.” That is the joy of Purim. Of this, the Gemara says: All the festivals will one day cease, except for Purim. For Purim is a Yom Tov [unclear] on which the deepest dimension of a Jew’s soul is revealed—“Hadassah is Esther.” It is brought from the Baal Shem Tov, and on this point [unclear] the Zohar, which says that Yom Kippur is “like Purim.” In other words, there is a connection between everything Yom Kippur is about and Purim. Yes, Purim—Kippurim. That means Purim is even higher, much higher. As the Baal Shem Tov explains, if we say “like Purim,” then Purim is higher: Yom Kippur is like Purim. What do Yom Kippur and Purim have in common? This is the point. On Purim, as we all know, this is the time; and on Yom Kippur, we all know, this is the time when the yechidah of a Jew’s soul is revealed. The core of his Jewishness, the pintele Yid, his self-sacrifice, comes to light. A Jew stands on Yom Kippur and cries out, “Hear, O Israel,” cries out, “Blessed be the name of the glory of His kingdom,” cries out, “Hashem is G-d.” During the Neilah prayer of Yom Kippur, the yechidah of his soul and his self-sacrifice are revealed in full force. That is Yom Kippur for every Jew. It is the power of teshuvah, when the Master of the Universe turns everything into merit. But it comes through fasting,

31:14 through self-denial, through teshuvah. The Baal Shem Tov says: Purim has this same quality. On Purim, the yechidah of the soul was revealed in the Jews. It brought them to true self-sacrifice, which they maintained throughout that entire year. From this came “and the Jews accepted” [unclear]—they accepted the Torah with the greatest self-sacrifice, with the greatest avodah, with the greatest [unclear]. That is the heart of Purim. And every year, when Purim arrives and we read the Megillah, we must remember what the Baal Shem Tov tells us: “One who reads the Megillah backward has not fulfilled his obligation.” The Megillah speaks to our own lives. And when we hear the Megillah, Yom Kippur is like Purim. Every Purim, a Jew stands with the greatest self-sacrifice, the greatest devotion of his soul—not through fasting and self-denial, but through a festive meal, saying l’chaim, and going beyond limitations: becoming intoxicated on Purim. In that state, a Jew stands and cries out: “I don’t want Your Gan Eden, I don’t want Your World to Come; I want nothing but You Yourself.” Let me tell you: Reb Yoel Kahn, a”h, told us what happened at a farbrengen with the Rebbe in the early years, on Purim [unclear]. A tremendous farbrengen began. On Purim, one can say many l’chaims, and there was tremendous joy, along with

32:40 revelations and words of Torah. The Rebbe’s Purim farbrengen took place late at night, after everyone had eaten the festive meal, and the Rebbe farbrenged all night, for many hours. It was a tremendous farbrengen, with tremendous joy, and the Rebbe revealed many insights into the Torah. Among other things, there was a tremendous awakening, and the Rebbe spoke about this very point. The Rebbe said the following—I heard it from Reb Bil[?], who heard it from the Rebbe; this sicha has since been printed, from Purim 5726. The Rebbe said: We must know that there is one day in the year that Hakadosh Boruch Hu gave to the Jews. And that day is higher even than Yom Kippur. He says to the Jews: Today, during these twenty-four hours, this is not about fasting or sitting in shul. Yes, it is Purim; work is permitted, and it is a day for eating and drinking. But know this: during these twenty-four hours, for at least one minute, forget yourself. Forget your personal concerns, forget your material needs, forget your spiritual concerns, forget your desires. Forget what you want, what you think, what you understand, and what you feel. Step outside yourself, even for a minute, and devote yourself to your Creator. Go beyond your own reasoning, beyond your own understanding; connect with the yechidah of your soul, connect

34:06 with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Devote yourself to Hakadosh Boruch Hu with a commitment and surrender that transcend reason. In that spirit, with that power of Purim, in that spirit, Hakadosh Boruch Hu will give you—for “whoever extends a hand is given to”—Hakadosh Boruch Hu will give you from His full, open, holy, and generous hand, without limits, in every matter. May Hakadosh Boruch Hu help us merit that this Purim, when whoever extends a hand is given to, He give every Jew from His full, open, holy, and generous hand in all material and spiritual matters. And above all, may it truly be that “the opposite came to pass: the Jews ruled over those who hated them,” and that “the Jews had light and joy, gladness and honor.” May this be so for us with the complete Geulah through our righteous Moshiach. Happy Purim, l’chaim, l’chaim and blessings.