Purim in the Geulah - Rabbi Menachem Cohen shlita

00:02 Speaker 1 You’re listening to “Lema’an Yishme’u,” a podcast of Machon Halacha Chabad.

00:09 Speaker 2 Happy Purim! As we know, there’s nothing like Purim. Purim is one of the happiest times. The month of Adar in general is a joyful month, and Purim even more so. It’s a time when we come together in joy and bring joy to others. It’s also a time when the deepest point is revealed—the strongest bond a Jew has with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. So much so that it says Yom Kippur is only “like Purim,” while Purim is even greater than Yom Kippur. The self-sacrifice of the entire Jewish people is an extraordinarily powerful thing. This is one of the times when the essence of each person’s soul is most fully revealed, and everyone reaches a state of ad d’lo yada—beyond knowledge, beyond reason and understanding—in their bond with Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself. Of course, we have to be careful not to get carried away with drinking or anything else, and not to end up, G-d forbid, doing anything undesirable. On the contrary, Purim should be a time of “they fulfilled and accepted”: they fulfilled what they had already accepted upon themselves at Shavuos, at the Giving of the Torah. It’s a powerful time to make even more good resolutions, with joy and gladness of heart—not through fasting, but through eating, drinking, and rejoicing. And Purim has one of the strongest connections to the true and complete Geulah. That’s what we’re going to talk about today: Purim and the Geulah, in the time of the future Geulah. What will Purim be like in the future? How will we celebrate Purim then? And what is the connection between Purim today and the true and complete Geulah? We’ll also talk a little about the half-shekel, which is closely connected with Purim. As is well known, we give a half-

01:56 Speaker 2 shekel—or rather, the custom is to give a remembrance of the half-shekel—before Purim. We read Parshas Shekalim before Purim, at the beginning of Adar. So we’re going to discuss this whole subject and present the full picture of Purim and the true and complete Geulah. One of the central points is that Megillas Esther and Purim are unique: they will remain in full force even in the true and complete Geulah. The Rambam, ruling on what will happen in the future, says: “All the books of the Prophets and all the Writings are destined to become obsolete in the days of Moshiach, except for Megillas Esther. It will endure like the Five Books of the Torah and the laws of the Oral Torah, which will never become obsolete.” Megillas Esther will remain; the Five Books of the Torah will remain; the laws of the Oral Torah will remain. That is what will remain in the true and complete Geulah. The Radbaz, Rabbi David ben Zimra, asks a very strong question about this. He says: Wait—what does that mean? All the books of the Writings will become obsolete? All the books of the Prophets will become obsolete? We’ll still need to sing the songs accompanying the offerings, and those songs are from Tehillim. There’s the song the Levi’im would sing in the Beis Hamikdash on the first day, “The earth and all it contains belong to Hashem,” and on the second day... What, will all of that become obsolete? Then what will be left? What songs will they sing over the offerings? He says it’s a stretch to suggest that the rest of the book will no longer be read, except for the songs sung over the offerings. That doesn’t quite work. So the Radbaz says the intent is not that the books of the Prophets will literally become obsolete. Rather, in the days of Moshiach, learning will come directly from Hashem. We’ll learn as Moshe Rabbeinu did in his time, directly from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The same will be true in the future: Moshiach will teach us directly from Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself, and there will be no uncertainty.

03:43 Speaker 2 There won’t be any doubt—maybe it means this, maybe it means that. We won’t need to learn anything through received tradition from the various books of the Prophets and Writings, or go through all those debates in the Gemara: Wait, this one says one thing and that one says another. What’s the problem? We’ll ask Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself. There will be no doubt and no questions about any halachos. We won’t need the Prophets and Writings either, which come to us through received tradition. Everything will be clear. The Five Books of the Torah will be enough, and we’ll learn everything from them. If you want to know all the precise details—exactly what to do and how—you’ll get the answer directly from Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself, without any questions or doubts. So we won’t need the Prophets and Writings, and the same goes for the Gemara. But that doesn’t mean they will disappear, or that we can put them away in storage, G-d forbid. No. We simply won’t need to rely on them. The Alshich says this as well. Now, according to this, what is special about Megillas Esther? All right, we won’t need any of the other books of the Prophets and Writings. Why will we need Megillas Esther? He gives two answers. First, as we said, we won’t need the other books, because “the earth will be filled with knowledge.” We’ll be able to do everything Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants perfectly, knowing His will directly from Him. So we won’t need all those books. But Megillas Esther will not become obsolete. Why? He says there is a mitzvah from the Torah to write Megillas Esther. The verse says, “Write this as a remembrance in a book.” From this, our Sages learned that Megillas Esther should be written. That is why our Sages authorized writing Megillas

05:19 Speaker 2 Esther. Some time had passed, and there had been doubts about whether it should be written at all, but in the end it was written. They learned this from the verse, “Write this as a remembrance in a book.” So just as the Five Books of the Torah will remain forever, because that is the Torah’s will, what the Torah commanded to be written will likewise never become obsolete. That is different from the books of the Prophets and Writings, which the Torah did not command us to write. Of course, everything written in them is true and firm, and will remain true and firm forever. But the Torah did not command that they be written, so they will become obsolete. That is one reason. The second reason he gives for why Megillas Esther will not become obsolete is that the entire world depends on the events in the Megillah, and on the Jewish people, who sustain the world. After all, the whole world was created for the Torah and for the Jewish people. If there were no Jewish people and no Torah, there would be no world either. So the miracle recorded in the Megillah is what made it possible for the Jewish people to continue existing. And if the Jewish people remained, the Torah remained and the world remained. As the Alshich says, if Hashem had not performed all these wonders for us, if that miracle had not happened, we would never have reached the days of Moshiach. So the Megillah will remain in the future too, because its miracle is what brought us to that future. The miracle of Purim sustained the very existence of the Jewish people. Unlike other miracles, which saved us from particular decrees or troubles, this miracle saved the Jewish people themselves. Without it, there would have been no Torah, no world, nothing. That is on the plain level; that is

07:02 Speaker 2 What the Alshich says is the unique quality of Megillas Esther. The Mitteler Rebbe also explains its spiritual quality. He says that when it says the books of the Prophets and Writings will be nullified, it does not mean they will actually cease to exist, G-d forbid. On the contrary, in the future there will be many more prophets. The spirit of prophecy will increase among the Jewish people; all Jews will be prophets, as it says, “Your sons and daughters will prophesy.” So there will certainly be prophets and prophetic writings. What does it mean, then? In terms of the revelation of Divine light in the Prophets, he says, it will be very small compared with the immense revelation of the future. It will be like the light of the sun in the presence of the sun itself: it will have no significance. By contrast, Megillas Esther and the halachos of the Oral Torah have their source in the luminary itself, in Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself. Therefore Megillas Esther will not be nullified, the Five Books of the Torah will not be nullified, and the halachos of the Oral Torah will not be nullified, because they come from Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself, from the luminary itself. As for Purim, what is the reason? As we said, Purim will remain in full force even in the time of the Geulah. The Rambam says this too: although all memory of troubles will disappear, as it says, “For the former troubles have been forgotten and are hidden from My eyes,” the days of Purim will not be nullified. Why? It says, “These days of Purim shall never pass from among the Jews, nor shall their remembrance cease from their descendants.” The Midrash also says that all the festivals will eventually be nullified, but the days of Purim will not. This really raises a big question. The Radbaz was asked about it: how can it be, as the Midrash says, that all the festivals will be nullified while the days of Purim will not? After all, it says, “You shall not add to the matter or subtract from it.” Who could say that even a single letter of the Torah will be nullified? How can one say that all the festivals

08:52 Speaker 2 will be nullified? So the Radbaz answers as follows: in my straightforward understanding, when it says all the festivals will be nullified in the days of Moshiach, it means that goodness, joy, peace, and pleasure will be so abundant in the future that every day will seem the same to people, as though the festivals had been nullified. There will be no difference between a weekday and a festival. It does not mean the Torah and its mitzvos will be nullified, G-d forbid. Rather, the festivals will not stand out, because there will always be joy like the joy we have on festivals today. But the days of Purim, he says, will be remembered and observed, even though they are not prescribed by the Torah. Why? Because the Jewish people will remember the distress they experienced in the days of Achashverosh. You might ask: weren’t there troubles in Egypt, too, and other troubles? He says that later troubles made people forget the earlier ones. But the last of those troubles came in the days of Purim. That was in the era of the Second Beis Hamikdash; it was not a complete Geulah, and its memory will remain even in the future. The Rebbe shlita, Melech HaMoshiach, says similarly in several places that the festivals will not be completely nullified, G-d forbid. Rather, the joy of Yom Tov will not stand out in the future. The joy of Yom Tov, “festivals for rejoicing,” is a limited joy. In the future there will be a great, unlimited joy, everlasting joy, so the joy of Yom Tov will not be able to add anything. As the saying goes, “What use is a lamp in broad daylight?” A lamp still exists, but it does not illuminate its surroundings. That is why it says the festivals will be nullified: their joy will have no noticeable effect. What use will it be? So in this sense, all the festivals really will be nullified: they will not stand out. We will observe them all, but their joy

10:39 Speaker 2 will not stand out. So what is unique about Purim? Its joy will add something even to the joy of the future. Even when there is “everlasting joy upon their heads,” Purim will bring still more joy. Why? The Rebbe says this is alluded to in the verse, “These days of Purim shall never pass from among the Jews, nor shall their remembrance cease from their descendants.” The Rebbe explains at length—you can look at the sicha of Purim 5695—that on Purim there was a special emphasis on the descendants of the Jewish people, on the education of Jewish children. As it says, Mordechai the Jew gathered thousands of schoolchildren around him and taught them the mitzvah of the Omer offering and halachos connected with the Beis Hamikdash. He taught them so thoroughly that when Haman went to the children and said, “Tell me your verse,” they recited verses to him, including “Do not fear sudden terror.” He saw that the children were continuing the tradition of their ancestors, the tradition of Torah and mitzvos. And so this festival remains in the manner of “nor shall their remembrance cease from their descendants”: it will never be nullified. It is also explained elsewhere that Purim was a time of mesirus nefesh. The Jewish people reached a point where not even a thought of turning away crossed their minds, G-d forbid. That is why it remains a festival that reveals a Jew’s essential bond and a Jew’s mesirus nefesh for Torah and mitzvos. That remains significant even in the true and complete Geulah; its value is not diminished even in comparison with the lofty light that will shine in the world in the future. Our Sages say that in the future, Jerusalem will spread across the entire Holy Land.

12:31 Speaker 2 The holiness of Jerusalem will spread across the entire Holy Land. If we take that into account, it would seem that in the future Purim will be celebrated on the 15th of Adar. As we know, today Purim is celebrated on the 14th in Israel and throughout the world, except in Jerusalem, where it is celebrated on the 15th. That is called Shushan Purim. In the future, Jerusalem will spread across all of Eretz Yisroel, so it would seem that throughout Eretz Yisroel Purim will be celebrated on the 15th, on Shushan Purim. That is one point. Another is matanos la’evyonim, gifts to the poor. The halachic authorities raise a major question: how will people give gifts to the poor? To whom will they give them? After all, all Jews will be very wealthy. There are several explanations. One, brought in the book Yafeh LaLev, says that in the future gifts to the poor will be given to people from the nations of the world. All Jews, he says, will be exceedingly wealthy, so to whom could they give? The nations of the world will have poor people, and the gifts will be given to them. He says it was like this in the time of Avraham Avinu too: “Then the offering of Yehudah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to Hashem, as in days of old and in former years.” In the time of Avraham Avinu, he fed the Arabs, gave non-Jews food and drink, welcomed them in, and showed them hospitality. Likewise, in the future, all the Jewish people will be exceedingly wealthy. They will not need gifts to the poor, and there will be no way to give such gifts to them, so they will be given to poor people from the nations of the world. Another thing worth knowing is that some hold that in the future Purim will be a festival like all the other festivals, when work and all activities classified as work will be forbidden, just as on any regular festival. Today, the festival

14:28 Speaker 2 Of course, Purim is somewhat different: work is permitted on it, and so on. But in the future, work will be prohibited on Purim just as it is on all the other festivals. Now let’s talk about machatzis hashekel, the mitzvah of giving a half-shekel. As we said, this is a mitzvah that we observe today on the Fast of Esther; we give it every year. Every Jew has a mitzvah to give a half-shekel each year. Today we give a remembrance of machatzis hashekel, since we don’t have a Beis Hamikdash. But in the future, we will give the actual half-shekel to the Third Beis Hamikdash. First of all, it’s worth noting what we do today. We have several customs: we read Parshas Shekalim before Rosh Chodesh Adar, either on the Shabbos before Rosh Chodesh Adar or on Shabbos Rosh Chodesh. On the first of Adar, an announcement is made about the shekels. And we give a remembrance of machatzis hashekel on the Fast of Esther before Minchah. Someone who didn’t manage to do so gives it after Minchah. There are differences in custom here. According to Chabad custom, we give three half-coins of the local currency—three half-shekels, or three half-dollars in the United States, and so on. Sephardim have the custom of giving the original value of machatzis hashekel. Now, what is the procedure? How do we actually give machatzis hashekel? What is the shekel itself? The half-shekel mentioned in the Torah is made of pure silver. Its weight is about ten grams of pure silver. Its value today is about thirty shekels in today’s currency. Machatzis hashekel—yes, about thirty shekels today. The payment must be made specifically with a coin of pure silver, what’s called a half-shekel coin. You can’t contribute using today’s shekel coins, because they aren’t themselves made of pure silver. And there are also opinions that you have to give

16:29 Speaker 2 a single coin worth a half-shekel. So someone who doesn’t have a coin worth the half-shekel of the time of the Mishnah—or rather, of the Torah—brings other coins of equivalent value to the person in charge of collection. That person gives him a half-shekel coin, and he puts it—then the person who has to give machatzis hashekel puts it into the collection box designated for it. There are opinions—and this is very interesting—that in the time of the Geulah we will have to give a whole shekel to the Beis Hamikdash, not just a half-shekel. That would come to around sixty shekels in today’s currency. This is based primarily on a piyut associated with Shabbos Shekalim, in which we say, “Raise the light of Your face upon us, Hashem, and I will bring a shekel to the great and exalted House.” In fact, some explain that this is also why Rabbi Yehudah Hanasi, Rabbeinu Hakadosh, called the tractate Shekalim and not Machatzis Hashekel. That is what the author of Maaseh Rokeach says about Tractate Shekalim: it is called Shekalim rather than Machatzis Hashekel because, in the future, we will give a whole shekel. There are other opinions on this matter. Interestingly, the Rebbe says—in a sicha from 5752, the Rebbe mentioned that in the future, in the complete Beis Hamikdash, for offerings that are whole and unblemished, at the height of their perfection, we will give a half-shekel. Why? Because a half symbolizes a Jew’s connection with Hakadosh Boruch Hu: a Jew is only one half, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu is the other half that completes him. A Jew is one half, and another Jew is the other half that completes him. This will be true in the future as well. Very soon we will feel our unity with Hakadosh Boruch Hu even more strongly, but we will continue to give a half-shekel. That is what seems to follow from the Rebbe’s sichos.

18:14 Speaker 2 But as we said, there are opinions that we will give a whole shekel. We have to be ready for every possibility. Who is obligated to give machatzis hashekel? It says that everyone is obligated—kohanim, Levi’im, and Yisraelim—but women and servants are exempt. Regarding children, some opinions say they are exempt until age twenty; others say they are obligated from age thirteen; and some say that one should give even for younger children. Some say even for unborn children. That is also the custom today: to give for each and every person, and it is quite possible that this custom will remain in the future. As for the actual obligation, the halachic authorities disagree whether it begins at age twenty or age thirteen. Regarding when machatzis hashekel is given: the half-shekels will actually be used in the month of Nissan, when the offerings are purchased with the machatzis hashekel funds that were collected. Collection begins in Adar. On the first of Adar, an announcement is made about the shekels; that is why we read Parshas Shekalim today. From the fifteenth of Adar, they ask people gently to give, and take it from whoever gives. Perhaps that is also why today we do it around the time of the Fast of Esther. It is also brought that machatzis hashekel has some connection with the Fast of Esther. So today we give it at the time of the fast, but in the Geulah we will give it closer to the fifteenth of Adar. It says that from the twenty-fifth of Adar until Rosh Chodesh Nissan, they are more insistent that anyone who has not yet given come and give machatzis hashekel. If someone gives after Nissan, it is placed in a special box for the previous year’s shekels. These are shekels whose time has, in a sense, passed, and they are used for things that may be paid for with the previous year’s shekels.

20:05 Speaker 2 Here’s a very interesting question: where will we get the funds? Let’s say the true and complete Geulah arrives right now, before there has been time to collect machatzis hashekel. Where will all the communal offerings, the additional offerings, come from? After all, the communal offerings are paid for with machatzis hashekel. If it has not yet been collected, who will provide the communal offerings? Where exactly will they come from? The Rebbe brings that we can say they will come from donations by individuals. People will come and provide the offerings or their donations, transferring them completely to the community. Then it will be possible to use those donations—the offerings, the animals, and so on that individuals bring—for communal offerings, once they have properly given them to the entire community. The main thing is that we should merit, already this Adar, this Purim, to celebrate in the Third Beis Hamikdash, together with the offerings we will bring and the machatzis hashekel we will give, immediately. Long live our master, teacher, and Rebbe, King Moshiach, forever and ever.