Mishenichnas Adar Marbin B’Simcha: Jewish Pride, Inner Joy, and the Essence of Purim

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. Mishenichnas Adar, marbin b'simcha. When Adar comes in, as we approach Purim, marbin, we add, add simcha, marbin simcha. What does that mean? What is it that we should do that's included in being marbin b'simcha? What actions do we have to take that's called marbin b'simcha? Today we live in a society where people lack simcha. Some of it is rightfully so. So much suffering. I don't know anybody who doesn't know people who are suffering. So much tragedies. There's so much difficulty out there. So what is the avodah? What do we have to do to be marbeh b'simcha, and how do we bring ourselves to be marbeh b'simcha? So it's a twofold question. What is called marbin b'simcha? What actions of simcha must we take? And how do we bring ourselves to simcha? It's interesting. That this is actually a two-part halacha, marbin b'simcha. The way it's actually brought down is k'sheim. K'sheim by Av, mema'itin b'simcha, so too by Adar is marbin b'simcha. It's a Gemara in Taanis, chav tes. K'sheim shemishenichnas Av, mema'itin b'simcha, kach mishenichnas Adar, marbin b'simcha. The same way. K'sheim. Why is it k'sheim? Av is a time of mourning; it's tragedy, mema'itin b'simcha. Adar has its own ma'alah; it's a time of joy, marbin. Why k'sheim? Just like, k'sheim. It's connected, that the same way we're mema'it b'simcha, k'sheim, the same way we're mema'it b'simcha, we lessen the simcha in the time of Av, so too marbin b'simcha in Adar. What's the k'sheim? Another interesting ha'arah to be pointed out to me. If you look, k'sheim shenichnas is one halacha, right? Av is brought in halacha in Shulchan Aruch. The Shulchan Aruch brings mema'itin b'simcha in Av. But the Shulchan Aruch does not bring marbeh b'simcha in Ader. It's not brought down in Shulchan Aruch. And the question is why. And the poskim deal with this question. Why is it that the mechaber, the Shulchan Aruch, by Rav Yosef, chose to separate, to divide this halacha, to bring half of it, Mishenichnas Av, mema'atin b'simcha, and yet in Adar he doesn't bring it. Now, of course, the Acharonim on the side of the Shulchan Aruch already bring the halacha. Mishnah Berurah talks this halacha of marbeh b'simcha. But the Shulchan Aruch chose to omit it. Why? It's the same halacha, k'sheim, it's one din. It's one halacha, k'sheim shemema'atin b'simcha on Av, marbeh b'simcha on Adar. The mechaber should have brought both halachos, both parts of the din, and not just one. Either bring none or bring both. It's one halacha. So many Acharonim, sefer ...

The Chayim that people quote that says that the reason why the Mechaber, Maran Beis Yosef, doesn't bring Mishenichnas Adar marbin b'simcha, because there's no practical halachic ramification. It's not halacha. There's nothing halacha that you have to do differently. Buy of, mimeitim b'simcha. See, there's halachas that you have to do. There's hanhagos. There's action that you need to take, hanhagos, different behavioral hanhagos that change in Av. But in Adar, there's nothing that you have to do. It doesn't have to be marbeh b'simcha. It can't really be brought in the Shulchan Aruch. I could tell you in Shulchan Aruch to do or not to do. So in Av, I tell you not to do, mimeitim b'simcha, and I tell you what not to do. But in Adar, marbin b'simcha, I can't tell you because there's nothing that you have to do. You just have to be happy. So therefore, many Acharonim say it's not brought in Shulchan Aruch. I saw that there's an interesting sefer, Pe'eretz Chaim, on Orch Chaim, dinei Tisha B'Av, that explains that Mishenichnas Adar marbin b'simcha has some ramification that in case you goer with simcha during this time of Adar, so you need to be extra joyous. Because it has to show that I'm not only happy with the simcha, I'm also happy with the other. All right, it's a nice chiddush. It's a sheine chiddush. But the kasha is a very strong question. Why would the mechaber, why does the Shulchan Aruch not bring marbeh b'simcha? And halacha, what is the marbeh b'simcha? What do you have to do to be marbeh b'simcha? I thought a lot about it. And in recent weeks, as we approach Adar and Purim, many talmidei chachamim, bnei Torah, they all tell me shtikel Torah about this question: Mishenichnas Adar marbeh b'simcha. What does it mean? What do I have to do? Why it's not in Shulchan Aruch? And I thought about it, and as years go on and on, and Purims come and go, and Adars pass through my life, I started to understand that simcha cannot be defined as do this or do that. Simcha is a state of mind that you have to understand. If I tell you to do something to be happy, that's what the world thinks simcha is, and there's a whole world of selling you that stuff. If you do this, you'll be happy, and if you do that, you'll be happy, and if you do this, and if you buy this, and if you stand here, and if you go there. And anyone who's tried all these stuff... Will come out at the end just like he started. He's not happy. Not going to be happy. Simcha is a state of mind. It's something, it's something that needs to be defined internally and not externally. And everyone is searching the simcha. Everyone's looking for it. Everyone is searching, simcha, simcha, simcha. It's the million-dollar question. And it's taka a million-dollar business. Millions of dollars go into the, to try to sell a person a capsule, a pill, a pill that he can take and he'll have simcha. And the truth is, again, simcha. What is simcha? For the umos ha'olam, it's one thing. But for a Yid, it's something completely different. For a Yid, his being in touch with and recognizing and understanding that he's a Yid, that he's a Jew, and being connected to the Eibishter, that is simcha. Simcha.

is when a Jew understands, and he comes to the hakarah, he's in touch with his inner self that identifies that he's a Yid, which means a Jew connected to the Ribono Shel Olam. That and only that is simcha. And Purim is the Yom Tov where the Yid is a Yid. Purim we celebrate Yiddishkeit. Purim is the Yom Tov that a person proclaims, I'm a Jew and I'm proud to be a Jew, with all the difficulties and all the anti-Semitism and all the anti against what it means to be a Yid and to stand proud to be a Yid. The story of Purim and the nes of Purim is about Yiddishkeit. That's what it's about. I'd like to point out in the actual story, the story was that Haman—excuse me, Haman. Sorry, Pari. No, I didn't drink this morning. I wasn't a kayam ad d'lo yada. Haman, of course, is against the Yid. It's against—he wants to annihilate the Yid. Vayivez b'einav lishloach yad b'Mordechai levado, ki higid lo asher hu Yehudi. Haman's trying to make it a bizayon, an embarrassment. Embarrassment. What? You're not a Persian. You're not part of Malchus Achashverosh. You don't bow down to me, the aristocrat Haman. What? You're Mordechai Yehudi hayoshev b'shaar hamelech, ayivas b'einav. When he wants to kill Mordechai, it's even an embarrassment. He has to kill out the whole Jewish... it was a bizayon. At the end, it was the opposite. V'rabim me'amei ha'aretz misyahadim, ki nafal pachad haYehudim aleihem. It was a beautiful thing to be a Jew. It was a proud thing to be a Jew. The Ribbono Shel Olam made the miracle such, when Mordechai yatza, Mordechai comes out, בלבוש מלכות, תכלת וחור ועטרת זהב גדולה, royalty, prestige. The Jew was a bizayon, and at the end of the miracle, it wasn't only a bizayon, but it was the opposite. Who was the bizayon? You know, everything in the Megillah, rabosai, has its simple pshat in the story, but there's also a deeper nuance and an explanation to it. Haman wasn't just annihilated and taken away and destroyed and uprooted, but it was done in a bizayondike way. It was done in... With the desecration of Haman, his own daughter throws a pot of—you'll fill in the blanks yourselves, okay? Why? It was to embarrass Haman. Mordechai and the horse, Haman is taking him. Haman falls on the bed. He gets embarrassed when Achashverosh walks in. It's embarrassment. It's about the respect and the embarrassment. Amalek. Amalek holds itself, reishis goyim Amalek, proud. It's the prestige of the goy, Amalek, reishis goyim Amalek. Amalek takes the milahs, Chazal say, v'zorkan klapei maalah, cuts off the bris milah and throws it up. We'll see what you chose. It's the embarrassment, the embarrassment of the difference between the Yid and the goy. Here, here, this is what you—this is what—here, take the milah. It's a form of degradation.

of what the Yid and the Yid stands for, and the kedushah of the Yid. Amalek rei tachas, Chazal say. What is Amalek? Amalek is am bacherei tachas, which means when the Jew left Mitzrayim, it left prestige, it left with honor, and Amalek can't take that honor. And what does Amalek do? Amalek has to attack and belittle, belittle, belittle the respect, the kavod, the honor, the glory of a Yid. Ma! You left Mitzrayim. You left Mitzrayim, and the whole world is in awe of a Yid, Klal Yisrael, Am Hashem. Amalek has to come and poke fun at it. Amalek is litzanus. Sefarim talk about Amalek. It's about degrading, belittling, being mevazeh. Look at that, look at that lowly Jew in the time of Hitler, yimach shemo. His whole program against the Jew began with belittling and besmirching and being mevazeh the Yid from his physical attributes, the long nose, to its spiritual attributes, gerbels. That was the whole—gerbels is Amalek attacks by first being mevazeh, by belittling. What becomes— Yeshua, the salvation. The salvation is the opposite. Yeshua comes when the Yid is proud, and he realizes, Ish Yehudi haya b'Shushan habirah. Mordechai stood proud, a Jew, in the face of everyone ridiculing him. Everyone ridiculed Mordechai, even his own people, even Klal Yisrael. The Jews ridiculed him. Chazal say, Where? You're not going to go to the party. You're not going to the party. What are you talking about? It's the in thing, high society, high society. What's the problem? Kosher? We'll make it kosher. Today we have Chinese kosher, Chinese kosher. They had Persian kosher, Persian delights kosher, strictly kosher, and Mordechai is railing against it. Be proud. It must not be Chinese. You need Chinese kosher. A Yid has to eat Chinese food. What's wrong if he eats Yiddishes? What's wrong if he eats fish, gefilte fish mit kneidlach mit? It's a joke, but there's some truth to this joke. Proud, proud. You know, every culture is proud of its gourmet. We don't realize it again, and I'm not railing against Chinese food and Mexican kosher and this. Trust me, I'm not a balshitah. But there's some nuance of truth. When we search culture in food, that means that we're searching and we're not content and happy and proud of our own culture and our own heritage and our own foods. Now again, I'm not saying it as a shita, but in every reality, in every mindset, there's always the swaying on searching. Purim. Purim turned around. We were proud to be Yidden. In society, the Yid became, wow. And you know where it began from? From the Yidden themselves. What do we say in the piyut, right? Tzahalah v'samecha b'rosam yachad, techeiles Mordechai. It was by the Yidden where tzahalah v'samecha, they were all ecstatic, ecstatic, b'rosam yachad, when they saw techeiles Mordechai. What is techeiles Mordechai?

What did they see, yachad, together, that excited them? Ooh, cheilus Mordechai. Should have said they were excited that they were saved. There was a yeshuah. Why is that the symbol that symbolizes to them, ah, Purim, the nes, or happy, cheilus Mordechai? So let's understand: what is cheilus Mordechai? What's it referring to? Pashut, it's referring to what it says in the Megillah, that Mordechai yatza bilvush malchus, techeles, v'chur, v'argaman. Mordechai went out with royal clothing. The beautiful, beautiful bekeshe, beautiful, gorgeous, yeah? Colorful colors, and then... so that to them was something that brought great happiness. Why? Why did that bring such big happiness? The Brisker Rav speaks about it. The Brisker Rav explains that when they saw Mordechai on the horse with this, they realized that that's it. The times have changed. The gezeirah is finished. We're heading towards a yeshuah. Because till then they still didn't know: will there be a yeshuah? Won't there be a yeshuah? Seeing him on the horse, that was it. Why? Why seeing Mordechai? It's a pashut, you see, things turned around, and apeichu. Instead of Haman being on the horse, right? So I would say a little bit deeper. They understood the bizayon of Mordechai. Was really, was part of the problem, was part of the gezeirah, was part of the chisaron. Look, and all of a sudden it turns around, and that Mordechai is now b'chavod, in honor, in prestige. That was the tikkun. That was the beginning of the yeshuah. Yeah, you with me, Reb Pesach? Pashut pshat. It's not so much that Haman, it's not so much that Haman was leading Mordechai. It was that Haman was embarrassed, was degraded to this, and Mordechai was elevated to royalty. It was the tikkun. It was the opposite of an apochu, of the degradation of the Jew, the tzaddik, Klal Yisrael. I want to tell you a meyridike pshat. Belzer Rebbe's zichrono livrachah used to explain, techeiles Mordechai is referring to the tzitzis. Techeiles Mordechai does not mean techeiles, what we read in the Megillah, that he was wearing beautiful, colorful clothing. Techeiles Mordechai means the tzitzis of Mordechai. And they explain a meyridike thing, you hear? They say, you have to understand, Haman is taking Mordechai, he's on the bottom, you know, leading Mordechai. Mordechai is on the horse. People are not sure from far. They were thinking Mordechai's leading the horse, and Haman must be, right? Who else? Even his own daughter made this mistake. His own daughter, who looked from above, from the second floor, was saying, Oh, it must be my father's on the horse. When did Klal Yisrael get excited? When they looked closely and they saw techeles Mordechai, big tzitzis, huh? If he's wearing tzitzis, so it must be that Mordechai's on the horse. And Haman is the one who's leading. So they were excited, b'echad yachad, techeles Mordechai. Techeles Mordechai means not the nice clothing, not the Gucci clothing. It was the tzitzis that were coming out from the side, or maybe the tzitzis that were over the Gucci clothing, I don't know, the Chashvershi clothing. Maybe they had a special line of clothing, Achashvershi clothing. He was wearing... which was my knowledge of the latest styles is very weak. So, Gucci, can you give me something that rhymes with Achashverosh? Is there anything that I'm... huh? Okay. The point being, rabosai, that they saw the tzitzis, then they realized...

Who, who was on the horse and who was not on the horse? Havai say, nei ayad, with humility, a different point, a different angle to what the Belzer Rebbes were saying. What was honorable, what was prestigious in the eyes of the Jew? At first it was a chashvei reish and his glamour and his kingdom and his modernization, his personalization of the society. And then it flipped, and they realized that what’s prestigious, what’s beautiful, the Yid in the street with his tzitzis, techeiles Mordechai was the beauty of it. They were proud to walk the streets as a Jew. Haman made it that it should be a bizayon, that only Mordechai, the old, the old senile Jew sitting in the corner, old man, he doesn’t know what’s going on. They minimized Mordechai to being an old, in English, going old fogey from the old generation. Opposite, Mordechai, they saw his wisdom, they saw his power, they saw his grandeur, and he walked the streets with tzitzis. It’s a b’reisam yachad. And I would say the pshat yachad is that in every society there are two groups of Jews. There are those Jews that scream and say, What’s wrong with the old? What’s wrong with the way our zeides and our bubbes, they dressed? And then there’s the new society that say, Well, you got to modernize, you got to be part of the world, you got to be part of society. People are going to look down at us. People are going to look at us as archaic, old-fashioned, vechulei. You fill in the blanks. Everyone has their own vernacular how to fill in those blanks. B'roysam yachad. Klal Yisrael united. Both factions, yachad. B'roysam yachad. They realized, yes, Mordechai, baal tefillin with the vaise beard. He's walking around, cheiles Mordechai. He's wearing the beautiful clothing. They say over a beautiful story from the Satmar Rebbe, zicher tzaddik livracha. When he came to America after the war, he tried to rebuild Klal Yisrael. He tried to rebuild chassidus, like many other gedolim, and they had a hard time confronting the Jews who came back after the war because they said, You know what? Let's leave Europe behind us. We had enough with this. Let's dress in the streets like everybody else. What, again we're going to start going back to our traditional clothing? And it turns into so many, so many problems. Let's be Americanas. Let's go American. Let's do the American route. That's it. Let's blend. Satmar Rebbe used to scream, No! Shtraimel, shtraimel, shtraimel. You got to wear the shtraimel. His closest chassidim said, Rebbe, not in America. Not in America. Not in America. We had enough. The shtraimel caused us to stand out. How many problems, how much suffering. That's it. We're not going to walk the streets anymore where people laugh at us. Satmar Rebbe said, Wear the shtreimel, and ich zog dir tzu, I give you my word, they're not gonna laugh at you. They're not gonna laugh at you. No, Chassidim, they didn't have a hard time, you know, being convinced. So they didn't wear the shtreimel. They didn't wear the shtreimel. While the Rebbe, when he walked in the street, he did wear the shtreimel, proud Chassidus, Yiddishkeit from Europe. Chassidim are walking with him in the street, and there were a bunch of hoodlums on the corner, on Lee Avenue probably, and they're sitting there, laughing. Look at the—what does he have, a raccoon on his head? What's he got over there? And they're laughing. So they turn to the Rebbe and they said, Rebbe, you said they're not going to laugh. Rebbe, you said they're not—look, you're passing by the streets and they're laughing. People are laughing at us. You said they're not going to laugh. So the Rebbe turns to them and he says, Veh zugt ach? Who tells you that they're laughing at me?

Maybe with the shtreimel, maybe they're laughing at you. Look, a Chassidishe yid on a shtreimel. Look, a Chassidishe Jew. Now he's, they're laughing at you. Who's it they're laughing at? Me. It's a beautiful story. Why? When you're proud to be who you are, they're not laughing at you. They won't laugh at you. You know when they begin to laugh at you? When you're not proud to be who you are. That's the Satmar Rebbe, his humor was giving them hashkafa that Yidden survive through in the galusim, and that is: be proud, be respectful, be respectful. Don't throw Judaism in people's faces, and don't be belligerent and boisterous and disrespectful. Don't sit there and say, My religion, and therefore everyone... No. But it doesn't mean you don't have to be proud of who you are and the way you dress, because if you respect yourself, then they will respect you too. The world will respect you as well. The first Rashi, Rashi says that why does the Torah begin, Bereishis bara Elokim es hashamayim v'es haaretz? It should have started with a chodesh hazeh, the first mitzvah. So Rashi says, Koach ma'asav higid l'amo lasos lahem nachlas goyim, that Hashem wants to show and teach and clearly state that He created the world. He created the world and He gave Eretz Yisroel to Klal Yisroel. He's the boss. He could do it. Famous question is, who's the Torah talking to? You're not talking to the umos ha'olam, to the... If you got up in the UN and you gave such a speech, okay, got it. But you wrote in the Torah. The Torah is for Klal Yisrael. So who are you lagid to speak? Who are you talking to, that you created the world and you gave the Eretz Yisrael and Eretz Rabosai? You got to read the Rashi. You got to read the pasuk that Rashi brings: Koach ma'asav higid l'amo. Higid l'amo. He's not talking to the goy; he's talking to the Yidden. Higid l'amo. He's talking to the Yid. If the Yid understands it and the Yid believes it fully, then the goyim will respect it. Then the nations of the world will be respectful to your beliefs and your claims and your religion. It all begins on how strong are we in our conviction, and how proud are we, and how honest, honest, honest, honest are we as Yidden. Honesty, Rabosai. This is something I speak about day in and day out in the yeshiva. A Yid must be emes. It's got to be honest, pure, and then there's respect. When the Yiddishkeit, when the Judaism is external, that's when it begins to be a problem. The external itself becomes part of the issue. The external itself becomes the point of contention to cause all the problems. But when the external is actually honest and it reflects the internal. Then there's respect. Then there's respect. I'd like to show you an interesting pasuk, beautiful pasuk. And this year, I was thinking about it a while. Pasuk in Megillas Esther: Vayishlach sefarim el kol haYehudim, al sheva v'esrim u'me'ah medinah, malchus Achashverosh, divrei shalom v'emes. Words of peace and truthfulness, emes. I don't know what does it mean, emes. I don't even understand the translation of it almost. It's almost difficult to understand the translation of the words, that the story of the Megillah, the letter that Esther sends out, is supposed to be a message of shalom and emes. So I worked a little bit on it within the mefarshim, and I think there's a meyridike pshat here, rabosai. Shalom, Jews want peace, but it has to be founded and based on emes. If you're truthful.

If you're truthful, if you're emes, emes is shalem, shalem is emes. You know, there's an interesting Chazal. Chazal say that the Megillah needs sirtut. It needs to be lines, lined—it's called imaginary lines—that they write, sirtut. So the Gemara says, Megillah, Tezayin amud beis, Megillah tzricha sirtut ka'amitah shel Torah, like the honest, true Torah itself, Torah proper, amitah shel Torah. Emes, true, actual proper Torah. What does that mean? It says Teisis in Gittin, daf vav amud beis, it's referring to a mezuzah. A mezuzah needs sirtut, so Megillah, like a mezuzah, needs sirtut. Chasam Sofer, in his drashos, one after another, in different drashos, he deals with this: what does Megillah have to do with mezuzah? How did Megillah, mezuzah—it's not connection, but just it happens to be that we want to teach us that you need to line when you write a Megillah, you need those imaginary—you ever see in the Torah there's an imaginary line—so it needs sirtut. So we picked to teach it to us through the venue of teaching that it's like mezuzah. I mean, what is mezuzah? How did mezuzah—just say it needs sirtut, teach me that it needs sirtut, and finished. The mitzvah of Torah. The Sefer says many different pshatim. I would like to share with you a pshat that I was thinking this week. The mezuzah identifies to the world, the Jew, this is a Jewish home. I saw many teshuvas over the years that discussed where, in places and times that the Jew was in danger, could you take the mezuzah and put it on the inside? Could you take the mezuzah and put it into the wall to push it in, that it shouldn't be noticeable? You know, when you pass by a neighborhood and you want to, you always say, Oh, I saw mezuzah on the door. It must be a Jewish neighborhood. It's interesting, I caught my eye this point, caught my thought. I was thinking about it. When you want to say, Oh, a Jew lives there, what do you say? I saw mezuzahs on the door, right? Mezuzahs on the door. Part of a mezuzah is to be proud. Part of the mezuzah is to show the world that this is not just a home, but it's a Jewish home. And the people that live in here are Jewish, and they're proud to be Jewish, and they're announcing to the world they're Jewish, and that is the shmirah itself of the home. A mezuzah is there for shmirah. You would say the opposite, the shmirah. Well, of course it's shmirah, man, mazikim. We all know the spiritual mazikim. I'm sure the Olam here is very excited to hear the word mazikim. They think I'm going to speak about demons and who knows what. No, but there's mazikim which are camouflaged in human bodies too, and they come in all shapes and types of clothing in different neighborhoods. I'm a Yavin, right? Hoodlums are hoodlums. You don't have to have them sheidim. They don't have to be spiritual hoodlums, okay? They could be actual hoodlums, and they cause danger. They could be a danger to the Jewish home. They could want to rob and rampage. The mezuzah, the mezuzah, the mezuzah says, I'm a Yid, and I'm proud to be a Yid, and that itself is the shmirah, the protection. That itself protects the Yid. That itself—it's interesting. Going back to Mitzrayim, maybe that's why I said the word para. You have to understand that a lot of thoughts go through my mind as I give the shiur. I started, I said para, and I really meant Haman. But in Mitzrayim, we had a tremendous protection on the night of Makas Bechoros. Hashem jumped over, and the nigaf, the one that was supposed to hit the Jewish—the homes and kill—overpassed, passed over the houses, the Jewish homes.

Here was the dam, al ha-mashkof al שתי המזוזות, and that represented that this was a Jewish home. The blood, the dam, the milah, oh, Yiddishkeit. The erech mizbeiseses b'damayich. Yiddish. So much blood. We think if we cover the Jewish blood, we'll be protected. The opposite. It's what makes us proud, what makes us protected. The erech mizbeiseses b'damayich. You don't have to hide it. You don't have to hide it. Al ha-mashkof al שתי המזוזות. And that was the symbol, the symbol that protected the home. שלא ייתן למשחית להג. Hinei sholayim v'emes. Emes brings sholayim. To be proud that you're a Yid. That's sholayim. That's divrei sholayim. That brings peace. You know, I was thinking a lot. It says, Lehudim haysa orah v'simchah v'sasson vyikar. Chazal say, what is lehudim haysa orah v'simchah v'sasson vyikar? Oirah is Torah, sason is milah, yekar is tefillin. It's from Megillas Tazayin amud beis: Oirah zu Torah, simchas Yom Tov, sason is milah, yekar is tefillin. So just say, like, Yehudim haysa, tefillin, mezuzes. Talk about milah, right? What does it mean, like, Yehudim haysa oirah, v'simcha, v'sason, v'yekar, and each one is a symbol, a remez for tefillin, milah, Torah. Say that they—what does it even mean that they had tefillin when they didn't have tefillin before, but they didn't have tefillin, they didn't have Torah, they didn't have Yom Tov, it says they didn't keep milah. What does it say they didn't keep milah? What does it mean even? What does Chazal mean that they had, in the Megillah, that we point out that Klal Yisrael had oirah, simcha, sason, yekar? What's the chidush? What changed? They didn't have milah till then. I think, rabosai, pshat—I don't know if it's also sfas emes, if I'm not mistaken—they had all this, but they weren't happy with it. They weren't proud of it. They were ashamed of their tefillin. They were ashamed of the milah. They were ashamed of Torah. Don't forget, these are all the things that are bris. Our treaties, our ois, our signs of treaty with the Ribono Shel Olam, that are connected with Hashem. They were embarrassed to walk the streets, say, you know, I am a person that I live with Hashem. I have a bris milah. And don't forget, Amalek was mevazeh the bris milah. That's what Amalek wanted. Amalek wanted to minimize and be mevazeh—to, not getting the right word in English, but the point is, this is what Amalek is trying to do. And it was working in the times of Achashverosh. Purim, v'nahafoch hu, and they started to realize, layehudim haysa—and I think that the diuk is not that they had, but haysa, they always had—layehudim haysa. It was already, but had started to have a new meaning. They started to appreciate it and be proud of it and to be happy with it. Layehudim haysa orah v'simcha v'sasson. What is true happiness? They were searching for it. They thought they would find it in a seudah, in a glamorous, grander party, drinking, eating, fun. And they realized that that didn't bring them anything.

Tzahalah v'sameicha. When were they happy? B'roisam yachad, cheilus Mordechai. What was happy? Torah, milah, Yom Tov, simcha. Zeh Yom Tov. How did Yom Tov come in? What's real happiness? Real happiness is Yom Tov. Yom Tov is a time that the Jew connects with the Ribono Shel Olam and with his family. He sits at a table by Yom Tov. That's simcha. Party in the street, Persian life, the nightlife, and the social life didn't bring them anything. They went and went and went. The only thing that caused them is that the goyim should come and want to destroy them and kill them. That's the only thing it brought them. It brought them destruction, that they almost became annihilated. So then they turned around. So we have to refocus and sharpen our understanding of what happiness is like. Hudim hoyso, it always was for them. Sason, simcha, because these things became what true happiness is all about. Yom Tov, yes, tefillin, I'm proud of it. What is tzahalah v'sameicha? You know what the word tzahalah means? Va'ir shushan tzahalah v'sameicha. And we say that, and then we stop, and then we say, LaYehudim hoysa orah v'simcha. It's almost like it's two things: ir Shushan, tzahalah v'sameicha. So first of all, what does the word tzahala mean? The Eben Ezra explains that the word tzahala means light. When a person's in a dark room, and all of a sudden he goes out and he says, Wow, light. That's called tzahala. That's what the Eben Ezra explains. The only thing is, the Eben Ezra says that the tzahala is, LeYehudim haysa orah v'simcha, which means that's the orah, going back onto Shushan was tzahala v'samecha, LeYehudim haysa orah. The Chasam Sofer in his drashes deals with the pshat in the pasuk, and he says, Well, actually, it seems like Shushan was tzahala v'samecha. That's one thing. And then, LeYehudim haysa orah v'simcha was another thing, was a separate thing. So which one is it? What are the two things here? So he wants to say, Va'ir Shushan tzahala. One is going on Shushan, turned light. And then also, LeYehudim haysa orah v'simcha v'sasson vykar. I think the pshat, nabaisei, might be as follows. You know, you can have all the beautiful lights. You know, I passed by Manhattan coming back from the simcha recently. I was still from Farm Manhattan, from the bridge, the lights. You would think that everyone is so bsimcha, light. Must be the most depressing place at night with all those lights. I can imagine how many depressed people are living in all those lightened buildings. Yeah, it's light. Yeah, tremendous. And the truth is, you can have all the lights in the world, it's still dark. What is light? There's a beautiful memoir from the Chazon Ish. The Chazon Ish writes, Ki ein etzev b'olam. There is no depression in this world that could ever overtake someone, l'mi, to the person shemakir oyrois ha'emes. Very classic, famous zog from the Chazon Ish, that there's no etzev b'olam l'mi shemakir oyrois ha'emes. Truth has light to it. When there's no truth, it's darkness. Shushan had all the bright lights, had all the nightlife. Shushan must have been something that everybody took pictures of and said, Wow. Wow. Look at the beautiful neon, beautiful...

Lights, shushan. And the truth is, it was dark. It wasn't real. It was what they called happiness gemachte, gemachte, which means fabricated, not real. You know, you could put millions of lights, and there's still darkness. But ir Shushan tzahalah. It became real light, true light. Tzahalah, the city, ir, the me'alah laYehudim haysa orah v'simchah. The true things that bring light and the true things that bring happiness shined out. Got to come out of the darkness for it. Yeah. Hong Kong. I hear people go to Hong Kong these days. How come you're smiling? What did you see in Hong Kong? What did you see? You saw lights, right? You must have seen beautiful Hong Kong, right? You come back to the beis medrash. Yeah, I'm sorry for picking on you. I'm sorry, you went l'shem Torah, mitzvahs, parnassah. But you saw, you saw the Hong Kong, the city. What do they call this, the great? Hong Kong is the big city in Japan, right? Tremendous. Humble. You think, who knows that? Unbelievable. Then he comes back to the beis medrash. All right, Baruch Hashem, it's very nice light. Yeah, but where's all the fancy, glamorous... Rabban can sing shir. But you're happy. It's not the bright lights that bring happiness. It's the lights of truth. It is emes and אמת. Truth, emes. What was the lashon of the pasuk? Divrei shalom ve'emes. Megillah was about truth. The Jew looked in the mirror, and he came to terms with the truth. What really is emes? What's really simcha? What's going to make me happy? And the answer is being who I am, being a Yid, doing mitzvahs. Over the years, I was zoche to meet very special Yidden that taught me what Yiddishkeit is, and taught me what it means to be a Yid, and how Jews are happy when they identify, and they are truthful to themselves as being a Yid. I remember years ago, I went to visit an alter Yid, was the zechus, zechus chaim livrach, a very special Yid. He was very sick, and he was hospitalized, and I went to visit him. I remember it was like Rosh Hashanah time, right before Rosh Hashanah, and when I came in, he never told me the diagnosis, where the doctor was telling if he's better or no, or he's going to... The doctor said, I'll be able to come Rosh Hashanah. That was his concern. Doctor, you hear? You hear with an excitement. The doctor said, Well, ken ich gein in shul Rosh Hashanah. The doctor said, Well, ken ich gein in shul Rosh Hashanah. That was his whole concern. Yeah, that was that. That brought him happiness. I saw a transcript of Rav Shach's drasha from one of the knessiyos gedolos. Sorry, it was a Yarchi Kallah, excuse me. It was the Pesichta Yarchi Kallah, Tavshin Lamed Ches. V'yisem li segulah mikol ha'am. Rav Shach starts with the pasuk that Klal Yisrael is segulah, they're special. He says, What's special about Klal Yisrael, segulah? He says, I'll tell you. He says, I read many stories about the Holocaust, and there are two of them which stand out in my mind, says Rav Shach. There's two of them which, he says, many of them were beautiful, but there are two of them which stand in front of me all the time. He says, One of them I read was a story how Jews, right before they went into gas chambers, they spoke amongst themselves and they said, Today is Simchas Torah. We don't have sifrei Torah that we should be able to dance. Simchas Torah, can't dance. But, you know, we have a solution.

We could do something. We have ourselves, we have the Eibishter. Let's dance, be happy we're Yidden, that we have a Ribono Shel Olam. And so they danced, and after that they went to the gas chamber. Rav Shach screams out and he says, Rabosai, you think these people died al Kiddush Hashem? They lived al Kiddush Hashem. Their deaths were not death, but they lived. That's called living. Haim heim meisu al Kiddush Hashem, o chayu al Kiddush Hashem? Heim meisu b'mesiras nefesh, o chayu b'mesiras nefesh? The physical death is not the issue. The question is, what is the life? And they understood life is ich bin a Yid, and I have a Ribono Shel Olam, and I could dance and be happy even at this moment. This morning I got a phone call from a talmid who had been calling me for almost two straight years about a sister who was very sick, suffered terribly, and this brother was very devoted to the sister. So he called to tell me this morning that she passed away. She was niftar. I tried to hear in his voice something unhappy, something, you know, a depression, something. Now he was extremely upbeat. The words he said to me, again, it just echoed everything we're speaking about here. He said, Baruch Hashem, Baruch Hashem, a miracle happened. That right before she was niftar, she opened her eyes, and my sister, who was there, was able to say Shema Yisrael with her. That's how she closed her eyes and she passed away. And he said it with such simcha, with so much content. He was content and happy, and to him it was a nes. It was a miracle. It was a miracle. This is what we're talking about. What brings simcha? Yid has a whole different way of identifying and living with simcha. All the darkness and all the cruelty of the world doesn't change that, because they live with the Eibishter. They live with the Ribono Shel Olam. I was so taken back by it. I thought he would call me broken. He wasn't broken at all. It was a very straightforward conversation, almost joyous, almost joyous. A nes, a miracle happened. Miracle, that's a miracle. That's what you call a miracle. To him it was a miracle that she opened her eyes, and she passed away, that she was able to say Shema Yisrael as she passed away. A nes, a miracle, a miracle. To him that was a miracle. A nes of Purim was the miracle. Yes, we survived. Our physical bodies survive, but the greater nes was, laYehudim haysa orah v'simcha v'sasson vyikar. They were not happy that they survived physically, even though, yes, we thank Hashem for that and we're happy about that. But what was the simcha? It was the tefillin, it was the sasson, the Yom Tov, the milah. That's what the Jews are happy. Instead of being happy and celebrating life from death, they celebrate a life of Torah, mitzvahs, and that they have simcha and appreciate that. Rav Shach writes another story. He says, mesupar al mevi'im lAuschwitz. He says that the train was going to Auschwitz. It was Shabbos mincha time. One turns to the other and he says, There was no seudah shlishis. We don't have shalosh seudos. So each one put together a few crumbs. They washed their hands. This is on the train to Auschwitz. They washed their hands, and they ate shalosh seudos, and they sang. He says this is the second story that Rav Shach says to me moves me.

Different perspective of things, what brings them joy, what brings them happiness. You know, we say, Ashreinu, mah tov chelkeinu, u'ma na'im goralenu, u'ma yafah yerushaseinu. Three things: Ashreinu, mah tov chelkeinu, ma na'im goralenu, u'ma yafah yerushaseinu. What are the three points that we're trying to bring out? What's mah tov chelkeinu? What's goralenu? What's yerushaseinu? I think the pshat, rabosai, a person has a lot, chelek. Some people are very unhappy with what they have; they always want more. Klal Yisrael is saying, I'm happy with what I have, and it's tov. When are you happy? When you know that what you have is good. When you don't appreciate and you don't understand what you have, then you're not happy. So first of all, Ashreinu, we're very lucky. Mah tov, because we know it's tov, chelkeinu. But you know what happens? Even if we know what we have is good, sometimes we're jealous what the other guy, maybe he has more. Ma na'im goralenu. Goralenu means our lot, in relevance to someone else. I think it's pashut pshat. I was thinking about it over Shabbos. Hinei mah tov chelkeinu, Ashreinu mah tov chelkeinu. Tov is good, what we have, and that very, very important basic happiness comes from realizing that what we have is good. But then there's always in the mind, well, maybe what I have is good, but what compared to the other guy? The other, that's goral, that's my lot in reference to someone else. And that can cause what? Friction and tension within the person. He's unhappy. That's noyim. It's sweet. It's sweet. Naim. It's sweet, which means even though someone might have a bigger house or a fancier car, but I'm happy. It's sweet to me, the smaller whatever, because I'm happy with what I have. But then a person says to himself, Good, I have what I need. What am I leaving over for the children already? I'm not... It's nice what I'm leaving over. I'm proud of what I'm leaving over. Yes, that's what we have, that we say Shema Yisrael. And that for us is tov chelkeinu. That's noyim goralenu. And that's yafa, yafa Yerushaseinu. Possibly this is the answer to the question, Marbeh b'simcha. What do we have to do to be marbeh b'simcha? What do we have to do that shows we're being marbeh b'simcha? What is it that's the avodah of odar that we're marbeh b'simcha? And the teretz is, you got to realize and understand and have a havanah, Ich bin a Yid, I'm a Jew. And even though there's tzaros, and even though we have complications and nisyonos, but nachalas ma'ases, ashreinu, matov chelkeinu. U'ma no'im goraleinu, u'ma yafah yerushaseinu. Ashreinu k'shehaMashgiach mariv mevatel knessiyos. Simcha. What do I have to do? The minute you have to think to do something to bring simcha, you already lost the simcha. It's not what you do, it's who you are. It's self-worth. Be proud. Self-esteem. I'm a Yid. I'm a Jew. I'm lucky. I'm a very lucky person. Shelo asani goy, shelo asani eved. Baruch Hashem, I'm zoche to be a Yid. And that's why Purim, I think, the whole avodah is not an external avodah. You know, we dress up on Purim almost like goyim. You know, it's interesting, on Purim you see how what's really going on inside a person's mind. You know, every guy dresses up. Little kids dress up like policemen, you know, because in their mind, I don't know. I can't say that because, you know, I don't know. Everyone dresses up and they're gonna say, Oh, you know, we all consent. I don't know. Go dress up the way you want.

I'm not saying anything. ... okay? But how is it we come to shul dressed up like clowns, like army men, like ... Purim, and the teretz is, it's not about the chitzoniyus. Purim is not about the external. What's pnimi? What's inside? What is the Jew on the inside? LaYehudim, ish Yehudi. Ish Yehudi means b'etzem, who am I? I'm a Yid. I'm a Jew. It's who I am. Now because that I dress a certain way and I behave a certain way, but ... that's Purim. Purim is, you hate me and you want to annihilate me because of who I am. I'm proud of me, who I am. I'm a Yid. I can dress up as this and that. I can dress up as anything, but pnimiyus. We drink wine on Purim. Why do we drink wine on Purim? Why do you drink wine and the most horrible things happen? Even drink wine, some of the most beautiful feelings and emotions come out. Once heard a beautiful thing from the Baal Tefillah on my shul, Reb Chiel Schnitzler, told me something beautiful. He said that in Bells, they have a custom that by Nilah... In those days, the lights, you know, there was no lights, and mostly it was with candle. It would start to dim, you know, during the day, you know, as night comes, they needed light, they needed candles. So they would bring in a goy, they would bring in Gentiles to light the candles. And even when the lights came about, they didn't need light, they'd still bring in Gentiles to light the candles by the amud, by the amud, in the beis medrash and the beis hashul. Why? It was to represent and say, Ribono Shel Olam, we're coming to the Eibishter. You're going to make a decision for life and death. Choose. You see what Klal Yisroel, you see what after Yom Kippur, after a whole day, how pure the Jew is. And here's your Gentile, the good people, they're not bad. Look at the difference between the two. They would on purpose bring in a Gentile, Ribono Shel Olam. He's a good person, he didn't do anything wrong, but look at the difference. You can't compare the Jew on Yom Kippur to anybody else out there. This is the am hanivchar. This is who we are. Yom Kippur, Yom Kippur, the Jew is clean, the Jew is pure. The inside, the essence of every Jew is polished by cutting away the external on Yom Kippur. There's no eating and there's no drinking and the— And what is it? It's a day of achdus and a day of forgiving, because it goes to the core of what the Yid is. And yet Purim is even greater, and Arizal is brought down, Yom Kippur, that Yom Kippur is like Purim. The essence, the Jew, we finally shave away all the external and we get to the core. Yom Kippur, by not eating and... Purim is even greater. Purim is even greater because we go right to the essence of the inner Jew, the inner hergashah and emotions and feelings of a Yid. Drinking, shenichnas yayin yatza sod. When you drink, what comes pouring out? What comes pouring out? The inner essence of the person. You'll tell a person by how he drinks. This is what we tell our Ribono Shel Olam. Look at the world when they drink, and look at the Yid, the most beautiful things and the beautiful hergashah, love of man to the Ribono Shel Olam and love of man to his fellow man come out on Purim. The essence, the pnimi, who am I? And that's why there's a reading of Mishloach Manos ish...

Yesh l'reyeihu. U'matanos la'evyonim, giving tzedakah. Yesh l'reyeihu, friendship. All the basic emotions and hergeshim of a Yid need to be brought out on Purim, what a Yid stands for, what a Yid is about. Maybe, al pi derech drush, I was thinking, we don't say Hallel on Purim. We don't say Hallel on Purim. Why don't we say Hallel on Purim? Kriasa zu hi Hilula. The reading of the Megillah is the Hallel. Maybe it's possible, possible, the greatest Hallel that we could say on Purim is Ish Yehudi. Yehudi is a lashon hoda'ah, of praise. The greatest praise to the Ribono Shel Olam, the greatest Hallel to the Ribono Shel Olam, is the internal hergeshim that a Jew has. Hallel is an external thing, something that we say. Sometimes the emotions and the hergeshim, the inner is a bigger praise. Who you are speaks more than what you say. Ish Yehudi, the hoda'ah, the praise, the hoda'ah to the Ribono Shel Olam, is who we are on Purim. It's not what we say, the way we behave on Purim, the amount of how much Yiddishkeit one... Expresses. On Purim, that's the hoda'ah to the Ribbono Shel Olam. That itself is the praise. Kriyasa zui lulah. Why don't we say Hallel? Again, I'm saying it's derech drush, not telling you it's pashut pshat. It could be derech drush, but what is the Hallel? Hallel is an external thing. You come to shul, you say Hallel. It's words. It's expressing with song. The Hallel, the hoda'ah on Purim is who we are and not what we say. And that is what Purim—Purim was about Yehudi. The goy is trying to destroy what the Jew stands for, the beauty of the Jew, his simcha, his happiness. And the opposite, we celebrate. Divrei shalom ve'emes. Why? Tzahalah. Tzahalah v'sameicha, ohr ha'emes, what the true light is, and that becomes the simcha of Purim. You've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.