Purim by Rabbi Shalom Goldberg

BS"D

The Rebbe[2] says:
Part one:

1. The Talmud[3] relates an interesting anecdote regarding the festival of Purim[4]:

"The disciples asked Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai[5], 'Why did the Jewish people of that generation deserve extermination?' He replied, 'You tell me the reason'. They answered, 'Because they derived pleasure from the feast of that wicked one (Achashverosh[6])'.

Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai refuted this, saying, 'If so, if Haman's[7] decree was a punishment for their enjoying the king's banquet, only the Jews of Shushan should have been ordered killed, because only they took part of the feast. However, the Jews in the rest of the entire world should not have been ordered killed, since they did not attend the feast!

The students then said to him, 'Since our answer is not satisfactory, you tell us why all the Jews were liable for this punishment'.

Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai answered, 'Because they prostrated themselves to an image (in the days of Nebuchadnezzar[8])'".


2. The Rebbe now questions this:

When the Sages in the Talmud suggested that the Jewish people deserved annihilation, "Because they derived pleasure from the feast of that wicked one (Achashverosh)", they seemingly meant that because the Jewish people ate and drank from the feast of Achashverosh they deserved annihilation.

The obvious difficulty with this is, "Does the eating and drinking of non-Kosher food really warrant the punishment of extermination!?"[9]

Furthermore, even when Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai rejected their answer, it was merely due to the fact that according to their line of thinking only the Jews of Shushan would have deserved to be killed, he did not reject it because this was an unfair punishment! How can we understand this?

3. The Rebbe now begins to shed light on this narrative of the Talmud:

Instead of the Talmud stating clearly that they ate and drank from the feast of Achashverosh, it says, "Because they derived pleasure from the feast of that wicked one (Achashverosh)". This precise wording indicates that the issue was not that they ate non-Kosher food, but that they derived benefit from that wicked one's feast (as we will explain later at length).

A proof to this line of thinking can be found in the Talmud on the very same page as this narrative and in the Midrash[10]. The Megillah (the scroll which we read the "Book of Esther" from) states, "And the drinking was according to the law, there was no coercion, for so the king had appointed all the officers of his house to do according to each man's pleasure". Our Sages explain that this means that the Jewish people were given Kosher food and wine[11]. Therefore, in light of the above, we must explain the words of the disciples, "Because they derived pleasure from the feast of that wicked one (Achashverosh)", not to mean that they ate non-Kosher food, but that they derived pleasure from Achashverosh's feast (as we will explain later at length).

4. The Rebbe now quotes an answer given by the commentaries and then questions it:

Some commentaries explain[12] that since Achashverosh made this feast to commemorate the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash (the Holy Temple)[13], the pleasure that the Jewish people had in this feast was evidence that they were also happy about the Beis Hamikdash's destruction.

However this explanation is not sufficient because we are talking about total annihilation; even little children were included in this punishment[14]! If the transgression was idol worship, like Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai actually concludes, it would be in accordance with the Torah law to punish the entire nation, even little children[15]. However anything other than that, including having pleasure from the fact that the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed, would not warrant the total annihilation of the Jewish people.

5. The Rebbe now lays the foundation of the explanation:

Our Sages tell us that the existence of the Jewish people living between the seventy nations of the world can be compared to a sheep standing between seventy wolves, and "great is the shepherd (Hashem/G-d) who saves and guards them"[16].

In other words, according to the natural order of things the sheep would be pounced on and totally eaten by the seventy wolves, however because of the sheep's great shepherd it is miraculously saved. The same is true for the Jewish people; our mere existence is a miraculous one which needs a great shepherd to keep us safe, and this great shepherd is Hashem.

There is however one condition which we need to keep in order to maintain this miraculous protection- we must rely on Hashem to take care of us and keep us safe. If however we believe that the "wolves" are in control, we will lose our miraculous protection from Hashem and the natural laws of nature will take over- the wolves will be free to attack and destroy us (Heaven Forbid)[17].

6. The Rebbe now finishes explaining how the Talmud could consider the Jewish people's pleasure from Achashverosh's feast enough of a reason to deserve extermination:

When "Achashverosh promoted Haman and elevated him to sit above all the officers who were with him"[18], this put the Jewish people in a position where they were like one sheep standing between seventy wolves. At this time the Jewish people needed the miraculous safeguarding of Hashem, however their earlier actions of "deriving pleasure of that wicked one's feast" expressed their trust in the power of Achashverosh's dominion and this caused their shepherd to leave them unprotected.

In other words, the decree to totally annihilate the Jewish people was not a punishment for anything, it was a natural consequence. Being that the seventy nations of the world are constantly standing at the ready to pounce on the one lone sheep, it is only natural for them to attack when the "great shepherd" leaves them unprotected.

7. The Rebbe now clarifies how the Jewish people showed their trust in Achashverosh's power:

To be sure, the Jewish people were in fact forced to attend this gala banquet[19]. However, they did not actually attend the banquet because they were obligated to; they attended because they felt honored and privileged to be invited to a feast which would be attended by the king of the entire inhabited world (Achashverosh)[20], his ministers, and the rest of the elite society of the world. Moreover, this pleasure which the Jewish people had from their invitation to Achashverosh's feast clearly demonstrates how special they felt "that wicked one" (Achashverosh) was. Consequently, the "great shepherd" (Hashem) left them.

Part two:

8. The Rebbe now begins to give a deeper, more thorough, explanation of the above mentioned explanation. The Rebbe starts off with a discussion regarding the simultaneous blessing of Hashem and the need for natural means as well:

The well known motto of our Sages is, "One should not rely on a miracle"[21]. This also accords with the Torah's statement, "And Hashem your G-d will bless you in all that you do"[22]; even though it is solely "the blessing of Hashem which makes us wealthy"[23], we must still put our own effort into it and cannot sit idly by[24].

Tempered with this however one must know that he is only working to make a vessel which can hold the blessings of Hashem, not that the work is what causes and brings the livelihood and sustenance. In other words, being that Hashem wants our livelihood to come through the natural channels of this world, and the natural channels for livelihood which Hashem set up in this world is to open a business (for example), we are forced to open a business. However, the basis of our livelihood is the blessings from Hashem, and therefore most of our effort must go into making ourselves fitting to receive Hashem's blessings, while the vessel to receive the blessings (the business) is only secondary.

The Rebbe explains this in a deeper way:

In addition to the fact that everything comes from Hashem, and this is why we must put the bulk of efforts into making ourselves fitting to receive His blessings; the truth is that the Jewish people receive their vitality from a level in G-dliness which is above the laws of nature (Shem Havayeh) and they are consequently never under the control of nature. Furthermore, according to this deeper understanding of how the Jewish people receive their vitality, we see that the only reason the Jewish people must receive their money by working for it is so that it is not clearly recognizable that the Jewish people are indeed totally different than the rest of the world- we are merely masquerading for the rest of the world.

With this in mind we can truly appreciate just how inconsequential the vessel which we make to receive the money really is. We now understand that the chief ingredient to our success is an unblocked pipeline to Hashem, and the type of vessel which we make to receive this vitality is unimportant. Indeed, someone who puts all his energy into his business without understanding the full magnitude of this concept is as foolish as someone who spends all his time sowing a beautiful wallet but does not work on obtaining the money itself!

9. The Rebbe now connects this idea to the times of Purim and explains where the Jewish people went wrong:

The Jewish people who are under the rule of any given country during the time of exile "must give honor to the royalty"[25], "the law of the kingdom is the law"[26], and "One should pray for the welfare of the government, for were it not for the fear of it, men would swallow one another alive"[27]. Therefore, when the Jewish people were invited to Achashverosh's feast they were obligated to participate. However, they should have simultaneously felt and clearly recognized that the existence of the Jewish people is a miraculous one which does not depend on Achashverosh (even though he ruled over the entire world), it only depends on Hashem.

This idea is exactly what the disciples in the Talmud meant when they said that the Jewish people deserved annihilation "Because they derived pleasure from the feast of that wicked one (Achashverosh)". They were saying that the Jewish people did not participate in the feast because they had to show honor to Achashverosh or the like; by going to the feast they felt confident that this would secure their safety under the wing of Achashverosh and this caused them to enjoy the feast. Therefore, as we said earlier, the natural consequence was to be left for the wolves.

10. The Rebbe now explains how these two parts to a healthy Jewish lifestyle- that we cannot rely on a miracle and must do our part and on the other hand we must know that this is all merely a masquerade- was practiced by Queen Esther[28] when she sought to save the Jewish people from extermination:

When Esther went to Achashverosh "to implore of him and to plead with him for her people"[29] she obviously needed to find favor in his eyes, however this need was especially magnified considering that "she had not been summoned to come to the king for these past thirty days"[30], and "any man or woman who approaches the king in the inner court who is not summoned his law is one- to be put to death" [31].

The logical preparation for this would be for her to beautify herself as much as she could so that she would find extra favor in his eyes. However we see that instead of this she did the exact opposite- she fasted for "three days, day and night", which obviously weakened her and detracted from her beauty.
The question that begs to be asked here is double edged. On one hand, if the Jewish people were supposed to be saved through natural means, how was she allowed to fast?[32] She had the mission of begging for the all the lives of the Jewish nation and she had to look beautiful for Achashverosh!? On the other hand, if the Jewish people were supposed to be saved through a miracle, how could Esther put her life in danger by going into the king's inner court without being summoned?

The answer is as we have been explaining until now. As we said earlier, the mistake of the Jewish people during that time was that they thought when one is faced with a situation which demands his efforts in the natural way, then the control is in the hands of nature. Therefore, when Queen Esther was remedying their mistake she clearly showed them that this is not the case. By preparing through fasting and Davening (praying) to Hashem she showed them that her going to plead with Achashverosh on the Jewish people's behalf was merely the external garment through which Hashem would send the miraculous savior.

11. The Rebbe now tells us one of the lessons which we can learn from this aspect of Purim:

One thing we can learn from all of the above is that even though the Jewish people were created as souls within physical bodies in a way that we cannot ignore our bodies and we must listen to their needs and work with them, and therefore this must be the will of the Creator; never the less, this should not be in a way of "deriving pleasure", we should realize that this is only the external garment through which we fulfill the intent of creation- bringing down G-dliness into this world.

Translated and adapted by Shalom Goldberg. Taken from Likutei Sichos, volume 31, pages 170 through 176.