Nachal novea; makor chochma -
A flowing river; the source of wisdom (Mish. 18:4)
In our verse, Hashem (G-d) called to Moshe (Moses). The Sifra tells us that He called in a loving way. Rashi tells us that the call was in a loud and thunderous voice, powerful enough, to shatter trees and to be heard throughout the world. Despite this, only Moshe was able to hear Hashem's voice. Rav Moshe Feinstein, zt"l, asks if it was not meant for the rest of the people to hear Hashem's voice, why was it necessary for Him to speak so loudly? and answers that even though Hashem's voice was loud enough for everyone to hear, the people were not worthy of hearing it. But every Jew should consider it as if he had been given each commandment by Hashem directly.
From Rav Moshe's words, we can understand that our verse implies that Hashem always calls out to each person, even though he might not be consciously aware of it. Thus Rabbi Nachman taught that every day, Hashem calls out to each person, sending all sorts of messages cloaked in the hints of each day's experiences - messages that come to a person in the form of his perceptions and the thoughts that pass through his mind, through the actions and deeds he is compelled to perform, the things that he is compelled to say and the things that are said to him. These hints provide a person with the necessary information he needs to be brought closer to Hashem. Therefore, Rabbi Nachman recommends that we must pay close attention to the "little occurrences" in our daily lives in order that we can determine the personal message Hashem is trying to convey. However, Rabbi Nachman warns that one should be moderate in this practice, for excessive analysis is not healthy and can damage a person spirituality, causing him to fall into the realm of evil. (1 Lekutai MoHaran 54:2)
In our parasha Hashem called to Moshe. During the age of prophecy, Hashem called to the Jews through His prophets. The Talmud in Berachoth tells us that Hashem calls out daily to each individual. Rabbi Nachman taught that just as Hashem called out in these instances, He also called out to the demoralized Jewish People at the time of Purim. In the following paragraphs we will discuss the above mentioned points and questions based on the holy insights of Rabbi Nachman and his chief disciple Rav Noson.
History has shown that whenever a dictator or monarch menaced or afflicted the Jews, Hashem eventually caused that ruler to have a great downfall. The list of rulers who suffered such downfalls is quite long including the likes of Pharaoh, Eglon, Sissera, Sancherev, and Belshazzar, to name only a few. A'chashvay'rosh, the Persian king who ascended the throne in the year 368 BCE, was persuaded by his wicked prime minister Haman, to exterminate the Jews. The reluctant king responded, "I am afraid that their G-d will do to me what He did to my predecessors." Haman answered, "The Jews are [spiritually] sleeping. Because they no longer perform mitzvahs (Hashem's commandments) as they once did, they no longer merit Divine intercession." (Talmud: Megillah 13b) Furthermore, King A'chashvay'rosh was not only afraid of history repeating itself, he was particularly afraid of Jeremiah's well known prophecy which hung over his head like a sword, "For thus says Hashem, after seventy years of [the Jewish exile in] Babylon are completed, I [Hashem] will remember you [the Jews] and perform my good word concerning you to make you return to this place [the land of Israel]." (Jeremiah 29:10) The time for this prophecy's fulfillment was quickly, approaching, but no one knew exactly from what point in time to begin calculating the seventy years. Even Divinely inspired Daniel did not know how to calculate the seventy years, "I, Daniel. considered in the books the number of years where the word of Hashem came to Jeremiah the prophet that he would complete seventy years of the ruins of Jerusalem [and I couldn't figure it out]." (Daniel 9:2)
According to the calculations of King A'chashvay'rosh, the seventy years had passed without the prophecy coming to fruition. This meant, he thought, that the Jews were unworthy of having Jeremiah's prophecy fulfilled and that, therefore, Hashem had abandoned them. The king's response is described in the verse as follows, "When King A'chashvay'rosh sat on his royal throne, ["Sat" means with security. (Rashi) The king felt that Jeremiah's prophecy was not going to be fulfilled, therefore, to celebrate] in the third year of his [A'chash'vay'rosh's] reign, he made a feast for all his princes, and servants ... one hundred and eighty days." (Esther 1:24) To ensure that the Jews would forever be unworthy of Hashem's deliverance, A'chashvay'rosh and Haman unleashed a spiritual assault against the Jews hoping to contaminate them and sever their ties with Hashem. The first step they took in this spiritual war was to invite the Jews to participate in some of A'chash'vay'rosh's lavish parties.
Rabbi Nachman taught that when the evil nation, Amalak, the arch enemy of the Jews from which Haman descended, is able to exert physical control over the Jews, it is in an indication of a deeper, spiritual crisis, a manifestation of the hiddeness of Hashem from the world which is a result of the Jewish People's weak spiritual performance, i.e. not living according to Hashem's will. The Torah explains when and why the descendants of Aisav (Esau, Jacob's brother), are able to control the Jews. It teaches us that Hashem treats us the way we treat Him. If we express Hashem's gift of free will by choosing to ignore Him, then Hashem responds in kind, "I [Hashem] will surely hide My face [from the Jews] on that day [of their trouble] on account of all the evil they have done [by not obeying Me]." (Deut. 31:18) In addition the prophet Shem, Noah's son, prophesied concerning the relationship between the Jews and their brother Aisav, from whom the nation of Amalak - was descended, "One nation [either one - the Jews or the descendants of Aisav] shall be stronger than the other [they will never both be dominant at the same time - when one ascends, the other descends i.e. when the Jews do not obey Hashem, Aisav dominates, but when they hearken to Hashem, they prevail]." (Genesis 25:23) Based on these verses, Rabbi Nachman taught that A'chash'vay'rosh orchestrated his. parties in order to inflict spiritual contamination upon the Jews. By attending A'chashvay'rosh's parties and partaking of the unkosher foods, eaten out of the sacred vessels of the Temple [which had been pillaged by the Babylonians and come into the possession of the Persians when they, in turn, conquered Babylonia. Using the holy vessels for anything other than the Temple service is a great sacrilege and is strictly forbidden], brought about great spiritual damage, and caused the Jews to become spiritually detached from Hashem.
A'chash'vay'rosh chose to inflict spiritual damage upon the Jews through eating, because, as Rabbi Nachman taught, eating unkosher food can cause a person to fall into a spiritual sleep which results in detachment from all of the seventy faces of the Torah. The holy Zohar says that the spirit of Hashem is injected into each letter of the Torah. This implies that the more that the Jews study and adhere to the Torah, the more attached they are to Hashem's essence. The essence of any person or item can be seen through its face. Therefore, the Torah reflects, so to speak, the many facets of the face of Hashem. When the Jews hide their faces from Hashem, by ignoring Torah study and practice, they fall into a spiritual slumber and fall away from the face of Hashem and His Torah. As mentioned above, Hashem responds in kind, hiding Ms face from the Jews, and seems to be asleep, not noticing when the Jews are in trouble. When this happens, the Jews are predisposed to attacks by their enemies, because when the light of Hashem, which spiritually negates evil, is hidden, evil is then able to flourish. This is precisely why A'chashvay'rosh made his parties in the seventieth year, according to his calculations, the year the Jews should have been redeemed. The seventy years that the Jews spent in exile in Babylon can be characterized as seventy years spent in spiritual slumber, as the verse says, "Shir HaMa'alos, b'shuv Hashem es shivas tziyon, hayinu kcholmim - A Song of Ascents. When Hashem brings about the return to Zion, we [the Jews redeemed from the Babylonian exile (Rashi)] will have been like dreamers [waking up from our seventy year spiritual sleep]." (Psalms 126:1)
Rav Noson says that the timing of A'chash'vay'rosh's parties was significant. When the Jews lived on their native soil, although they violated the Torah, they were still spiritually connected to the Hashem and the Torah through the land of Israel. For the Talmud in Gittin says that those who live in the land of Israel come under Hashem's direct supervision [as opposed to supervision by His ministering angels]. Each of the seventy years that the Jews lived in exile corresponded to an exile from one of the aspects of Hashem's face referred to as the seventy faces of Torah. (Note: Each year is connected to a face of the Torah because we observe the annual cycle of Jewish holidays, as well as the many daily requirements. When we complete the observances for each year, we are able to more fully experience and perceive the many different aspects of Hashem derived from these observances. Each year, the practices are repeated, so it turns out that our entire lifetime consists of only one year, repeated over and over. Of course, each year we mature and so we experience every new year from a new perspective which allows us to perceive Hashem on a deeper level than the previous year. Therefore, each year that one lives connects him to another face or aspect of Hashem. This is why the average man lives until seventy, so he can perceive Hashem through the study and observance of the seventy faces of Torah]. Living amongst the alien, corrupt, and immoral peoples of the Babylonian and later the Persian Empires took its toll. Every year away from their caused a weakening of many Jews' commitment to the study of and adherence to the laws of the Torah, to the point where they practically lost sight of Hashem altogether. Since the Torah was no longer relevant in their daily lives, they no longer could perceive Hashem's face. This spiritual erosion would continue until, when in the seventieth year, almost at the point of no return, they would be redeemed and reconnected to Hashem through their return to the land of Israel. Therefore, A'chashvay'rosh and Haman did not act against the Jews until that seventieth year, by their figures, had passed without redemption. As long as the Jews were in some way connected to the seventy faces of the Torah, there was the potential for them to arouse themselves from their spiritual sleep and bring about the awaited redemption. So A'chashvay'rosh felt that it wouldn't do any good to try to entice the Jews to sin prior to the seventieth year, for their connection to the Hashem Torah was still too strong and would not have the desired effect. He made his party at the point in time when the Jews had almost totally drifted away from the seventy faces of the Torah corresponding to the seventy year spiritual deterioration while in exile. A'chash'vay'rosh figured that any major spiritual blow at the time when the Jews were far removed from the spiritual nourishment of the Torah would be able to totally sever all their connections with Hashem and thus dash any further hope of possible redemption. However, the Jews were indeed redeemed in the seventieth year, barely before they had lost all their connections to Hashem through the Torah. [Note: Rav Noson says that in our present exile, which has lasted almost two thousand years, we are unable to be redeemed in the same manner as the Jews of the Babylonian exile. Our downfall is so great that only the Moshiach (Messiah), who has hadras panim, a face that emits the greatest and highest spiritual lights of Hashem's splendor, will be able to eliminate all of the spiritual darkness which permeates our generation and demonstrate beyond a doubt to even the biggest skeptic that Hashem exists.]
In addition to A'chash'vay'rosh's plan, Sahtan [the angel responsible for obscuring holiness so that the world will have the free choice to not believe in Hashem, chas v'shalom (G-d forbid)], wanting to further ensure that the Jews would remain entrapped in their exile, brought about the demise of A'chash'vay'rosh's wife, the wicked Queen Vashti. When she was executed, Sahtan influenced that the righteous Esther was chosen the new queen. The Jews are able to survive and defeat their enemies only through the immense spiritual power of the Tzaddikim (saints or righteous ones). As long as Tzaddikim are actively able to connect to Hashem, no one can destroy the Jews. However, with righteous Esther in the grip of the evil A'chash'vay'ros,h Sahtan planned to draw her enormously holy spiritual powers to the side of impurity, just as he had tried to do with her and Sarah when she was abducted by Pharaoh and later King AviMelech, using them for evil, and furthering severing the Jews' connection to Hashem.
Due to the aforementioned circumstances, the plight of the Jews at that time seemed hopeless and bleak. They were in grave physical as well as spiritual danger. The implementation of Sahtan's plans was almost flawless - his success seemed guaranteed. However, in His infinite mercy, Hashem provided one avenue of escape which brought about the famous miracle of Purim and turned a sure disaster into a great deliverance. That one avenue was the Tzaddik HaEmes (the spiritual leader of the generation), Mordechai Ha'Yihudi (the Jew). The Talmud in Berachoth says that every person's name is an indication of his spiritual abilities, talents, and essence. The numerical value of Mordechai is 274, which is the same value as rav chesed (abundant kindness). This indicates that Mordechai possessed awesome spiritual power to draw Hashem's infinite mercy and kindness to the Jews. Rabbi Nachman taught that the highest, most potent spiritual energy of all, connected to the highest of spiritual levels, is transmitted to this world, amazingly, by simply telling stories about the deeds of Tzaddikim. [The reason is that Hashem created the world through His speech. Since Tzaddikim, through their righteous deeds, become glued to Hashem, we are therefore able to draw forth Hashem's great light when we speak about their righteous deeds. This light therefore comes from the highest of spiritual realms.] This light is so powerful that it can awaken anyone - even someone who has fallen away from every single aspect of the seventy faces of Torah - from even the deepest and darkest spiritual sleep. Mordechai's awesome and lofty level especially enabled him to access that immense light created by the deeds of the Tzaddikim and use it to awaken the Jews from their spiritual slumber. It was the telling of these holy stories that drew the awesome power of Hashem's light to the Jews. Mordechai would tell these stories to the Jews and inspire them, arousing and activating their dominant spiritual powers, This is derived allegorically from the verse, "And Mordechai told [holy stories to] Esther the queen.." [to arouse and. activate the dormant spiritual powers of the Jews.] (Esther 2:22) In this verse Esther, a name which literally means the hidden face, referring to spiritual sleep is an allegory for the Jewish people, who were in a spiritual slumber]
In the Megillah (lit. scroll, referring to the Book of Esther), it relates that when King A'chash'vay'rosh was unable to sleep, he had his attendants read the official governmental records of all past events. "Coincidentally", his attendants read about the deed of Mordechai who he had saved the king's life. When the story about the holy Mordechai was read to the king, Hashem's great light was drawn down into this world and it was from this point on that Haman's plan to exterminate all of the Jews started to unravel and fall apart. As the verse alludes, "And Esther [allegory for the Jews] told the king [allegory for the king of the world, Hashem] in Mordechai's name [meaning that when the Jews would recount the holy deeds and stories of Mordechai, Hashem's great light would be drawn forth, arousing the Jews from their spiritual sleep]." (Esther 2:22)
This is why Mordechai, with the approval of the Sages of the Great Assembly, decreed that the Megillah should be read by the Jews every year and why it is the main focus and most important mitzvah (commandment) of the holiday of Purim. The Megillah recounts the story of the deeds of the righteous Mordechai and Esther and of the all the Jewish people who returned to Hashem at that time. The Megillah is a holy story, and like all holy stories has the power to cause even the greatest sinner to repent. Although we have been in exile for nearly two thousand years, when we recount the story of Purim every year, it inspires and draws to us the awesome spiritual energies from the highest spiritual realm. All Jews who hear the story of the Megillah become revitalized and reconnected to Hashem. Thus the Megillah is written in story form and must be folded like a letter containing a story, something which is not required for any other scroll we read. (Lekatai Halachoth: Orach Chaiin: Hilchoth Purim 1:1)
Rabbi Nachman taught that what inspired many awesome Tzaddikim to reach their lofty levels was the stories of other Tzaddikim. (1 Lekutai MoHaran 248) He said that he himself was inspired to reach such awesome levels through stories of Tzaddikim. (Sichos HaRan 138) Rabbi Nachman taught that there people who are so far from Hashem that Hashem's great light is not accessible to them through the normal channels such as learning Torah but only by way of hearing stories of Tzaddikim.
Just as in our parsha Hashem called to the Jews through Moshe, at the time of Purim He called out to the Jewish people through the righteous Mordechai who inspired them through storytelling. The Jews were brought closer to Hashem through the adversity they experienced. In our troubled times, where the world seems to have gone mad and out of control, amidst the chaos, Hashem continues to call out to each one of us, as He did in the past. This is the message of our verse, the message of the Megillah, and the message of Rabbi Nachman as he often exclaimed, "Despair does not exist!", because Hashem loves You. He cares so much about you that He calls out to you everyday to bring you back to Him. Amen!
Rava [a great sage of the Talmud] said: "One is obligated to become
intoxicated [with wine] on Purim [for the pivotal events of the miracle
of Purim occurred through wine - the wicked Queen Vashti's downfall
(Esther 1), Queen Esther's coronation (Esther 2:17, 18), and Haman's
execution (Esther 7:1-10) all occurred during, or as a result of wine
feasts. Therefore, to commemorate the miracle, we drink wine on Purim
(Abudraham)] until one does not know [the difference] between cursed
Haman and blessed Mordechai [these are the words to a prayer mentioned
in the Jerusalem Talmud. Rava rules that one is required to become
intoxicated with wine on Purim until one is unable to recite this prayer
with clarity. (Tosfos as explained by the Bach)]"
The Talmud cites a related incident: Rabbah and Rav Zayra had the Purim
feast together. They both became intoxicated. Rabbah arose [in an
intoxicated state] and slew Rav Zayra [This description is hyperbole
which is occasionally used in the Talmud when it is obvious that the
literal meaning is not intended. Rather, Rabbah enticed Rav Zayra to
drink an excessive amount of wine to the point where he was deathly ill.
(Maharsha)] The next day, [Rabbah] prayed for mercy [on Rav Zayra's
behalf, that he shouldn't die from his illness] and revived him. The
following year [Rabbah] asked [Rav Zayra], "Let the master come and we
will have the Purim feast together. [Rav Zayra] answered him, "Not every
time does a miracle occur." (Talmud: Megillah 7b)
We mentioned above that Tzaddikim, through their good deeds, are able
to attach themselves to Hashem and draw His awesome light and power to
themselves, enabling them to Perform miracles. The following story is
one such example as it relates to the holiday of Purim: