Joyfully Sleeping on the Floor
And so, learn His Torah. Take interest in knowing His Will. Learn with the intention of attaining deveikus in Him, and then you will feel His love. By extension and by definition, you will no longer be drawn after lust and desires. Slowly but surely, you will rid yourself of so many of your struggles. As we have noted above, when a person feels the love of Hashem, he automatically has the kochos for the battle: “I don’t need anything else.”
An example: A person did הכנסת אורחים on a very high level, and he gave away his own bed to a guest. When asked where he will sleep, he said, ‘I will sleep on the floor. I don’t need more than a couple of square tiles.”
Now, it depends. If he really wants to give away his bed to this guest, and he considers it the greatest honor in the world, and he is filled with excitement at this opportunity, he can indeed sleep on the floor with no problem. But if he doesn’t really want it to his core, then he really needs his bed, and he won’t be able to sleep on the floor. So, what is the difference? When a person has love, he doesn’t need anything more. If he doesn’t have the love and the excitement, he says... I’ll see... I’ll ask my wife... I’m not sure.
Megillah Is Even More Effective
Says the Kedushas Levi: As much as תורה לשמה has the power to bring a person to be filled with the love of Hashem, קריאת המגילה has even more power to do so. And therefore, after קריאת המגילה, the Yidden accept upon themselves the yoke of Torah and mitzvos with love. Every time after קריאת המגילה the feeling is aroused in the person, “I do want!” And this is not necessarily so regarding other Torah learning.
What is the difference? asks the Berdichever. Just as the first acceptance of the Torah, הר סיני, did not have the effect of arousing this love within the Yidden, but the story of Mordechai and Esther did, so too it is today. The קריאת המגילה always arouses this nekudah within a Yid more so than learning Torah—for the power of the two acceptances (Har Sinai and Purim) continue today as they did back then.
Speaking Your Language
Furthermore, when does a person feel the utmost love? When we look him in the eye and speak his language. When we speak in esoteric language, it doesn’t have the same effect upon his nefesh. The neshamah always feels the love—and this is מגילת אסתר, which can be read to mean “revealing what is hidden”—to reveal that hidden love that lies within our neshamah. As we learn in many sefarim, the neshamah knows and feels, but we must ensure that the effects will be felt in the levush, in the outer trappings. Thus, we must speak the language that the body will understand. Without this, it won’t understand or feel.
This is a mistake that people make sometimes. The father says, okay, we must love our child, and so he buys him many gifts, and he doesn’t raise his voice at his child. But in Torah, we see that וישק לו, and he kissed him. This is how love is expressed. If a person cannot tell his children that he loves them, something is missing. The fact that it’s sometimes difficult means that it’s worth overcoming.
So Close, We Can Feel It
Says the Kedushas Levi: There are upper worlds, and there are lower worlds. At קבלת התורה, the upper worlds were opened. We were told והייתם לי סגולה מכל העמים, and you shall be for Me the most treasured of all peoples. A סגולה is a very lofty thing. Bigger than anything. And so long as they were higher than anything else, even though they accepted the Torah in a most lofty manner, the נפש הבהמית, the earthly soul, needs to hear it in its own language in order to be swayed—and this is what transpired in the days of Mordechai and Esther.
It happened to them. It wasn’t in the skies. They and their children were in danger of being killed. Haman and Achashverosh were real!
Touching It
The Kedushas Levi says that the key words of the story are נס בתוך הטבע, a miracle within nature. Klal Yisrael was able to feel the love when they saw that the entire natural order went to work for them. This is similar to what the Rebbe said in Parashas Beshalach regarding the miracle of קריעת ים סוף—through the distortion of the natural order for the sake of the Yidden, they came to appreciate how much the Ribbono shel Olam loves them. They didn’t just understand it, they felt it.
This is what gives a person strength and fortitude—so much so that even his נפש הבהמית will also agree. It is left with no choice. We find a similar idea in regard to Shabbos. When a person comes home on Friday night and the table is set and the beds are made up, the evil angel has no choice but to bless the person—because you spoke his language, and now he, too, agrees to the blessings and goodness.
Getting Everyone on Board
The Ribbono shel Olam commands us to guard Shabbos and honor Shabbos so we will be spared from the חבלי משיח, which correspond to the lusts and earthly desires. Shabbos must penetrate the soul, and if so, a person must go all out in preparing himself for Shabbos with delicious food and preparing the home. Of course, there must be inner preparation as well. But it must go all the way. Then the evil malach will agree and get on board.
Shabbos is love. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says to us: “I am giving you mitzvos. I am commanding you to love Me. I want you to understand that it is this love that will spare and protect you from all evil—because the evil concepts will no longer interest you.” As noted, this clarification and purification especially takes place following קריאת המגילה, as the Kedushas Levi teaches us. Halevai that we should be zocheh to this aura and this special inspiration that comes to us on Purim!
