The name for Purim comes from pur, which is the ancient Persian word for “lot,” as in “casting lots.” This tells us a lot about the nature of Purim.
Deciding something by casting lots would seem to be a totally natural thing. You cast lots by putting a bunch of slips of paper in a container, and each slip has something written on it, and one of those slips is blindly selected. This looks like a decision based on chance alone, because one of the lots in the container will inevitably be selected, and it’s up to chance which one it will be.
However, there are several places in the Torah and Tanach where we see that casting lots is quite the opposite. It is actually a way for a decision to be made by Hakadosh Baruch Hu himself.
Eretz Yisrael was divided up between the Twelve Tribes on the basis of lots. This is how they decided who will get the territory by the seashore, and so forth. Each tribe naturally wanted the best territory for itself, so they put it up to Hakadosh Baruch Hu to decide. This was done by means of casting lots.
Lots were also employed on Yom Kippur to decide which of two identical goats would go to Hashem as a korban chatas, and which would go to Azazel. No kohen can select a goat and send it to Eisav. That would be avodah zarah. Only Hakadosh Baruch Hu can do that, which is why casting lots was the method employed.
And then there is the story in Sefer Yehoshua about someone who took consecrated goods for himself in the battle against the city of Ai, and they didn’t know who it was. The lot fell on Achan. Achan argued that everyone’s name was put into the container, and someone’s name had to be chosen, and he was just the unlucky one. But Yehoshua requested of him to “show honor to Hashem, the G-d of Yisrael,” and admit to the truth that he was really the one who committed the crime, so as not to malign the casting of lots. Because the casting of lots is the word of Hashem.
All this shows that an action of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, when it is expressed within the natural order, is by casting lots.
This tells us about Purim. It is Hakadosh Baruch Hu acting within the natural order. And this is why we read the Megilah, which, as we explained before, “reveals” the truth about the world and what happens in it. The Maharal says that when Hakadosh Baruch Hu sealed the decree of annihilation against the Jewish people, it was considered as if they actually died. Then He created a new people through the new acceptance of the Torah that they made at that time.
Divinely Natural (Part II)
Purim reveals to us not just Hashem’s great love that was aroused at the time of danger, but also about the nature of the whole world. It reveals to us what we should be thinking when we drink a glass of water and make a shehakol.
The Megillah reveals the great closeness to Hakadosh Baruch Hu that exists in the natural world. Purim’s power is in nature itself.
Food to Friends and Gifts to the Poor
The basic mitzvah on Purim is reading the Megillah, which is words of Torah that open our minds. But that realization and the love of Hashem that it engenders need to be put into action. We need to perform practical mitzvos in that spirit, which is Mishloach Manos and Matanos l’Evyonim.
The Megillah teaches us to emphasize the love of Hashem that is aroused within us, by means of deeds. So after reading the Megillah, we go and do three practical mitzvos. The most profound of them is the Purim Seudah. The Megillah taught us how much of Hashem’s love there is in Purim. Suddenly we discover that this love is the fundamental reality of the whole world.
One of the ways people express love is by giving gifts. But there are two kinds of gifts. The first kind is, for instance, I notice that my friend needs a pen, so I go and buy him one as a gift. This gift greatly strengthens the friendship. But the whole purpose of the gift was just to supply what the recipient lacked. He needed a pen, and he got a pen.
The second kind of gift is giving something that the recipient did not lack in the first place. The very act of gifting is the point, because it expresses love. For instance, a man buys a flower bouquet for his wife. She is not a flower fanatic and she doesn’t feel that her home is lacking if there are no fresh-cut flowers sitting on the table in a vase. The whole idea of giving the bouquet is to express their love for one another.
So what about Matanos l’Evyonim and Mishloach Manos? They express these two types of giving. Matanos l’Evyonim is when the recipient lacks something, and the gift fills his lack. But Mishloach Manos is not about filling a lack. The recipient might be a very wealthy neighbor who has plenty of everything, but there still is a mitzvah to send him portions of food. It’s not about filling a lack but rather a pure expression of love.
This is why Mishloach Manos only needs to be sent to one person, but you need to give Matanos l’Evyonim to a minimum of two paupers. Mishloach Manos more represents an act of gifting performed out of love. And if you distribute gifts to everyone, this dilutes the expression of love. Whereas Matanos l’Evyonim is to fill the lack of the recipient, so the more people whose lacks get filled, the better.
Also Hashem’s chesed and giving to us has these two types. Sometimes it is to give us what we lack, and sometimes it is simply to express His love for us. Let’s take clothing for example. Hashem gives a person a shirt to wear, and this is something the person actually needs. He can’t get by without shirts. He needs them. But when Hashem gives him a necktie, it’s different. The person can get by just fine without another tie; it’s not something he lacks. So when Hashem gives him a tie, this is a real expression of love. So to speak, the shirt is Matanos l’Evyonim, and the tie is Mishloach Manos.
This is why we fulfill these two mitzvos after reading the Megillah. As we said, the Megillah reveals the truth about the world and how much Hashem loves us and gives to us. And the relationship of love that we have with Hakadosh Baruch Hu, as revealed in the Megillah, makes us want to give gifts. If we could, we would give these gifts to Hashem. But you can’t give Hashem gifts, so we give them, out of our very love for Hashem, to our fellow Jews, who are Hashem’s beloved children.
