By Rabbi Dovid Sapirman, Dean, Ani Maamin Foundation
With Purim around the corner, our focus turns to preparation for the great simcha that approaches: mishloach manos, costumes, delicious meals, and more. But Purim has a much more serious side than just the merriment of the day.
The Gemara tells us that the talmidim of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai asked him why there had been a decree of annihilation on the Jews of Persia. He responded by asking them to tell him what they think. In his sefer Kiymu V’Kiblu, Rav Brevda zt”l asks how he knew that they would have any answer at all. After all, they were asking him for an explanation!
Says Rav Brevda: Could it be that the talmidim of Rabbi Shimon heard the Megillah year after year and had never stopped to contemplate why this decree came about? Obviously, they had come up with explanations, but after thinking it over, weren’t sure they were correct. So Rabbi Shimon asked them to first share their thoughts with him.
So, too, must we view the story of Purim. It is the saga of a Holocaust decreed and then averted by the teshuvah and tefillos of Am Yisrael. Once the decree became known, the Megillah tells us that Jews began fasting and crying out to Hashem. At the end, when the Megillah sums up all that happened, it refers to the story as “their fasts and their crying out,” teshuvah and tefillah.
Chazal tell us that Achashverosh’s removing his ring and giving it to Haman had a greater impact on the Jewish people than all 48 neviim and seven nevios who had given them prophecy. None had been able to fully return them in teshuvah, but the removal of the ring had.
Indeed, the nevi’im had warned of an impending Churban for several hundred years. Not only had the Jews ignored the warnings before the Churban, but even after the destruction and exile, they still had taken no steps to correct their ways. Now, Hashem had confronted them with a threat that they could not ignore.
Purim is the story of Jewish eternal survival, as Hashem promised us over and over again throughout the words of the nevi’im. It is indeed one of the greatest times of simcha in the Jewish year, but it also contains very serious messages that are relevant in all times.
