The speaker stopped to read the note and announced, "A generous individual has decided to hand out money to everyone present tonight. He instructed that the money be distributed as follows: Everyone must choose a partner and arm-wrestle with him. Keep track of who wins each round because, for each win, you will receive one dollar." The competition began immediately.
Fifteen minutes later, the speaker approached each team to get their score. With one team, one boy won three rounds, and his partner four. The speaker gave them three and four dollars, respectively. The next pair told him their score was 5 to 4, so he gave one five dollars and the other four. Then he reached a pair who told him, "I won 1,500 times, and my partner won 1,500 times." He gave them each $1,500.
The speaker turned to the others and said, "You were all trying to beat your opponents, and because of that, most of the time and energy was wasted fighting your partner. But this team worked together. They let each other easily push their arms to the table, and in this manner, each won 1,500 rounds." The lesson is that you earn the most by helping your fellow man.
23. It states (Tehillim 22:25) שמע אליו ובשועו ממנו פניו הסתיר ולא עני ענות שקץ ולא בזה לא כי, "For He has neither despised nor abhorred the cry of the poor, neither has He hidden His countenance from him; and when he cried out to Him, He hearkened." This pasuk is in Tehillim (22), the chapter associated with Purim. The Alshich on Tehillim explains that the poor davened in the era of Mordechai and Esther, and it was in their merit that we were saved.
This is because Chazal teach that two sins brought about Haman's gezeirah of annihilation. The Yidden participated in Achashverosh's party, and they bowed down to Nevuchadnezzar’s idol. The Alshich says that the poor didn't commit these aveiros. Achashverosh didn't invite the poor to his party, and Nebuchadnezzar didn't care whether the poor bowed down to his idol or not. So, the poor were clean from aveiros; therefore, it was in their merit and through their tefillos that the Jewish nation was saved.
The Alshich explains that this is the reason behind the mitzvah of matanos l'evyonim on Purim, because it was in their merit that the miracle occurred.
Haman said (Esther 3:8), ומפורד מפוזר אחד עם ישנו, "There is a nation scattered about and dispersed..." Tzaddikim said that Haman's primary strategy to harm the Yidden was to cause separation among them. In response, Esther told Mordechai (4:16), היהודים כל את כנוס לך, "Go gather all the Yidden." The unity of Bnei Yisrael and their caring for one another saved them.
Rebbe Mordechai of Kozmir zt'l and other tzaddikim say that the salvation came in the merit of Esther's caution with her speech, as it states (2:10) כִּי ּמוֹל ַדְתָּה וְאֶת ּעַמָּה אֶת אֶסְת ֵּר הִגִּידָה לֹא תַגִּיד לֹא ֶׁראֲש עָל ֶיהָ צִוָּה מ ָרְדֳּכַי, "Esther had not told of her people or her kindred, for Mordechai had instructed her not to tell." This saved the Jewish nation. Chazal say, "No one knew how to speak lashon hara like Haman." The only way to conquer Haman was with the Tzadekes Esther, who guarded her speech.
When the Jewish people received the letters of Achashveirosh’s and Haman's plan of annihilation, it states (Esther 4:3) גָּדוֹל אֵבֶל וּמִסְפֵּד וּבְכִי וְצוֹם לַיְּהוּדִים, "There was great mourning among the Yidden, and fasting and weeping and eulogies..." The Alshich says that a הספד, eulogies, are what people say for someone else. A person might weep over his own tzaros, but הספד is solely for others. This means people mourned and cried and eulogized the tzaros of others. This is the reason there is a mitzvah of mishloach manos. When they were saved in the days of Mordechai and Esther, they gave gifts to one another because they knew that their fellow man had cried and said eulogies for them.
The Chida (D'vas l'Fi) writes, "The primary aspect of Purim is that they accepted to give mishloach manos and matanos l'evyonim, to give tzadah and to perform chesed, and thereby, למעלה קיימו, this means literally קיימו, also in heaven they performed middah kneged middah to do kindness and to be mashpiah goodness to them." This means that the nation accepted on themselves to give tzedakah and to do chesed, and in this merit, Hashem performed tzedakah and chesed with them and saved them from Haman's evil decree.
