To really appreciate what Purim is all about, we need to understand hester panim, Hashem’s hiddenness. The simple understanding (and it is true) is that hester panim is the troubles we suffer. When Hashem hides His face from us, the result is disaster. Conversely, when Hashem shows the radiance of His face to the Jewish people, they are blessed by great goodness and plenty, as we say in Tefilah: כי באור פניך נתת לנו – “In the radiance of Your face You gave us....”
In the days of Shlomo Hamelech, the Jewish people lacked nothing. There were no sicknesses or troubles. We have no concept of what great goodness there was when Beis Hamikdash stood. And since it was destroyed, every day is more cursed than the one before it. This increase in negativity results from hester panim.
But there is more to hester panim than this. We will explain.
We really have no idea why Hashem does what He does. Why is this person rich, and that one poor? Why is this person healthy, and that one sick? Why does so and so enjoy such a long life, when someone else died young?
Why can’t we understand these things?
Let’s imagine a father bringing his three-year-old son to cheder. If we would ask the child why he is going to cheder, he would say, “Daddy said they have fun toys and they will give me candies.” The child has no idea how great the mitzvah of Torah study is. He doesn’t know that Torah brings him to Olam Haba. How could he possibly understand the true reason why he is going to learn Torah? A little kid can’t grasp the concept of eternity.
Just as an animal is incapable of understanding what human beings do and why they do it, so anyone on a lower level can’t understand the level above him.
How could we understand what Hashem does in the world?
However, it says in Pirkei Avos:
The world was created in ten Divine statements. And what is the Torah teaching?
There is a teaching whose purpose is to reveal to us the significance and meaning of the order of Creation. Hashem could have created the world in one Divine statement. He could have said, “‘Let there be a world,’ and there was a world.” However, Hashem wanted us to understand something about the world, so the Torah teaches us each Divine statement, each “Let there be,” pertaining to each part of Creation.
In fact, the whole Torah, from beginning to end, teaches us the order of Creation and the ways of Hashem in the world. For instance:
והיה אם שמע תשמעו אל מצותי וגו’ ונתתי מטר ארצכם בעתו – If you will surely obey My commandments... I will give the rain of your land in its time.
Someone who learns Torah knows that when it rains, it is because there is a tzaddik who davened for it to rain, or because someone sat and learned with hasmadah. And if there is a drought, we can find the reason for it in the same passage, as it says:
ועצר את השמים ולא יהיה מטר – And He will close the heavens, and there will not be rain.
And Hashem gave us not just understanding of what happens, but also the ability to influence it. A person determines through his actions how the world will be run. He possesses the power of praying for rain, for parnassah and for health. There is nothing in the world that is not intended for the Jewish people, and there is nothing we cannot attain by means of spiritual actions.
If a person will do the mitzvos, his reward will grant him success, and if he transgresses them, his punishment will cut him off.
We are taught from early childhood that in order to get a candy, we need to say a berachah. This inculcates in us that receiving goodness is dependent of doing what is right.
Hashem tailor-suited the running of the world to the Jewish people. All the management of the world is according to our deeds, and fitting to our concepts.
But Hashem’s true nature is hidden from the world. The clear truth that Hashem ultimately controls everything is hidden. The world is thus run in a hidden way, in a way of hester.
And this hester applies to all the Yamim Tovim. On Pesach, Hashem redeemed the Jewish people from Mitzrayim in the merit of ויאמן העם – “The people had faith.” When the Jewish people said naaseh before nishma at Sinai, they merited receiving the Torah. When they did teshuvah, Hashem forgave them.
Everything Hashem does in managing the world is in direct relationship to the deeds of the Jewish people. The miracle of Chanukah was because of the mesirus nefesh of the faithful Chashmonaim who went out to battle the vast Greek army.
