This is the secret behind the concept of the “igul” (the point of “circular” relationship with Hashem, in which all points are equal) which was mentioned at the beginning of this chapter. In the future, when all [tzaddikim] will point to Hashem and say, “This is Hashem, which we hoped for”, how can they all do this? If it were to depend on their actions, everyone would be different from each other. But it is not dependent on one’s actions that he did. Rather, it is like the Baal Shem Tov taught: “Hashem loves each Jew as if he is His only child”.
In that aspect, it can be said that all Jews were created “equal”. When we realize that we are each loved intrinsically by Hashem, and that this does not depend on our actions, this is where the secret of “oneness” in the soul is revealed.
Now we will explain how we can practically live by these concepts in our day-to-day life. Each person, to a certain degree, has an aspect in which there is a “decree of death” upon him, just as in the times of Purim. We are referring to the part in the soul in which a person feels that he is disconnected from the Creator. How can a person remove that disconnection?
On one hand, he needs to do the mitzvos, and along with this, he also needs to realize the verse, “I dwell amongst them in their impurity.”
If a person can pull himself together and believe that even as he has become disconnected from the Creator chas v’shalom, because he commits sins, yet he still feels deep down that there is always a connection to the Creator – from there will come his salvation. So he should continue to do the mitzvos, for as we explained earlier, we need both aspects in our bond with Hashem: to realize that we have an unconditional with Him, and to do His will through observing the mitzvos. We cannot have one without the other; we need both.
There are thus two parts of returning to Hashem. One part of is to renew our commitment to observing the mitzvos; that spurs us on to teshuvah. Another part of it is to believe that even though sin causes us to become disconnected from Hashem, we are still always connected to Him, on an intrinsic level. That reveals a spiritual light within our souls, which spurs on us to do His mitzvos as well.
TWO WAYS OF ACCEPTING THE TORAH
When Hashem redeemed the Jewish people from Egypt, He revealed His presence to them on the night of Pesach, which was a revelation that was beyond their current level. Then there was a preparation to receive the Torah at Har Sinai, and then Hashem revealed Himself to them in order for them to receive the Torah. Chazal state that the entire existence of Creation was depending on the acceptance of the Torah by the Jewish people; if they wouldn’t accept the Torah, the world would go back to nothingness and desolation.
But there is a deeper point than this [which was revealed on Purim]: a person can be connected to the Creator in every situation, and when he feels that connection, he can then come to a willing acceptance of the Torah. This is what happened on Purim. If a person feels this connection – which is what Purim is all about – he will surely accept the Torah in all its details, all its halachos, in all of their nuances.
Thus, there are two aspects of how a person accepts the Torah. One aspect of it comes from the ratzon (will) of a person to come closer to Hashem, and another aspect of is to feel already close, and as a direct result of feeling this intrinsic closeness, a person realizes that he needs to accept the will of His King upon him.
At Har Sinai, the people accepted the Torah out of a will to come close to the Creator, and from their ratzon, they received the Torah. On one hand, the Sages state that Hashem forced them to accept the Torah, by suspending the mountain over the air above them, but on the other hand, they accepted the Torah in order to become closer to Hashem, for they were already preparing for the Torah by standing at a distance. They knew that in order to become close to Hashem, they must accept the Torah.
But on Purim, the opposite happened. They accepted the Torah then out of realizing that their intrinsic closeness with Hashem, and because they felt the closeness, they automatically came to accept Hashem’s will upon them. This is the meaning of how they willingly re-accepted the Torah. They revealed the aspect of the bond with Hashem in which we are always desirous to Hashem, even if chas v’shalom we sin; that we are never apart from Him. After we revealed this inner aspect of our bond with Hashem, we were then able to accept the Torah again upon us – because we realized that we are already close to Hashem to begin with.
CONDITIONAL VS. UNCONDITIONAL BOND WITH HASHEM
There is a deep way with which how a Jew can approach life with. If a person wants to have a bond with the Creator, how can he go about attaining it? One way to build a relationship with Hashem is through the mitzvos, and through davening to Hashem to become close to Him. This is true, but along with this, a person also needs something else, which is a totally opposite perspective: he should believe that Hashem is found next to him, every single moment! It is a reality that does not change, which is not dependent on how he acts.
When one believes that Hashem is actually next to Him all the time, he will then find it impossible to go against Hashem’s will. For with this attitude, his bond with Hashem is not dependent on any reason. If a person feels that his bond with Hashem is dependent on a reason (on the actions he does), then he is trying to have a relationship with Hashem based on daas. But a deep bond with Hashem is formed from the point that is above our daas.
It is like the verse, “Just as water reflects a face, so does the heart of a man to another”. If we ask a person: “Why do you love Hashem? And why do you think Hashem loves you?” and he answers “I love Hashem because he does so many good things for me, and Hashem loves me because I fulfill His mitzvos very well”, this is called a bond of “conditional love” with Hashem. A different perspective entirely would be that a person has no question at all of why Hashem loves or why he loves Hashem. It is reality to him and therefore it is not a question to him.
If one can reach this place in his soul in which his love towards Hashem is not dependent on any reason, he has revealed a love for Hashem that can never cease; it is a love that does not dependent on any condition to keep it going. When one has only a bond of conditional love with Hashem, his bond with Hashem will weaken at some point. But when one reveals a love or Hashem (and he feels Hashem’s love for him) that is unconditional, not dependent on any reason – such a bond will never cease.
THE DAY TO FORM AN UNCONDITIONAL BOND WITH THE CREATOR
Purim is essentially a day which is meant for one to build this unconditional bond with Hashem. This is in contrast with the rest of the festivals, which reflect our bond with Hashem that is dependent on certain reasons. We need this aspect as well, and we cannot do without it, chas v’shalom. But along with it, we also need to build a relationship with Hashem which is not dependent on any reason.
Why does Hashem love a person? It does not depend on any reason. Why does a person love Hashem? It should not either depend on any given reason! It is like asking how we know if there is a Creator. There is no room for this question, because it is a plain reality, just as no one questions how he knows he exists.
One needs to penetrate deeply into his soul. He first should realize that the Creator is within him, for it is written, “I dwell amongst them in their impurity” – even if his actions make him deserving of destruction. One should deepen this emunah peshutah (simple belief ) that Hashem is with him, just as He was with Moshe Rabbeinu, and that this is not dependent on any particular reason. It is simply a gift from Hashem, and this is how Hashem has designed our souls. Just as Hashem was with Moshe Rabbeinu, so is He with every Jew – even in the final generation. There is a well-known question: How will Mashiach come in the final generation, which is the most undeserving generation possible? The answer is clear and simple. In earlier generations, there was plenty of reason for him to come; they were more deserving, they had more zechusim (merits), so if he were to come then, people would say that it was due to a certain reason that he came, and then it would mean that our bond with Hashem depends on certain reasons. But in our times, in the final generations, there is no reason that we are deserving of Mashiach. That is precisely why he will come in the final generation – because then it will be clear that his arrival didn’t depend on any certain reason.
That is the light of the future, revealed on Purim: Our bond with the Creator does not depend on anything! The Jewish people accept Hashem’s decrees upon them because they realize their intrinsic closeness with Him. Even if a person committed every last sin, G-d forbid, he cannot ever become disconnected from Hashem. A son who rebels against his father is still called his son. Perhaps he has the status of a “wayward child”, but he is still called the father’s child. Even by a wayward child (ben sorer u’moreh), the Torah says that he has a father and mother, because he is still called their son.
PURIM – ABOVE OUR DAAS
In our relationship with the Creator, one needs to dig very deep into his soul and reach this point of an “unconditional bond” with Hashem. That is where the secret of “oneness” is found in the soul. When a person’s bond with Hashem is dependent on a reason to keep it going, there is no oneness, because if the condition for the bond isn’t met, the person is not “one” with Hashem and instead there are “two” – for he feels apart from Hashem. But if one has the aspect of unconditional love with Hashem, he has revealed the “oneness” between him and Hashem – forever.
Haman said, “There is a nation that is spread out and scattered throughout the nations.” On a deep level, this is the evil, accusing voice that says that our bond with Hashem is conditional and that it can be severed, chas v’shalom. Haman also wanted to destroy all of the Jewish people on one day, because he was trying to reveal a “oneness” in the side of evil, in order to counter the “oneness” in the side of holiness. That was how he planned on getting rid of the “oneness” on the side of holiness.
We defeat Haman’s perspective on Purim, when we become intoxicated to the point that we do not know the difference between “Cursed is Haman” and “Blessed Is Mordechai”; when we lose our daas. A drunken person is exempt from mitzvos, like an insane person, who does not have to keep the mitzvos. This is the secret of Purim! Of course, as soon as the intoxication wears off, we return to our obligation in mitzvos. But the point of this intoxication on Purim is to teach us how to form a bond with Hashem without our daas, when we are not obligated in mitzvos.
BEYOND OUR OBLIGATORY LEVEL
The Gemara has a discussion: Who is greater – someone who doesn’t have to do the mitzvos and he does them anyway, or someone who is obligated in the mitzvos and he does them? At first, Rav Yosef thought that a person who does the mitzvos when he’s not obligated is greater, and in the end, the Gemara brings proof that it is the opposite: the one who is obligated in mitzvos and does them, is greater, and he gets more reward than a person who is not obligated in mitzvos who does them.
Although the conclusion of the Gemara is different than the original understanding, we know that there is always truth to even an original understanding of the Gemara, so there is truth to either of these opinions in the Gemara. We can learn from this that there is a bond with Hashem attained through being obligated in the mitzvos and doing them, and there is also a bond with Hashem we can attain that is not dependent on our obligation in mitzvos.
According to Rav Yosef ’s original understanding, it is a deeper level to have a bond with Hashem when one is not obligated in mitzvos and he does them anyway. This shows a deeper bond that the person has with Hashem which goes beyond the level of obligation – the kind of bond with Hashem that is unconditional. We can understand it in the same way that a mother loves her newborn baby – there is no particular reason that she loves him other than the fact that it is her child.
IN CONCLUSION
The depth of our life is to reach the point where our bond with the Creator is not dependent on any particular reason or circumstance. And when one loves Hashem unconditionally, he will feel this bond on a constant basis. The bond that he feels with this will cause him to have a constant desire, in turn, to always want to do the mitzvos of the Torah. In every situation, this person will always feel his bond with Hashem.
There is a lot more to say about this point, and it cannot be explained entirely in one derasha. Our hope here is that you have formed the basis in yourself to want this and search for this: to find the absolute level of connection with Hashem which knows no pause.
The Sages say that the other festivals will all cease in the future, and one of the reasons for this is because they are all dependent on various factors. When the reason for the festival is no longer here, there is no more reason to have the festival. But Purim is of a different dimension than the rest of the festivals. It is based on our bond with Hashem that is not dependent on any reason. That is the deeper reason of why Purim cannot cease.
Reaching this point is a deep, inner journey to traverse in the soul. One needs to first believe in the concept, and from his simple emunah in this he will be led to reaching this point, where he can know and feel that our existence is eternally attached with Hashem’s.
The more that people will believe in these words, the more this perspective will be shined within ourselves, and the light from inside our souls can then radiate outward to the rest of the world. That light will have the potency to cause a return of the Jewish people for the better, when the righteous Mashiach can come speedily in our days. Amen.
