Purim - Guest Post

Rabbi Josh Hoffman sends out a weekly email on the parsha called Netvort. I am amazed by the quality of what he presents. Today he sent out a special thought for Purim. I find this piece to be outstanding and inspiring.

If you are interested in receiving an email of his weekly thought, let me know.

A Lot of Events

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By Rabbi Joshua Hoffman

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There is a well-known saying of the famed kabbalist Rabbi Yitzchak Ashekenazi, known as the Ari, which, I have heard, originates in the Tikunei Zohar, that there is a connection between Purim and Yom Ha Kippurim. In fact, according to the Ari, Yom HaKippurim, as the name implies, is only like Yom Kippur, not equivalent to it. In other words, Purim is on a higher level that Yom Kippur. many explanations of this comment have been given, the most common of which is that on Purim we reach the level of closeness to God that we reach on Yom Kippur, but through use of the physical aspects of the world, rather than through abstention from them, as we do on Yom Kippur. since our task in this world is to use its physical aspects to attain holiness, our abstention from physical pleasures on Yom Kippur is a kind of preparation for our service of God during the rest of the year. I would like to suggest a somewhat different explanation, based on a different linguistic connection between the two holidays.
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The name of the holiday of Purim comes from the Persian world for lot, pur, and refers to the lots which Haman made to determine the day and month which he would have the king issue a decree to wipe out al of the Jews in his kingdom. On Yom Kippur, as well, lots are chosen, to determine which of two goats, which are otherwise completely identical to each other, will be used as a sacrifice on the altar, and which of them will be sent to the wilderness, to Azazael, and there thrown off of a mountain to bring about atonement for the people. What is the idea behind choosing lots to determine the status of these two goats on Yom Kippur.? My teacher, Rav Ahron Soloveitchik, explained that often in life, one chance decision can determine the road that a person takes in life, and, in repenting, he must understand what choice he made that led him to this path. This concept is in accord with the teaching of Rabbi Bachya Ibn Pekudah in his classic work, Chovos Halvavos, in which he says that often in life, a person does not have free will in regard to each action he takes. Rather, his free choice manifests itself in the path he chooses to take in life. Once he has taken that path, however, his actions as a consequence, and, in order to reverse them, he has to get off the path. To do that, he must understand how he got on that path in the first place. The lesson of the two goats is to sharpen our awareness of how important a particular decision can be, and to spur us on to understand how we got onto a path that has been detrimental to our spiritual health. I have heard that Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, zt”l. explained the lesson of the lots drawn on Yom Kippur differently, saying that they are a mitigating factor in our judgment, in the sense that often the path we take in life is based on a chance decision, and therefore we are not totally to blame for what happens. In either case, the point of the drawing of lots on Yom Kippur is to focus on that one decision in life that has unanticipated repercussions. 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
The idea of lots on Purim is different from that on Yom Kippur. On Purim, the lots are symbolic of everything that happened in the course of the events presented in Megillas Esther. Each of the events , when seen n its own, seems too have been a natural occurrence, and it is only when taken together as a whole that we see the divine providence that was involved throughout. That is why we do not see God's name written in an explicit way in the megillah, although, as Chazal have taught us, it does appear 'in disguise,' for example, as the word "melech" - king- when it is written by itself, not followed by "Achashveiros." Rabbi Eliezer Ashkenazi, in his commentary to Megillas Esther , Yoseif Lekach, writes that it is for this reason that we must hear every word of the megillah in order to fulfill our obligation of mikra megillah, becuse it is the combination of all the events that led to our salvation, and we need to understand that divine providence was there behind the scenes throughout the entire scenario. uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
Perhaps, then, the connection between Yom Kippur, the day which is 'like a pur, a lot,' and Purim is that Yom Kippur focuses our attention on that one choice in our lives that determined which path we would take, and prepares us for understanding how it is that what followed came as a result. Purim, on the other hand, focuses our attention on the details of the path we have taken, and calls on us to understand how divine providence takes that decision and guides all the details of our lives, whether individually or on a collective basis, and, with that understanding, determine how we should order our lives and our actions on a daily basis. May we all, in the spirit of Purim, reach an understanding of God's role in our daily lives, and as a result, deepen our connection with Him on a constant basis.