PURIM?, YOM KIPPUR?, DRUNK?

Dear Family,

I hope everyone is well and getting geared up for Purim!

Mazal Tov Chanan on your birthday this coming week. Wishing you success in all your varied and interesting activities, and much happiness together with your Family.

Mazal Tov to Mariasha on her birthday also next week. Wishing you much success in both gashmiyus and ruchnius Mariasha.

We wish Mommy long life on the yohrtzeit of Pepe which was this week.

I learnt a Maamar over the last few weeks on Purim, from the Alte Rebbe in his siddur.

His maamarim are very deep, intricate and interesting, and I will try and summarise it to get a little bit of it’s taste. (It may be a bit heady, but there is some entertainment at the end also!)

It basically explains all the ‘behind-the-scene’ workings, according to Chassidus, that were going on, in the story of Purim, and how these same dynamics are happening within each one of us, and therefore how we can all be a part of the story. And an explanation of how getting drunk falls into this picture, and how Purim is connected to Yom Kippur.

Amalek is the chief of the 7 Nations and of the forces opposed to G-dliness.

It’s extent is similar to Hashem’s, who starts high up and influences to very far down below in the world. But with Amalek it is like a snake (high up) and its venom (down below)

How he opposes G-dliness is by making a separation between the first 2 letters of Hashems Name ie yud keh, and the last 2 letters ie vav keh.

This is expressed in the posuk ‘ki yad al kes yud-keh’, milchamah baHashem (yud-keh-vav-keh) baAmalek midor dor’ – his hand is on the throne of yud-keh, who swears that there will be a war of G-d against Amalek from generation to generation (End of parsha Beshalach).

Note that the beginning, the posuk spells Hashem with only the first 2 of the 4 letters of His Name. – and this is one of the main themes of the maamer, ie that Amalek tries to separate between the upper and lower parts of Hashems name.

Hashems Name

The vov of vav-keh stands for 6, which represents the 6 emotions, and in this area of vov-keh, the emotions are at play. When the influence of the yud-keh is cut off though, these emotions run wild, and ego and selfishness rule.

With the yud-keh, the yud represents smallness and humility, and a very high level of intellect.

This upper keh represents spaciousness into which the contracted intellect of the yud broadens out into all the myriad of its details.

When things are functioning normally, the influence from the yud-keh has a positive influence on the vav-keh, bringing about harmony and good feelings etc.

And there is also an influence coming from beyond Hashems Name.

The separation between these 2 parts, is reflected in the words kise and tikvah.

Kise is kes aleph, and kes also means TO COVER ie covers the aleph (alupho shel olam – the King of the world) – see main posuk above

Tikvah is letters tik, and vav-keh, which means A SHEATH of vav-keh - from the posuk ‘velamalshinim al tehi tikva – there is no hope for the rebellious ones- in this case referring to Amalek

And how does this all relate to the scene of Purim?

One of the meanings of Purim is ‘casting of lots’. Lots also represent a high level of ‘beyond’ where a person receives what they need, not by allocation, but by a lottery, which is beyond understanding..

And Haman (who is a representative of Amalek) was also trying to use by casting lots against the Jewish people because of its lofty power.

And on YOM KIPPUR there is also the casting of lots for the 2 goats.

To break Haman’s plans of entering at these high exalted levels to cause separation between G-dliness and the lower worlds and the Jewish People, the Jews had to do a very intense teshuva, putting their lives at stake, together with fasting and prayer (and this was over a whole year) to arouse and break through to the Essence and Will of Hashem.- the whole story of Mordechai and Esther relating to Achashverosh, Haman etc, and Mordechai gathering all the Jewish children together etc

In the same way, on Yom kippur we spend the day fasting, doing teshuvah, and coming closer to Hashem. And that is why Yom Kippur is explained as being like Purim (ke Purim – kippur)

Drinking

And that is why over the generations we have taken on the custom to get DRUNK on Purim, which is just a representation of going beyond one’s intellect, - until one cannot tell the difference between Haman and Mordechai, - because we cant really on our own reach this very high level of beyond yud-keh that was reached at the original Purim.

And the same battle of Purim can be fought within our own selves, where we can resist the forces of Amalek trying to separate between ourselves and Hashem.

Below is a video in Yiddish which has nice music and is fun.

My Yiddish is not very good, but I understood that Berel is the father and not the naughty boy.

Enjoy, and if you don’t understand don’t worry – it is all part of Purim!

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsYZOlBEkhw>; Motty Ilowitz - Berl | מאטי אילאוויטש - בערל

Gut Shabbos and Gut Purim