If you stop any group of dancing teenagers on Purim and ask them why they are going wild, they will probably answer: “What do you mean – it’s Purim today!” “Okay,” you reply, “but why are you happy on Purim?” And they will answer as they dance away: “Because Hashem saved us from our enemies!”
That is true, but the fact that we celebrate with such extreme joy must mean that there is a deeper reason for our happiness. Furthermore, we know that although the 13th of Adar was the day that Haman had planned to destroy our nation, the tables were turned and we were saved. So wouldn’t it seem that Purim should be celebrated on the 13th and not the 14th?
The Clandestine Guardian
The Vilna Gaon in the beginning of his commentary on the Megillah reveals to us the secret of this holiday with the following parable:
The crown prince had finally gone too far. His behavior was totally unacceptable for one who would inherit the throne, and a drastic punishment was needed. The king called together his trusted servants and revealed his secret plan. “Tomorrow I will banish the prince from the palace indefinitely – only when he repents will I allow him to return. However, I am worried that the ministers who are jealous of him will use this opportunity to kill him, and that he might be attacked by wild animals. Therefore, I command you to follow him continually and guard him from all harm – but make sure he is not aware that I am sending you.”
The next day the prince was startled to hear the harsh decree and left the palace in tears. He thought it was all over and that his father did not love him anymore. As he wandered through the countryside he didn’t notice a man about to stab him in the back. At the last moment, one of the king’s servants jumped out of the bushes and killed the assailant.
“Where did you come from, John?” asked the startled prince. “Oh, I was just walking by, your royal highness,” he said as he strolled off. Later, the prince encountered an angry bear. As it was about to tear him to pieces, a shot rang out and the bear crumpled dead at his feet. The prince spun around and saw a different servant riding by. “What are you doing here, Bill?” he cried out. “Oh, I was just taking an evening ride,” Bill answered and rode off in a cloud of dust.
When these events occurred again and again, the prince realized that they could not be mere coincidence. He sat down and thought everything over until he came to the conclusion that his father must have sent these people to watch over him. “That means that my father still loves and cares about me!” he exclaimed. This realization brought about such a great feeling of love for his father that the prince repented from his evil ways and was eventually welcomed back to the palace with open arms.
This was Klal Yisroel after the destruction of the first Bais HaMikdash. Since Hashem had hidden His presence so greatly, they thought He had, chas v’shalom, forsaken them and left them to the whims of the nations of the world. Even when they were saved from Haman’s evil decree, it was not obvious that Hashem was the One who had done so. This was because each individual stage of the Purim story, strange as it was, could have been explained by the political analysts and experts on Middle East affairs of the day. In fact, the Megillah stresses (9:22) that the day theJewsrested after the war was the day that they celebrated. Why? It was only when they had time to rest that they realized there were too many coincidences. Once they pieced everything together, they saw that Hashem was still watching over them. This planted such a deep love in their hearts that they reaccepted the Torah upon themselves – this time out of love.
Now we understand the great happiness of Purim. We do not merely celebrate our salvation; we rejoice that Hashem is still with us until this very day. Even though it sometimes seems as if we have been abandoned, nothing could be further from the truth. By properly studying current events, we see that Hashem still loves and is watching over us; He is only hiding Himself so that we will repent. And that is truly something to dance about!
“A Gantz Yuhr Purim!The whole year is Purim!”
We must take this lesson with us all year long, and Shabbos is the perfect day to do so. In the Shemoneh Esrei of Mincha on Shabbos we say that this is a day of “menuchas emes – a rest of truth.” What is the difference between true rest and fake rest? When a person takes a vacation from his job, he (hopefully) enjoys himself and recharges his batteries so that he can go back to work. During his time off, he tries not to think about his job or other anxieties, but knowing that very soon everything will go back to “business as usual” definitely disturbs his peace of mind. On Shabbos, however, we have true rest. Not only do we rest from physical acts of labor, we have internal rest as well. We explained in our last column (February 6) that one way to view our work as complete on Shabbos is by realizing that our livelihood derives solely from Hashem. We only work because we are obligated to pay the tax of hishtadlus – to perform the act of gaining a livelihood. The more we are aware of that, the more relaxed we will feel.
However, there is another comparison to be made. Just as the Jews realized that Hashem was with them on the day they rested after their Purim victory, we have the same opportunity each Shabbos. On this day of rest we can realize that there are too many “coincidences” in the world and, more specifically, in our own personal lives. Once we put the pieces of the puzzle together, it will reveal that Hashem loves us dearly and is running our lives on a daily basis.
The Chofetz Chaim writes (Sheim Olam, end of chapter 3) that sometimes when we merely look at the end result we do not immediately see the hashgacha pratis – Divine Providence. In such cases, we should look back at all the events that brought us to that result. Let us take, for example, a man who brought wheat to sell in the marketplace and discovered that prices had soared, yielding substantial earnings. He should look back and see how it happened. How did he find the wheat? Where did he receive his funding? Why did the prices suddenly soar? Someone who lives this way will see with his own eyes that Hashem is taking care of him and will reach great heights in his level of bitachon. For him, it can be Purim all year long!
