WE ARE STILL AT WAR

One of the principles of mussar is to stay alert. This is especially important this Purim, as not only are we still at war. (a temporary cease fire is not the end of the war), but also, we have enemies who love to attack us on Jewish holidays like the Yom Kippur War October 6, 1973 and the October 7, 2023 war on Simchat/Simchas Torah. The horrific attack by wicked Hamas terrorists from Gaza on southern Israel began on one of our most joyful Jewish holidays, Simchat Torah (rejoicing of the law). Both of these wars also took place on the holy sabbath. Both wars were also in the month of October and only one day apart – Yom Kippur war, October 6 and Simchat Torah war October 7. In both cases Israel was caught off guard, having ignored repeated warnings. There were so many warnings before the Gaza Simchat Torah war of October 7 that it would take too long to record all of them here. There is no doubt that our great LORD was trying to warn us, as there were so many repeated warnings. Sadly, these warnings were not taken seriously and were ignored. The most tragic were the ignored repeated warnings by the lookout IDF soldiers on the Gaza border. Most of these lookout soldiers were young women and were unarmed. They were the first murdered targets by the terrorists. Hamas used some kind of a flammable substance that led to poisonous suffocating toxic gas and fires at the Nachal Oz army base on October 7. Probably these young soldiers also did not have gas masks, besides being unarmed. Tragically, 15 were killed, and six were carried off as hostages to Gaza for more than a year. Thank G-D these six young women were recently freed as part of the temporary cease fire deal between Israel and Hamas.

THE HOLIDAY OF PURIM CELEBRATES THE MIRACULOUS SAVING OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY IN PERSIA FROM GENOCIDE

The holiday of Purim celebrates the miraculous saving of the entire Jewish community of Persia from a total genocide planned by a wicked minister named Haman in the government of King Ahashuerus of Persia. Haman had convinced King Ahashuerus that every Jew from the newborn infant up to the elderly should be killed. Unbeknown to both the King Ahashuerus and Haman, the king’s wife Esther was Jewish. Esther bravely told the king in the presence of Haman that she was Jewish and thus would die with her people. This angered King Ahashuerus and the result was that the wicked Haman and his sons were hung and the Jews of Persia were saved.

This year Purim, which is celebrated on the 14th day of the Hebrew month of Adar, falls on Friday, March 14, which is also the eve of the Jewish sabbath. Shushan Purim, which is the day that Purim is celebrated in Jerusalem (the 15th day of Adar), falls on the Jewish Sabbath (Saturday, March 15).

TODAY’S HAMAN IS THE AYATOLLA ALI HAMANI

The present day Haman is none other than the Ayatolla Ali Hamani, the supreme leader of Iran, whose ongoing mantra is death to Israel, sometimes accompanied by death to America. Iran has almost reached the maximum level of 90% enrichment of uranium necessary to make nuclear bombs. Iran has also been pursuing dual-use chemicals that adversely affect the central nervous system (CNS). See our blog Don’t Throw away your Gas Masks from August 5, 2024. Only yesterday Hamani rejected the letter of President Donald Trump calling for negotiations to stop Iran from making nuclear weapons. Also, Israel has threatened to attack Iran’s nuclear sites. Read more about nuclear Iran in our blog post Mountains Melt Like Wax, October 28, 2022.

ACCORDING TO RABBEINU EFRAIM IT IS FORBIDDEN TO GET DRUNK ON PURIM

This minhag (custom) to drink alcoholic beverages to the point where one can no longer tell the difference between good and evil (Haman and Mordechai) is based on a comment by Rava in the Gemara. See also our blog post from February 22, 2021. However, Rabbi Yehuda Spitz of Ohr Sameach points out that the Gemara records several statements and rulings regarding drinking on Purim.The Gemara first cites the statement of Rava that one should drink on Purim until they would not know the difference between Haman and Mordechai (good and evil). However, on the very same page the Gemara also records a story about Rabba (not to be confused with Rava) who lived a generation before Rava, although they overlapped a bit. The story says that Rabba invited Rabbi Zeira to celebrate Purim with him. Rabba got drunk and murdered Rabbi Zeira. When Rabba saw what he had done while drunk, Rabba cried and pleaded with HaShem to resurrect R. Zeira and HaShem brought Rabbi Zeira back to life.

Rabbeinu Efraim, who was a Rishon (meaning he lived many centuries after the Gemara was written), understood that the Gemara placed the story about Rabba murdering Rabbi Zeira after the ruling of Rava to show that this was a warning not to get drunk whereby you can even kill a friend under the influence of alcohol.  In other words, the Gemara meant it as a warning story and thus one should not take Rava’s ruling literally. According to Rabbeinu Ephraim’s understanding, the Gemara’s conclusion was that one should not get drunk on Purim, as it may lead to extreme behavior changes and horrible tragic outcomes.

PURIM HAS OFTEN BEEN A TIME FOR MIRACLES FOR THE JEWISH PEOPLE

The wicked Russian Czar Nicolas 1, who conscripted Jewish boys from age 12 to serve 30 years in the Russian army in order to force them to give up their Jewish religion died on Purim, March 2, 1855. These Jewish boys were called cantonists. They were forced to do things that were forbidden to Jews like eating pork. Many of them died. When the new Czar Alexander II took over he removed in 1856 this terrible law that had been designed to force Jews to give up their religion and to forsake the Creator of the universe.

The Gulf War when Sadam Hussein sent more than 40 SCUD rockets against Israel ended on Purim February 28, 1991.

CONCLUSION

Therefore, don’t get drunk this Purim. Stay alert in case there is an attack on Israel. Stay sober so if you have to  drive for any reason you will be able to drive safely. If the LORD should come with His mashiach to save us, would you want him to find you a disheveled drunk in the street? This year Purim should also be a time for teshuva (turning back to the LORD) and repenting collectively for the mistakes of not heeding warnings that could have saved us from all of this destruction and tragic loss of lives that began with October 7. If we do this, then maybe this year we will be able to celebrate the Passover seder together with our families celebrating not only the redemption from slavery in Egypt but also the destruction by the LORD G-D the Creator of the universe of all our enemies. Let us hope and pray that this Purim will see the return of all our hostages in Gaza, the vengeance of the LORD G-D on all our enemies and an end to this war.