Good morning, everybody. How are you doing? I hope all is well. Keep up the beautiful work. Today is Tuesday, Purim, the holy day of Purim. May we take advantage of all the holiness of Purim, and Hashem will give us all the beautiful blessings hidden in the day. You just have to tap in and receive all the blessings. We mentioned the other day that there is a halacha (Jewish law): whoever sticks out a hand to ask for tzedakah (charity), you must give them. The same thing goes with us and the One Above, Borei Olam (Creator of the world): when we ask Him today from the depths of our heart, He has to give us as well. May all our prayers be answered, and may we see only Beracha (blessing), B'ezrat Hashem Yitbarach (with God's help, blessed be He).
We mentioned the story Friday night, one of my favorite stories ever, regarding Purim and regarding all year long. We know the holy rabbi Rav Chaim of Volozhin was a student, the closest student to the Gaon of Vilna. Just as we mentioned, the halacha says that whoever asks you for charity on Purim, you must give them. Just be careful; forgive me, there are imposters out there. But we should always be givers, B'ezrat Hashem Yitbarach.
Rav Chaim of Volozhin would always walk around on Purim with his pockets filled with money. He would give to anyone who asked him. A poor man comes over to the rabbi on the holy day of Purim and says, “Rabbi, tzedakah,” and the rabbi pulls out a coin and gives it to him. The poor man says, “Rabbi, if I give you divrei Torah (words of Torah) that you have never heard before and that you enjoy, would you give me more?” Rav Chaim of Volozhin said, “Of course.” We know Rav Chaim of Volozhin knew the whole Torah, so it’s very hard to think that a poor person who doesn’t look so learned could give the rabbi a chiddush (new Torah insight). But the rabbi said, “Hit it.”
So the poor man tells him the famous Midrash (rabbinic interpretation), which we all heard. It says in the Megillah, which we’re going to read momentarily and read last night, that Mordechai yada. He found out about the plan between Achashverosh and Haman to annihilate the Jews. Unfortunately, Shema Yisrael (Hear, O Israel), man plans, but Hashem laughs, as we know. It was top secret. Nobody knew besides Achashverosh and Haman. And all of a sudden, it says, Mordechai knew. How did Mordechai know?
The answer is that Eliyahu HaNavi was in heaven, and he saw the decree written in heaven: unfortunately, Haman had a plan to do what he wanted to do. And unfortunately, in heaven, they were granting him permission to do so. This was because, unfortunately, back then they took part in the seudah (festive meal) of Achashverosh, which was a very, very severe sin. And it was very bad.
So Eliyahu HaNavi runs into heaven and tells Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov, and Moshe, “What do we do? What’s going on here?” And they say, “Go to the biggest tzaddik (righteous person) down there. Obviously, that is Mordechai. Tell him what’s going on, and he’ll gather the people to pray and annul the decree.” So Eliyahu HaNavi goes to Mordechai and tells him, and that’s how Mordechai knew about the decree in heaven and the plan between Haman and Achashverosh.
The first thing Mordechai asks Eliyahu HaNavi when he tells him is, “Was the decree written in teat, we’ll call it ink, or was it written in blood?” Because if there is a decree written in blood, Shema Yisrael, in heaven, then it’s almost impossible to annul the decree. But if it’s written in ink, then there is hope to annul the decree. Eliyahu HaNavi tells him it was written in teat, it was written in ink. Mordechai says, “Beautiful!” Mordechai did his thing; they fasted for three days. Mordechai took 22,000 children to pray in the streets, and that annulled the decree.
That’s why, in the Megillah, when we read the Pesukim (verses) out loud, it says, “that night the king could not sleep.” Who is the king? Hashem is the king. When it says that, it’s referring to Hashem: Hashem could not sleep. Hashem doesn’t sleep, but sometimes it seems like maybe He sleeps, God forbid. That’s why we hide on Purim. We put on a mask to make believe we thought He was hiding, but we make a joke out of it because He wasn’t hiding. So now he gathers the children, Hashem can’t sleep, and they annul the decree.
The poor man is looking at Rav Chaim of Volozhin, and Rav Chaim of Volozhin says, “You think I don’t know that Midrash? Of course I know that Midrash.” The poor man says, “Wait. Where is that Midrash hinted at in the Megillah?” Now Rav Chaim of Volozhin opens his eyes and looks at him and says, “I don’t know.” The poor man says, “Here you go.” He tells him, “If you look at Perek Gimel, Pasuk (verse) 10, chapter 3, Pasuk 9, it says that Haman comes into the chambers of Achashverosh with 10,000 silver bars and tells him, ‘Let me buy the Jewish people from you. Here’s all this money.’ Achashverosh says, ‘Keep your money.’”
But when you look at the Pasuk, just as we said, “if it’s okay with the king”—the king is Hashem—“you shall write to destroy them.” Look at the word: you could slice it, and it says it’s a prayer to Hashem that when you do write the decree, please don’t write it in blood.
When Rav Chaim of Volozhin heard this, he started dancing. He started dancing. He started singing. He took all the money and gave it to the poor man. Instead of going home for the seudah, he ran to his Rebbe (rabbinic mentor), the Gaon of Vilna. He went and said, “Rebbe, I can’t believe I never heard this Devar Torah.” He told him the whole Devar Torah and the Pasuk, et cetera. All of a sudden, the Gaon of Vilna started to smirk. Rav Chaim of Volozhin looked at the Rabbi and said, “Rabbi, why are you smirking? Is there something you’re not telling me?”
The Gaon of Vilna said, “Who is the one that told Mordechai about the decree?” Rav Chaim of Volozhin said, “Eliyahu HaNavi.” The Gaon of Vilna said, “How did Eliyahu HaNavi look when he was dressed up like a poor man when he told you the Devar Torah?” Rav Chaim of Volozhin realized that the poor man was Eliyahu HaNavi. He got to see Eliyahu HaNavi. He got to hear the Devar Torah from Eliyahu HaNavi himself, with the secrets hidden in the Megillah. There are a lot of secrets in there. It’s one of the holiest books.
The Mekubalim (Kabbalists) say that it does. It doesn’t say Hashem’s name in the Megillah because if it said Hashem’s name, there would be too much holiness to contain, whatever that means. But B’ezrat Hashem, just as we had the revelation in the story of Eliyahu HaNavi, we will, B’ezrat Hashem, have the revelation of Eliyahu HaNavi, with him coming to tell us that the Mashiach (Messiah) is here. We were redeemed on Purim. We will be redeemed, B’ezrat Hashem, with the ultimate Geulah (redemption).
Looks like the wheels are turning. In Iran, in the world, Hashem should just protect our people, protect the world, and show us only beautiful things. And next year, we’ll be in Yerushalayim HaBenuyah (rebuilt Jerusalem), Amen. Happy Purim!