This is a post-Purim class, because we can’t get Purim out of our minds.
As you may know, when we have two Adars, we make Purim in the second Adar, but there’s actually a machloket in the Gemarah about this. One rabbi says it should be in the first Adar, because we should celebrate Purim at the first opportunity to do the mitzvah. Why push it off?
Another rabbi says, No, we should wait till the second Adar,
כדי להסמיך גאולה לגאולה -Because we want Purim to be connected to Pesach. We should go from Purim to Pesach and not allow the feelings to dissipate. They are both miracles; the only difference is that Purim is a hidden miracle and Pesach is an open miracle. We want to keep this mindset over these thirty days (that we’re in right now) and we don’t want to lose the connection. So, we’re in a special zone right now. Not just because the Shulchan Aruch says we should start learning the laws of Pesach thirty days before the Hag, but because these special holidays are connected. It’s like we’re in an electromagnetic field now, between Purim and Pesach.
Because of this, we will discuss an important Purim/Pesach lesson.
As we all know by now (or should know, based on the chart of Ahashverosh’s 14-year reign), the miracle of Purim happened during Pesach. As we know, Esther fasted over Pesach on the 13th, 14th and 15th of Nissan. She came before the king on the 15th, and it was on the night of the 15th (going into the 16th), that Haman was told to take Mordechai around on the horse. The next day, when Haman went to get Mordechai, Mordechai was learning in his Yeshiva with his students. He and his students saw Haman approaching, and assumed he was coming to kill Mordechai. The students were scared and wanted to run, but Mordechai remained calm.
“What are you learning?” Haman asked them. Mordechai replied that they were learning the laws of the Omer, because it was the second day of Pesach, which, in the times of the Bet HaMikdash, would be the day they needed to bring that korban. Haman asked why they were learning that.
Mordechai explained that it was because they expected the Bet Hamikdash to be rebuilt shortly, and therefore they’d need to know these laws. Haman told them they’d be wiped out before then, but Mordechai said No, they had strong emunah and bitachon. And they were right. It was rebuilt.
This is a tremendous lesson in not giving up hope.
There’s an added layer of depth here though, in the message of the Omer. Why specifically mention the Omer here?
The Omer was a measurement of barley they needed to bring. Why that amount? There was another place where that measurement, an Omer, shows up. It was the amount of manna that came down for 40 years (per person) in the desert. Each person got an Omer’s worth of manna daily. It was a set measurement. So it was used for the manna, and then later on, when they entered Israel, it was used for the measurement of the korban HaOmer, in order to teach us that although our bread no longer comes from heaven, the wheat coming from the ground is the same miracle. We must remember the Omer, to remind us that the miracle never stopped. In fact, it says in Yehoshua that they ate manna until they brought the korban Omer, which then enabled them to eat from the first new wheat. They entered Israel on the tenth of Nissan, and that was the change of gears, from manna to regular food, and that came with the Omer.
There is something fascinating about this, mentioned in the Sefer Ein Yaakov, which is a compilation of aggadah, put together by Rabbi Yaakov ibn Chaviv, who lived in the times of the Spanish Inquisition and moved on to Turkey. In his commentary to the Yerushalmi, the following is asked about Bircat Hamazon:
We know that there are sections of Bircat Hamazon written by Moshe, Yehoshua and David HaMelech. The section by David (and Shlomo) HaMelech was Bonei Yerushalayim.
They didn’t originally say “Bonei Yerushalayim,” which means “build Yerushalayim”, because they already had Yerushalayim. So, we tweaked that part. (We will set aside second Beracha, Nodeh Lecha)
Our focus is on the first beracha, which it says Moshe Rabbenu wrote, when the Manna landed.
Rabbi Yaakov ibn Chaviv asks why that text wasn’t tweaked as well, because the situation changed when we got to Israel. And his answer is that nothing changed. The manna is here today like it was in yesteryear. The only difference is that we used to see the manna, and now we don’t. That’s the Ness Nigleh/Ness Nistar (hidden miracle/open miracle) connection. And that’s our Purim/Pesach connection. Purim is about the hidden miracles and Pesach is about the open miracles. They are intertwined. Whether it’s Hidden or Open, Manna from the heavens or the food from the ground, it’s all the same.
It says that when the Jewish people entered Israel, they were as excited as they were when the manna fell.
They used to say Hamotzi Lechem min Hashamayim
(brings forth bread from the heaven)
on the manna,
and now we say Hamotzi Lechem min Ha’Aretz
(brings forth bread from the ground)
It’s all the same- bread coming from the heavens or bread coming from the ground.
Have a great day.