We are now in perek ג of the Megila, which has a pasuk that is descriptive of the entire miracle. It says, Hepil Pur
Haman set up a pur/lottery , which is where the name Purim came from, and it’s the biggest indication of God’s Hashgacha Pratit.
We believe that God is involved, down to the roll of the dice. “Roll the dice,” is the quintessential term for luck, and even when it comes to the roll the dice, God is there.
The Gemara in Masechet Megilah (13b) says that when the lottery fell out on the month of Adar, Haman was extremely happy. He knew it was the month that Moshe Rabbenu had died, but what he didn’t realize was that it was also the month that he was born. Had he known that Moshe was born in that month, Haman would not have been happy.
The people of Amalek specifically chose warriors to fight, based on their birthdays, because a person’s Mazal is strongest on their birthday, and so they would be unbeatable.
The Yalkut Shimoni says, in Parashat Beshelah, that this is why, when Moshe Rabbenu went to fight against Amalek he said, “ I am going to fight with them tomorrow.” He pushed it off a day as hishtadlut to break the spirit of the people of Amalek, because they believed they’d win on their birthdays.
Moshe’s birthday gives us power. Therefore, Haman would certainly only have avoided Moshe Rabbenu’s birthday, because he believed in that power.
The Yalkut Shimoni further points out that when Haman looked into the Mazal, he saw that Adar has the Mazal of Dagim/Fish (Pisces). When he saw this he said, “They are in my hands like a catch a fish.“ But Hashem said, “No-sometimes fish are swallowed, but they also swallow others. You will be swallowed by them.”
That is VeHanapochu: when everything gets flipped around.
“You think you will catch them like fish, But they will swallow you like fish swallow other fish.”
The ultimate VeHanapochu was that,
1- The very day that he thought would be bad for the Jews turned out to be good.
2- The commentaries say that he literally rolled the dice. He rolled three dice, and it came out to, one, three, three.
He thought one was Aleph, and three, three was , gimmel, gimmel which spells Agag, Haman’s great grandfather (Haman called Haman HaAgagi). He thought that was great.
But when dice are flipped over, the opposite side of a one is a six, and the opposite of a three is a four. This spells out Daled Vav, Daled, or David!
So he thought that Agag was on top and David was on the bottom. But he didn’t realize that when he flipped the dice, he flipped the Mazal. VeHanapochu. He put David on the top and Agag on the bottom.
All of this is brought down in the sefer Midrash Talpiot, from Rav Eliyahu of Ismir.
We see from here how Hashem was playing with the dice, down to the where the spin ended up.
And there’s more:
Haman was killed in the month of Nisan, which was only a few days after he did his lottery. Most of the story of Purim occurred in Nisan, but we celebrate in Adar, because that was when we were supposed to be killed, but everything turned around and we killed our enemy.
God worked it out that the lottery fell out 12 months later, because a lot had to happen after that first letter went out, allowing for the Jews to be killed. A lot of time was needed for the retraction letter to go out, etc..There was no texting or social media back then. They had men on horses, giving out the information. Without those 12 months, there would not have been enough time for everything to be publicized and turned over.
So the fact that the lottery fell out in Adar, aside from the Mazal, was very important, on a practical level.
These are the important points of the important lesson of Hepil Pur
God is in charge of the dice.
God is in charge of what the enemy thinks is his power, and He will flip it around.