Thursday is a Parashat HaShavua (weekly Torah portion) class, unless there is an upcoming Chag (holiday). This Tuesday, an upcoming event is taking place, and therefore, as is our custom, we like to develop ideas that will prepare us mentally for the upcoming Chag.
I know we talked about Purim last week, but there is a lot to say, and I have not exhausted the subject yet. So, with your permission, I would like to continue our discussion of Purim. If you remember, last week the theme of the class was a Gemara in Megillah (scroll) that asked, “Where do you find Haman’s name in the Torah?” We talked about it a lot.
There were some unrecoverable remarks here. I will tell you where I was drawn. It is a beautiful experiment, and the results are actually stunning, if I say so myself. I am very happy with the results. I am sure you will be happy as well.
I went from parasha to parasha. I started with Bereshit (Genesis), and found nothing. “Hamin ha'etz” (Was it from the tree?), but that told me apart. And then Noach. “I lost them, a bull, neck, neck, etc. I kept them in order to punish you.” And then I got to Parashat Miketz (portion of Miketz), and there I started to smell a little of the Purim story coming out of the parasha. I will tell you why.
I have seven proofs here, and I hope you have patience with me, that the origins of Haman started to percolate and started to— I do not want to say it was evolved—but started to be created in the Torah. Let us see how Parashat Miketz starts. It begins after Yosef (Joseph) had been in jail for two years, so it is the third year after those two years. Both parashiyot begin in the third year. That already put me on a track. Furthermore, I found that many words in Parashat Miketz are found only in “B'Yat Esed.” You will not find similar words throughout the whole Tanakh (Hebrew Bible). That tells me they share the same lexicon. They share the same vernacular.
As an example, in Perek (chapter) Mem Alef, Pasuk (verse) Namidal: “Perek Mem Alef, Pasuk Namidal.” Bear with me. It says this is where Yosef appoints managers to manage the family. Now, the Ba'al HaTurim says: “Ya'asad Bar'ovi Yadker Bikidim.” The only other time you see the word “V'yadker” is in Megillat Esther: “V'yadker HaMelech Bikidim.” Achashverosh also made Bikidim, but for a different reason. The Ba'al HaTurim says, “Achashverosh yabkhi Bikidim Lekarbet slob Nashim.” He did it in order to gather all the women for the beauty pageant. And that was his bikini. Yosef made bikini in order to end the famine.
The Ba'al HaTurim says that when you use your managers for perverted reasons, you end up needing a big house, a big house. He became poverty-stricken. How did he become poverty-stricken? I do not know. It was his money. I mean, I do not know; it was his money. Because at the end of Megillat Esther, it says he started to charge tax. Why did he start to charge tax? Because of perverted behavior, his treasury went down. Whereas the Targum (Aramaic translation) writes that Yosef appointed managers to have all the food, and therefore the country became wealthy, including Yosef. So you see, “the Yefker, the Kedim.”
Number 3: In the next Pasuk, it says, “V'yikbetzu et kol ochel hashanim” (you should gather all the food of the years). “V'yikbetzu”—you should gather all the food of the years; the years are plentiful, so gather all the food. Again, you only find the word “V'yikbetzu” in Megillat Esther, as it says, “V'yikbetzu et kol na'ara” (Let all the young women be gathered), as Achashverosh gathered all the contestants for the beauty pageant.
Furthermore, if you look at Perek Mem Gimmel, Pasuk Lamed Alef—and ladies, sometimes these experiments are not exciting in the beginning. First, you have to establish that there is some connection. That is what I am trying to do, because in a court of law, I am trying to prove my case.
I am looking at Perek Mem Gimmel, Pasuk Lamed Alef. The Pasuk here is talking about when they brought Binyamin down to Yosef. Yosef had not seen his brother Binyamin for years. The Pasuk says he wanted to cry, but he could not cry in front of them, because it would seem very strange to them. So the Pasuk says, “Vayit'apek.” He went to a separate room. “Vayit, he cried to himself ... Vayit Hatshah.” He washed his face. He came out to them. “Vayit'apek, Vayit'apek.” Vayit'apek means he controlled himself. He had a lot of strength to control his emotions. “Maulana Tuneem,” again. You do not find this word anywhere else, except for similar words.
Number five. If you look at the beginning of Parashat Miketz, when Yosef gives Pharaoh advice—that is, to provide for seven years of plenty and seven years of famine—Pharaoh had heard all different interpretations of his dreams, and none had settled with him. But when he heard Yosef’s interpretation, what did the Pasuk say? “Vayitav hadavar b'einei Pharaoh.” It was good. And when you see these words again, maybe not exactly the same, it says, “Vayitav hadavar b'einei Haman.” Haman’s idea was good in the eyes of the king.
Now, in this parasha, this is one of my strongest proofs. In Perek Mem Gimmel, Pasuk Yildal, you remember that the brothers went to Yaakov Avinu (Jacob our father) and told him, “Listen, this King of Egypt, or the viceroy, says we have to bring Binyamin.” Yaakov was not happy. Yaakov says, “I already lost Yosef”—he did not know Yosef was alive—“and now you are going to take Binyamin from me.” He was very, very hesitant to let Binyamin go. And what language does he use? He says, “Fine, may God be merciful before the king. I will send in Yemen. By me and without me. ‘Ka'asher shakholti, shakhalti’”—as I have been bereft of my child, Yosef, I might be bereft of my child, Binyamin.
Or, when Queen Esther is told by Mordechai to go to the king and petition him, she says, “But he has not called me for 30 days, and if I go unannounced, he can kill me.” “When the Chai says,” “that is not your cheshbon, your calculation. You have to go in and petition the king and pray to Christ.” So what does she say? “I will do it. I just tell people to fast for 3 days and 3 nights. I will also fast, and I will go into the king. I will go into the king without permission. And just as I might lose my relationship with Mordechai if Hashem knows something to me, I might lose my own career.” You do not see words like that repeated too many times. But if you study it, you do.
The next proof is how many sons of Yaakov Avinu originally went down to Egypt in Parashat Miketz. Very good: ten. I know how you know that. You are saying he is in Egypt, but Binyamin initially did not go. So this is the parasha that talks about the ten sons. The ten sons. Not too many parashiyot talk about ten sons. Here you have a parasha about ten sons—you know the ten sons I am talking about—and when you let this in, it is the ten sons of Haman. Of course, “the Shaim,” but I am going to start to see.
Based on these, and a few more that I will not tell you today—I will keep them for another time—I think I have made my case to the jury. Clearly, if you were to make an intellectual guess about “where Pauline was hiding,” I would guess that it is hiding somewhere in this vicinity, somewhere in this location. Once I located the spot, I took out the heavy equipment and knew I was going to have to dig a little deeper to see the connections that are to be made.
We are not learning from Parashat Miketz, but there are a few questions we have to ask ourselves nonetheless. One question we always ask is this: Yosef tells the brothers, “Bring your brother Binyamin now. There will be no more fooling around and no more negotiations until you bring Binyamin.” The question is simple. Yosef, you know your father is going to be in agony if you do this. Why would you do that to your father? Why does he cause Yaakov Avinu agony, as we saw? Why would Yosef, who loves his father and his Ben Zikunin, tell the brothers to do something he knows will cause his father tremendous agony?
Not every Bedi Amin down. Why? That is right; that is what the Ramban said. I agree. The Ramban asks this question and says, “Listen, Yosef did not want to. He had no choice, because he had dreams, and the dreams were prophecies. In the dreams, he saw that 11 brothers were going to bow down. So he knew he had to make sure these dreams came true. Therefore, he asked for Binyamin, and when all the brothers came down, they all bowed. So, in order not to interfere with the fulfillment of the dreams, he had to do it.” That is the Ramban’s answer, and that is the answer we accept. But we need to study this more deeply as well. Why did Yosef, as a tzaddik (righteous person), insist that Binyamin come down?
By the way, if I were Yosef, maybe I would say, “You know what? Now what? Adi Yosef, what is string this line over here? Unless you tell him that there are bad actors.” Now, that is because he has to make sure all these things happen before he reveals himself.
Now watch. When Binyamin comes down, this is a very hard Pasuk for me to swallow. They come down, and now they are at a seudah (festive meal), sitting at the table and using the panah. All of a sudden, at the seudah, Yosef gives them gifts. It is not a lot, but he gives Binyamin five times the amount of gifts that he gives the other brothers.
This is so surprising that the Gemara in Megillah, on page 16, says: “Your father showed favoritism to you, and it aroused the jealousy of the brothers. That is why you were sold to Egypt. And now what does Yosef do? Yosef does the same thing in front of all the brothers. He goes to the youngest one and gives him five.” Why is he not worried? The Gemara is concerned: How could Yosef do something so basic? Again, are you going to make the same mistake? This is the Gemara’s question.
To understand this, we need one short introduction. “The good Muzayyis”—you know this introduction of mine. You have heard it from me many times, but now I am adding one additional caveat. We discussed in previous shiurim (classes) that from the beginning of time, meaning from page 1 of the Torah, the world was created and God had in His original plan that the Jews would have to go into full exiles. This was known from the beginning. I literally mean that already in that Pasuk, in Insalas, are the four exiles. “V'hayta tohu va-vohu” (formless and void), “v'choshech al p'nei tehom” (and darkness was over the deep). The Gemara says, “Tohu zeh Bavel, vohu zeh Paras u'Madai” (Tohu is Babylonia; vohu is Persia and Media). That is Furi. “Choshech zeh malchut Yavan.” Tehom is the abyss, which is endless; that is the malchut we are now in, malchut Romi. So you see, the four exiles seem to be part of the tikkun (repair) of the world. For us to reach the Mashiach (Messiah), Klal Yisrael has to go through these four station stops.
The question is, how come Mitzrayim—Egypt—is not in there? We make such a big deal about Mitzrayim. I am glad you said that. That is correct. The reason Mitzrayim is not part of it is because Mitzrayim, as you said, is the mother. The mother of all exile, from which all exiles are born, is Mitzrayim. Therefore, when we remember Mitzrayim, we are actually remembering all four, so it does not count.
Listen, I know most of you are not capitalists, but “a radical in Hamdi town, the student of Rabbi Ali,” says that the four exiles are hinted at in the four letters of Hashem’s holy name: yud, heh, vav, and heh. But where is the mother? Where is Egypt in those four lands? He says that if you look at the yud, there is a little line on top of it. They call it a little cross, a little line that comes out; they call that kotz shel yud—that little extension that comes out of the top line of the yud. So he asked “the Baha'i Bita'u,” “Where do you see that in the text?” He said that when the Jews were in Egypt, what does it say about the Egyptians? “V'yakutzu.” “V'yakutsu means they called us as a—but v'yakutsu means they were from the coast.” V'yakutzu—that does not constitute was born; the yud came out, came from the other side of the world.
Rav Chida has a famous language where it says, “Ve'eleh shemot Bnei Yisrael haba'im Mitzrayimah”—these are the names of the Jews who came down to Egypt. He says that if you take the word ba'im, ba'im, the roshei tevot (initial letters) are Babel, Edom, Yavan, Madai. “Ba'im Mitzrayimah”: the four exiles actually were created from Mitzrayimah.
Not only that, there is an old question. The old question is that we have four languages of geulah (redemption) regarding Egypt. Let me review. Pesach is coming. Leil Pesach. Another lady said, “I said, ‘Are you nervous about the Koran?’” because she had a white face. I said, “No, thank you.” She said, “I’m worried about Pesach. I’m worried about the Koran. I’m wondering, what is easier, to cook for Koran or to cook for Pesach?” Anyway, I live in KSA. “We have the Ardak also ... making the Hain.” I am not against making the Hain; you make the Hain, you drink a cup of Hain, you drink a drink to, you know, to eat Siyat Mitzrayim. The Hain, you drink a cup. But to make four toasts, four toasts to one event?
The explanation they give is, no: once we came out of the mitzvah, that indicates to us that we are going to come out of the four exiles. Therefore, the first cup is Bavel. The second cup is Paras u'Madai (Persia and Media). The third cup is Yavan. The fourth cup is already our prayer that we will get out of the fourth, or final, galut, the exile. So “the Onseteen, the Insanteen, the Gaanteen, the Lakateen,” the foolish Shonot of Gimula, indicate to us that in Mitzrayim, by getting redeemed from Egypt, we are actually being shown that we are going to be redeemed four more times from the subsequent exiles.
I am very happy that you were able to finish my sentences on this, because we have talked about it many times. But now I am telling you the part I did not say. What I am telling you now comes from the great rabbi called the Belzer Rabbi, the early one, Sar Shalom from Belz. He was one of the great tzaddikim (righteous people). “He had the one college around him.” He makes a commentary like this. He says that not only does Egypt represent the four heads, but if you look in the Chumash (Pentateuch), you will see that Bnei Yisrael (children of Israel) went down to Egypt four times. Bnei Yisrael left Egypt four times.
As far as I know, we went there once and left. But Sar Shalom goes through and lists them. I will list them for you. The first time, he says, is when there was a famine in Canaan, so Yaakov Avinu tells his children, “Go down to the tribe.” That is number one. After that, they left the tribe and came back to their father. When they came back to their father, the second time they said, “He wants us to be with Binyamin.” The second time they went down with Binyamin, and then they left. They went back and brought their father, Yaakov, down. That is the third time. Then Yaakov passed away, “they left the barrier,” and then they came back a fourth time, when the gathering actually started, and then they left the fourth time.
Sar Shalom built something incredible. Since the story of Yisrael represents the four exiles, we had to go down four times and leave four times, because that is exactly what would happen. Then he says, “Now we can reveal a great secret. The second exile was Paras u'Madai, which is Purim. Bavel was the first. So the second exile must be hinted at in the second time that we went down to Egypt. And when is the second time we went down to Egypt? With Binyamin.”
Now we are getting much closer. The microscope is getting sharper. Not only are we seeing that the story of Paras u'Madai, Achashverosh, is in Parashat Miketz, as I showed you, but we are seeing that it is exactly in the story when Yaakov Avinu sends Binyamin down. My theory is that this is why Yosef specifically asked for Binyamin to come down: Yosef needed to establish Harponim. Therefore, we do not say, “What is he bothering his father for?” No, Yosef is involved in a big tikkun here, and he needs Binyamin to come down, because this is the second government, and in that whole story Binyamin will be with him. He is going to make all Harponim right there, because this is the second time they came down.
What does he do? The first thing he does is sit down and give Binyamin five gifts: Hamesh Yadot—five gifts. The Gemara says, “What? The same mistake? How did you give him five Yadot? Aren’t you worried about the jealousy of the brothers? You were a victim of the same thing. How did you give him five times the gifts?” And what did he give him, by the way? Five Yadot. He gave him clothes.
The Gemara says he was giving Binyamin a hint that a child would come from Binyamin. And who is that child? Mordechai. Mordechai is called Ben Yair, Ben Shimi, Ben Kish, Ish Yemini. Yemini means he came from Binyamin. Mordechai is a direct grandson of Binyamin. And what does it say at the end of Megillat Esther? Mordechai was adorned with how many garments from the king? Five garments.
Since Yosef says, “I need to make a hundred Purim of it,” he is not giving five matanot—gifts—to Binyamin randomly, to create jealousy. This is ma'aseh avot siman labanim (the deeds of the fathers are signs for the children). If Yosef gives Binyamin five Mikadim, that guarantees that Mordechai, his grandson, will benefit from the five Mikadim, which will ultimately bring salvation to Klal Yisrael.
But it gets even better. It cannot get better, but it gets better. What does it say? They drank. One of the problems is that they are drinking. All the years that Yosef was missing, the brothers did not drink. And all the years that Yosef was reunited with his brothers, he did not drink. All of a sudden we hear, “Vayishtu” (And they drank). All of a sudden, they break the nezirut—the vow against wine.
There is only one holiday—I take that back; on every holiday they have to drink wine. So you are going to say that is not proof, because you want the topic of Vayishtu to mean Purim, but it is no proof. Every holiday is Vayishtu. So maybe it is Pesach, maybe it is Pupuk. Pesach has four cups. Maybe it is Shavuot. Every holiday has wine. But this is the only time it says in the Torah, “Vayishtu.” And there is one more word: “Vayishkeru.” “They got drunk.” Vayishkeru. Where do you ever see tzaddikim sit down and drink wine? No holiday says you have to drink and get drunk except one. That is already the establishment of Chag Purim (Purim holiday). A person has to become rejoicing on Purim until he does not know the difference between and and he. The Pasuk writes, “This is Purim music”; they know what it is once we see this.
Once we see that Yosef HaTzaddik is preparing all this, there is one more question. It is a strong question. We found Purim here; it is right there, right? Parashat Miketz. So if anybody asks you, “What did the rabbi talk about today?”—“Oh, it’s in Parashat Miketz. Parashat Miketz.” “And then what, he forgot about Parashat Miketz?” No, that is Purim. If you do not study Parashat Miketz, you did not study Purim. All of Purim is in Parashat Miketz.
Now the question is: I am happy I found it. “Say any five dollars a shoe issue let's push out of this he smoothly that's why why is it why do you think this and out but they say uh... was that because i'm going to get a little bit of a soul uh...” Yitzchak, they say Shavuot, because he had the red horns, the horns that they blew at Matan Torah; that is the shofar. And Yaakov Abyad says, “Make Sukkot,” so he made Sukkot. Okay, that is my answer: those holidays were taken already, so they had to give one to Yosef. So what did they give him? I do not know what they are going to give him. They are going to give him a handkerchief, a handkerchief. I do not know what they are going to give him. “Eczan, Eczan. What is it? Eczan.” Poor Yosef was imprisoned and he was riding the tomb of the tomb. Okay, you are onto something, if you do not want to elaborate.
Why is Yosef going to get bullied, and why does he have to establish bullying? I found—I do not believe the word Midrash—here it is. An unidentified Midrash. “Yehvatron me'ohin.” Anybody who thinks that God is a Vatran—Vatran means He lets things slide—is wrong. He does not let anything slide. The world is justice. We stay patient. If a person does not make teshuvah (repentance) and does not settle, the world waits. But it is not batram. You should not think that if a person does something wrong, God does not care. No, He cares. We must not say that God is batram. But “ma'arich luchem”—He is patient. He says, “Amal ha'em neshvatim.” God told the tribes, “You sold your brother. You sold your brother. Now that you sold him, you made a party afterward.” What did they do after they sold their brother? They sat down. They sold their brother, but they had a feast. God says, “Kach ani ayase lakim”—what goes around comes around; it is going to happen to you. “HaMelech veHaman yashvu lishtot” (The king and Haman sat down to drink). The king and Haman sit down to a seudah of drinking, and what do they decide in that meeting? “Lehashmid, laharog” (to destroy, to kill). Achashverosh sells the Jewish people to Haman. Midah k'neged midah (measure for measure): you sold your brother over a seudah, and what the Aram says is going to come back to haunt you. You are going to be sold under the same circumstances.
The Gemara says the Midrash continues, and this is a case where Yosef forgave them. Yosef said, “I do not hold a grudge against you.” And still, the Midrash concludes, “Look how strict the judgment is.” Until the time of Mordechai, that bill was unpaid. This is the story of someone who forgave his brothers. Can you imagine the punishment?
Did you hear that? The whole story of Purim took place because the brothers had animosity and divisiveness against their brother. Yosef felt responsible to make the tikkun, because it was because of him that this whole story happened. Therefore, he said he had to make a tikkun. Now I will tell you what an unidentified source or commentator says: Anytime the Jewish people are divided and splintered, and there is disunity, it arouses the sin of the sale of the brothers. That sin is like a very sensitive wound. Anytime it is touched, it opens up again and brings judgment.
Haman goes to the king and says, “I think we will be able to kill the Jewish people.” I do not know if they believed it. The king says, “Why are you so certain?” Haman says to the king, “The Jewish people are”—according to the way “the Achanim” learn—scattered. Not scattered geographically; scattered amongst themselves. Since there is no unity among the people of Israel, they are weak. The brothers’ hatred is opened up again. The wound is opened up again, and therefore they are vulnerable. The whole inyan of Purim reawakens the sin of making that yourself. Yosef knew that since he was sold, his sin would eventually cause the Jewish people to be sold.
So what did he do? Listen to the genius of Yosef. He says, “I have to make a tikkun. How do you make a tikkun for disunity? You bring them together. If I can bring them together, I will make a big tikkun.” And if it works, there will be an outcome. If it does not work, there will be no outcome.
By the way, the outcome is not in Megillat Esther. That is the end of the story. I am going to tell you what happened next in the Chumash. I heard this from my father. He would tell us that the Rambam writes: Who is the real ba'al teshuvah (one who has repented)? How do you know if a person has made teshuvah? He goes like this: he beats on his heart, plays the drums on his heart, makes a beat on his heart. That is no proof. Anybody can do that. The proof, he says, is when the same situation comes in front of him again, and this time he does not do it because he has made teshuvah. Now you are a ba'al teshuvah. The Rambam writes that it has to be the same situation, with the same variables, and at the same, more or less, time in his life. If a person had “a testament that was 18 years old,” and now he is 95 years old, it is not the same testament anymore. So more or less, you have to fix it at the time when the variables are—
“I'm always dish about this shot his job just here ...” There is a way, on what side here, so about the weight of this, you—“I'm birthday ...”
But now you are having to walk astray; it will happen by itself. The situation will arise, and then you have a chance to show God the other half of the good and then do it. “And then Shamar they tell you, you're about to Shabbat.” Beautiful.
What was the sin of the brothers? They were jealous. It all started with jealousy. And this is the snowball. The snowball began with Baikonur, then became an avalanche. But it did not start as an avalanche. What are the agents? “He got more than us—the Ketonet Passim (ornate coat).” Yaakov Avinu gave the brothers a little more quilt, a little more fabric, a cuff, Ketonet Passim, a little more fabric to cover his palm. They said, “Where does he get that? What does he think he is? He is the Yalitza of all the children.” Do not ask these Ashura people that it is something you keep. I know that, but “the Rasul says I want me to learn it.” I am not learning it like jealousy of a 10-year-old. I want me to learn it. Good luck, but it says I cannot erase that word. It started with that, and then it—
So Yosef says, “This is exactly what happened at the time of Purim: mefuzar u-meforad, scattered amongst themselves. And once they are mefuzar u-meforad, it is going to wake up this sin. I need to put this sin to sleep.”
Yosef says, “Okay, he is going to do a test, but he does not know if he is going to succeed.” He does not know if he is going to succeed, but if he succeeds, there will be Allah. If he does not succeed, he puts the man at the table. He says, “I would like to give everybody gifts.” He gives everybody one gift. Then he turns to the youngest and says, “You are the youngest one here. I would like to give you five gifts.” Now Yosef is looking at the reaction of the brothers. This is what we call in French déjà vu. This is exactly what happened 22 years ago. Yosef is putting the weight on the other side of the scale. He wants to see if they can make teshuvah, the tikkun. If one of the brothers says, “What does it mean to get five?” Yosef walks out of the room. He wants to hear what they are going to do to Binyamin. Maybe they tell Binyamin, “We brought you down all this way, and you can take five. We are holding it, and the bechor gets doubled. Give it to us.” Or, “You know what? We are going to leave you here.” They did not do that to Yosef; they sold Yosef because of a little Ketonet. This is more than a Ketonet; this is five times as much. Yosef was watching. And what was their reaction? Nothing.
At that point Yosef says, “They have made teshuvah. There is no more vayikano (They were jealous). There is no more vayishnehu (They hated him).” They made the tikkun of achut, unity, and that guaranteed Yosef that the Jewish people in the times of Achashverosh would make achut as well.
What did Queen Esther say? Incidentally, the Chida writes that the reason the miracle of Purim had to happen through Binyamin’s grandchildren, Queen Esther and Mordechai, is that they were the only ones who were not involved in the sale of Yosef. They were not involved in it. Benjamin did this on Yosef, and therefore, to make the tikkun of “the head of the Mechila,” only some of his hands had cleaned from it. The Chida once.
So what does Queen Esther say? “Lech kenos et kol haYehudim”—go gather all the Jewish people—and fast. But the first thing, the main thing, is kenos: gather them. We have to break the mefuzar u-meforad. But who had the original “Lech kenos et kol haYehudim”? Yosef, when he had this lunch, this seudah, and told the eleven brothers to sit down: “Lech Kenos et Kodei Yehudiim.” These are all the Jews. “Saddam Rasulullah.” And he says, “I am going to test them.” Is there any more jealousy now?
After he saw there was no more jealousy, you know what Yosef did? He poured himself a cup of wine. He made it in the high. This was a Purim-related event. That is why he decided to drink water to Saddam, because he saw that they really bought the teshuvah. And the brothers, you know what they drank? They said to themselves, “It took us 22 years to make this tikkun. Does anybody have any bad feelings for this boy? We have no bad feelings.” If he is drinking, we do not know why he is drinking, because they did not know that was a myth. But we know why we did not drink. And not only did they drink, but they got drunk, which is the whole inyan of seudat Purim.
The Chatam Sofer says, “Why on Purim are we required to give mishloach manot? No other holiday do we give mishloach manot.” The purpose of the holiday is to bring Bnei Yisrael to achut. They give “mishloach manot ish l're'ehu umatanot la'evyonim” (sending portions to one another and gifts to the poor), and have a seudah. The Pasuk says, “mishpachah, mishpachah.” The families get together and become united, because that is the whole tikkun. The tikkun of chet mechirat Yosef (the sin of selling Joseph) happens through the tikkun of the achut we have on Purim.
Therefore, Yosef specifically had to be involved in creating this holiday, and he creates it on the second time the Jews came down to Egypt, when Binyamin showed up. He is going to be the main tzaddik of the story, because Binyamin did not have a hand in the mechidah, and therefore his descendants are going to have to make a tikkun for the life of Israel. Yosef gives him five garments—or, on the Chai, he gives him five garments—“vayishtu, his eschumal puli, vayishkeru, his mechayel yinish, his mesumer bepulia.”
If that is the case, to conclude: at the end of Parashat Miketz, the Pasuk says that Yosef tells the brothers, “Now go in peace.” And if you look at the end of the last Pasuk, it also says, “Ki Mordechai haYehudi, mishneh laMelech, megadol laYehudim, v'ratzu'i l'rov echav, dover shalom l'chol zaro.” He is a dover shalom. And therefore the pasuk of EZ, “v'atam arun le'shalom,” and Megillat is still also in Zohar. But Mordechai is also dover shalom. And therefore we see, “purim ena Torah minayim”—where is purim ena Torah? It is indeed the parasha of the case.
I will take this opportunity, ladies, to wish you a Purim Sameach. “LaYehudim hayta orah, vesimcha, vesason, vikar” (The Jews had light, joy, gladness, and honor). Amen, amen.