Yeshiva
Beit Midrash
- Shabbat and Holidays
- Purim & The Month of Adar
- The Essence of Purim
The rabbis indicate that on Purim one should arrive at a state were one knows no longer the difference between blessing Mordecai and cursing Haman. Even more troubling is the fact that we find it difficult to identify who is the real Haman and who is the real Mordecai in our lives. Haman often dresses in the clothing of Mordecai and disguises himself ably. And Mordecai is often seen wearing kingly non-Jewish clothing that is but a costume and not his reality. In a world of disguises and costumes it certainly is difficult to identify heroes and villains, the good and the not so good. Is the professed love of Israel proclaimed by J Street and Peace Now a disguise that hides their true enmity to Israel’s current existence as a Jewish state? Or maybe they really love Israel and their harmful anti-Israel statements and policies are only a costume but not their real agenda and identity? How is one to know definitely? The European Union, the American State Department and the American President and administration all profess their loyalty to Israel’s rightful existence. Is that what they really think and believe? Can they ever be relied upon when moments of truth and hard decisions arrive? Are they cursed Haman or blessed Mordecai? And how are we to be able to discern this difference? Difficult Purim questions exist in our world.
At the end of all matters the Lord apparently decides on these matters. We can only do our best and act as reasonably and rationally as possible to protect our own self interest. Purim points out to us that all matters regarding the Jewish people and certainly the Jewish state are existential in their very nature. Wrong decisions and misreading the true face of events will always result in wrong policies, painful defeats and the spilling of Jewish blood. The last twenty years of Israeli diplomacy points out the truth of this statement. Rabin and Peres did not see Arafat as Haman. They were dead wrong. Netanyahu originally misjudged Abu Mazen. He was also wrong. The whole world mistook the Arab Spring as a positive thing and threw long time allies under the revolutionary Islamic bus. They are daily being proven wrong. And what would be our position today if Assad the father accepted Ehud Barak’s offer of almost all the Golan to be returned to Syria? Only the Lord has saved us from our mistakes and errors of wrong identification and poor judgment. And we all know that the hidden miracle of Purim is the Lord’s actions, so to speak, behind the scenes and through the actions and behavior of various human beings. So we are once again returned to Purim like circumstances in our own times and situations. Look carefully and see who is wearing the costume and who is wearing a disguise. Our future depends upon this.
Rabbis in Midrash
Lessons
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Hosha'ana Rabba FLYDUBAI & HOSHANA RABBA- ANI VAHU HOSHIA NA- I & HIM SAVE US
"Ani vaHu Hoshia Na", "I and Him, Save Us". We don't just pray to Him, but we also pray to and for ourselves that we should emulate and educate our children to have that instinctive altruism with which He created the world. President Trump seemed amused about Yaniv Hayon, our PLUMBER who confidently worked with G-d like Superman (he learned from a pilot on a TV show!) to save 174 lives on the Dubai hijacking, but we in Israel are totally accustomed already 78 years to our plumbers, teachers, garbage-men, rabbis, farmers & doctors being Hashem's shlichim! This is what Zionism is about.
Moreshet Shaul Hashem Is your Shadow – part I
Based on Siach Shaul, Pirkei Machshava V’Hadracha p. 420 – an address from 1941
P'ninat Mishpat A Non-Contractor in Changing Times – part I
(based on ruling 85128 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts)
Moreshet Shaul Our King on Rosh Hashana, Our Father on Yom Kippur.
Based on Aroch Siach, p. 221 (Rav Shaul Yisraeli)
