Simchas Purim: The Joy Of Purim

The festival of Purim is one of joy as the Megillah states ימי משתה ושמחה. These are days of drinking, joy and Yom Tov. This is carried to the extent that the Gemora quoted in the Shulchan Aruch says חייב אדם לבסומי בפוריא עד דלא ידע בין ארור המן לברך מרדכי. We are enjoined to become intoxicated on Purim until we cannot discern the difference between cursed is Haman and blessed is Mordechai. This extremity of simcha seems strange to understand as it seems to imply that one should not exercise self control.

To understand this, I believe that we need to examine the Yomim Tovim mentioned in the Torah. We find that in the case of Pesach there is no mention of simcha. In the case of Shavous the Torah enjoins us to be b’simcha once and in the case of Sukkos, twice, namely the Torah states ושמחת בחגך, you should rejoice in your Yom Tov, והיית אך שמח and you should be only joyful. In the davenning Sukkos is referred to as זמן שמחתנו the time of our rejoicing.

To understand the different emphasis between the three Yomim Tovim, I would suggest that the Pesach celebration of the children of Israel going out of Egypt was a physical redemption without being a spiritual redemption. This was not yet a cause for simcha but more a sense of relief. The way the children of Israel would act following leaving Egypt was still open to question.

Seven weeks later, they accepted the Torah, the spiritual font from which we continue to drink and this was a good reason for simcha. However, they were still in the desert and were fed by spiritual food, such as מן, manna, and had to prove their affinity to the spiritual acceptance. We all know what happened shortly after, when the golden calf set matters back and it was only on Yom Kippur when Moshe came down for the third time and Hashem forgave the children of Israel that the simcha gained its rightful place. Therefore we celebrate Sukkos after Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur when the teshuvah of the children of Israel has refined everybody so that the spiritual and physical come together in the joy of keeping a mitzvah. This coming together of the spiritual and physical is represented by us dwelling for seven days in a Sukkah where the physical walls enclose spiritual levels


At the time of the Beis Hamikdosh, there was also the simchas Beis Hashoevah, the joyful procession of drawing water and pouring it on the altar. However, that was water, not something that will intoxicate anybody. Furthermore, the final time that the Torah mentions the idea of simcha, in respect of Sukkos, the expression used is והיית אך שמח, our Rabbis tell us that “Ach” is an expression denoting diminution, namely that one should be careful that the simcha should not spill over from becoming pure joy of a mitzvah to the joy which is unrefined and not worthy of our nation.

With this introduction, I think we can begin to understand why in the case of Purim we are told to go the whole way and be extremely joyful. We have to read the Megillah both in the evening and again in the morning, which highlights the terrible decrees imposed on our Jewish nation, throughout virtually the whole known world at that time and the extreme danger in which they found themselves, from which mercifully Hashem saved the children of Israel.

The events are told vividly and in detail and as we internalise them they leave an indelible mark on everybody’s character. True this wears off some time later, but for the day following there still remains a very strong impression. Therefore, extreme joy during the day, even to the extent of intoxication will not lead to the simcha being anything other than one of mitzvah. The backdrop has a sobering effect.

In the same way as our Rabbis told us חייב אדם לקרות את המגילה בלילה ולחזור ולשנותה ביום, a person is obliged to read the Megillah at night and to read it again and to learn it during the day, they also used the same expression of חייב אדם לבסומי , a person is obliged to become intoxicated on Purim.

The Arizal, Rabbi Yitzchok Luria, says that Purim, if anything, is greater than Yom Kippur referring to Yom Kippur as Yom Ke-purim, יום כ-פורים a day like Purim. This, of course, seems very strange but the explanation given is that whereas on Yom Kippur we reach a high level comparable to angels through fasting and penitence, on Purim we can reach the same level whilst eating, drinking and enjoying the Yom Tov.

Whoever attended the Tischen of the late Gerrer Rebbe, the Beis Yisroel זצ"ל will vividly recall that the tisch on Erev Yom Kippur was very serious but the Purim tisch was even more so. In fact, it was the most serious tisch of the whole year, despite the fact that plenty of food, and especially wine, was consumed.

However, I think one must emphasise, that it is only a person who properly internalises the lessons of Purim in the Megillah who is really entitled to go to the extremes of intoxication.

The Gemora also comments on the words in the Megillah קימו וקבלו אליהם, they re-established that which they had already accepted at the time the Torah was given. Namely, they re-established the spiritual high level of contact with the Torah, comparable to that which the Children of Israel reached at the time the Torah was originally given. This also sheds light in the rabbinical interpretation of a verse in the Megillah which is said by all the congregation and repeated by the בעל קורא, reader and is well known in the introduction to the Havdalah, namely, ליהודים היתה אורה ושמחה וששון ויקר, the Jews had light, joy, happiness and splendour. Our Rabbis comment as follows Orah is Torah, Simcha is Yom Tov, Sosson is Milah – circumcision Yekor is the Tefillin worn on the head. This means that they appreciated that true light was the light of Torah, true simcha the joy of a Yom Tov, true sosson a bris milah, and the true splendour of a person is wearing the tefillin.

On Sukkos, the Yom Tov mentioned in Torah, where simcha is emphasised, one must dwell in a place which is holy, namely a sukkah, eat, drink and sleep there, (and at the time of the Beis Hamikdosh additional simcha was based on the Beis Hamikdosh). On Purim, the thrust of the Yom Tov is that it is to be celebrated everywhere and anywhere and one may work, carry out all mundane matters, unlike the Yomim Tovim. The joy of Sukkos is a joy with a fence round. On Purim because of the stark trauma of the Megillah that is sufficient antidote to ensure that the simchas Purim, the joy and spiritual uplift of Purim is achievable to an extreme in all circumstances and places.

Read More......

YOM KIPPUR אור זרוע לצדיק ולישרי לב שמחה

At the beginning of the holiest day of our year, our custom is to take out the Siphrei Torah and whilst these are being taken round the bimah, the Chazzan intones the verse from Tehillim אור זרוע לצדיק ולישרי לב שמחה and this is repeated by the whole congregation with great fervour. The only explanation that I have found for this custom is brought in the name of the Arizal and is very esoteric.

The heads of the community also state at the same time that with the agreement of ה' and the whole community אנו מתירים להתפלל עם העברינים, namely that we allow in to pray with us even people who have sinned grievously.

I would like to suggest an explanation for using the verse אור זרוע לצדיק ולישרי לב שמחה, A light is sown for the righteous one and the upright of heart have joy.

There is a Sefer written approximately 700 years ago by R’ Yitzchok of Vienna, one of the Rishonim, known as אור זרוע. He writes in his introduction that he named his sefer אור זרוע in commemoration of a dream that he had concerning R’ Akiva. The famous R’ Akiva’s name is spelt differently in the Gomora Bavli from the Gomora Yerushalmi. The Bavli spelling is עקיבא. The Yerushalmi spelling is עקיבה. His dream was that the name is encoded in the verse אור זרוע לצדיק ולישרי לב שמחה. By taking the last letters אור זרוע לצדיק ולישרי לב שמחה (ר'עקיבה) you will then find that the last letter of the verse is a ה and this will be the last letter of עקיבה spelt with a ה. To commemorate this dream he therefore called his sefer אור זרוע.

He comments, How praiseworthy are you R’ Akiva that Dovid Hamelech in his prophecy already referred to you in Tehillim. Furthermore, how praiseworthy are you that ה' showed Moshe Rabbenu that you would explain the tagim, the little crowns on top of letters in the Sefer Torah, to the amazement of Moshe Rabbenu.

Many of us are aware of the history of R’ Akiva who for the first 40 years of his life was an Am Haaretz to the extent that he himself stated later that he had hated the Talmedei Chochomim.

He then, with the backing of his wife, commenced learning Torah at the age of 40 and for the next 40 years he studied Torah under the leading Rabbis of the time. He became the leading Rabbi himself for a further 40 years and passed away at the age of 120. I say passed away, but as the Gomora tells us at the end of Brochos, he was tortured and finally killed by the Romans with the posek שמע ישראל on his lips. A צדיק who died על קידוש ה'. The highest imaginable level. However, it is not so well know that this took place just at the onset of Yom Kippur, Kol Nidrei night.

R’ Akiva was the prime example of a Jewish person who had started off as a grievous sinner and changed completely not only to become a Talmid Chochum but eventually the greatest Rabbinical leader of his generation.

I think that it is, therefore, very fitting that the verse אור זרוע לצדיק ולישרי לב שמחה is utilised at the opening of our tefillos and at the same time as we are מתיר to pray with the avayomim, those who have sinned grievously. Even they can improve just the same as R’ Akiva improved so dramatically.

It is also noteworthy mentioning the similarities between Moshe Rabbenu and R’ Akiva. Moshe Rabbenu came down on Yom Kippur for the third time after having brought down the second luchos having by then been in heaven for a total of 120 days.

Moshe Rabbenu himself lived exactly 120 years. Furthermore, his life was divided into three parts, the first one where he lived in the palace of Pharoh, which you could compare with the first 40 years of R’ Akiva’s life. Moshe Rabbenu then went to Midian and the famous burning bush. These were years of growing in לימוד and עבודת הבורא learning about and growing in stature in the service of Hashem.

His final 40 years were as the leader, the spiritual leader, of the whole of the Bnei Yisroel.

Finally, one other comparison, that is that we find a Gomora in חגיגה י''ב which says that four great Rabbi נכנסו לפרדס, they attempted to plumb the depths of the esoteric part of Torah. The Gomorra says that only R’ Akiva went through the process without any harm. The word פרדס adds up to 344. משה adds up to 345. This is to indicate to us that despite the fact that R’ Akiva was so great and that he could even expound on every letter and תג the crowns of each letter to the extent that this amazed Moshe Rabbenu, nevertheless, Moshe Rabbenu was that little bit higher even than R’ Akiva.

Moshe Rabbenu himself received the Torah from Hashem as Hashem told Aharon and Miriam פה אל פה אדבר בו ומראה ולא בחידות. That level was never reached by any person before or after.

ג' תשרי תשס''ט

Read More......