Happy Times with Father

Translated from Rabbi Arush’s feature article in the weekly Chut shel Chessed newsletter. The articles focus on his main message: “Loving others as yourself” and emuna. 

It’s Harder Than Fasting 

The way of great people and their true disciples is that when they achieve one goal, they immediately set themselves another goal and concentrate on it! (Before we continue, test yourself: Do you have a goal on which you are concentrating all your efforts?) 

This is the way taken by the greatest of the great disciples of the giant, Rabbi Natan of Breslev. Chanukah for him was a great avodah (service of Hashem), and immediately after Chanukah he would begin to delve into Purim. Purim became a significant part – and even a main part – of his prayers, his hitbodedut, and his studies. Rabbi Natan’s study of the teachings of Rabbeinu, as well as his chiddushei Torah (novel insights on Torah) focused on Purim, as he was true to Rabbeinu’s statement that all beginnings come from Purim. 

He used to say that the avodah of Purim was much harder and more difficult than the avodah of Yom Kippur. The avodah of Yom Kippur was Rabbi Natan’s natural avodah. On Yom Kippur  he was in his comfort zone – detaching oneself from this world for a day that consists of prayers and dveikut (attaching oneself to Hashem) and teshuvah, with each person focusing on himself. In short, Yom Kippur was a paradise for those who serve Hashem like Rabbi Natan. 

But the avodah of Purim is much harder. You must busy yourself with material things, with earthly matters. People come and go, not to mention the festive meal and the excessive wine-drinking. It is a day that is all one big distraction and with all this noise one must maintain one’s yirat Shamayim (fear/awe of Heaven) and serve Hashem and cleave to him – it is simply too hard to do! 

Rabbi Natan was not deterred. He well understood the importance of this rare day. and he knew that the only way to make good use of the day properly is to prepare! With lots of avodah! And so, he took upon himself the task of preparing for Purim devotedly. It is enough to read his prayer for Purim¹ to understand how Rabbi Natan viewed this holy day and with what determination he prepared himself for this big and rare day.  

Good News 

His holy avodah on that day was in the uppermost realms. He would sit with his peers for many hours and drink copious amounts of wine to fulfill Chazal’s instructions literally: “…until he won’t know [the difference between ‘Haman is cursed’ and ‘Mordechai is blessed’”]. With every cup he would announce: “Another cup, another rectification of the brit”. And he would dance and dance,  as  Rabbeinu  Hakadosh  wanted, and throughout the day his face was alight with supreme yirat Shamayim and deveikut. 

In light of Rabbi Natan’s words, the Breslev chassidim would prepare themselves for Purim long beforehand – for weeks and weeks – and would call out to Hashem every day: “Save me from the klipa (husk) of Haman and Amalek, and give me the merit to be as holy as Mordechai and Esther, with the true holiness of Purim.” And now, less than two weeks before the big day, I have great tidings for you, dear readers. 

For dozens of years, I have had the Heavenly merit to instruct and prepare my students to receive the light of Purim, and to write, from personal experience, a prayer before drinking wine that is printed in this newsletter every year. Dozens of essays have been written over the years. I have had to keep all of them very short due to lack of space. 

And now, Hashem has granted me the ability to succeed in the task and to publish an all-encompassing booklet called Simchat Purim [currently in Hebrew only], which is a collection of all those wonderful instructions of how to prepare oneself for Purim; it is the fruit of years of prayer and much experience. 

There is no end for the ideas and great chiddushim of Purim, and I don’t presume to cover all of them, but “It is not the study that is the main thing, rather the deed”². And therefore, in my writing I have done my best to touch on all the topics connected to the practical aspects of Purim: What the avodah of the day is during its various stages, and how should one prepare for it.  

Don’t wait until tomorrow – acquire this booklet today and bring blessing into your homes and learn it well; and the main thing is to start praying and yearning and preparing for the light of Purim that is just around the corner. 

Changing Amaleks 

The main aspect of the miracle of Purim is the wiping out of Amalek’s descendants and annulling his bad plans against the Jewish people. And as we always point out – Amalek is not history: Hashem battles Amalek in each and every generation. In every generation Amalek reappears in various forms, and that is the mitzvah of “Remember what Amalek did to you”³. One must not only remember, but also search for the plot of the Amalek of our generation and find it.  

From this we can understand that our main avodah on Purim every year is to battle this klippa and vanquish it anew using the power of the tzaddikim – Mordechai and Esther and their plans. They, too, in keeping with the principle of the balance between good and bad, appear in different disguises in every generation.  

Over the years we have written that Amalek is kfira (disbelief) in general. From this we learn that the reason Purim is the beginning of the beginnings is that Purim is the root of emunah (faith), which is the base and the beginning of all our life here, both spiritually and materially. 

It is known from the holy books that the numerical value of ‘Amalek’ is the same numerical value of ‘safek’ (doubt), for doubt is the main enemy of emunah. Emunah is considered to be valid only when it is strong and clear and absolute, without any doubts.  

In light of everything we have written in the past year, we see that the root of faith is the clear and unequivocal knowledge that Hashem is a Father who loves us, loves each and every Jew personally, in every situation, on any spiritual level he might be. Therefore, we can say that on Purim we vanquish the doubt and reveal the hiddenness (the name of the megillah is megillat Esther (hastarah – hiddenness) of the holy knowledge that Hashem loves us even in the depths of our failures.  

Where is Abba (Father)? 

The first time that Amalek came to the Jews was after they tested Hashem, wondering “Is Hashem among us or not”⁴. And as Rashi says, this was the reason that Amalek came. 

What does it mean, “Is Hashem among us”? The midrash explains it very clearly: 

“It is like a child who is being carried on his father’s shoulders and sees his father’s friend. He asks him: “Have you seen my father?” and his father replies: “You are being carried on my shoulders, and you ask about me?!”⁵ 

It is simply amazing that the midrash says unequivocally that the fault of the Jews was that they didn’t see their Father in Heaven! They asked: “Where is Father?” The knowledge that Hashem is a father had remained hidden from them. They ignored it, and the direct result was “And Amalek came”. Can anything be clearer?

After everything we wrote in articles and booklets, it is even clearer than that: without the clear knowledge that Hashem is our Abba, the heart of our emunah is absent. 

Finding Abba 

According to this, the avodah of the tzaddikim – Mordechai and Esther – was to show how much Hashem is with every Jew even in the heights and depth of failure. And therefore, “Every single day Mordechai  would walk around the women’s courtyard to find out whether Esther was well”⁶. Rabbeinu  Hakadosh  explains that the tzaddik will strengthen those neshamahs (souls) that are far from Hashem yitbarach and change the things that are hidden from them to daat (knowledge and understanding).  

What are these hidden things? The hidden things are that one doesn’t see Abba; Abba is hiding, like with the child on his father’s shoulders, and that is what brings Amalek. The tzaddik then changes this to daat – what daat? The knowledge that Hashem is a good Father! 

The knowledge that Hashem is Father in itself vanquishes Amalek; and the light of Purim’s holiness can make one able to know this, and that is the most necessary piece of knowledge for a person in this world, and it is really the beginning of all the beginnings. 

Dear Jews, this is the time to cry out to Hashem: “Save me from the klipa of Haman-Amalek!!”, and to have the following kavanah (intention): Save me from the hiddenness, whatever  is keeping  me from the clear knowledge that You are my Father and that You love me. “And may I merit the kedushah (holiness) of Mordechai and Esther”. May I have the kavanah to remove the hastarah from me and allow me to know that You are my Father and that You love me.  

All the tools are in your hands. The booklet Simchat Purim is really a treasure of instructions and an amazing practical tool that will steer you, step by step, on the way to merit the great light of the Purim days, following which you can embark on a truly new beginning.  

Editor’s Notes 

¹ Likutei Tefillot I: 10 and 56. Likutei Tefillot II: 37 

² Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers) 1:17 

³ Devarim (Deuteronomy) 25:17 – opening verse of the section known as Parshat Zachor 

⁴ Shemot (Exodus) 17:7 

⁵ Rashi’s comment on Shemot 17:7 

⁶ Megillat Esther (Book of Esther) 2:11