Some thoughts on Purim

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This year is going so fast, it’s hard to believe we’re at Purim already.

Rebbe Nachman teaches that really, all beginnings begin from Purim.

We need the ‘joy’ of Purim to have the ‘redemption’ of Pesach.

Most years, I usually find the first half of Adar really hard going – you can feel the din in the air, it’s very hard to feel ‘happy’ about anything much.

BH, this year, it feels different, at least in my dalet amot, at least in Jerusalem.

I would say there is a vibe of optimism, some how, that I haven’t picked up for most of the last five years, since the whole Covid nightmare began.

Talking to people, it also seems that many of my friends are coming to a stage where they just can’t hang for things to ‘change’ anymore any longer. They are moving out of passive mode, and stepping into a more active mode – that has fear of God at its foundation.

It’s not the same old ‘the strength and might of my own right hand’ that has got us all into so many difficulties.

It’s a deep understanding that we are absolutely nothing, dust and ashes, without God. But that God still created that ‘dust and ashes’ to make its best efforts to build the world and struggle mightily with overcoming our own bad middot, and developing some real emuna that EIN OD MILVADO – there is only Him.

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So, there is only Him – but God is still waiting for the ‘awakening below’, where we stop making excuses for why we aren’t at least trying to fix what’s so wrong, and putting God firmly back into that picture as we do it. And it seems to me, that more and more people are starting to realise this, in a myriad different ways.

This is the stuff that real transformations are made of.

And ‘transformation’ is really the theme of Purim.

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On that note, if you understand Hebrew (or can just read the translated subtitles in English) – this is a great shiur from R’ Ofer Erez on the connection between Purim, and understanding that we are really nothing, and it’s all God:

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Here in Jerusalem, we have Purim Meshulash – a triangulated Purim, spread over three days.

That means we hear the Megillah tonight and tomorrow morning, same as everyone else, but then we have the seuda and do the other mitzvot of Purim on Sunday.

The other mitzvot of Purim are:

  1. The feast.
  2. Giving mishloach manot – parcels of food to at least two different people. (These days, I give two mishloach manot to people on my street – and that’s it. It’s amazing how much I enjoy that mitzvah by keeping it simple.)
  3. Machizikei HaShekel – the ‘half shekel’ payment.
  4. Matanot l’evyanim – presents for the poor – the idea is, so they can afford to actually buy food for the ‘feast’, which is why matanot l’evyanim has to be given on the day of Purim itself.

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There are different opinions on when you do this on a Purim Meshulash in Jerusalem, but most people hold that the above four mitzvoth should be done on Sunday.

If you aren’t in Jerusalem (or Shiloh, or Hevron….), then you do all those four mitzvot tomorrow, ahead of Shabbat.

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If you want a good place to give the machizikei hashekel and the matanot l’evyanim, I highly recommend the Rav’s Kollel Hatzot, in the Old City of Jerusalem.

According to the CHIDA, the main beneficiaries of the machizikei hashekel are meant to be ‘poor sages’ – i.e. people who are seriously committed to their Torah learning, but don’t have a lot of cash.

The Kollel Hatzot fits the bill perfectly.

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I asked my friend whose husband learns there, and gets up at midnight to do the tikkun hatzot with the rest of the guys there, to give me a list of the core Kollel, so we could get to know them a little better.

I am thinking of trying to organise some sort of ‘adopt-an-avreich’ scheme, where you can sponsor a particular avreich‘s praying and learning at the Kollel HaTzot.  I know from my own experience, that when your tzedaka starts going to really ‘good’ sources, all sorts of hashgacha pratit starts happening to clear up even intractable problems.

So, more on that soon.

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In the meantime, here’s a nice tie-in, between the tikkun hatzot, and the spiritual transformation that turns everything around – and Purim:

The turn around dafka begins at midnight.

The whole miracle of Purim begins at midnight between Esther’s first banquet and the second, when Mordechai and his talmidim are praying and crying out, all night long.

And that night salvation, came to the people of Israel.

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Bezrat Hashem, this year too, we should also have the merit of seeing that spiritual transformation occur, mamash, with our own eyes, and somehow also have the merit of being a part of it.

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Here’s how you can donate to the KOLLEL HATZOT in the Old City:

Go HERE.

Now, Shuvu Banim is not a slick ‘fundraising’ operation. So while this page is 100% secure payment, it’s in Hebrew, not English.

So, let’s bring a screenshot of the Hebrew page, and then let’s translate it into English (in  red), so you can see what you need to do:

WHAT YOU’LL SEE, IN HEBREW, with my red translation:

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Then, you can pick how you want to make the payments by clicking these buttons:

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So, donate HERE.

Every penny is going to the avreichim that learn there, (and no, I don’t work for them at all, or anyone else, and I’m not getting any kick-backs in anyway, for posting this stuff up.)

And if you want this to count for matanot l’evyanim, you have to make the donation itself either Friday (if you don’t live in Jerusalem, Shiloh or Hevron) – or Sunday, if you live somewhere that is keeping Purim Meshulash.

And may all the evil decrees finally get overturned for good this Purim, and all the evil ‘Hamans’ hung on the highest lamp-posts in the realm.

Amen.

 

 

 

 

/10 Comments/by
10 replies
    • Rivka Levy
      Rivka Levy says:

      There are different opinions, but the one I heard from my husband (and that most people appear to hold in Shuvu) is that you give the matanot l”evyanim on the same day as the ‘feast’ and the mishloach manot.

      But if you do it on Friday, it’s also OK, it’s a machloket about the preferred way of doing it, but both ways are acceptable.

      I guess the point is, to give the money specifically on Purim itself – and not before or afterwards.

      Reply
  2. האיש
    האיש says:

    THIS PURIM WE HAVE THE CHANCE TO CEASE ACTING AS JEWS AND RID OURSELVES OF OUR OWN ENEMY THE YETZER HARA AND BECOME MORE ANGELIC AND THUS USHER IN THE ACTUAL END OF THE 6000 YEAR STRANGLEHOLD IT HAS HAD ON US
    TRY IT YOU JUST MIGHT LIKE BEING AN ANGEL
    SAMECH PURIM

    Reply
    • Rivka Levy
      Rivka Levy says:

      I put the old one back up, as my friend wasn’t sure if the new one was ‘active’ yet. I’ll find out after Purim if the new link was activated, but for now the old one still works. I don’t know what SB nechamat tzion is…

      Reply
  5. doo wop rebbe
    doo wop rebbe says:

    i am as conversant with kabbala as i am with quantum physics but i maintain that donald may well be the gilul of achashverosh(observing his behavior) do you think i am on to something? (what would rav berland or your husband think?)

    Reply

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