During the winter months, this post is generally a brief summary of some of the thoughts said over by R' Frand on the parsha. As R' Frand was travelling this evening, the Thursday Night shiur was given by R' Dovid Heber. I have attempted to reproduce R' Heber's vort to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to the maggid shiur.
R' Heber quoted the Sefer V'Dibarta Bam which notes that the Rama on Shulchan Aruch begins Shivisi Hashem L'Negdi Tamid and the Rama on the last siman of Shulchan Aruch (697) which contains the laws of Purim Katan, ends with the statement - "V'Tov Lev Mishte Tamid." We see from this that the Shulchan Aruch begins with the concept that we should have yiras Shamyaim constantly and ends that we should be happy in our worship of Hashem constantly. The life of the Jew should be tamid in this line - Yiras and Ahavas Hashem.
R' Heber more fully developed this thought by explaining that a Jew has certain mitzvos that are tamid, like mezuzah or issurim such as not eating certain foods. However, there are other mitzvos that are infrequent - such as those related to the holiday. This shows that there are certain mitzvos that come once in a while to reinvigorate us, but we cannot live as Jews as once in the while observance, so we have daily mitzvos as well.
R' Heber next quoted the Chasam Sofer on Gemara Megilla 6b which discusses whether it is better to jump to do mitzvos or to wait and do them in a more honorable fashion. The question arises in the context of Purim in a leap year where we see that we could observe Purim in Adar I, but instead it is kept in Adar II -- so that the redemption of Purim will be close to the redemption from Egypt which is celebrated on Pesach. The Chasam Sofer explains that even though Purim is celebrated in Adar II, there is a jumping to do the mitzva in Adar I as we do not have fasts or eulogies on Purim Katan.
R' Heber then quoted the Arguas HaBosem who asks - how is this keeping the miracle and observance of Purim? All we are doing is refraining from fasts and eulogies, but there is little to differentiate it from the day before when we also did not fast or have a eulogy, although the day itself was not anything special.
The Arugas HaBosem answers by noting that there is a minhag to have a little extra in our meal on Purim Katan and we see this in the language of the Rama who says eat the extra food and "Tov Lev Mishte Tamid." A Jew is happy all the time, so what is done on Purim Katan? The extra is a little extra food which is consumed to celebrate Purim Katan.
R' Heber then tied this into this week's pasha through a vort from R' Mordechai Rogoff (sp?). The Torah notes that the luchos were written the same on each side (mizeh u'mizeh haim kesuvim) - this teaches that a Jew must be the same in the house and on the street. The person who is careful to keep kosher at home must carefully keep kosher outside. And the person who makes sure to have a proper self image outside of the home should not disregard his obligations to do mitzvos when he is home and he thinks that no one is looking.
R' Heber also tied this to the megillah where Esther says to Mordechai "Ladas Mazeh V'al Mazeh" - Esther says to Mordechai that inwardly the Jews were keeping the mitzvos, but when they went out they were compromising their religion to impress the Persians, by taking part in Achasveros' feast.
The Megillah closes with the phrase that the Jews had Orah Simcha Sasson V'Yikar - the gemara learns that the mitzvos including bris millah and tefillin were kept. These were mitzvos that were very private and unseen (millah) and very public (tefillin). The Jews were saved based on mitzvos that were done publicly and privately.
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