Thursday, March 9, 2017

Thursday's Purim Tidbits

The following is a brief summary of some of the thoughts said over by R' Frand in his shiur this evening. With Purim around the corner, both the halacha and post halacha sections were about Purim. I have attempted to reproduce the post halacha 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 R' Frand.

R' Frand mentioned that although you don't need to cross the ocean to learn Torah, he was very impressed with a vort he read in a journal published in England in connection with what I believe was a kollel dinner. (I am a little fuzzy on the details of the event). The vort was written by R' Aryeh Masher (sp?) on Manchester and discusses the piyut Shoshanas Ya'akov which is said after the Megillah is read.

R' Frand said that the statement "shekol koivecha lo yevoshu" - that all who have faith in You will not be humiliated and will not come out wanting --this he said is the main message of the megillah.

R' Frand remarked that it is not so simple to see how the Jews put their faith in Hashem. One could say that after Haman's decree came out the Jews fasted and went into mourning and that this was a show of faith in Hashem. But R' Masher stated that it is more pronounced in the megillah. He noted that earlier in the megillah, Esther is chosen to be the Queen, although she was not the prettiest. But once this happened, the Jews did not say --OK, we have one in the palace, we will be saved. But the Jews did not rely on this and Mordechai in particular says something to Esther which demonstrates that he is putting his faith in Hashem.

When Mordechai comes to Esther and tells her to go to the king, she is hesitant as even she could not visit the king without permission. When says this to Mordechai, he does not respond with the statememt "you are our only hope --you have to do this and without this we will all be destroyed." But Mordechai did not push the proverbial panic button. Instead, Mordechai tells her "if you don't go, the Jews will be saved from another source." Mordechai in effect is saying, if you don't want to be the one that saves the Jews, there will be another way.

R' Frand said that this is the lesson of "shekol koivecha."

R' Frand said that this applies to our every day life as well. A business opportunity may come your way and you feel that "this is it." This will make your business successful and it must go forward. But if a person has faith in Hashem, he will know that Hashem sets his income from Rosh Hashanah and whatever happens with this opportunity, the money you are supposed to have will come to you.

R' Frand said that R' Masher tied it into the statement in davening - "baruch hagever asher yivtach b'Hashem, v'haya Hashem mivtacho" --blessed is the man who puts his faith in Hashem and Hashem will be his faith. The statement appears redundant. But the Malbim explains that the first part of the statement is the blessing to the person who believes that Hashem will save him, but the second is praise to the belief that the person has that Hashem will find the means to save him and its up to Hashem to determine how it will happen.

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