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A collection of shiurim by Rav Shlomo Katz on the topic of the month of Adar and the holiday of Purim.
ברכנו אבינו כולנו כאחד, Kulanu Ke'echad, Kulanu Ke'echad, Be'or Panecha.
ברכנו אבינו כולנו כאחד, Kulanu Ke'echad, Kulanu Ke'echad, Be'or Panecha.
ברכנו אבינו כולנו כאחד, Kulanu Ke'echad, Kulanu Ke'echad, Be'or Panecha.
ברכנו אבינו כולנו כאחד, Kulanu Ke'echad, Kulanu Ke'echad, Be'or Panecha.
ברכנו אבינו כולנו כאחד, Kulanu Ke'echad, Kulanu Ke'echad, Be'or Panecha. Tonight, we're going to be davening, continue to daven for Kvod Shamayim, for the honor of Hashem to reign all over the world. That's our tefillah, Kevodo Malei Olam. Kevodo Malei Olam, Kevodo Malei Olam, Kevodo Malei Olam, משרתיו שואלים זה לזה.
Sing with me, Ayeh Mekom Kevodo, Ayeh Mekom Kevodo, Ayeh Mekom Kevodo, Ayeh Mekom Kevodo. Kevodo Malei Olam, Kevodo Malei Olam, Kevodo Malei Olam, משרתיו שואלים זה לזה. Ai ai ai ai ai ai ai ai Ayeh makom kevodo. Ai ai ai ai ai ai ai ai Ayeh makom kevodo.
Ai ai ai ai ai ai ai ai Ayeh makom kevodo. Oi ai ai ai ai ai ai ai Ayeh makom kevodo. Ai ai ai ai ai ai ai ai Ayeh makom kevodo. Ai ai ai ai ai ai ai ai Ayeh makom kevodo.
Ai ai ai ai ai ai ai ai Ayeh makom kevodo. We'll sing another one in a little bit. Thank you so much for joining us here, and apologies for the late start, but as many of you that are living here know, we had to rush back into the safe rooms and as much time as Hashem gives us right now—it's true about anything in life, but definitely tonight. So first of all, sending loads of love, just love.
One of the most difficult things in these times that we've—it's not the first time we're in this, but this time you can feel it stronger than ever, at least this is my experience, is that not being able to mamash be together like a roaring championship team of lions is very difficult. So it's just, at least now we have a bunch of chevra with us now, and thank Hashem for this opportunity. I also want to apologize, I have not been able to get back to a lot of the different questions and all different sorts of not requests, but obviously there's so much going on, but hopefully by Purim we'll try to get back to as many as possible. So b'ezrat Hashem, we're on our way, we're doing it.
I hope that everyone here is definitely under the—hopefully you all understand that if you're feeling funky, that means you're in the parsha. I was sitting with a—I think it was a chatan and kallah a little while ago—and I was saying to them that you know you're not supposed to know how to do something you never did before. So it's the same thing right now is that you're not supposed to know exactly how to feel and how to act when you're at the point in Jewish history, present and future, that is the game changer—how are you supposed to know? We haven't been here before, not like this. And that's exactly what I wanted to speak about is exactly where are we now, where are we right now? You know, Reb Nosson of Breslov had shared that thirty days before Purim he would scream the following statement, he would scream the following tfillah: הצילני נא מקליפת המן עמלק וזכני לקדושת מרדכי ואסתר.
Save me from this klipa, from this horrible thick layer of illusion, which is what I want to call that tonight, what a klipa is—save me from this thick klipa of illusion, of impure, of impure illusion called Haman Amalek, and I should merit the holiness of Mordechai and Esther. What is that exactly? What does that exactly mean? So I don't know what it exactly means, but for a few minutes—it's not time for drashas tonight—for a few minutes we're going to give it our best shot. You know, when we look—and it's such a privilege learning these words with you tonight—erev Ta'anis Esther and 24 hours away from the awesome, awesome, epic, most powerful night, 24 hours of the year, of Purim, really 48 hours, to share these words tonight is very, very special. So let's—for I know there's so much going on, and I'm talking to myself also.
So let's try to go pnima, try to go inside so we could fight our war to the best of our ability. When you look at what's happening in the world, on the one hand this klipa called the head of the snake, Khamenei yemach shemo vezichro together with a bunch of his chevra are wiped out, boom, in the beginning of Shabbat Zachor. And yet we all know in our hearts there's still something in the air besides obviously the missiles that keep on coming. There's something still there and that's exactly what happens in the Megilla.
Because even once Haman and his children were killed, Esther Hamalka isn't finished. And Esther Hamalka, Queen Esther, comes to the king and she says, "Okay, listen, now, now we need a nitzachon muchlat, now we actually need a total victory," which is a word that's been so loosely used here in Eretz Yisrael the last two and a half years. What is Esther, what is Queen Esther's total victory? It's not just Haman getting killed, it's not just Khamenei getting killed, it's not just all these reshaim being wiped off the face of the earth, but they put something in the air and that's called machshevet Haman. It says after Haman's killed, Esther comes to Achashverosh and says, "Listen, our story isn't over.
Our story is needing the machsheva of Haman to be removed." That's what Esther Hamalka says: we need the thought of Haman to be removed, meaning in the pshat, like how we learn it in the Megilla, is also his decree that needs to be removed from the decree book that was still hanging over, over Am Yisrael. But today also, it's like miracles upon miracles together with crazy, crazy pain like what happened today in Beit Shemesh. So we have all that, but it's also this מחשבת המן בן המדתא האגגי. The thought of Haman needs to be removed.
So what does this mean? What is the thought of Haman that needs to be removed? What is Esther asking the king? What are you and I asking Hashem tonight after such an amazing initial impact? What are we asking for? Are we just asking that all those that shoot missiles stop shooting missiles? It can't just be that. It's got to be that as well but obviously through the kedusha of tonight and tomorrow's Ta'anit, tomorrow's fast, leading up into Purim, we're asking Hashem please ישיב את מחשבת בן המדתא, take away the machshava that Haman puts into the world from us. What is Haman's machshava that he puts into the world? How do we know, how do we know what Haman's machshava was? What did he think? So there's an amazing, amazing piece in the Megilla that we're going to go over really quickly. That after Haman gets prestige and he's invited to the Seuda of Esther, after so much like good things are happening to him, there's a very interesting pasuk, few psukim.
It says ויצא המן ביום ההוא שמח וטוב לב. Haman walks out, he's so happy. But something's waiting for him and it's going to drive him crazy וכראות המן את מרדכי בשער המלך ולא קם ולא זע ממנו. He sees that Mordechai is not impressed with the good things that are happening to Haman because he's not bowing down to him.
The Megilla says וימלא המן על מרדכי חמה, the Megilla says וימלא המן על מרדכי חמה wrath. He goes crazy. And then we see that something was driving him crazy. He goes and he gathers all his family and he wants to tell them something.
And what does he tell? Vayisaper lahem Haman, Haman tells his family kvod oshro. Do you know what people think of me? That's what Haman talks about. Do you know what people think of me now? Finally. There's one guy drives me crazy, but you know Esther Hamalka thinks I'm amazing, Achashverosh of course thinks I'm amazing, everyone thinks I'm so amazing.
And this is machshevet Haman. The thoughts of Haman is: what do people care? What do people think about me? We speak about this all the time. The avoda zara that we've been stricken with in this last generation has been the avoda zara of political correctness. It's a foreign idol that we worship.
All of us as a nation, Am Yisrael, Am Yisrael has one question they need to be asking, ayei mekom kvodo, not ayei mekom kvodi. Haman put something into the air of the way that he carried himself. What do people think of me? He comes on and he says, "Look what I did. Look how many people love me." He has to give this whole gesheft, "Look what people think about me.
What do people say about me?" Esther HaMalka comes to Achashverosh at the end of the story and she says, "Listen, you got to remove the machshava." And obviously she's coming to HaMelech, she's coming to the King, and she is saying to the King, "Master of the world, thank you for everything you've done until now. Thank you for the miracles of the venahafoch hu of people that were sitting on us like tyrants, mamash tyrants that didn't stop torturing us both psychologically and physically for so many years. And this Haman, Khamenei, all his chevra, ויתלו אותו ואת בניו על העץ with the ptzatza, with the bombs, whatever's happened to them. And be'ezrat Hashem, as we're speaking right now, Hashem should give koach to all the forces of light that are fighting against evil, no matter how many times we have to keep on running back into the bomb shelter, even if it happens in a minute or not, doesn't matter, we're here forever.
Am netzach. Please may they all be wiped out, but in the same breath, השבת מחשבת המן בן המדתא. Remove Haman's way of thinking in the world. You know in the davening that we say on Purim we also have this very interesting tefillah that we say, וקלקלת את מחשבתו והשבת לו גמולו בראשו.
Hashem Yitbarach, you didn't just kill him, וקלקלת את מחשבתו. The end of the story of Purim is such a simcha because a free person is happy. And on Purim we're on the verge of tasting eternal freedom. It's the preparation for Pesach where we physically become free, but we become so tuned in with what real freedom is which brings us real happiness.
And real freedom is when machshavas Haman is removed from me, meaning when I live a life that I love people but I don't love them in a way that I care so much what they think about me to dictate my love for them. This is a teaching we've said over and over again, it's rooted in our DNA. Chazal say about Avraham Avinu, echad haya Avraham. And Rabbi Nachman has his famous teaching which connects the first piece and the second piece of Likutey Moharan, echad haya Avraham.
And over there in the teachings of the Tzaddik in Likutey Moharan, Rabbi Nachman zechuto yagen aleinu, may his merit protect us, ken yehi ratzon. He explains that the true nature of someone who really is a free person is that they love people enough to not care what people think of them, meaning that doesn't dictate the love. Us too, Am Yisrael. We've tried to appease the world.
We've tried to appease the world in so many different ways and quite often it was with good positive thoughts, meaning this is darchei shalom, ways of peace, we're not here to agitate, we're here to just bring shalom to the world, but the moment that we try to get the world to like us for the sake of liking us, that's מחשבת המן בן המדתא. That is the thought that Esther HaMalka says without that being removed, Purim can't really be celebrated the way that it needs to be celebrated. Mordechai HaYehudi had this in him, he never tried to appease anyone, machshavat Haman never went into Mordechai ever.
מרדכי לא יכרע ולא ישתחוה.
So we say cursed is Haman and blessed is Mordechai. And you all know the famous gematria that arur Haman, cursed is Haman, is the numerical value equals 502, which is exactly the same gematria for the words baruch Mordechai, blessed is Mordechai. And I learned from Mori VeRabbi Rabbi Ginsburgh shlita that there's another very important gematria with the number 502. There are probably many, many others, but this one really...
What do I need in order to really remove מחשבת המן בן המדתא? What do I need in order to have the end of the original Purim story take care in my life as a people and as an individual? I need to know that the one thing and only thing that when I daven for, the answer is always yes, is what I need today as my weapon. As we learned so many times, there are many things we pray for and the answer is not always yes. But there's only one thing that when I pray for it, the answer is always always always yes and it's brought down in the sefarim that this thing is the is you could check, it's the only thing that whenever a person has asked for it, this is the only thing that that they've always been granted a yes. There are a lot of things we pray for, like show me the money, not everyone gets that.
Or that girl, or that house, we don't always get that. But there's one thing that whenever we ask for it, we always always get it. And when I ask the Master of the World to give me faith, levakesh emuna, Hashem always says yes, there's no reality where Hashem says listen, it's not good for you. But what stops us from asking for emuna? And tonight we have to we have to, I'm sounding like a strict Rosh Yeshiva.
You don't have to do anything. I'm just offering some of my heart right now. You don't have to do anything. All we all we're able to ask for tonight is emuna peshuta.
Please Hashem, keep the miracles these beyond these world miracles taking place. May they continue to prevail over Am Yisrael. And may we be all of us be safe and may we put an end to this evil in the world and be and have all the gratitude and thanks to the nations of the world who are choosing to be on the right side right now. Not because we want them to like us, but because they're choosing some of them are choosing a shtickel truth.
Chevre. Emuna peshuta, simple faith, is the same gematria is 502. It's the same gematria as arur Haman and Baruch Mordechai. This is the pnimiyus of Megillat Esther.
Pnimiyus of Megillat Esther is emuna peshuta. That is how we counter machshevet Haman. And Esther doesn't let us leave. She comes to the King to ask for that.
She comes to the King at the end of the Megilla asking for that, saying you definitely flipped over everything and you killed all these guys Ribbono Shel Olam, it's unbelievable that Shabbat Zakhor was only yesterday morning, which is pretty crazy. It was only yesterday that this whole thing began. And in the last 72 hours, even less, what am I talking about, even less than 48 hours. In the last 30 hours, what's changed, what's shifted in the world are things we still have no kelim for.
But all we're asking for now is that we should there should be a metziut, a reality of arur Haman, Baruch Mordechai through emuna peshuta. So we come back to the King and it doesn't matter how holy we've been, it doesn't matter how how great we've been or all we have is right now. We have to machshevet Haman is also calculating how much people will like me. And we do that with God also, calculating how much God likes us or is not happy with us.
That's all the kelipa of Haman Amalek that we've got to be once and for ever just saved from, saved from. So we sing like with Esther Hamalka coming and she's saying all I know right now is I have to show up. I have to show up before you Ribbono Shel Olam. So I bless us all to have enough koach to ask Hashem for emuna peshuta.
And that's the way to come before the King. avo el hamelech avo el hamelech avo el hamelech hamelech avo el hamelech avo el hamelech avo el hamelech uv ובכן אבוא אל המלך, avo el hamelech, avo el hamelech.
ובכן אבוא אל המלך, avo el hamelech, avo el hamelech.
ובכן אבוא אל המלך, avo el hamelech, avo el hamelech.
ובכן אבוא אל המלך, avo el hamelech, avo el hamelech. avo el hamelech, avo el hamelech, אבוא אל המלך המלך. avo el hamelech, avo el hamelech, אבוא אל המלך המלך. avo el hamelech, avo el hamelech, אבוא אל המלך המלך.
avo el hamelech, avo el hamelech, אבוא אל המלך המלך.
ובכן אבוא אל המלך, avo el hamelech, avo el hamelech.
ובכן אבוא אל המלך, avo el hamelech, avo el hamelech. Friends, I have a lot of very special inspirational people in my life, but the ones that have been most impactful on me have been the ones that have focused me and guided me towards one word, vision, vision.
Without vision we have nothing. So I just want to give us a blessing that when we ask Hashem for emuna pshuta for simple faith, what we're really saying is God give me a little bit of a glimpse, give me a vision of what the world could look like, what my world could look like, not in 20 years from now, but right now. Vision for right now. What does it look like when I come before You Master of the world and I am in tune with each part of myself and it's all in unison to receive the proper vision of what Your dreams are for me? Emuna pshuta is that I believe that Hashem has dreams for me, not just that things end up being beautiful, but that I'm part of making it more beautiful every second as we go.
Just like you've all showed me tonight and many, many, many, many, many other times. I give us a bracha for a Purim of vision like never before, to come before the king, to ask for simple faith, and to experience a world of Arur Haman, cursed is that train of thought that makes me think all the time of what do people think of me, and live a life of Ish Yehudi, of Mordechai, of Baruch Mordechai.
איש יהודי היה בשושן הבירה, איש יהודי היה בשושן הבירה, איש יהודי היה בשושן הבירה ושמו מרדכי.
בן יאיר בן שמעי בן קיש איש ימיני, בן יאיר בן שמעי ושמו מרדכי.
איש יהודי היה בשושן הבירה, איש יהודי היה בשושן הבירה, איש יהודי היה בשושן הבירה ושמו מרדכי. Chevre, I also wanted to just dedicate איש יהודי היה בשושן הבירה איש יהודי היה בשושן הבירה u'shemo Mordechai. Chevre, I also wanted to just dedicate every word we said right now and every kavana of the heart to my precious new niece. Usually I have the opportunity to learn with the chevre live every day, sometimes a few times a day, and there's always dedications.
But my dear brother and his sister-in-law Malki, Eitan and Malki Katz out in Far Rockaway, had their precious ninth child last week right before Shabbos, and they named her Shabbos morning. They named her Esther. Nu? They named her Esther. There's an Esther Katz now in the world.
There's an Esther that's going to come be'ezrat Hashem in shanoh she'kulo. She's going to grow up be'ezrat Hashem in a home, for sure she is, where they know what to ask for. They know to ask for emuna peshuta. In her zchus, in her, in the merit of her light that she's already brought into this world, I give us a bracha to go into this Purim with a very important task.
You had homework for tonight's session. Sorry, should've warned you. Should've sent that out in the mailer. But the request for homework tonight is you're going to turn this off right now be'ezrat Hashem.
You're going to turn this off. Hopefully a lot was turned on, but at least the device you'll turn off for a bit. And for ten seconds, I want you to scream הצילני מקליפת המן עמלק וזכני לקדושת אסתר ומרדכי. And for ten minutes, you will have the strongest hisbodedus session you've ever had in your life.
There's so much bubbling in the heart and the mind these days. If there was ever a time to begin to practice hisbodedus, which means speaking to the creator of the universe in your own language, could there be a better time than right now, than tonight? Every moment of hisbodedus is a Arur Haman moment, 502, gematria 502. Every moment of hisbodedus of talking to Hashem in your own language is a Baruch Mordechai, gematria 502. And every single moment of talking to Hashem in your own language without any busha, without any shame, but with the one request of master of the world, give me simple faith, emuna peshuta, gematria 502.
Before you realize it, hisbodedus produced for you and for me emuna peshuta. 'Cause if I didn't have simple faith, I wouldn't be some kind of a meshugener that's talking to a wall in my own language. It's a trick. It's a hack.
The whole thing's a hack. Chevre, we're almost there. We're almost there. v'yeimar letzrosenu dai.
There's a lev chadash being implanted right now, open heart surgery within the whole am this Purim like never ever ever before. Please Hakadosh Baruch Hu, give us the strength to believe in this vision that we could be people that if you ask us what do you do for a living, well, for a living, to be alive, I ask God for emuna peshuta. For money, it's a bunch of different things that I do. But for a living, I'm a yid that's asking, I am אמן כן יהי רצון.
Please God, all this all the judgments will be sweetened in their source and I hope and pray that like we've done for so many years, we'll have a Purim like never before, hopefully in person. Hashem can do anything. Hopefully together. But it should be a Purim that maybe even I dare say puts all other Purims to shame, which is a tall order 'cause we've had some gevalt Purims.
But one that really puts it all to shame. With more love than I could ever express verbally or visually. All my love and koach and chizuk and we're all in this together. Be'ahava.