Know someone who would love this shiur?
The shiur in English
The Yanuka’s own words in this shiur, translated into English by Lehallel · 1,782 words · 9:06. Press a time to hear it said.
0:00 The ten sons of Haman are said in one breath. Why? Since the day the Beis HaMikdash, the Holy Temple, was destroyed. In Tractate Sotah, page 49, the Sages say: Since the day our Temple and our glory was destroyed, there is no day without a curse greater than the one before it. Every day the curse is greater. And since the Temple was destroyed, there is no spirit in the world, no air in the world.
0:25 It is shortness of breath, hard work. No one can serve Hashem as he should, because all people's spirit is a spirit that all it wants is only the world and everything in the world. They do not think about Hashem. They do not think about His House. And the Beis HaMikdash is the place that is the purpose of everything, which is what the Holy One, blessed be He, wants built every day.
0:51 Even Purim now - there is the joy of Purim in Heaven. And especially today, which is the Brit Yitzchak of Moshe Rabbeinu. Moshe Rabbeinu was born on the seventh of Adar. Now, this night is the Brit Yitzchak night of Moshe Rabbeinu. Tomorrow is Moshe's circumcision. Tomorrow. Therefore Purim is also the covenant of Moshe Rabbeinu. There is a very great merit in this. It is the bringing of Moshe Rabbeinu into the realm of holiness. And Moshe Rabbeinu, in effect, ascends and is included in the highest place.
1:18 It is the highest day. Purim is a level that cannot be described or imagined. It is no accident that Moshe Rabbeinu's circumcision day falls out then. The level of Moshe Rabbeinu. All this immense light is poured out specifically on Purim. Purim is the day on which one can also act upon the Temple, also act upon Mordechai the Jew and Queen Esther. One can ask for the entire purpose. But simply because it is such a high day, the evil inclination twists it, so that people will forget and be busy with wine, and be busy with lighthearted talk, or with laughter.
1:50 But within this there must be "and rejoice with trembling." That within all this there should be some reflection, to think about Hashem, blessed be He. As it says in Tractate Chullin, page 139, side b: Where is Esther in the Torah? "And I will surely hide My face." From here people dress up in costumes. And all the costumes that people wear are to show the concealment that the Holy One, blessed be He, hides His face from us, makes a concealment for us.
2:14 The Sages say in Tractate Megillah, page 16, side b, that Haman the wicked was a barber for twenty-two years in Kfar Kartzum. Also in page 15, side b, in Tractate Megillah, it is written that he had two hundred and eight sons. In the Yalkut Shimoni, remez 1045, it is written that his ten sons advised to destroy the Beis HaMikdash. Because of this they wrote the letter of accusation to destroy the Beis HaMikdash.
Read the whole shiur in English (14 more parts)
2:40 And because of this we are in exile to this day, and we mention them in one breath. Why do we mention them in one breath? To remember that in one moment the Beis HaMikdash was taken from us. And only one mistake about the Beis HaMikdash, only one piece of advice from a bad person, from a wicked man, can distance a person to the depth of the great abyss. This is Purim. Purim is only about advice, that a person should remember: if you are given good advice, you will merit the purpose; if you are given bad advice and you accept it, you will reach a downfall after downfall, from which you will not be able to get out.
3:14 People belittle advice more than anything, and do not know at all how extremely grave the matter is, because you are receiving advice. And the ten sons of Haman gave advice to destroy the Beis HaMikdash. But they did not just give advice to destroy the Beis HaMikdash like that. It was all in wisdom, it was all a scheme. It was all with deliberation, it was all through a feast, through a letter, like Haman.
3:39 To understand how advice is the most important thing there is, that if a person has good advice that directs him and gives him a correct mind, which is the knowledge of our Torah, he can say that for this we merited to arrive. Because what we do on Purim, drinking the wine, is to correct the mind, and when we correct the mind, we merit to correct the advice. We say, "and correct us with good counsel from before You." Because wine repairs the blemish of the covenant, and faulty advice is a blemish of the covenant.
4:08 And when a person drinks wine on Purim and is joyful on Purim, he repairs the blemish of the covenant, he repairs his mochin, the powers of his mind, which all year long were fallen, whether through a blemish of thought, bad and forbidden thoughts, things that are not good. But on Purim he raises his mind. His mind merits repair. He merits to repair his mind. He merits to repair his mochin.
4:33 And all of it through simple acts of joy. And this we merit only on Purim. Therefore, for this reason, let us remember to understand how important good advice is. If you are given good advice, you will merit everything. If you are given bad advice, even if you have everything, in the end you will have nothing. And this was exactly the story of the Megillah. The story of the Megillah is to see how Haman tries to put bad advice into the heart of Achashverosh and into the heart of all the Jews, bad advice.
5:06 And the Holy One, blessed be He, turns everything around so that his bad advice will be nullified. Therefore they hanged him on the tree, because the tree is advice. It is all a repair of the advice. Also at the beginning, in the sin of Adam HaRishon in Bereishis, with Chava and the serpent, that is the advice. It is all advice. Therefore on Purim we repair the advice, we repair the mind, we repair the mochin of a person.
5:31 For this we need to merit to receive good advice, a repaired one, and to pray for this all the time, that the Holy One, blessed be He, should teach us the way of truth and good and correct advice. And one who merits good, repaired advice, even if he has nothing, will reach everything. And one who has everything, but has no good advice, will surely receive bad advice, and when he receives bad advice, he will have nothing.
5:56 For Haman was, in any case, great, and he had great wealth, and when he came to Achashverosh he had great honor. But his household and Zeresh his wife brought him bad advice, and the bad advice they gave him brought him to this: that in the end they hanged him and his sons on the tree. That is to say, the whole story of the Megillah is to teach us how important advice is, that even if a person is in such a low place and so degraded, and he tries to rise and elevate himself from the place where he is, he must remember, all he needs is good advice.
6:29 When he is given only good advice, if he is given good advice, he will rise from there. If they had advised him: have a good attitude, have a good eye, stop being jealous, be happy with what you have, do not be jealous of Mordechai, and they tried to calm him, and instead they only advised him and stirred him up, so that he would not be happy in his place, in his portion, and would be broken over what he has, and would not be happy in all of this.
6:54 So in the end you already know the rest. So therefore the best thing, and the greatest level and joy that a person can merit through it, is that a person should merit good advice. This we pray every day in the prayer: "and correct us with good counsel from before You." And this is the greatest and loftiest thing that one can merit. And when we merit good advice, then the Holy One, blessed be He, will also send us Mashiach Tzidkeinu, who will repair our mochin for us, and we will merit to be redeemed with an outstretched arm, and we will merit the building of the Beis HaMikdash, and the Holy One, blessed be He, will save all the Jewish people.
7:31 Rabbi Tzvi Hirsh of Zidichov, author of Beis HaZohar, his merit should protect us, used to say that one who drinks wine on Purim has a great merit in Heaven, as if he had fasted from Shabbos to Shabbos. But of course, one who drinks wine with expanded mochin, an expanded mind. Once they said to the Chozeh of Lublin, his merit should protect us: How can this thing make such a great effect, that at the time they drink the wine all the sins of the Jewish people are forgiven?
8:00 So the Chozeh of Lublin said that already in the hint of saying "l'chaim" there is the hint that the Holy One, blessed be He, forgives the Jewish people for their sins: "l'chaim" are the letters of "mechal," forgives. So Rabbi Tzvi of Ropshitz said to him: What do you do with the two yuds? It has two more yuds. So he said to him, these yuds are when the Jews are in unity and they drink together, then the Holy One, blessed be He, forgives. But if one drinks the wine alone, He does not forgive him.
8:26 One needs to drink the wine together, the feast. So everything that is done on Purim in unity, together, the Megillah, wine, the meal, everything, brings us great and immense abundance for all the blessings. And the main thing is that there should be true unity in the heart of each one of us, and we will merit, in its merit and through it, to be redeemed with an outstretched arm, which is the thing that the Holy One, blessed be He, wants to do with us, and to redeem us, and to bring us to the highest level there is.
8:57 And may we merit to be redeemed, for all that we do now in exile is nothing compared to that moment when we merit to be redeemed with an outstretched arm.
Get the week’s best, by email
One email a week — a handful of shiurim and music. No account needed.
Know a family who would use this? Give a Lehallel membership.