The Yanuka Rav Shlomo Yehuda-האור הגנוז במגילת אסתר הגאון הינוקא בשיעור הכנה לפורים

3:05 Whatever each one grasps in the world, he grasps according to what he is able. But that doesn't mean that what he grasped is the right thing. It could be that what he grasps after 70 years, 80 years, however much he grasps — maybe he will grasp nothing. He only thinks that he grasped. When we speak about times, about a whole lifetime — every person, what he grasps is usually revealed things; but the hidden secret cannot be grasped.

3:39 The Megillah is entirely the hidden secret. The whole Megillah itself, from the beginning of the Megillah to the end of the Megillah — there is nothing in it that is revealed. It is all hidden away. On the plain level we see that Hashem's Name is not in it. The Name Havayah, blessed be He, does not appear — it does not appear in the Megillah. The Ibn Ezra explains, in his commentary on the Megillah — he writes simply that the Megillah was written for every nation, in every language.

4:10 So he was afraid that now the nations of the world would come, write out the Megillah, each one translating the Megillah, and when they reached the Name of Hashem, blessed be He, they would turn it into the name of an idol. And then, Heaven forbid, instead of there being a miracle of rescue from Hashem's Name, they would make, Heaven forbid, idolatry in place of Hashem's Name. So Mordechai and Esther said: We will not write Hashem's Name in the Megillah, and Hashem's Name is there in the hidden secret.

4:39 And so it turns out that the whole Megillah is Hashem's Name — only in the hidden secret. That is, there is no revelation of Hashem's Name, but Hashem's Name is concealed inside the Megillah. Now, whoever was wise and great and understanding would know that inside the Megillah there is indeed a Name of Hashem that is truly out in the open — I'm not speaking of the first letters of words, or the last letters of words, and so on.

5:04 There are the first letters of words, and there is a Name of Hashem that is out in the open. When Hashem's Name appears in the open inside the Megillah, that is called the hidden secret, which is the aspect of "Mashiach was born on Tishah B'Av." The difference between Mashiach being born on Tishah B'Av and Mashiach being born on Yom Kippur, or Pesach, or the other times — put simply: because on Yom Kippur, in effect, the Holy One, blessed be He, forgives the Jewish people — out of forgiveness; on Pesach the Jewish people go out of Egypt — out of redemption; Chanukah — miracles and wonders, the overturning of the order of nature; and the Holy One, blessed be He, arranges it from Heaven and brings forth for them the King Mashiach on Tishah B'Av.

5:46 The reason for the birth of the King Mashiach on Tishah B'Av is that one who sets out on a journey must be with his wife. The Holy One, blessed be He — when the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash, the Holy Temple, took place, the Shechinah was in exile, the Shechinah in exile. In effect, Mashiach is the birth — that the Holy One, blessed be He, brought down the soul of Mashiach in the way of "one who sets out on a journey must be with his wife." Setting out on a journey: now the Shechinah is going into exile, a very long exile, so He must be with His wife. So what will be?

6:14 What will be? The time of the exile begins from Tishah B'Av. From Tishah B'Av the whole exile begins, the Jewish people are in sorrow — and the main destruction was on the tenth. The burning — the beginning, Tishah B'Av, that was on the ninth, of the destruction, which begins; and the burning, the main burning, was on the tenth. But the ninth — all that we go by, we go by the sorrow, we go by the beginning. Everything starts from the beginning, which was the eve of Tishah B'Av, this sorrow, when we begin to fast.

6:43 All day long you see them — no one fasts on the tenth, everyone begins on Tishah B'Av. Tishah B'Av is the revelation of the birth of Mashiach. The birth of Mashiach — Mashiach who is born on Tishah B'Av, born on the day of Tishah B'Av — and then, in effect, this is called new mochin, a new mind. New mochin — then a person's intellect begins, begins to lift up, to rise, to be elevated, and elevated again.

7:08 The thing about Tishah B'Av is that it's forbidden to learn Torah. Tishah B'Av and Purim — between them there is — this one is of one aspect, and that one of a completely different aspect. This is the opposite, and that is the complete opposite. What is the opposite of Purim? Tishah B'Av. Because on Purim we are commanded about joy. One has to be in joy the whole time. And Tishah B'Av is the opposite: we are forbidden to learn Torah.

7:33 One cannot learn Torah; on the contrary, one needs a greatly broken heart on Tishah B'Av, because it is the destruction of our Holy Temple and our glory, and the exile of Israel. Whereas the day of Purim is the joy of the Jewish people and the rescue of all the souls of Israel together — that is the main redemption. Therefore the Kaddish — the Kaddish; when we say Kaddish, what do we say? "Yisgadal v'yiskadash" — we exalt the Name of the Holy One, blessed be He. The Kaddish, in effect, has an aspect in which it is hidden.

7:59 The Kaddish — the angels do not know it. In Tosafos, in Tractate Berachos, page 3a — we see in Tosafos, we see the response to Kaddish, which the Men of the Great Assembly instituted; as the Aruch HaShulchan writes in siman 56, se'if 1, that the Men of the Great Assembly instituted it. He brings several beautiful reasons that are very much worth knowing in general, about the saying of Kaddish as a whole. One: we say it over the exile of Israel, that the Jewish people go out; one, over the destruction of the Temple, that we, the Jewish people, were also exiled from our land; and over the long exile that goes on and on, and in particular over the destruction of the homes that there is, the destruction of all the souls — everyone going down from one fall to the next,

8:38 and sorrow comes upon the Jewish people. All the causes of the sorrow and the destruction — they are the foundation of saying Kaddish; we say Kaddish in order to magnify and sanctify the Name of the Holy One, blessed be He, in the world. When I want to magnify and sanctify the Name of Hashem, blessed be He, in the world, my only way to do it is through Kaddish, because I am turning to Him, blessed be He. The angels won't understand my saying of Kaddish; the angels won't understand, but the Holy One, blessed be He, understands it. That means the Kaddish has the hidden secret in it.

9:08 Because the only One who can understand the Kaddish is the Holy One, blessed be He. In the Kaddish there is concealment — no open revelation of the Name appears in it — yet its entire essence is to magnify and sanctify Hashem's Name. The whole essence of the Kaddish — the revelation of Hashem's Name is the essence of the Kaddish. To reveal the Name of Heaven through Kaddish: a person says Kaddish and reveals Hashem's Name. By contrast, on Tishah B'Av, when we are forbidden to learn Torah and there is great sorrow, because now it is the Shechinah in exile, and there is sorrow and the destruction of the Temple, when nothing shines and there is no light shining in this time of the destruction, and it is a great sorrow for the Holy One, blessed be He, and the holy Shechinah; everyone is in sorrow, they cannot learn Torah —

9:52 this time of Tishah B'Av — precisely then Mashiach is born. "Mashiach is born on Tishah B'Av" means that an intellect is born which is a hidden intellect, which is really like Hashem's Name that is covered over in the Megillah. For Hashem's Name in the Megillah is not seen; in the Megillah one perceives no revelation of Hashem's Name, one sees nothing. And from the fact that inside the Megillah there is a Name of Hashem that is hidden, this Name of Hashem comes to be revealed through our making joy on Purim — making a feast with joy for the Jews, and everyone is glad and joyful.

10:23 As we know now — also in the second Adar — that in siman 694, in the Shulchan Aruch: if, Heaven forbid, there is some sorrow, we do not eulogize and we do not fast — in Adar II, in Adar I, in Adar II, we make no mourning on them. The reason is that there is a revelation — even when there is a passing, which is like the destruction of the Temple for each and every Jew, and because of it we say Kaddish, in order to magnify Hashem's Name — what went missing with that Jew.

10:49 But even so, in the first Adar we do not say, and do not make, any eulogy or any fast, because on Purim the matter of joy awakens in the open. This revelation goes on and continues and does not stop — it goes on and on and on and does not stop. Now, in order to take in this revelation — what is drawn down comes from Tishah B'Av.

11:13 On Tishah B'Av, in effect, Mashiach is born. The revelation — that on Tishah B'Av there is an intellect that is hidden — comes through the birth of Mashiach, for Mashiach was actually born on Tishah B'Av. And the moment Mashiach is born, that means an intellect is revealed that was hidden until now — that no one knew a salvation could be born for the Jewish people at all, on a day that everyone would put out of their minds.

11:39 That is, the day that everyone would take their minds off, which is Tishah B'Av — on it will be born the very thing that will in fact rectify all of creation. That is, on that very day and at that very time and at that very moment which is the most covered from the eyes of all created beings, which no one would think of — the Holy One, blessed be He, brings forth the King Mashiach, on Tishah B'Av. A hidden intellect, on Tishah B'Av.

12:06 And by contrast, on Purim, when we actually reach the peak of joy — it is a joy that has no end. And the Rebbe of Piaseczna, may his merit protect us, Rabbi Kalonymus — he said that just as on Yom Kippur we are commanded to keep Yom Kippur, the prohibition of eating and the prohibition of drinking — so, he says, Yom HaKippurim is "like Purim." Yom HaKippurim is k'Purim — like Purim. That is, what does it mean, Yom HaKippurim is like Purim? You know that there is a connection — Yom Kippur and Purim are the same thing.

12:37 You know this, that Yom Kippur and Purim are the same aspect. Did we once learn about this? Yom Kippur and Purim are the same aspect. Basically, there aren't many sources that Yom Kippur and Purim are the same thing — only one source for it. Yom Kippur and Purim — one source: it is in the holy Zohar, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, in the Zohar, in Tikkun 21, on page 57 — in the Tikkunei Zohar, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai says that Yom HaKippurim — Kippur and Purim — are the same aspect.

13:13 For in the future to come it will be revealed: there will be delight, as on Purim. There will be delight on Yom Kippur as on Purim: just as they delight with joy on Purim, so too there will be a revelation on Yom Kippur. So he says, "And Esther put on royalty" — it is written there in the Tikkunei Zohar — that refers to the garments of the Kohen Gadol, the garments of the Kohen Gadol. And also in the Midrash Rabbah, at the beginning of Esther, in the Midrash Rabbah it is written that Esther wore the garments of the Kohen Gadol — Vashti, excuse me, Vashti.

13:37 Vashti wore the garments of the Kohen Gadol; she adorned herself in pride and put on the clothes of the Kohen Gadol. Achashverosh used the vessels of the Kohen, and Vashti wore the garments of the Kohen Gadol. That is, on Purim we see a Tikkun — that there is a link between Purim and Kippurim, Yom Kippur and Purim. And Yom Kippur is forgiveness, pardon and atonement, and Tishah B'Av is the birth of Mashiach. This is one link, that is another link, and that is a completely different link. Now — it is Purim Katan; now, it's Purim Katan — this is called mochin d'katnus, the small state of mind.

14:05 Mochin d'katnus, which is the aspect of "this small one will become great" — that precisely when there is a leap year — which is the main miracle, as the Yerushalmi says in Tractate Megillah, chapter 1, halachah 5, that the main miracle — that the miracle of Purim was in a leap year. Now, when we make the joy now, in the first Adar, and afterwards we make the joy in the second Adar — this is preparing vessels for Adar II. Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman, the Rebbe of Piaseczna — he writes that once, on the day of Purim, he was in great sorrow; it surrounded him.

14:36 He could not rejoice because of the sorrow that was there; he had a very great sorrow. He could not be in joy — it was Purim, it was Purim, but he could not rejoice. So he said to them: I command you to be in joy. Just as on Yom Kippur eating is forbidden to everyone, so on the day of Purim sadness is forbidden to everyone, and everyone must be in joy. And everyone was in joy only because of him, from these words he told them: even when it is hard, on Purim one must overcome and be in joy with all one's strength — with all one's strength, in order to be in joy always.

15:08 So now, on Purim Katan, we only need to make some small meal — not even a small meal; if one wants, a small meal, just a little. We do it with a small feast, a little something to drink. It appears in the Rema, in siman 697, at the end — the end of the siman, where it all already comes to an end — in Orach Chaim, he writes — he brings the verse in Mishlei, chapter 15, verse 15. It says — how does the verse go? Who knows?

15:35 What does it say? Everyone fulfills this — they raise a drink today. Here is wine. Bring wine. "And one of good heart has a feast always." Bring it for a moment, we'll open it — maybe we'll make a l'chaim. L'chaim. L'chaim, l'chaim, friends — Purim — so we need to make a little joy.

16:02 Also, the fact that Vashti wore the garments of the Kohen Gadol — that too is the source for costumes. When people dress up, it comes from there. She wore the garments of the Kohen Gadol; she thought that she — she was in costume, after all. Vashti is the symbol of pride — Vashti. She is the kelipah of the gnat. It is the kelipah of the gnat: yatush, "gnat," is Vashti. But we need Sanhedrin, page 38b — the Gemara says that if a person — it's side a, it is page 38a — that if a person, Heaven forbid, sins, or becomes proud, Heaven forbid, they tell him: the gnat came before you in the work of Creation. Now, in the work of Creation they tell a person: Listen, you are proud, you think you are something? Then come and hear — a gnat came before you.

16:48 For Vashti — the Sitra Achra — there was none like her in beauty. For three years Achashverosh sits and searches, all the time, with the portrait — for one more beautiful than Vashti. He hung her portrait in the palace. Whoever came in — was she more beautiful than Vashti? He would see Vashti in front of him. It was a painting of her, after he had killed her. And whoever came in, he would look and see: like her, not like her, like her, not like her.

17:13 And in the end — until Queen Esther found favor in his eyes. There was grace, and she came in; she came in, and it was nullified. He said: Take out her picture. No need to look at her now; there is one more beautiful than her. There is more grace. So they took it out. Because Vashti, on account of her pride — all of Vashti's pride was that she drew all the nourishment of her pride from Nevuchadnetzar. Let's say it together: Blessed is He Who frees the bound.

17:38 Blessed is He Who frees the bound. Blessed is He Who frees the bound. Blessed is He Who frees the bound. Blessed is He Who frees the bound. Blessed is He Who frees the bound. Blessed is He Who frees the bound. Blessed is He Who frees the bound. Blessed is He Who frees the bound. Yosef, Yosef, Yosef, Yosef — as the Holy One, blessed be He, freed Yosef HaTzaddik from prison.

18:19 In the lifetime of Yehudah and Ephraim, may the king, the son of David, reign in Jerusalem, and may the Temple be built speedily in our days. Savri maranan. — Amen. Blessed are You, Hashem our G-d, King of the universe, Who creates the fruit of the vine. — Amen. [crowd] Whenever anything is mentioned over wine, it has a special power to endure better.

19:15 Kiddush — the Magen Avraham — it is written that the saying of Kiddush on the eve of Shabbos: one has in mind to fulfill the obligation of Kiddush at the moment of "Who sanctifies the Shabbos" — if a person has no possibility right now, he is ill. He cannot make Kiddush. He cannot eat anything. He has in mind, with the Kiddush of the tefillah, to fulfill the obligation of Kiddush, because he will not make Kiddush afterwards. But a person who is not ill must have in mind to fulfill the obligation with the Kiddush over wine — the remembrance over wine.

19:43 Because the main holiness is drawn down over the wine. The honor belongs to the wine, and in this there is a Tikkun of all the seventy years of the exile. One can rectify, and bring the Beis HaMikdash, just through drinking wine. A cup of wine with intention will bring the redemption. And Rabbi Baruch of Mezhibuzh, who once had an intention for the Kiddush — if they would bring him the wine he wanted — he had a certain wine — that's the long story, but we would finish the whole shiur on that story, so we won't tell it.

20:10 He knew how to drink the wine with intention — that whoever drinks this wine can bring Mashiach, whoever knows how to drink it. Good. If possible, like this — think along with us in thought. Now, this thought is: at that time when Mordechai and Esther were under a certain decree, all the Jews were in sorrow, and it was impossible to see what to do; no one knew what to do.

20:51 After all, every time that the Holy One, blessed be He, gives — if we look within time, now, when we exist in time and in place, a person is in a contraction of a contraction of a contraction of a contraction. He cannot manage to get out of his body, because he is in — this is the secret of the Gevuros; the body is the secret of contraction. He is all judgments; a person is all judgments, he is inside a world of judgments, and his whole body is limitation and Gevuros, all of it.

21:20 And in order to bring about the redemption of Israel, one had to act through the hidden secret, which only Mordechai could do. And Mordechai — how could he bring this about? How? Think. Only through an intellect — a hidden intellect. A hidden intellect — the meaning of a hidden intellect is to attain an intellect and a wisdom that is above the understanding of the human intellect.

21:50 That a person can rise and be elevated from a physical intellect and attain a spiritual intellect. There is a higher wisdom in everything. And the wisdom that is higher is a wisdom without prefaces. One needs no prefaces for this wisdom. Our master the Arizal explains, in Shaar Purim — in Pri Etz Chaim, in Shaar Purim, chapter 5 — that the light revealed on Purim is the highest light, more than in the whole year.

22:15 There is such a great illumination on Purim that one cannot describe or imagine the light that there is on Purim — how the Holy One, blessed be He, is revealed on Purim. This light of Purim is a light that does not exist on any festival, on any Shabbos, nor on Yamim Tovim. On Purim the greatest illumination there is, is revealed. The greatest there is — on Purim. Now we will try to explain why. There is also the Tur Bareket — the Tur Bareket by Rabbi Chaim HaKohen, a disciple of Rabbi Chaim Vital — in siman 687, section 2, he too writes such language — language that is somewhat more severe.

22:47 He writes that the light drawn down through the Megillah, when we read the Megillah on Purim — he says it is more than the light revealed through the Torah. That far. But truly, his words need a great and thorough explanation, to understand these things. The Chasam Sofer also quoted this — and on Purim he says it every year — in the Derashos Chasam Sofer, on page 37, in the derush for Purim; he writes, in the derush for Adar II, on page 164, the second column.

23:11 He writes that the light — he quotes the Tur Bareket — he brings that the light revealed on Purim, the light revealed on Purim, the light when we read the Megillah — it is revealed, in effect — it is more than the light revealed at the time we read from the Torah — the light of the Megillah reading. One really needs to explain what it means that the light revealed on Purim — how can the light revealed on Purim, when we read the Megillah, really be more than the Torah?

23:37 Can that be? The whole essence of Purim, the whole essence of Mordechai and Esther — it is all from the holy Torah. So how is it that now there is revealed — on Purim we read the Megillah, and it is more? How does that hold up? It is not so simple. So truly, the answer is very simple. On Purim, the revelation that there is on Purim is a revelation of mercy without measure. Without measure — because "whoever stretches out a hand, we give to him."

24:04 A person who is the farthest away — it is revealed in the root of the Torah, in the root of the Torah, in its root, which is the branch of Chochmah. There, in fact, on Purim, Yesod of Abba is revealed without a garment. In Kabbalah — whoever knows — Yesod of Abba without a garment is, in effect, a revelation of light without a cover, as they say. It is a spreading of light without any boundaries. This light cannot be stopped.

24:30 This light goes on spreading, so that even the farthest and the most cast away can receive illumination — which on Yom Kippur cannot be attained, except by one who fasts, who afflicts himself, and who does the service. As opposed to Purim, when "whoever stretches out, we give to him." What is "whoever stretches out," haposhet? Whoever just strips the externality off himself and wants to receive inwardness will receive at once. On Purim one can receive illumination; the farthest person in the world can receive illumination on Purim. And all the teshuvah that people receive, that they merit to receive — their illumination, they merit to receive it on Purim.

25:02 On Purim the illumination of every Jew is revealed; everyone can return. And this is what Avraham and Sarah did: they would make converts. Avraham and Sarah were able to make converts. How does Avraham Avinu make converts? I wanted you to understand what the essence of Avraham is. I don't know how we will get to that now. But remind me to speak about Avraham as well, if we manage to get there. What I am thinking is — it is something being newly revealed right now, sparkling — it is something precious. It is all sparkles, sparks.

25:35 "Lamenatze'ach." "Lamenatze'ach" in the form of the Menorah. This is the correct version, what we have. As the Maharshal wrote in Menoras Zahav, that it goes from right to left, not from left to right. From right to left is the version; it is like the Rokeach and the Maharshal. From right to left. Good. Now, every time I have a power cut.

26:07 The electricity drops. I have a small cable and the electricity is great, so it doesn't bother me. A break in the cable — the cable doesn't stop me from getting the break in the electricity. Purim. And Kippur — and now I will explain the continuation. So that you understand just the line of thought, and then it will be easier.

26:34 So where were we now — Avraham Avinu? Where were we? "Whoever stretches out a hand"; Avraham and Sarah making converts; and "whoever stretches out a hand" — yes, fine, and I will explain the meaning. Avraham Avinu is the aspect of Mordechai the Jew, and Queen Esther is the aspect of Sarah Imeinu.

26:59 How Avraham Avinu is Mordechai, and how Esther is Sarah — we will try to explain. We explained that a hidden intellect is something a person can attain that is not from the side of a person's own mind. For example, there are blessings. "Borei minei besamim," on fragrant spices — that is a blessing that is above the mind. It also has no measure of satiety; it has no after-blessing. That is "Borei minei besamim," "Borei atzei besamim" — a person has no satiety from it.

27:24 A person does not make an after-blessing on it; he is not sated by it. The mind's grasp in the blessing "Borei atzei besamim" — it is not like the blessing "Shehakol nihyeh bidvaro," or "Borei pri ha'adamah," or "Borei minei mezonos." A person is full, he's finished — can he go on? No. He doesn't want any more. Then he makes an after-blessing. With the blessing "Borei atzei besamim," with "Borei minei besamim," with "Borei isvei besamim" — with these blessings on fragrance, there is no satiety. So if there is no satiety in it, and there is enjoyment in it, there is no grasp of it; and what has no grasp is above the mind. So it turns out that the blessing on fragrance is beyond the mind, because it is not held in the mind's grasp. It is also entirely for the soul —

27:58 all fragrance is the soul. Now, Mordechai is the aspect of fragrant spices. Mordechai is spices, for it is written in Tractate Megillah, page 10b — the Gemara says: meira dachya — "Take for yourself the finest spices: mor dror, pure myrrh." Mor dror — what is that? "Take for yourself spices, mor dror" — what is this mor dror? So Onkelos translated — what did the Targum translate?

28:23 Meira dachya. Meira dachya — from here comes the name of Mordechai. For Mordechai — in Ezra, chapter 2, verse 2, Mordechai too — Mordechai is "Bilshan." "Bilshan" — the meaning is that he was at home in the seventy languages. The Mishnah, in chapter 5, mishnah 1, in Tractate Shekalim. In Tractate Shekalim it is written about Mordechai: "Pesachyah, over the bird-offerings" — he was called Pesachyah, over the bird-offerings; he, too, knew the seventy languages.

28:49 He was an appointed officer in the Temple, and he knew the whole secret of all the seventy languages — which really means: one who knows the seventy languages is one who merits the Tikkun of the covenant; he can merit the Tikkun of the mochin. One who does not know the seventy languages has, in effect, not rectified the covenant — like Yosef HaTzaddik. Yosef HaTzaddik knew the seventy languages. The point of the seventy languages is not necessarily to know seventy languages; rather, the meaning is that his mochin were above the mind — not the brain of an ordinary person, one who knows the seventy languages.

29:15 No one should think that a person who knows a few languages is something. A person who knows the seventy languages — you cannot consider his mind and our mind to be the same mind, because it is above the human intellect. So the mochin of Mordechai the Jew were above the mind, and he attained the hidden intellect, for he is called Pesachyah. He merited to attain a wisdom — no one can open this hidden secret, only Mordechai the Jew. "Bilshan" means in seventy languages: that he knew the secret of the seventy languages.

29:44 Now, because Mordechai the Jew, who was the greatest among the Jews — whose level cannot be grasped at all, not by intellect, not by thought, not by the body, not by anything possible — by what a person understands, only what the mind can describe and imagine, to understand a little of greatness, but not by what a person can actually attain. The thought of Mordechai — to understand at all what it is — this is called the Tikkun of the tongue.

30:11 The Tikkun of the seventy languages that Mordechai knew is the aspect of the secret of the Oral Torah. The secret of the Oral Torah — when a person knows seventy languages, that means grasping the secret of the oral wisdom. The secret of the Oral Torah is the secret of wisdom, which is the secret of Malchus. Malchus — the Tikkun of Malchus — is the secret of the Oral Torah. And so in Tractate Shabbos, page 88a, they say that on Purim we merited to receive the Torah out of love.

30:35 What is this Torah out of love? There is a whole discourse of the Sfas Emes, from the year 5638 — a written discourse of the Sfas Emes of Gur, an astounding discourse, very great, on the greatness of what happened on Purim: what the receiving of the Oral Torah was, what it was to receive the Oral Torah. It is also in Yaaros Devash by Rabbi Yonasan Eybeschutz, part one, discourse 16. Many sefarim have spoken of this greatness — that on Purim there is the Tikkun of the Oral Torah. One merits to receive the Oral Torah. Whoever learns on Purim and wants to receive the Oral Torah can receive, on Purim, an illumination of the Oral Torah. What is an illumination of the Oral Torah?

31:13 The Oral Torah is more opened out and revealed than the Written Torah. The Written Torah is sealed. The Oral Torah is revealed. And the Megillah, in fact, keeps on spreading open. We spread out the Megillah in order to open up its light. We do not read the Megillah closed up. The Rebbe of Komarna writes in Kesem Ofir that the secret of the ten sons of Haman corresponds to the ten crowns of impurity — the ten impure kelipos, which came out from the hands of Yosef HaTzaddik when he pressed in his fingers, and it reached the ten crowns of impurity, corresponding to the ten sons of Haman.

31:43 And their Tikkun — in fact we rectify them on Purim. On Purim there is the Tikkun of the wine: we rectify the blemish of Yesod through the Tikkun of the wine, by drinking the wine, and we rectify the ten impure kelipos. All ten sons of Haman are said in one breath, because a blemish of the covenant is a blemish in the breath, for then a person brings on shortness of breath, because it becomes hard labor; he falls into the aspect of slavery. And length of breath, long patience — that is the Tikkun of the blemish of the covenant. He rectifies the mochin; he restores them.

32:09 Then he merits long patience, and then he merits the aspect of Mashiach, which is "the breath of our nostrils, the anointed of Hashem" — it comes to him from the secret of the wine. Over wine we say "L'chaim" — all the time we say "L'chaim." Because "L'chaim" means for life and not for death. "Savri maranan" — and we say: for life, and not for death. The meaning is that there should be a revelation of life. What does a revelation of life mean? That the Holy One, blessed be He, should decree life for the whole world, which is what will be when the King Mashiach comes. When the Holy One, blessed be He, decrees life in the world, it will be for life and not for death.

32:38 What does "for life and not for death" mean? It is the secret of the Oral Torah and the secret of the Written Torah. "If he merits, it becomes for him an elixir of life; if he does not merit, it becomes for him a deadly poison." What does it mean, "If he merits, it becomes for him an elixir of life; if he does not merit, it becomes for him a deadly poison"? So we said — in Tractate Yoma, page 72b, and Pesachim, page 50, and Taanis, page 7a, in Tosafos — that anyone who learns the Torah in order to provoke, Heaven forbid, and to be arrogant, for him it becomes a deadly poison.

33:03 So the meaning of "a deadly poison" is that a person learns the Torah, Heaven forbid, in order to be called "Rabbi" — not in order to read what is written inside the Torah. He wants to be called. What does it mean, "to be called" and not "to read"? There is reading, and there is being called. When a person learns the Torah in order to be called, it means he did not learn the Torah in order to read what is written in it. When you read what is written in it, then it is the Oral Torah, because then you reveal it more. When you read it in order to be called, you go back to what is written, and then it becomes a deadly poison.

33:34 Now, Mordechai merited to be "atzei besamim," fragrant spice wood, because Mordechai's level is above the mind, for he merited life. He merited to grasp a wisdom that is more than the intellect of human beings, for no one can grasp what he merited. And the Holy One, blessed be He, also chose him; He gave him the help of Heaven to take the Jewish people out of this suffering, out of this exile, out of the hands of Achashverosh and out of the hands of Haman.

34:00 He takes them out — and the Holy One, blessed be He, chose him and brought it about through him. How much Hashem, blessed be He, loves us! There is no measure to it at all — it cannot be understood, not ever understood at all. However much a person can think he is wishing himself the very best he could want — let a person think of all the good things in the world that one could possibly ask for himself, the most he would ever want for himself — that is cruelty compared with the good that Hashem wants to do for him.

34:29 Think: how much do you want — think about yourself — how much would you want to do good for your son, or for the one you love most, in the most tremendous way there is, without measure. How much would you want — think — that is cruelty compared with what Hashem wants to do with you. Well, we simply do not understand this. Maybe on Purim we will discover it.

34:56 On Purim it is revealed. Right or not? Purim, L'chaim! L'chaim, Purim! Now pay attention to what is happening here. Mordechai — we said that Mordechai is the spices; he is "meira dachya." And the revelation of the spices is in the mind. A person smells the spices — when the soul departs, the soul departs, and then comes the revelation of the spices, and again they go, everyone smells spices, and they come back to life a little.

35:29 That is the soul that flees. As we heard from Rabbi Pinchas of Koretz, who says that one who needs a Tikkun for anger and has a problem with anger should smell spices all the time, and then he will rectify the sin of anger. It is written in Sha'ar HaKedushah, part two, in Imrei Pinchas, that this can rectify a person's sin of anger, if he wants. It rectifies the sin of anger — smelling the spices. There is a great Tikkun in it, and especially since it brings a person's soul back close to him; it returns the soul, so that all is as at the beginning.

35:58 Well, now, the enjoyment of the spices, in fact — Mordechai the Jew merits, at his level, to grasp above the mind; he merits to grasp the most hidden things, the highest — and that is why he is the aspect of spices. For the blessing over the enjoyment of spices is in fact different from the other blessings, because there is no satiety in it, as we said. So it turns out that the hidden intellect that Mordechai attained — he being entirely the aspect of spices — has no satiety in it.

36:26 If there is no satiety in it, there is no measure in it for an after-blessing, so it has no after-blessing; it has no ending, it has no satiety — so it turns out that it has a flow of bounty without interruption. For with the tzaddikim — the tzaddikim are the aspect of spices. For with them — that is why Esther is Hadassah, the myrtle, and Mordechai is spices. It is all spices. Mordechai and Esther are the aspect of spices. And Avraham and Sarah are the aspect of spices. Avraham Avinu and Sarah Imeinu, too, are the aspect of spices, because they wanted to go and shine the light of Hashem, blessed be He, throughout the whole world, and they brought in converts.

36:55 We will get to them soon; in a moment you will see something very special. We said: what is the secret of childbearing, that a person continues his seed? Seed is childbearing: he fathers a son, he fathers a daughter, he fathers a son, he fathers a daughter, so that each time he is reincarnated he will have a Tikkun. Whenever a person leaves behind worthy offspring, it is so that he will have some Tikkun in the world. If he has no worthy offspring, he has no Tikkun. He has no Tikkun. Whatever offspring a person leaves in the world, that is your Tikkun. You left a son, you left a daughter, you left a grandson, a granddaughter, someone in kedushah — that is your Tikkun. Your offspring is your Tikkun.

37:28 And if, Heaven forbid, a person has no worthy offspring — it is "you shall not live," as with Chizkiyahu and Yeshayahu. You know the story in Tractate Berachos. That is to say, all continuation is the offspring, worthy offspring. The moment the offspring is worthy, there is continuation, and then the whole Tikkun, the whole flow of bounty, comes about. Now, Mordechai — we said that he brought about a flow of bounty; he was the aspect of spices, which is a constant flow, without end, without measure. And Sarah Imeinu was also the aspect of a flow of bounty, like Queen Esther, who was also a flow without end, without limit, without measure. And so, because of the beauty of Sarah Imeinu — Tractate Megillah, page 13a, says the great beauties were Queen Esther, Avigayil, Rachav and Queen Esther — Queen Esther and Sarah Imeinu. Sarah Imeinu: Sarah next to Chavah was like a monkey — so it is written:

38:20 Sarah next to Chavah was like a monkey. Sarah, Avigayil, Rachav and Esther. That is to say, Esther was very beautiful. The beauty of Queen Esther was something without measure. The beauty of Sarah Imeinu is a beauty without measure. What is the connection between Sarah and Esther? Her beauty — the meaning is not that we are now talking about outer beauty. Of course it was outer beauty, but when we speak of beauty, it is a flow of bounty. For the meaning of Tiferes is a flow of bounty — what Tiferes has.

38:48 The beauty of Sarah Imeinu was a flow of bounty. That is why Avraham Avinu feared for her, when they took her up to Pharaoh. He feared for her; he wanted to guard her, so that they would not harm her and so that he would not come to harm because of her, because he did not want there to be a flow to the outside forces from this beauty — like a light that the outside forces must not draw from. He does not want the outside forces to draw nourishment from this beauty; he does not want there to be any drawing. Now, if the outside forces were to draw from it, that is a danger, so he does not want the outside forces to draw from it. That is why he guarded her.

39:12 That is to say, this beauty is the flow of bounty, and the spices of Mordechai are a flow of bounty — that is, Esther. For Esther, as we said at the beginning — he took out the picture of Vashti, Achashverosh, and then he wanted her; she found favor in his eyes, and he took her as a wife — Esther. He wanted Esther because she found favor; that is, her beauty surpassed the beauty of Vashti — for there had been none as beautiful as Vashti. He took the beauty of Esther.

39:36 And so it turns out that Esther and Mordechai are the aspect of a flow of bounty, as, now, I will try to explain these things to you. Now, Mordechai the Jew and Esther — as we said, they stand at the level of the flow of bounty. When they stand in the secret of that flow, they can grasp something that is hidden. The hidden intellect is in fact the levels of awesome tzaddikim. For even among the tzaddikim — just as there is a difference: a Torah scholar, one who is not a Torah scholar; a Jew, and there is a non-Jew — there are differences — so among the tzaddikim, too, there are levels between them beyond measure.

40:07 There is a tzaddik who is like a monkey before the tzaddik next to him. These are levels among the tzaddikim. It is not that one is not a tzaddik — they are all tzaddikim, all tzaddikim, but among the tzaddikim there are differences of level in what they attain. Now, Mordechai and Esther merited such a level that everyone was like a monkey before them. They could not attain the level of Mordechai and Esther. For Mordechai and Esther attained the level of the hidden intellect, above all intellects; they were able to grasp the secret of the hidden that is inside the Megillah, and so they wrote the Megillah and concealed the Name of Hashem inside the Megillah.

40:39 As we said, the Ibn Ezra said that they wanted to conceal it so that the nations of the world would not come and translate the Name of Hashem into an idol in its place — where the rescue was, so to speak, through the Name of Hashem. So it turns out that Mordechai the Jew and Queen Esther, who wrote the Megillah and attained the hidden intellect, were able to store away and conceal, inside the Megillah itself, the Name of Hashem. Inside the Megillah itself.

41:04 That is the level of Mordechai and Esther. Now, Avraham Avinu and Sarah Imeinu are in the most difficult place of all, because the place where Avraham Avinu and Sarah Imeinu stand — there is, so to speak, no offspring. No offspring. There can be no continuation — for the whole continuation, as we said, is so that there will be some rescue for the Jewish people. And the moment the flow — Avraham and Sarah have no children — then what will help?

41:32 I mean, how will it be, how will it be? What will Avraham and Sarah do? They have no children; they have no childbearing. Now, when — what does the Holy One, blessed be He, do? He promises Avraham Avinu and Sarah that they will have a son, and that is their salvation. Right? That is their salvation. When did Avraham Avinu begin to be in anguish? When did Avraham Avinu begin to be in anguish? When Avraham Avinu — notice what he asked for. "And Avram said," "And Avram said: My Lord, G-d" — it is written in Bereishis, chapter — chapter 15, verse 2 — chapter 15, verse 2: "And Avram said: My Lord, G-d, what will You give me, when I go childless, and the one of my household, Eliezer of Damascus — he inherits me." What does "he inherits me" mean?

42:20 It means that now my seed goes somewhere else, and everything I built and everything I did — instead of staying with me, in the end I have to give it to someone else. So what did I accomplish? Everything I built, everything I bestowed, all my flow of bounty has to go on through my own seed. All my wealth, all my standing, all my strength, all my kedushah, all my purity — where will it go?

42:47 Where? So he is in anguish. Now, if we look, we see the Jewish people down the generations. By the way, this is a great secret. What is "and I go childless"? Heaven forbid to say such a thing! To "go childless" means a person who goes down to Sheol without a child. Who can say "I go childless"? Can you say "I go childless"? A man on a level like Avraham Avinu — that is not a person who can speak like that.

43:11 A man who is on such a great level, who is not on the level of a human being's intellect — can he say that he might go to Sheol without a child? Can he say of himself that he goes childless? That he will go to a place where there is no remedy at all? To go childless? Heaven forbid! So perhaps one can explain — now things will be a little more understood — that everything Avraham Avinu and Sarah Imeinu — everything they toiled for — was in order to bring about the Tikkun of Mordechai and Esther, the flow of bounty of Mordechai and Esther.

43:44 How was there a Tikkun for Mordechai and Esther? What is the connection with Mordechai and Esther? That Avraham Avinu and Sarah Imeinu, who so much wanted a child — they wanted there to be a continuation in the world, a continuation in the world, a continuation, so that in the end Yaakov would come, from whom the whole chain of descent would be. So Mordechai the Jew, who is a descendant of Shaul — from Shaul to Binyamin, from Binyamin to Yaakov, and from Yaakov back to Avraham Avinu, for that is the order of this chain of descent.

44:10 And out of all this, everything that was — they feared that there might be, Heaven forbid, some break or interruption, so that there would be no one to save the Jewish people. For if, Heaven forbid, there were annihilation, Heaven forbid, then truly Avraham Avinu goes childless. If, Heaven forbid, Haman's decree came to be, then one could say what Avraham Avinu said: "and I go childless." Now what Avraham Avinu says will be understood. Before this it was not understood.

44:36 So I understand that Avraham Avinu asked the Holy One, blessed be He, for a salvation for the day that would come when there would be, Heaven forbid, annihilation — that the Holy One, blessed be He, should give him someone who would attain the hidden intellect and through it bring about the redemption of the Jewish people. And when he brings about the redemption of the Jewish people, there will be salvation, and all the Jewish people will go out of exile.

45:00 So now, here it will be understood — pay attention and see how beautiful this is. This is all coming new right now, just now, something... Listen — if I am mistaken, I am mistaken, but no, I think I am not mistaken. I worked out the gematria — it is exact. When Avraham Avinu said — "And Avram said: My Lord, G-d, what will You give me" — "what will You give me," mah titen li, is the gematria of Mordechai and Esther. Exactly. Did you notice what a chiddush this is? Do you know what this is?

45:27 It is something tremendous. He said "what will You give me" — "And Avram said: My Lord, G-d, what will You give me." As if to say: "what will You give me" — mah titen li in gematria is 935. Mordechai plus Esther — the value of Mordechai, the value of Mordechai is 274, plus Esther — that is the gematria 935, the same count as mah titen li. That is to say, Avraham Avinu asked the Holy One, blessed be He, "what will You give me" — that's it: if I have the "what will You give me," You are giving me Mordechai and Esther.

45:59 I have Mordechai and Esther — through this I then already have descendants who will come from me, down below; they are already my descendants. Whatever Tikkun they bring about — Mordechai and Esther will bring it about together. This Tikkun that they will bring about together — I will no longer go childless. So "what will You give me?" — if You do not give me this thing, then through that I go childless. For Haman will come and he will be able, Heaven forbid, to do what is not right.

46:24 That is why only Avraham Avinu could say this: "what will You give me?" Mordechai, when he attained the fragrant spice wood, being the aspect of "meira dachya" — when he was the aspect of spices, he attained, above the mind, what no one could attain. He was above the level of a mortal; he was not on the level of a human being. And because he was above the level of man, he could grasp the hidden secret — which is the secret that Mashiach is born on Tishah B'Av. Now it will be understood why Mashiach is born on Tishah B'Av. Did you understand?

47:00 This is the hidden secret: how Mashiach is born on Tishah B'Av. How can it be that something unexpected took place in the place — and in the Megillah itself... Let me tell you a story for a moment — want a nice story? Understand: once, Rabbi Sar Shalom of Belz — he had the custom of learning, each time, in Tur Bareket by Rabbi Chaim HaKohen, the disciple of the Maharchu, Rabbi Chaim Vital. Tur Bareket, every month. Every month he would learn; every occasion had its time — Rosh Chodesh, he would learn Chanukah, learn Purim, Yom Kippur — he was always learning that way, the seasons, according to the seasons. That was his custom.

47:32 And I liked this custom. Once he invited his Rebbe. Who was his teacher and Rebbe? Rabbi Yaakov Yitzchak HaLevi of Lancut, the holy Rav, the famous Chozeh of Lublin. The Gaon — the Gaon of Lublin, the Chozeh of Lublin. He invited the holy Chozeh to come to him, to come and be his guest for Purim — for with him Purim was a great joy. Before that story, let me tell you one more nice little story — I just remembered another story.

47:59 Something truly beautiful — but as a lead-in to that story, this one first. The Baal HaTanya, may his merit protect us — the Rebbe, Rabbi Dov Ber, the Mitteler Rebbe — once came to a certain town and heard the local Rav reading the Megillah. At the end of the Megillah reading he went over to the Rav. He had not managed to come to the Alter Rebbe for Purim.

48:23 So he says to the Rav: "Chazak u'varuch! What a beautiful story you read! Where did you buy that book, that Megillah? I want to buy one too." He said to him: "You are the son of the Baal HaTanya — how can you talk like that? What, are you making fun of me?" He said to him: "What is this story that you read? I want to come and hear the story." So he says to him — it's simple. He says to him: "I don't know this story." He says to him: "It is the story of Mordechai and Esther! Now you — what are you doing?"

48:50 He said to him: "No, I know the story — I know that Father reads it; that is a completely different story. What I hear from my father is a different story; what I hear from you is something else. What my father reads is a different story." So now hear a nice story — instead of a Rav and a son: a disciple and a Rebbe. See what a Rebbe and a disciple are — something the other way around. See the Chozeh of Lublin and Rabbi Sar Shalom of Belz. "And the children of Israel go out b'reish galei."

49:16 The Rebbe of Komarna said: "b'reish galei" — the Torah of Rabbi Yisrael Baal Shem. That is how he loved to say it: in the merit of the Baal Shem Tov they will go out of exile. He has Kesem Ofir, the commentary of the Rebbe of Komarna — now, on the kavanos of Purim. Does anyone know it, is anyone familiar with it — what the kabbalists... Michael, tell it to them by heart, there. Michael — they have kavanos... they are shy... kavanos.

49:46 The question is in Heaven; we are not shy about what the kavanos are. Here they are shy — there, there. There it does more. Michael — the person, his face, everything — there. How completely different it is, what one hears there. Well, listen to the story, what happened. Once, Rabbi Sar Shalom of Belz invited the Chozeh of Lublin to him for Purim.

50:13 He said to him, "My teacher and Rebbe" — he was his foremost disciple. You know, Rabbi Sar Shalom of Belz is considered one — he was called "the little Baal Shem Tov"; he would perform very great wonders. He was the father of Rabbi Yehoshua of Belz. Rabbi Yehoshua of Belz was the father of Rabbi Yissachar Dov Rokeach of Belz, who was the father of Rabbi Aharon of Belz. Rabbi Aharon of Belz is the one who passed away on the 21st of Menachem Av — the Rebbe, Rabbi Aharon of Belz.

50:37 He — he is the one who encouraged, back then, the learning of the Daf Yomi of Rabbi Meir Shapiro of Lublin. He encouraged it greatly. He said: one page of learning, one page of Gemara, is a Tikkun for all that was and all that will be. That famous saying is from him. He is the source for it. Rabbi Aharon of Belz said to learn a page every day; he encouraged the Maharam Shapiro of Lublin — that every day there should be the daily page. He encouraged it greatly; he gave it his support. He stressed it, and you know this.

51:06 Well, once — he was really something, too, Rabbi Aharon of Belz. I have lots of pictures of him, lots and lots of pictures. The pictures of the tzaddikim — you need to see them. They wash the eyes clean — really something; you do not see such a thing. I have more than — close to some two thousand pictures, rare, old, special — lots of pictures of tzaddikim. You look at them and it washes the eyes — what faces! The Baal Shem Tov wrote, in Tzava'as HaRivash of Rabbi Yeshayah of Yanov, not to look at the face of a person who is not attached to the Holy One, blessed be He.

51:34 It is forbidden. It is a blemish of the eyes. You look at a person who does not think about Hashem — you look, and you have blemished your eyes. It is a blemish of the eyes. It is forbidden to look. So today one simply has to cover the eyes. Who thinks? The author of Be'er Mayim Chaim says — Rabbi Chaim of Chernovitz, Sadigura; he is buried in Tzfas — that same sefer, Be'er Mayim Chaim. He authored the sefer Sha'ar HaTefillah, Be'er Mayim Chaim, Sidduro shel Shabbos — a sefer only about Shabbos: "branches," "roots," all according to Shabbos. You know it — a very beautiful sefer.

52:07 So he writes: "Fortunate is the man to whom not thinking of Hashem is a sin." Fortunate is the man who reaches such a level that not thinking of the Name of Hashem — that will be his sin. That is a level: that a person's not thinking about Hashem is "to him a sin" — that is his sin, the sin itself. There is nothing more he needs to think about. Today at five past four you did not think, for five minutes, about the Name of Hashem — you did not think, you took your mind off — listen well to what a sin you have for that. And he weeps over it, and he is in anguish, and he sheds tears: "How did I take my mind off for a few minutes?"

52:38 Well, you understand from this that these are already levels we cannot understand. Well, where were we in the story? With the Chozeh of Lublin. One day the Chozeh of Lublin arrives for Purim at Rabbi Sar Shalom of Belz. Rabbi Sar Shalom of Belz had a custom: every Purim he would pray with shouts. That was his custom. Praying with shouts. Roaring the Megillah, reading everything with shouts, roaring — that is how he would pray.

53:04 Now, the Megillah he would read just like that, with real fervor, as if he were truly inside the things themselves, reading them as his own. He reads everything like that, as if — he reads from inside it, he is talking to himself. Inside the Megillah he reads everything; in all the fervor of the Megillah, that is how he reads. Well, the Chozeh of Lublin came to him. At the end, when the prayer was over, when the prayer finished — the Chozeh of Lublin finishes the prayer and does not know what to do. He says, "The prayer is over?" "It's over." Everyone says, "It's over." They say, "The Megillah reading is over" — and he does not do anything.

53:38 So he comes over to the Chozeh of Lublin, and the Chozeh of Lublin says to him: "Listen, I have heard the story many times, but your story I have never heard." That is — the other way around. It is praise — against what the son of the Baal HaTanya said. And he said to him: "Your story I have never heard, because the level of what you tell is already so high that I cannot even contain it — what — I mean, what I — what you told."

54:08 These are the stories of one who merits it so — each one alone. Well, let's just make a summary of what we learned today. Yes. Rabbi Yosef Ran, do you want to give the summary? I see you there — you are writing. Maybe... Do you want to give the summary? He is — let me tell you — a tzaddik who keeps himself hidden, but he does a beautiful thing; he gives shiurim in the holy Ohr HaChaim.

54:37 And that is a very, very, very great thing — to learn Ohr HaChaim; that is how he gives a shiur. And, baruch Hashem, Torah scholars sit in the shiur; he gives a shiur in the holy Ohr HaChaim every week. And whoever does this — it is blessed. It annuls harsh judgments, annuls harsh decrees and troubles. Rabbi Yisrael of Ruzhin said: a town where they learn the holy Ohr HaChaim together — it lights up the whole town. It blesses all the people of the town.

55:01 There really are very, very great influences in this, truly. So yasher koach — and may He bless him, that he succeed, and with the help of Heaven may he continue to make the Torah great and glorious, to learn and to teach, to keep and to do. You are all Torah scholars — and I, the least, should speak before you? But this way we are just talking a little together. Now one can also explain — I need Megillah, page 3a — the Gemara says: we set aside Torah study in order to hear?

55:32 Now it fits — what the Tur Bareket writes, in siman 687, what we said: that the light of the Megillah is great, and higher than the light of the Torah. For the light of the Torah, in fact — through learning the Megillah and through reading the Megillah, we illuminate the root of the Torah. We illuminate above. It is not that this is more than that, or that is more than this.

55:59 It is simply that the light of the Megillah is so great that it manages to light up in us places we cannot light up on our own through the Torah. The Torah is so immense, it is so sublime, it is so much a thing that cannot be measured. And through the learning — when a person reads, or learns the laws of Purim, he is already preparing himself for Purim — or learns the Megillah, or reads the Megillah, all of it — then he can light up in Heaven the root of the letters of the Torah; he shines it upon himself.

56:26 That is why we set aside Torah study in order to read the Megillah. Why? In order to read the revealed that is hidden inside the Megillah. For with Torah learning — as we said before — it can be "being called," when he does not merit the level of "reading," only "being called." But through the reading of the Megillah — that is, what is hidden in the Megillah is necessarily revealed. For it will certainly be.

56:50 It cannot be that it will not be. And then everything is revealed — all the secrets hidden in the Megillah, everything. Well, I hope I have strengthened you. I will say just one last word of strengthening. I loved saying it; it is very beautiful. I want to say it once more. It moves me to say it. However much good we wish for ourselves, the Holy One, blessed be He, wants to give us infinitely more.

57:20 And we are all beloved and precious before Him, blessed be He. Each and every one is precious and beloved to Hashem, and every tefillah of ours and every request, everything we ask — the Holy One, blessed be He, longs for it and waits for it. Each one is one of a kind before Him. There is a nice story from Rabbi Zusha of Anipoli, in Menoras Zahav. He said that when he arrives in Heaven, if they ask him why he was not Moshe Rabbeinu, he will know what to say.

57:45 But if they say to him, "Why were you not Zusha?" — he will not know what to answer. To that he will not know what to say. They tell that once the Yismach Moshe, may his merit protect us — Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum of Ujhel, may his merit protect us, the holy Gaon, author of the Yismach Moshe — everyone has heard of him. The Yismach Moshe — something great, mightiest of the mighty. Once, in the synagogue, before the eve of Yom Kippur, a certain Jew came to him and began to cry. He said to him: "Rebbe, I cannot see — my batei einayim broke."

58:18 "Batei einayim," as it is written in the sefarim, means eyeglasses — "eye-houses"; that is what they are called, "eye-houses." Today there are "eye-buildings" — some have them. "Eye-buildings" — it is Purim today — his "eye-buildings" fell down; in honor of Purim I say "buildings" — his "eye-buildings" fell down, and the buildings collapsed. So the Yismach Moshe took his hand, passed his hand over the man's face, did like this — and he saw.

58:45 He saw everything. Nothing was hidden from him. He saw everything. Suddenly he saw everything — truly saw everything, in every detail. So the Yismach Moshe, once the man saw everything, blessed him like this: that all his descendants should be the same. And indeed, that man's great-granddaughter was ninety-four years old, and Rabbi Yoel of Satmar, who was in Brooklyn then, abroad — he came, went to her, visiting when she was ill; he paid a sick call, and they brought her a thread and a needle, for her to thread it — and she passed it through, to see that her eyesight was sharp...

59:21 There was another one like that. He had — these were the eyeglasses of the Pnei Yehoshua. The Pnei Yehoshua, Rabbi Yaakov Yehoshua — "Yaakov" was added to his name after he was ill. He was ill; he went through very hard sufferings, the Pnei Yehoshua. Many segulos for healing. Today I learned Pnei Yehoshua for several hours — for me it is a real delight, Gan Eden, to learn Pnei Yehoshua. There are truly beautiful things. I go through the Pnei Yehoshua, all kinds of chiddushim — a sefer I love very much. I have been learning the Pnei Yehoshua since the age of twelve, almost every day.

59:50 Fluent in the whole sefer — beginning, end, forwards and backwards, forwards and backwards — not forwards, because I am backwards — forwards and backwards, but forwards and not backwards. And as we said last week about the Maginei Shlomo: the way of the Pnei Yehoshua, as we said, follows his grandfather the Maginei Shlomo — to resolve everything where Tosafos challenged Rashi. So he — so, his eyeglasses — the Pnei Yehoshua's eyeglasses — went around, and once they were in a certain place, in some synagogue; that is how they were kept, from place to place.

1:00:25 And a certain man came who was blind, who could not see, and the Pnei Yehoshua's eyeglasses came before him. He took the Pnei Yehoshua's eyeglasses and passed them over his eyes — he just put them there, and he became able to see. Maybe one could find the Pnei Yehoshua's eyeglasses — I would be happy to get them. If they could be had, that would be something wonderful. He took the Pnei Yehoshua's, put them on his eyes, and at once he saw everything.

1:00:51 Whether "he saw everything" means he saw from one end of the world to the other — I do not know. But what he saw: he saw the wall, he saw everything — what he had not seen. So that's it. Well, tzaddikim, we love you very much. Today is Purim, and I have spoken too much; we need to play a little music. There are important people here today who came to play. Music is a very lofty thing, very, very much so — especially on Purim, when one must rejoice. Perhaps, with Hashem's help, we will merit in the coming weeks until Purim to learn a few more things about the Megillah.

1:01:19 But we learned only a drop of an introduction — what is the Megillah at all? Did we understand at all what the Megillah is? What does it mean when they say "the Megillah is read" — and when not? It can be understood. There are also chiddushim, drashos, parpara'os — very beautiful things on the Megillah. May the Holy One, blessed be He, bless everyone.