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[00:00:01] Speaker A: It is my pleasure to welcome back and introduce Mrs. Aviva Orlean. We're always grateful when she's able to participate even remotely in her hometown. She goes from her current hometown to her former hometown, where she grew up in Baltimore.
She's been with us so many times, I don't know that I need to read her whole length.
[00:00:25] Speaker B: The bio we'll just get on with.
[00:00:29] Speaker A: So besides being a speech therapist, she is also a wonderful teacher of Torah, and we are so fortunate when she is able to join us. So I'm going to go ahead and spotlight Aviva, and we're going to get started.
[00:00:44] Speaker B: Okay. Hi, everybody.
All right, Adar. So we are approaching the second Adar, and I think we do need the second Adar this year. It's been a very definitely, very challenging year since Shminia Teres.
The extra month. We have an extra month to get into the perm zone, and we have an extra month to really have the opportunity to focus on what is Simcha. Adar is a time of banahafohu. It's the nahafohu of recalling that our destinies can really change for the better. It's the Nahafohu when we appreciate. It's the nafoku when we appreciate our own near misses in life. And it's a time to really hone our sensitivities to the many transitions and the Nahafokus that we may have had in our life, that we may have had to make in our lives. The Nafokhus that were part of a master plan. Azar is a time, really, that when we consider more fully that life is full of ups and downs and the need and the value of readjusting our perspectives, that really gets us in the mode of Adar. Adar is about changing our perspective, because, as we know, life really does not turn out as expected. There's disappointments, of course, there are some pleasant surprises as well. But whatever the case, Adar is a time to really celebrate the potential of change and the ability to achieve anahafohu, a turnaround in terms of our attitudes. Because many times, the circumstances may not change, but we can change our reaction to those circumstances. And as we know, the month of Adar is masugal for Simcha, Misha Niknas, adar, marbima simcha. And that simcha is a result of the nahafoku that took place so many years ago in the Purim story. Let's take a look. The first time that we see Chodesh Adar in the megillah which, of course, is the backdrop for the simcha that permeates this month.
Did I say eicha? I meant Esther. I said McGillis Esther.
In McGillis Esther. Perek giml kasak zion. It says, bahodesh harishon Hudesh Nisan vishnashtem esre la melach ahashvarosh. This was in Kodesh Nisan in the 12th year of Ahashvarosh's reign. He peel poor hu hadoro lefnai haman miyom liom omi kodesh lahodesh neymasar Hudesh Adar. So in Nissan, Haman is deciding how to implement his final solution. And of course he draws lots, and those lots come out to Purim.
The lots come out to Chodesh Adar Haman.
When he's going through these lots and he's debating, well, he's really not debating because it came up on Adar. Haman was going through every single month and he really was hoping that he would find an opportune month to enact the decree against the Jews. And when the lot fell out on Chodesh Adar, he was ecstatic because what he did was he looked at every single month and he looked at the astrological sign, or he looked at the strength of each month, and each month he said, chodesh Nisan. The sign for Chodesh Nisan is a sheep that relates to Pesach. That is really a month that's in favor of the Jews. Eor, there's Pesach, sheini, there's Matantorah. The astrological sign is the shore, which is representative of Yosef. That's a great time for the Jews. I'm so glad I didn't pick the lot in er. And then Sivan, the Torah was given, and then the astrological sign, or to Umim, that's related to Zaracham, Heritz, et cetera. And he goes through all of the months. And then he came to Adar and he picked Adar and he said, oh, wow, this is incredible. And this is what the medrash says. Balu Mazal Dugim Shahuma Shamish Bahodesh Adar. And he came to Adar and he came to the mazel of Dugim, of fish vasame.
He didn't find anything, any positive entity, any positive association with Adar visa vis the Jews. And he was ecstatic.
There's no chas and Adar for the Jews. Umazalo ainlos chas below ode elisha ba adar mace, moshe raban. What a great month it's the end of the year is mazel of Dugim. There's no positive association with that. And to top it all off, their teacher, their grand rabbi, Moshe, died in that month. Vahulo Yadav, Shebashiv ab. Adar, mace, Moshe Ubishiv ab, Adar, nolad, Moshe. But he did not realize, that's true, that Moshe Rabbeinu died in Adar, but he was also born in Adar V'Amar. And then he went on to talk about the dugim. The fish, just like the fish, are vulnerable, and they're in danger of being swallowed up. So too will I swallow up Kalyisrael, Amaloha, Karish, Baruchlu Hashem says to Haman, Russia, dugimpa amim nivla, in upya Amim Boltin. Sometimes fish are swallowed, but sometimes fish do the swallowing, depending on where they are in the food chain. Moshe died in Adar, but he was also born in Adar.
So in his narratives, Adar is a month that is destined for me to be successful at solving the jewish problem. The stars are aligned, the stars are on my side, says Haman. Haman saw that month, and he created an idea, an opinion that fit his narrative. He created a fact in his mind that fit his narrative. Haman saw Adar as a really bad time for the jewish people, but he missed the essence of Adar. Haman had a narrative that really everything that occurred and everything that occurred after that needed to fit it. Whether or not it was true, Adar is a month to kill the Jews. It's destined for tragedy. Moshe dies, fish are in danger. Wonderful.
When we talk about Moshe being born and leaving this world on the same day on Zion, Adar, we will see that this represents the fact that Moshe Rabbeinu realized his full potential. Moshe is called Moshe Rabbeinu because he really represents and encompasses all of Yisrael. Moshe is not really an individual person per se. Because his life was so intertwined with Kalal Yisrael. His existence was connected not so much to his own destiny, but to the destiny of Kal Yisrael. In fact, Rashi tells us, taking from the Makhilta shakul, Moshe connected Kol Yisrael. Moshe was shakul was equivalent to all of Kol Yisrael. So the Maurel points out that Moshe's death and birth on the same day really represents a closure of a circuit or the closure of a circle. Imagine a timeline. Okay, imagine a timeline. In linear fashion. Imagine this very low tech timeline. Here's a timeline. It goes in linear fashion from the birth of Moshe Zion Adar, to the death of Moshe on Zion Adar after 120 years. However, says the maharal, if you take these points and you close them together, right? The Zion Adar and the Zion Adar, this is what he says. It creates a circle, an igul, right, which symbolizes shlemus. So it's not linear, it's circular. And there's some sort of Schleimus that Moshe reached. That is exemplified by the fact that he was born and he died on the same day. It represents that he fulfilled his complete potential.
Similarly, Adar is the end of a linear year. But we don't believe in linear, right? We believe in cycles. And the end of one cycle meets the beginning of another cycle, namely Nissan. So Adar does not signify decline, it doesn't signify the end. It connects to Nissan, it brings forth rebirth. It's a lead up, up to Nissan. There's no end to Moshe, there's no end of our year. And by extension, there is no end to Kalal Yisrael. The nahavochu is the end that the end of the year doesn't end, right? It doesn't spell death or destruction, it spells new beginnings. Which is why Adar and Nisan are really linked together in the gemara. When it comes to answering the question that we would have this year, when we have a leap year of when, are we obligated to read the megillah? Are we obligated to read the megillah on the first Adar, Adar Aleph or the second Adar, Adar Bayes. So one opinion says, well, we should probably read the megillah on the first Adar, because we shouldn't push off a mitzvah. But there's another opinion that says no, we read the megillah in the second Adar. Why?
Because we want to connect one entity, one G'ula, one story of Gaula with another story of Gaula. That is preferable. Therefore, we connect Adar and Nisan, and we read the megillah on the second Adar.
So this signifies not an ending, but it heralds in Nisan. Both of them are about Gaula. And really, this is the symbolism of Mazul Azar, which is fish, because fish symbolizes Bracha, it symbolizes birth, it symbolizes lots of birth, as the bracha of a prime, of Nasha, Vidgula, Vikarava, Arad, Viyadgul from the Lashon of Dagim, that you should have Peru or Vu. You should multiply like the fish. We also say on Russia, shanah, Shanifrev in your back. Dagim. Right? So Dagim represents the idea of being fruitful, of being successful, right? It represents birth. And if we think about birth on the surface, let's think about it from a baby's perspective. It seems like leaving the protective womb of his mother is really the end of his life. It's the transition that's so traumatic. And a baby could be saying, what's going on? I'm dying, I'm dying. I'm leaving my mother's protective womb. Yet that transition that he thinks is death is actually the beginning of life.
Moshe Rabbeinu dies in Adar, but the end of his life, he has completed his taklas and all of his potential has been reached. He is the one that brought Torah to us and brought about a national rebirth. In fact, if we think about Moshe's journey to becoming a leader, it began because of his own experience of Nahafohu, Paru's decree of killing all the male infants. What was the motivation? The motivation was to try to kill the future leader of Israel that may save them and take the Jews out of Mitsrayim. So he wanted to try to kill the future leader of the jewish people.
It was the decree itself that was the vehicle by which his mother placed him in the basket. And then subsequently, he was saved by Basparo. Subsequently, he was raised in the palace of Paro, the one that would be the savior of claudiosaurul that would ultimately extricate claudiosaurul out of Paro's clutches, was groomed for the position by Paro himself, says the Ibanezra, because it was in that palace that he learned leadership and avoided developing a slave mentality which gave him the skills and emotional fortitude to leave Yisrael. This was the ultimate nahafoku, Moshe's very existence and his leadership was the ultimate nafoku.
So on the surface, Adar is the end, but it's really just the beginning.
Everybody with me?
Okay.
Adar, of course we know, is also associated with simcha, which is related to the nafochu. It's a month where we are told to increase our own simcha. It's a month where we really tune our ears and our eyes to really perceive the simcha, even if the simcha is shrouded, even if that simcha is concealed. Let's look at that very famous gemara mishaniknas. Adar marbim bi simcha. Right. We all know this. The directive is to increase our happiness and Adar. But this directive, as we all probably know, is associated with another month, and that is Chodesh Av. The Gemara and tanakh tells us, mishaniknas avatimba simcha. When we have Av, when Ab comes in, we have to decrease our simcha. But then the Gemara goes on to say, kashem shaminiknab and matimba simcha, mishanaknas adar, marbinda, simcha. The same way that we reduce our happiness in AV, we have to increase our happiness in Adar. But listen to the language.
Kishame Mishaniknas adar Kishim shamishneknas ab and matimbasimha kach mishaniknas adar. The idea of Kishame means and ka means that there is a common denominator between of and ador. The same way that we decrease our simcha in Av. That very same thing facilitates our increase in simcha. In ador. There's a common denominator. What is that common denominator? Well, in Chodesh Av, we lost the beis Hamikdash, which of course, is a time of mourning. It's a time of Hester panim, the ultimate example of Hester panim. There was no beis Hamikdash. We were driven from our land. There was no more miracles, no more shchina. That's of and Adar. The simcha is due to the Purim story.
And during that time of the Purim story, this was the end of the Navua. In ador, we had a decree of annihilation. This was also Hester Punin. This simcha is due, of course, to the reversal of the decree. But what's the connection to of? So we have to understand. I think we spoke about this last time, when we spoke about the Miguels Esther. We spoke about it a lot. The story took place after the first Hamikdash was destroyed, which occurred in Klal. Yisrael had been exiled from their land, and the Hamikdash was destroyed. And their entire orientation now had to shift. There was no Shechina, there was no Nevua, there was no direct communication. There was no Urumutumim. Right. This was a new reality for them. And think about it. The people in Shushan, perhaps their parents or their grandparents, experienced the beis Hamigdash. They understood the direct connection between our actions and Hashem's. Hashba'ah which they experienced by being exiled. But now they're sitting in Gullus for quite a while. They're in a good gullus. They're in Shushan, Persia, took over from Baval. And they ask, what about? Now we're in Golis. Hashem's Hashbah is not really felt. Perhaps the words of the Navim don't apply to me. Perhaps my actions don't matter. Maybe I don't really matter, and whatever I do is just random. That's Hester Punim. Hester Punim is. Hashem isn't here anyway, so why does it all matter? This is the of. This is the mama Atim Visimcha.
Why should they think this way? Well, you have to ask, why do they think that their actions don't matter anymore? Don't they realize that their actions have consequences? Have all their ideology and conceptual understanding of onish gone by the wayside? What happened to them?
We see very clearly in the megillah, as we discussed last year or two years ago, I don't remember. It was a long time ago. But we see that disconnect that occurred between Hashem, between Hashem, between ben Yisrael and Hashem, and between Yisrael and Eretz Yisrael and pining away from the beis Hamikdash. At the beginning of the story, they were disconnected, and this is why they were deserving of the decree Russia that partook. And they enjoyed a party that was full of immorality, a departure from their ideals. But it was also a party that celebrated their own downfall. Remember that Ahashberosh brought out the calim, the Kalim, the Kalim Shodim. He brought out the caleb of the Beis Hamikdash. It was a kind of a celebration to say, woohoo, the Jews are not returning. 70 years have passed. Let's celebrate. The Jews won't be building their base Hamikdash. It was always at the forefront, Hashferish's mind and Yisrael came to that party that celebrated their own downfall.
It's amazing. Why is everybody always concerned about the temple mount? Right? History hasn't changed. Everybody's concerned. Everybody's busy thinking about the Jews, why they shouldn't do this and they shouldn't do that, and they shouldn't build, and they don't belong there. It's nothing new. But the question is, they came to this party that celebrated their own downfall, and they engaged in it. They enjoyed it.
Why did they really forget? Did they forget that they came from Yerushalayim? That they came from the horban, that their homeland is really Eretz Yisrael, because really, it's easier. The Benish chai suggests that it's really easier to forget than to hope for something that, in their mind may never come. It's easier to forget and just lose yourself in oblivion. This is why Esther insists on a three day fast before entering hash Beirush's chamber as a way of being metakene, the khate of that party to offset to be metakened the hate of participating in a party that displayed their emotional distance from Yerushalayim. And the question is, why was there such apathy? Why did they forget? As the ben Ishrai suggests? He says they forgot Yerushalayim say, in their minds, Shushan was their capital.
And it seems to be that they simply really despaired of ever returning, and they simply despaired of a gula. And desperation leads to cognitive dissonance. Either I wallow in my misery, or I adapt and forget the trauma, or I wallow in my misery and I'm just traumatized and I don't want to think about. It's too difficult, it's too painful. Let me just distance myself from it.
Doesn't this make sense? Sometimes despair really leads to think about an addict. What does an addict do? An addict loses himself in his addiction because he's really at a point of the lowest of the low. He's desperate, so he wants to forget.
He wants to intoxicate himself because he doesn't want to think about it. Or, in a less severe, severe example, is anybody that's avoiding something of importance because it's too painful. So you just lose yourself in oblivion, or you just lose yourself in shopping, or you lose yourself in the baking, or you lose yourself in work, because really, we don't want to face certain emotions and it's too painful. So what do we do? We avoid it, because really, we're at a state of desperation, and it's easier to just forget and detach emotionally than to really think about what's really on our minds.
It's an attitude of a very sad attitude of making peace with the status quo, which really spelled a terrible yeush, a despair of ever returning to Eretz Yisrael or Yerushalayim. Rabbi Barth Simon quotes the Avnesh Shoham, and he says it was, they're going to the party. Keilu hiskimu vihishlimu. She has shiish aru be gullah sla olam. It's as if they made peace with the fact that they would stay in gullus forever.
Lakak nigzaru alayham kilia. This is why they had the terrible decree of destruction hanging over their heads. Damisha anuma amin laguula eno zohe. Because if you don't believe that there's going to be a gullah, then you will not be zoha. To engage yourself, to be involved in that gula desperation is so dangerous, because desperation brings us to an abyss from which it is so hard to escape. And, you know, this week, past week's parasha, I think this connects very well to this past week's parasha. Kisisa. The klal Yisrael declined and went into this frenzy of serving the ego.
And the rashi tells us that they became very nervous that Moshe wasn't going to come back, and what were they going to do and how were they going to function? That's one of the explanations. How are they going to manage without Moshe? They became desperate. But the rashi tells us, bahasatam the irbevas ha olam the herodmut, Hoshek the afaila the urbia lomar vadai mes Moshe. What happened? When they were at a point of insecurity, the Sutton came and showed them a world of darkness and afailah and confusion. This is the ultimate hester upon him to say, of course, Moshe died.
Shabbat tells them, Moshe Haishi showed them an image of Moshe's deathbed. This Sutton brought darkness and confusion. He was able to play mind games with them. He was able to play mind games on them because they were so vulnerable. And really, the Sutton really plays mind games with us so much in our lives. We all have a choice when we encounter challenges, whether we're going to look at our life with a pessimistic view that chose the Afhela, the herbivia that the sutzan showed Kali Israel. Sometimes the sutzan shows us that Choshek and Herbia and Afhelah and the mitzah social emotion. And a kid can come home with a bad report card, and all of a sudden you're saying, mitza social Moshe, oh, my gosh, my kid's going to be dysfunctional. He's never going to get married, he's never going to get a job. This is a second grade bad report card, right? We go from zero to 60 in a minute because sometimes we become very pessimistic. We see that mitosocial Moshe, this Saturn, the Itzahara is making us feel this pessimism, this Hoshek, this afaila. But we really all have the choice when we encounter either our simple day to day challenges or life's very weighty challenges, of whether or not our reactions are going to be colored by pessimism or optimism. We can either ignore that mitzah social Moshe, or realize that this is really only our Yatesahara trying to trip us up. That Khoshech and Afhela. It's just the YAtEsahaRa. But it's up to us to see a Positive Outcome.
Desperation is dangerous. It brings us into a downward spiral.
But Hashem sends a wake up call to Kal Yisrael, and he says to them, you want to blend in. You want to go to this Party, you think that you're not going to be noticed. You think that you're going to blend in. You never will. No matter the clothing that you wear, or the degrees that you have, or the wealth that you have, or the poverty that you have. The JEW is distinct and singular, and you cannot hide behind your desperation. Hain Amlavad Yishkon that desperation led them to say, what's it worth anyway?
We're not going to be redeemed. Let me just blend in with the host country. Let me just make the best that I can out of it. Hashem says, if you try to forget your identity, the world will never let you forget.
Haven't we learned that after October 7, the aftermath of October 7, not even 24 hours later, so many, the world that's such a huge percentage of the world, jumped on the bandwagon and sheared the slaughter and the kidnappings and the mutilations. They cheered those animals on, and they said, it's about time. It's your fault.
What's up is down, and down is up, and the victim becomes the aggressor. It's their fault. The antisemitism on campus proves that our identity and our very existence is just a thorn in the side of so many in the world. Why?
Why are we such a thorn in everybody's side? Why is it?
It's really not explainable, Alpita. We can't really understand it. October 7 is not a new antisemitism. It just opened up the floodgates that had been bulging for so long, with people salivating at a chance to denounce, to tar and feather and harm the jewish people. It's literally a mullet. That's what October 7 was, cooling down the waters for other nations to jump on the bandwagon we see it in real time. Without our knowledge of Torah, we wouldn't be able to understand how, after hundreds and hundreds of people were murdered and mutilated in their pajamas, posing no threat, this caused the world to declare, even louder than ever, that we had it coming to us. It's like the fans at the stadium of a gladiator show relishing at the attack of the underdog, and now they want to jump from their seats to join in the attack. It's Amalek, and we can't really wrap our heads around it. We just could understand that we are unique and we have a target on our back.
In our Purim story, Haman just needed the smallest excuse to slaughter the Jews. Akash Rerosh did not need much convincing. He didn't even want money. Haman offered him a huge sum of money, but take it. I don't need it. Why was the decree allowed to almost come to fruition were it not for the complete teshuva of Kalisrael? Why is that? And the answer is, is because of Yisrael were vulnerable. They had a point of entry for this virus, of wanting to destroy them, to penetrate. And that point of susceptibility was the yeush. It was the absolute desperation. There was no point in their minds of yearning or thinking of Yerushalayim. And therefore, let me blend in.
But there was a point, because the very hoping and the very waiting and identifying with what they have lost is exactly what protects us. And this is what Mordecai understood. We spoke last year, a couple years ago, about Mordecai, who was an ishu di asher hegla miyushalayan imhagola, Asher Heglasa. We said that Mordecai is identified by the fact that he was in Gullus. He was a gullus jew. He understood the malaise of the people, and he tried to impart that idea to Esther when he implores her to go in and risk her life to begash verush. And as Esther understands the malaise of the people, which is why, before entering into Veirosh's chamber, she insists on a three day fast. One of those days was Pesach sumu alai lithinosis kola yehudim. Men, women, children, poured their hearts out in tfila, fasted and did shuva gidola hasaras tabas yoser me arba imu shimona navim vasheva naviyos shanisavula henisrael. Because the removal of the ring that was the signet ring of Akashvaroch that sealed their death sentence was better for Klal Yisrael's spiritual well being than all of the navim that gave them musr. Why? Because hatsaras tabas hazi run Lemutav now, that removing of that signet ring to sign, seal and deliver that edict brought them to Achuva. It was a wake up call. We get wake up calls all the time that lead us back to where we should be. October 7 showed all of us this, not just the people that were not choma Shabbas. It showed all of us. It's incredible. It's counterintuitive that people, after October 7, there's a Massachuset movement going on now. People are clamoring to get their titus and fill in and keeping Shabbas. It's counterintuitive that survivors of this massacre want to get closer to their roots and closer to the God that did this to them. After October 7, one would think, I want to get far away from this God that did this to me. Right? We saw this during the Holocaust. No, they can't judge. People either left Yiddishkite or came close to Yiddishkite. The Chuvah movement is so great now, but it's incredible. Why would they want to get close to a God that did this to them? Why? Because now we know, and I think people realize that no matter what, we are singled out, and no matter what, we will always be viewed differently, and we will always have a target on our back, because we are singular, we are unique. But now, somehow, some people are coming to realize this. The next step is to figure out, I realize that I'm unique now. What makes me unique? What makes me singular? People want to know, why am I different? What's my purpose?
If the whole world somehow knows I'm different, shouldn't I find out why? Hence, I think it's the massive Chuvah movement. As a result of this, we know that we're different. They see it. Now let me understand why I'm different.
I had the zachus a few weeks ago to be in Eretz Yisrael, and I was on the shuvu, which is an organization that opens up many, many schools, elementary schools in Eretz Yisrael, that really educate kids that have absolutely no background and no connection to Yiddishkite whatsoever. And many parents choose to send them to these shuvu schools in order to really learn about the masora. It's phenomenal. They're phenomenal schools with phenomenal secular education and Torah education. So I was also had to go on a one day trip with them. It was like a whole week. But I went on one day with them. We went to a school in the Airsheva.
And it was incredible to see all of these kids that were just. They had no background, no experience. There were kids that never sought to fill him in their lives, living in Israel, because if you're not living in Yerushalayim, you really could go your whole life not seeing a religious jew. And the principal told us that since October 7, in this small bearsheva area, within a month, she got 15 parents to call her, please, I want my child to come into the school. 15 new students. They don't have room for them. They need to raise money to make more bomb shelters. It's incredible. Since October 7, now people want to connect. It's an incredible thing. What an incredible experience that was. During Mordecai and Esther's time, they fasted. They came to a complete shuvah. They came to an understanding. They fasted. Kal Yisrael cried. They begged. It was a tense time. Crystal knots was hanging over their heads. Gas chambers, Gaza infiltration and massacres were looming over their heads. It was about to happen, and it was not business as usual. They cried and they fasted. They embraced their identity and their longing to return. It was a tense time. It was clearly a sad time. It was a terrifying time. But gone was the desperation. Gone was the yeosh and the fatalistic attitude. Gone was the abandonment and the denial of who they were.
Because when we look at desperation, desperation isn't sadness. Sadness is real.
Sadness is our emotion. But Yeosh really leads to denial. It leads to an inability to look honestly and take stock.
So here, Tilbash, Esther Malpus. Esther adorns herself in royalty to approach Verosh. She understands that Klau Yisrael have hit rock bottom. She understands the Yeyush, and she is Vatilbash Esther Malchus. She adorns herself in royalty. Khazal say that she had Hakodesh at that moment, but suddenly she feels the rucha kodesh leaving her.
She is at the point where she feels the isolation of Kalisrael. What happened to my rul Hakodesh? I was so close, and now I feel so distant. Kaylee. Kaylee. Lama Azaftani. And Esther knows what Hashem's response will be to the question of lama Azaftani. Hashem will say, esther, my ziskite, my little hadassala. I have never left you I have never left Kalisrael. I'm here if you look for me.
Kaylee kalei lama azatani. Don't look for the lama. We're not going to understand everything, but we can look for the lima. For what purpose? What does this isolation drive us to do? How does it drive us to change our orientation?
As she stands at the entrance to the throne room, she is physically in front of the Melek basavadam, but she sees herself standing before the Melech malche ham lahim.
And here she reflects the emotions of her people that were exiled 70 years earlier, those people who were led in shame and humiliation, who lost family and were suffering the ravages of war and starvation. McGillas Eicha speaks in the exiled voice. And what does McGillas Echa tell us? Yisomim hayinu v'ain of imoseenuka almanos. We have no father and no mother. We are like Yisomim, we are like almanos. And the medrash says, amar lahem hakarish Barakuli Israel attempt.
You cried that you feel like Yisomim. You are abandoned, and you feel so alone. You were like a yasone with nobody to fend for you. Hayechem Aphagoel Shahani Asidlah Midlahem Madai Lohiyala of aim hahadu dexiv ki ain la of the aim.
I hear the cries. I heard the cries of Kalal Yisrael. Esther is an orphan in every sense of the word. She lost her parents. She's been alone. She's alone in the depraved, morally corrupt palace of Berosh, who is the big anti semite himself, and she is experiencing the most extreme form of isolation. She is the best dressed hostage who needs to watch her every move, who needs to be quiet. Her silence is her very survival. It depends on it. And now she's doing something risky to save Yisrael. She's making herself known. Before, she was under the radar. Now she is making herself known to Berosh, and she's crying out, I feel like a yasom.
I feel like the yasom that I am. And Hashem says, pla Yisrael, you cried that you were Yasomim at the Khorban. I held on to those cries. Those cries have not been forgotten. Those cries and tears have not left me, says Hashem. And those cries of feeling, of isolation, what do they do? They make you understand that if I am completely alone, I have no mortal advocate, just as an orphan has none. I can say ain lanu al milahisha ain elo shabbashamu Shabashamayam. You know you felt the isolation of an orphan. I'm going to send you a savior who feels that isolation, who herself is an orphan. Your fortunes will be reversed by this woman who feels that isolation and understands it. Esther does her part. She facilitates a chuvah nah foku in the people.
The nafoku of the gazardin being turned over and ador becomes a month of simcha. And this explains what we began with. Kishem Shabima atimba simcha. The reason for the simcha of Adar. We think about it. There's no Beis Hamikdash at the end of the story. The people are still in Golis. Akash Beirosh is still the king, and he levies attacks. Yet there's simcha. Because we have learned how to relate to Hashem. Even in Golos. We have learned that the gullus is. Even though it's Hester Panim, the panim are still there. Hashem is there in Gullus. It was a reorientation and a way of looking at our relationship with Hashem. It was a way of losing the desperation and having something to yearn for.
The Chazola moet cites a famous mushel from the villnagon, where a king's son is banished in the forest, all alone, because he was punished. And he thinks he's all alone, and all kinds of wild animals are preying on him. And suddenly each one drops dead, one after the other. Each time he says it must be a coincidence. After a while, he realizes that there is a pattern, and he realizes that the king has sent. He must have sent guards to guard over him, unbeknownst to the prince.
Slowly, we come to realize that Hakadosh Baruchu has been there all along. Hashem sends us into Golas. We were.
We are in the forest. We think we're at the mercy of Teva. And Hashem is no longer in our lives. He no longer cares. He's no longer part of the equation. But then we have these near misses, and then we have a yeshua. We get that job that we were waiting for, that Shiddach comes through. Our child really is doing okay. The Rafua comes. We know that Hakadosh Baraku is there. And even if the yeshua doesn't come in the way that we think it should come, or the rafua didn't come, we realize Hashem's handiwork in every step of our lives, and we are able to reorient ourselves, and we're able to extract the simcha, even though on the silver line, even though it may not be there. We come to realize that Hashem has been orchestrating behind the scenes all along. Beh.
This is the essence of Adar.
Again, this last week's parasha, we spoke a little bit this kisisa we have the mishkan that we talked about, that we learned about in Parasha's truma. What is Vasuli Mikdash V'Shahanti bisalham? It means akadash Barufu can dwell within each and every one of us. And the medrash says Asei Kiton echod says Hashem, make one small vestibule, the ani ador Benichem, so that I could dwell amongst you. Make a space in your life, in your heart, so that I could dwell within you. Ador. What does ador sound like? Adar. That's what Adar is. It's making a space for Hakadosh. Baruch Hudar is Aleph Hakarash. Baruch hu is dar Hakadash. Baruchu lives. It's like a dira. Hashem is with us.
We may be in Shushan or we may be in America, we may be in England or in Yerushalayim, but our identity has not changed. We are Amhanivchar and at Chodesh, Adar gives us the strength to realize that we can feel the simcha of being the amha nifchar wherever we are and whatever time period we find ourselves in Kishame. Kishame. The same Hester upon him that brought about the decreasing of joy in Av. That same Hester upon him brings the simcha. Why is that? Because of the contrast. The contrast between the feelings of isolation in of and the eureka and relief that we feel that washes over us when we experience that joy, when we experience the relief of that decree in Adar. And we realize that hashem is there. That's the Kishim kach. This say, what's the common denominator? The common denominator is the decree. The common denominator is the hesterpunim. Because if we never experienced that, we never felt that isolation, then that feelings of belonging would not have been so strong.
If we think about it, simcha in general is a result of something incongruous that happened, something unexpected. Rev. Hirsch speaks about this when he speaks about the name Yitzchak from the lushon of Choc. Laughter that a child dressing up he says, on adult clothing. That brings us to a point of laughter. We laugh. It's the contrast that makes us laugh. It's the unexpected. Right.
When you get a makeover for a wedding, you come into the lady, and you're like, oh, my goodness. How is she ever going to do this?
And then after 45 minutes, you look, and she doesn't let you look. You look in the mirror, and what happened? You laugh. Really? That's me. Look what makeup could do. Look what a shape could do. Whoa. Right? It's the makeover. And the laughter that comes after the makeover is a result of the contrast. Right? So that's what we're saying. The simcha of Adar is the spiritual makeover that we have when we first went into that makeup lady and of. It's the simcha of the unexpected. It's the simcha of the contrast. The feelings of isolation and vulnerability have transformed into feelings of belonging and security.
Did you ever lose a piece of jewelry and go searching for it? What happens when you find it? The relief and the joy that washes over you. You have a new appreciation for that item, and next time you put it away, you're going to find the perfect back to that earrings, that it won't slip off your ear again. You have a newfound appreciation of something that you've lost.
Think of the joy and the simcha. I don't want to use that word so glibly because there's so much going on.
But think of the emotions that the families of the hostages that have reunited with their loved ones feel. They will never take their families for granted again. They will never take the chores of cooking and cleaning and doing laundries for their families for granted again because of the contrast. They lost, and now they got it back. This is the model of Dugan. Dugan are in the depths of the ocean. They are in an abyss. And B'yisrael could be were at the point of despair of yeush. They were like fish who were in the abyss, the pasak in Tehillim tells us in parak membez to home, el tahom kore la col sino reha. I call out to you, hashem, from the depths. From the depths to home is like the depths of the sea.
All the waves have washed over me.
I call out to you, Hashem, from the depths. I feel as if I'm being swallowed, like that fish that could be swallowed up and destroyed as Haman fought. But the fish can be swallowed, and they seem vulnerable, says Haman. But we know that the fish can do the swallowing as well. The fish live in the tahome. They have no eyelids. They cannot close their eyes ever. In Adar, our eyes are constantly open and tuned in to be able to see the simcha even within the tahom. The simcha is there because of the nahafokl. But in Adar, when we are in the tahom, perhaps we ourselves need to find that simcha actively. We have to pursue it. We have to pursue avenues of simcha by deciphering world events and personal events. With the knowledge that Hashem is behind everything, we discover that we can climb out of that to home, out of that depth and we celebrate our discovery of seeing the light of day.
I'm sure many of you have seen clips and read articles about Hadass Lowenstern who lost her husband.
I'm sure you've seen everybody know what I'm talking about. Haddas Lowensturn, who lost her husband. She sent an incredibly inspiring. There's nothing to even say.
This radiant smile that she has, insisting that she will bring joy to all of her children despite the pain.
She understands Kashem Shimamatin Bisimcha mar bin basimcha. She understands the pain of Av. She understands the pain of Hester Punim. But that Sabbath has turned into a mission, a mission of digging out of that to home.
Are we all heroes like Hadas Lowenstern? I'm certainly not. Can we really stand squarely during a crisis and find that joy?
It's a challenge. It's a challenge during mundane crises of locking our keys in the car, and I'm late as it is, my oven dying Erev Pesach. What's going to happen? Can we muster a smile during these mundane challenges?
Can we muster a state of surrender? If we can even muster a smile. Withhold our anger for even a few seconds. Haven't we tapped into that simcha of Adar, even if only momentarily?
Haven't we been able to turn that darkness for just an instant? If we can withhold that retort, if we can maintain our composure even during mundane things, we become heroes for those few seconds, that flash of lightning in a storm really gives us the vision to perhaps take two more steps forward in an otherwise dark night until the next flash comes. And then we're able to take two steps forward until the morning, where we can see the sun is shining.
Ref Tom points out, how do we know that Simcha is real simcha? What is real simcha? Excuse me 1 second.
Real Simcha is a. Simcha is an emotion that lasts beyond the moment of the experience.
Authentic simcha is when we have an experience, and we maintain that high even after the experience is finished. It's the simcha of the mitzvah. It's a simcha of Shlemus. A simcha is engaging in something that's productive. And the litmus test of a real simcha is to see if our emotions stay with us even after the time period of that experience has passed. Rapam points to the Hanukkah sabias of Shlomo Hamilach, and he brings the Possuk that says that klal Yisrael. After the Hanukkah habayas in Malachim Vayelhula, Alim Smechim Vitovlav, they went back to their houses, and they were full of simcha v'tov lev. And the Gemara says, what is mechim Shanahanu miziz hashkina? What was that simcha? It was a simcha of Shlemas, of feeling the shrina.
And what Rafam says, it means that the simcha, they went home, and they still felt the simcha, which means that the simcha endured because it was a result of something everlasting. It was the result of thanking Baruch Hu. This was a true simcha. It was the simcha of fulfillment. And this is really the simcha of Purim. It's a simcha that endures. It's a simcha that we naturally are in tune to as a result of what happened. But we are also directed, as we said, to actively pursue that simcha by engaging in worthwhile endeavors that bring us a sense of fulfillment. There's a beautiful, very interesting gamara. I saw a lot of sparim commented on this gamara. The gamara says, haro sesha yis kaimuna hasav yita bahen adar, shana adir Bamarom Hashem.
Did anybody ever hear that before I came across it for the first time?
Anybody that wants to maintain his possessions or maintain any of his endeavors to make sure that it lasts, he should plant an adar. An Adar is apparently a very tall tree, and if you want to maintain your property and make sure that nobody enters into your property and mark your property, plant this very, very strong adar, which is a very strong tree. It will grow, and people will say, oh, that's this person's property. We'll know that it's his land. But there's another way of looking at it, because it says, Shanamar Adir Bamaram Hashem. So the Sparim saying, whoever wants to maintain his possession and wants to feel his fulfillment and that everything he does is going to be everlasting, he should engage in things that are representative of ador, engage in things that represent simcha, of ador, that represent mitzvius, that represent the fact that you realize that Hashem has been behind the scenes. Adir Bamarom Hashem. Hashem is there guarding us. That's what true simcha is. Plant in Adar tree. Engage in things that will bring you fulfillment and strength.
And with that, I want to wish all of you and give everybody a bracha that emir to Hashem. May we be Zoha to embrace this month of Adar. That really leads to Nisan, to Nisim. May we be able to extricate ourselves. May Klal Yisrael in general be able to extricate themselves from the Tahom, from the depth that so many are experiencing now here and in Eretz Yisrael, with their personal and national issues, with everybody should have in the chamma, the hostages should be released. We should see Simcha. We should see the pleasantness of life. We should see peace in Eretz Yisrael. And may we be blessed. Hakadosh Baruchu provide much simcha to all those who have been risking their lives in Eretz Yisrael. And may hakadosh Baruch, who allow us really to be perceptive enough to feel the simcha shalomitzvah, the simcha of the Torah. May the simcha continue so that we can say the posse with so much more meaning, wishing everybody a good week, and everybody should have a happy rosh Kodesh next week, and it was nice to see everybody. Does anybody have any questions?
[00:52:44] Speaker A: Thank you so much, Aviva.
[00:52:45] Speaker B: Thank you so much. That was beautiful, Aviva. Thank you. Thank you so much.
Everybody should be well.
[00:52:57] Speaker A: Just want to check if there's any questions. Does anybody have any questions?
[00:53:02] Speaker B: Got to digest everything she said.
[00:53:09] Speaker A: Okay, so have a great night, everybody. Thank you again, Aviva. A great way to kick off our pre hern programming and a lot to think about. So thank you. Thank you so much. Have a great night, everybody. Bye to everybody.
[00:53:24] Speaker B: Thank you. All the best.
[00:53:26] Speaker A: Thank you.
[00:53:27] Speaker B: Thanks so much.
Bye.
