Purim has a special quality to it in that it\u2019s a holiday that will never be nullified, unlike other holidays. In addition, the Megillah we read to commemorate the\u00a0neis<\/i> will never cease to exist, unlike other books of Tanach. What\u2019s behind these two phenomena, and what\u2019s the lesson to take from it?<\/p>\n
The Nature of the Miracle<\/b><\/p>\n
Purim is about finding the miraculous in the ordinary. This was a miracle that was done\u00a0be\u2019hester,<\/i>\u00a0in hidden fashion, with no outright miracles, which we saw from the Exodus of Egypt.\u00a0The Ramban understands that our purpose in this world is to see G-d in everything. It\u2019s true that the miracles of Egypt fortified our faith, but our mission is to see G-d\u2019s miraculous hand in all facets of life.<\/p>\n
Rav Avigdor Miller zt\u201dl was famous for practicing this type of faith. He would ask how appreciative we are that we can breathe, walk, and function normally. He emphasized that these are all miracles, only we don\u2019t take the time to acknowledge them.<\/p>\n
Purim can trick the eye into seeing a causal story that unfolds in our favor. But that\u2019s far from the reality. We witnessed a king saved by Mordechai, who would come upon that story to raise him up. We come upon a Jewish queen being picked to serve in the highest level of royalty, who ultimately unified the Jews to nullify a catastrophic decree. It\u2019s in these kinds of events that we must see G-d orchestrating events so that our faith recognizes G-d in every interaction.<\/p>\n
This is why we are told, “The days of Purim will never depart from among the Jews, nor will the memorial of them perish from their descendants” (Esther 9:28).<\/p>\n
As Part of the Oral Law<\/b><\/p>\n
The Rambam (Hilchot Megillah v’Chanukah 2:18) famously writes, “All the books of the Prophets and all the Writings will be nullified in the days of the Messiah, except for Megillat Esther. It will continue to exist just as the Five Books of the Torah and the Halachot of the Oral Law, which will never be nullified.” The Rambam\u2019s source for this is based on a Yerushalmi (Megillah 1:5) that says, \u201cRabbi Shimon ben Lakish states that while other books of the Prophets and Writings may eventually be nullified in the Messianic era, Megillat Esther and the Halachot\u00a0will never be nullified.\u201d<\/p>\n
Because Megillat Esther has halachot, it becomes part and parcel of Torah itself, and the Torah will never cease to exist. Rav Herschel Schachter shlita explains that Moshe gave us the Sefer Ha\u2019Brit, the contract of the Written Torah at Sinai, but the Oral Law we did not accept until Purim, with love – \u201cKiyemu v’Kiblu” (Shabbos 88a).<\/p>\n
Logic dictates that the books of\u00a0Nevi’im\u00a0<\/i>and\u00a0Ketuvim<\/i>\u00a0will cease to exist because in Messianic times the need for reproof will be unnecessary, as the final geulah will have taken place.<\/p>\n
The Takeaway\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
Living a life of seeing G-d in the ordinary is our purpose. Deep faith is found not in observing the miraculous but in internalizing the deep bond we have with G-d. Purim symbolizes this type of faith and therefore will live on forever. The Jewish people survive based on their Torah and mitzvot. Purim exists as part and parcel of the Torah and will therefore be with us for eternity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Purim has a special quality to it in that it\u2019s a holiday that will never be nullified, unlike other holidays. In addition, the Megillah we read to commemorate the\u00a0neis will never cease to exist, unlike other books of Tanach. What\u2019s behind these two phenomena, and what\u2019s the lesson to take from it? The Nature of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":133844,"featured_media":58664,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[348],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-purim"],"yoast_head":"\n