Unmasking Purim - Fraenkelufer - Adar 5780

(7) In the first month, that is, the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, pur—which means “the lot”—was cast before Haman concerning every day and every month, [until it fell on] the twelfth month, that is, the month of Adar...(12) On the thirteenth day of the first month, the king’s scribes were summoned and a decree was issued, as Haman directed, to the king’s satraps, to the governors of every province, and to the officials of every people, to every province in its own script and to every people in its own language. The orders were issued in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed with the king’s signet. (13) Accordingly, written instructions were dispatched by couriers to all the king’s provinces to destroy, massacre, and exterminate all the Jews, young and old, children and women, on a single day, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month—that is, the month of Adar—and to plunder their possessions...

4 (15) Then Esther sent back this answer to Mordecai: (16) “Go, assemble all the Jews who live in Shushan, and fast in my behalf; do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maidens will observe the same fast. Then I shall go to the king, though it is contrary to the law; and if I am to perish, I shall perish!” (17) So Mordecai went about [the city] and did just as Esther had commanded him.

[Aramaic Targum: And Mordechai gathered people frantically, and transgressed the festival of Pesach, and sat in ashes, and did all that Esther had commanded.]

On the thirteenth of Nissan the decrees were written and the law was passed. On the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth they fasted. And on the sixteenth, Haman was hung in the evening.

Let us also recite hallel on Purim!? No, we don't say hallel on miracles outside of Israel. But what about Pesach? After the Israelites entered the Land, then it was decided that we don't say hallel on miracles outside of Israel...

Rav Naḥman said: The reading of the Megilla itself is an act of reciting hallel. Rava said: ... No, even after the miracle of Purim, we were still the servants of Ahasuerus.

After Purim we read the portion called Parah, which is a preparation for Pessach. For we read Parah in order to be careful with regards to purification from the highest impurity, in order to be pure for Pessach. And in the beginning, it has the aspect of Pur ("lot"), and Purim is also named after the Pur. Afterwards, it is read as Parah, since Purim is certainly on the way to Pessach... For Purim is on the way to Pesach, so that they could be careful with regards to chametz. (Here Rabbi Nachman paused in the middle of the issue, and did not reveal more.) For in the beginning, all the beginnings began at Pesach, and therefore the mitzvot are all in memory of the exodus from Egypt. But now... (And he didn't finish.)

לִהְיוֹת נִזְהָרִין מֵחָמֵץ: (וּפָסַק בְּאֶמְצַע הָעִנְיָן וְלֹא גִּלָּה יוֹתֵר). (ה) כִּי בַּתְּחִלָּה הָיוּ כָּל הַהַתְחָלוֹת מִפֶּסַח, וְעַל־כֵּן כָּל הַמִּצְווֹת הֵם זֵכֶר לִיצִיאַת מִצְרָיִם. וְעַכְשָׁו… (וְלֹא סִיֵּם).

Once it was told to Mordechai that Haman was coming, he became extremely frightened. He said to his students, "My sons! Run away from here, so you will not be burned by my coals, for the wicked Haman is coming to kill me." They said, "If you die, we will die with you." He said to them, "If so, let us stand in prayer, and we will pass away in the midst of prayer." They finished praying. They delved into the laws of the commandment of the Omer, for that day was the 16th of Nissan, and on that day they would have been offering the Omer when the Holy Temple was still there. Haman came to them. He said to them, "What are you dealing with?" They said to him, "The commandment of the Omer.... " He said to them, "The Omer, is it of gold or silver?" They said to him, "It is not of gold, nor silver, nor wheat, but barley." He said to them, "How much is its price, ten kantarin [i.e. a lot]?" They said to him, "It's enough [to buy it] with but ten maneh [i.e. very little]." He said to them, "Get up from the dirt! Your ten maneh have triumphed over my 10,000 bundles of silver."

"And they stood at the lowermost part of the mount” (Exodus 19:17). Rabbi Avdimi bar Ḥama bar Ḥasa said: this teaches that the Holy One overturned the mountain above them like a tub, and said: If you accept the Torah, excellent, and if not, here will be your burial. Rav Aḥa bar Ya’akov said: From here there is a substantial caveat to the obligation to fulfill the Torah. [The Jewish people can claim that they were coerced into accepting the Torah, and it is therefore not binding.] Rava said: Even so, they again accepted it willingly in the time of Ahasuerus, as it is written: “The Jews kept and accepted [kiymu v'kiblu]” (Esther 9:27), meaning: They kept what they had already accepted.

The Jews kept and accepted - what they had already accepted, as the Rabbis taught. Mordechai was the last of the prophets. Until Mordechai the written Torah was illuminating the world, but after him prophecy ceased, and the Sages began to create fixed prayers. And they kept and accepted this new Oral Torah which began to illuminate the world from that point on...

He (Moses) came down from the mountain on the 10th of Tishre, which was Yom Kippur, and announced to them that they had found favor before God...]

...All of the holidays are to be nullified in the future but the days of Purim will not be nullified, as it is stated (Esther 9:28), 'And these days of Purim will not be rescinded from the Jews.'"

Rabbi Elazar said, "Also Yom Kippur will forever not be nullified, as it is stated, 'And it will be to you for an everlasting statute to atone for the Children of Israel from all of their sins once a year.'"

He shall place lots upon the two goats, one marked for the LORD and the other marked for Azazel. Aaron shall bring forward the goat designated by lot for the LORD, which he is to offer as a sin offering; while the goat designated by lot for Azazel shall be left standing alive before the LORD, to make expiation with it and to send it off to the wilderness for Azazel.