Ad D'Lo Yada:a Foundation Stone
When I was still a relatively newly minted Ba'al T'shuva (over 30 years ago), I used to go almost every year to Rav Shlomo Riskin's first Purim Seuda (he made two...an early one for his talmidim, and a later one with his shul, Lincoln Square Synagogue.) Every year, he had a new p'shat for the mitzva of Ad D'Lo Yada; one of them had a profound effect on the way I look at the world; you could call it one of the foundation stones of my beliefs. I'd like to share it with you.
It's simple. Chazal tell us to drink until we can't distinguish between 'Baruch Mordechai' and 'Arur Haman'...between cheering for the good guy and booing the bad guy.
But why bless Mordechai? Was he really deserving of our cheering? After all, according to p'shat in the Megila, he was trying just as hard as all the other Jews to assimilate, even telling Esther to hide her affiliations! (I know, and I'm sure Rav Riskin knows, that the Midrash says Mordechai was a holdout from the assimilationists, but here we are going with p'shat, and I believe this is the reason that the text was written as it was.)
And why curse Haman? What brought about the salvation of the Jewish people? What woke them up to the fact that they are always a nation apart and they had better live up to it? It was Haman! If he had left us be there never would have been the greates T'shuva in history! Maybe he deserves some of the blessing!
We are our own worst enemies! And the outside foes are the TOOLS Hashem uses to punish us and to wake us up! This is what I have been saying in just about every post on this blog, and will continue to say.
(Note that in this year's D'var Torah, Rav Riskin speaks about part of this again; but he concentrates on the Haman part.)
I understand this interpretation to the core...and so, in light of my previous post on over-indulgence on Purim, I don't have to worry...I've fulfilled the Mitzva before I ever pick up a cup!
I wish everyone a happy and safe Purim, and may we all work to and come to the day when we no longer have enemies, neither from within nor from without.
It's simple. Chazal tell us to drink until we can't distinguish between 'Baruch Mordechai' and 'Arur Haman'...between cheering for the good guy and booing the bad guy.
But why bless Mordechai? Was he really deserving of our cheering? After all, according to p'shat in the Megila, he was trying just as hard as all the other Jews to assimilate, even telling Esther to hide her affiliations! (I know, and I'm sure Rav Riskin knows, that the Midrash says Mordechai was a holdout from the assimilationists, but here we are going with p'shat, and I believe this is the reason that the text was written as it was.)
And why curse Haman? What brought about the salvation of the Jewish people? What woke them up to the fact that they are always a nation apart and they had better live up to it? It was Haman! If he had left us be there never would have been the greates T'shuva in history! Maybe he deserves some of the blessing!
We are our own worst enemies! And the outside foes are the TOOLS Hashem uses to punish us and to wake us up! This is what I have been saying in just about every post on this blog, and will continue to say.
(Note that in this year's D'var Torah, Rav Riskin speaks about part of this again; but he concentrates on the Haman part.)
I understand this interpretation to the core...and so, in light of my previous post on over-indulgence on Purim, I don't have to worry...I've fulfilled the Mitzva before I ever pick up a cup!
I wish everyone a happy and safe Purim, and may we all work to and come to the day when we no longer have enemies, neither from within nor from without.
posted by meturgeman | 8:50 PM
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