I Drink Therefore I Am

0:00to speak about the holiday of Purim. Two things. A, what did really happen in the holiday of Purim you were in Rochhaudish Adal. And secondly, a very unique opportunity that we have in that holiday. So what really happened was that the miracle happened on Passover. The miracle of Purim didn't really happen on Purim. On the month of Nisan in the beginning, Haman, he had that raffle that he would like the drawing. And he pulled out a note. Actually, he had two notes with the day and the month, whatever, I'm not going to get into the whole thing. And then he came up with the idea through that drawing that he got a bit is going to exterminate the haters

1:00of the Jewish people on the 13th, on the 11th month, which is the month of Adal. That happened on Nisan. The rumor immediately became public. And the Jews started getting scared. And the high Aster to go to the king. But immediately, because in those days everything would take time. So he said, you know, Abraham already sent the message to all the cities, the countries, whatever space that they were in control. And we need to reverse it. So we need to act immediately. Because even if we do it like a month before, the word might not get as far as all the Jews. So they acted immediately. And he asked Aster to go to the king to arrange my lunch. So she said, OK, if you want me to go,

2:01I wasn't called in for 30 days. And it might even execute me, you know, just going in like this. So I want you to fast. And they fasted on the first day of Pesa. They fasted the day before. The Eva Pesa, the day of Pesa on the day before. And then she went to the king. And the king accepted her. He gave her the one, the one, the center, right. So that happens about Pesa. So Pesa is really the holiday of Dula. That's really the focal point of pouring. That's a good idea. So what you're saying is the Sa'udah that she prepared, which was the trick. What was on Pesa? Was on Pesa. They, the Jews on that year didn't eat masa. And they didn't drink wine. They didn't do a sater. They fasted on that holiday.

3:01So the first miracle of pouring, reversing the thing, being accepted by the king, and then reversing the whole thing, happened on Pesa. That's the reason why the Gamarah says that you start learning the laws of Pesa a month before, but a month before everybody's drunk. It's pouring. Because actually the miracle started on Pesa. So this is a very solid connection between pouring and Pesa. Then 11 months went by, came Adar. And then they had the war, and that was the second miracle that they managed to push back the Gentiles and fight back and win the war. That was the second thing. All the Mitzvah that we have on Pura, for that reason,

4:02unlike Hanukkah. In Hanukkah, the idea of Hanukkah is really giving the miracle publicity. We put them in or on the window, on the window seal, and so everybody can see the lights with that blizzard. We want to tell you that once, 2,000 years ago, we had a miracle. We don't do that on Pura. The big question, that was a solid miracle, two miracles. Why aren't we doing the same thing on Pura? Because Hanukkah, the Greeks, wanted to devour our culture. They wanted to devour our self-being as Jews. They told the Jews that you can study Torah as philosophy. That's beautiful. You want to study Torah because it kind of broadens your horizons.

5:04We love it. We don't want you to study it as part of answering to higher authority and fulfilling the commandments. That was the thing. So Hanukkah, it's important to us to show the world that you guys wanted to destroy our culture, destroy the Jewish people as Jewish people, and make them like any other nation. Well, you guys are long gone and we're still here. And Puran, the idea was really to exterminate the Jews physically. He didn't tell them this, and I want you to do the Mitzvah. That wasn't the case. But he said, I have a very solid, very well-tought idea that if I make each and every non-Jew get up in the morning, cause the shriek,

6:05go to a Jewish house and kill the people, in one day I'm going to exterminate all the Jews, which, you know, by numbers, it could work. So the idea of Puran that we were in that danger have been exterminated physically, not culturally. So the Mitzvah of Puran are there to awaken us, not the world, and make us relive the miracle. To understand that that was on the table. That was an option. And thank God, you know, it didn't come true. And therefore, all the Mitzvah are not about giving it publicity, but rather about bringing the Jews together and reliving the miracle and celebrating it

7:07within the community. The Megila is really about telling the story of Purim to everybody in Shul, in the community. We don't post anything on billboards. We don't do anything on social media. And I think it's very much internal. It's within the community. Shulach Manus is the same exact thing. The idea of Shulach Manus is that somebody is going to get it from his friend. He's going to put it on the table. It's going to have his Purim feast. The Matanas, to the poor, same exact thing. They don't have money. They cannot have a Purim feast. So we give them money so they can buy food and celebrate. And then the last thing is our Purim feast. That's the reason why the al-Qas is that if one, even though we can do Melachan Purim, the al-Qas said that if somebody

8:08works on that day, he will see no blessing in that craft work that it does. Because it's a little heartless, you know, to think that you went through such an extraordinary miracle and you think it's just an ordinary day. It's not just an ordinary day. Something big happened. I want to, I want to lie, lie, lie, lie, right? Just a samarab. I want to touch one single thing that I think is an amazing opportunity to do on Purim. On Purim feast, we ordered to drink. And the al-Qas says, ad-de-lo-ya-dah, ben-a-ruh, haman, and feel the person does not tell the difference between our haman and birth more than that. Well, we have, in English, the translation

9:08doesn't do justice. In Hebrew, ad-de-lo-ya-dah, meaning to the point where you don't tell the term, meaning you don't cross that line. Yes, you should get drunk, but you should not cross the line, not being able to tell the difference between our haman and to al-Qas, ad-de-lo-ya-dah, this is the border. You don't cross the border. And I think for us, in these times, this holiday is an amazing opportunity to show the young generation what control drinking is. People think on Purim, you know, I'm going to lose it. I'm going to drink my way to bed. I feel like I cannot tell the difference between day and night. This is so wrong. I think we have an amazing opportunity

10:09to take the younger generation, sit with them to the table, have a few bottles, drink, and show them that we don't lose it. Control drinking. Purim is a very careful when it comes to choosing their words. And that's the method they wanted to convey to us to be Jewish, is whenever, even if you're in some actual ordinary time, something that is out of the ordinary, you still don't lose it. You still don't lose it. In the very same way that even on Tisha Ba'av, after we say, you know, echa, and all the things, we have hope that we're going to build a mcdash. You don't lose it. We can control ourselves.

11:10This is to be Jewish, self-control, you have. And I think we should take that opportunity to improve and make people just put on your schedule. I mean, people in construction, just as if you have an inspection. When somebody has an inspection on that day, they're not going to go anywhere. Because they have to be at the inspection. So why don't you put on the gal, have an inspection? So this way, I'm not going to go to work. I'm at inspection in shul, not over there. And then you have a whole day to celebrate with the children, with the younger generation, bring them along. Yes, put them bottles on the table. Let them even drink, but show them by self-example that we, as adults, yes, we drink, but we don't lose it. We don't cross the line. So we could take that holiday and make it into an opportunity to demonstrate to them

12:15what it is to be Jewish, even with drinking, even with alcohol. There is a way to be Jewish. Happy poor. Amen. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good job. Good job.