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When we were little, we sang among the multitude of Purim songs the song by Levin Kipnis who wonders why Purim doesn't come twice a week?
Why are we being stingy when there are holidays that get a whole week or even eight days, actually Purim that is full of joy, optimism and sweets with a high sugar concentration that lasts for only 24 hours.
But this year, even those twenty-four hours seem at first glance like an uninvited guest.
The reality we have been living in for almost six months is full of tragedies and the Gospels of Job.
Now, go and be happy, listen to the scroll and hold a merry and festive feast when at any moment the dreaded words "permitted to be published" may come.
Go look for the children, send parcels to your neighbor and give charity to the poor, when since Simchat Torah you haven't had one whole day of peace for your soul.
But in spite of everything, and precisely because of all this, Purim should and must be celebrated this year as well.
Not only because of the Halacha and tradition, but also so that there remains a nation that is able to look directly at the calendar and say to it, to the coming holiday: I missed you.
Purim celebrations Yitzhak Navon Elementary School, Modi'in region, on the topic "Salute to the security forces and doctors", March 20, 2024/Official website, Yitzhak Navon Elementary School, Modi'in region
This week I was asked if I remember Purim similar to the current situation from the past.
of a basic unwillingness to be happy in the face of reality.
I didn't have to rummage too much in my memory to realize that we've already been through quite a few of these.
I don't go back to the Middle Ages, but I read about Jews who celebrate Purim in the places of Auschwitz and Treblinka, about Jews from outside the Iron Curtain who celebrate Purim with quiet joy especially so that the KGB does not participate in the celebrations, and I am already old enough to remember Purim in the nineties that comes a day or two After another suicide attack that claimed the lives of disguised children, in Dizengoff, Bat Yam or Jerusalem.
We all know that the Book of Esther ends with a happy ending. But the road to that end was far from paved. It took almost ten years of dramas, crises and a devastation that hangs in the air Like a double-edged sword that threatens to destroy everyone, the Lord has mercy, from youth to old man, in one day.
When we observe even today, after thousands of years, the four rituals of Purim - the reading of a scroll, the delivery of portions, gifts to the bereaved, and feasting and joy - we remind ourselves that Even if everything around us seems gloomy and stressful, and words as if we are alone in our fate, an arms embargo and global anti-Semitism are in the air - nevertheless we are not alone.
Even today, G-d is with us in every situation and in every moment, and if Haman was able to change the mind of Haman in one night when the king's sleep wandered, he can truly arrange in an instant for each and every one of us the things that cause us current insomnia.
So, in Shushan, the capital, it was Mordechai the Jew who was an anchor of stability, faith and support that everyone turned to for comfort and hope.
Mordechai did not go into a daze, did not lose his temper, did not raise his hands or bow.
And with a combination of prayers for the high and sophisticated moves, he managed to get the decree annulled.
Throughout the ten chapters of the fascinating scroll, a host of fascinating characters appear and interweave the story of the miraculous scroll, the one that can be summed up in one word of "and the other way around" - how everything turns from good to good, from a sentence of death, mercifully, to a state of joy, happiness and celebration.
And yet, precisely the place of God is absent from the scroll.
From such a present-hidden.
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by any chance?
Not really.
Our sages have already noticed that if you reverse the letters of the word "case" you get two other words: only from God.
Because even what seems to us to be mere coincidences, is actually something well planned that comes from above.
And Purim is the flagship holiday of the 'coincidences'.
There are no inexplicable miracles in it like a small pot of oil that burns for eight days or the Red Sea that suddenly splits in two and can be safely crossed.
Every occurrence can be explained - but the truth is much deeper.
There is always a plan that moves the events, the hand of God, even if it takes care to stay in the shadows.
Even today we are far from understanding everything.
Even the commissions of inquiry that will meet here soon, it is not certain that they will know how to provide answers.
All we have to do is shake off our grief, and rejoice in Purim with a star.
When we are happy at home - we will send joy to the dear hostages that we were prevented from being happy.
When we send packages to each other - we will also embrace the bereaved families.
With sensitivity, not out of debauchery, out of one floor and with immense brotherly love.
And it is precisely from this cautious optimism that we will see the light shine again and dispel the clouds in our lives.
Rabbi Muni Ender is the director of the Chabad Youth Spokesperson's Department.
This year the Hasidic messengers are making an even more special effort than usual to bring the joy of Purim and its commandments everywhere - including to the wounded in the medical centers and to all the combat areas where IDF soldiers are stationed, including of course in the Gaza Strip.
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