Purim With the Mordecai of Our Generation
By Rabbi Shimon Raichik
Happy Purim! In the V'Atah Tzaveh maamar the Rebbe explains the medrash that says that Mordecai in his generation is like Moshe Rabbenu in his. We discussed how Moshe Rabbenu provides Jewish neshamos with daas, the knowledge which strengthens our emunah. Mordecai, the Moshe Rabbenu of his generation went even further. In difficult times he gathered children, learned Torah with them and aroused within them the essence of their neshamos to the point of true mesirus nefesh self sacrifice for Hashem and the Torah.
The Rebbe pointed out that the the Previous Rebbe in Russia was the Mordecai of his generation and revealed to his generation the emunah that brought them to have mesirus nefesh for the sake of the Torah, Chassidus and other Jews.
There is a common thread running throughout the Rebbe's Purim sichos. Mordecai and Ester realized that it was beyond reason that Haman's plot was taking form. Why? Because Mordecai was a minister in the King's cabinet. Ester held the position of Queen. There was religious freedom at that time. As Mordecai walked down the street, one could already see clearly from afar that there was an Eish Yehudi, a frum Jew approaching. There was a court system, a ministry of education and a culture. So what went wrong? The Rebbe explained based on the gemara and the medrash that Jews felt secure and relied heavily that their political clout would keep them safe. They felt like they could care of themselves. The truth is that it is only Hashem that ever protects us. We forgot about Hashem's protection and came to think that we could do it all ourselves. During the time that the Purim story occurred we came to realize that everything boils down to our emunah and without Hashem we have no political clout. But first we became weakened by Achashverosh and the Persian culture and bowed down externally to their wishes. We did not have the strength to say the truth until Mordecai revealed our emunah to us. The only other ones in the times of Nebuchadnezzar who were able to achieve this were Chanaia, Mishael, Azariah and Daniel.
Mordecai recognized the source of the problem. He knew that political changes alone would only deal with the symptom and not the true core of the problem which was our inability to stand up and express our emunah. The problem was resolved to its core when Mordecai reawakened our emunah by fasting, wearing his sack cloth, learning Torah with the children and crying out for all the Jewish people to do teshuva.
Once we had reconnected to Hashem through teshuva and fasting, then Ester was able to approach Achashverosh in a political way because she had Hashem's backing. This is the lesson of Purim. That all things, both gashmius and ruchnius are connected. The Rebbe, the Mordecai of our generation would advise those with health issues to check their tefillin or improve their kashrus (along with getting medical advise). He would advise those asking for a beracha for children to practice taharas mishpacha. Why? Because ruchinus and gasmius are connected.
Mordecai gathered 22,000 children to learn Torah and thereby averted a decree. So too the Rebbe spent the entire summer of 1973 making and encouraging children's gatherings to learn Torah around the world. This continued during Elul, Slichos and the Eseres Yemai Teshuva. No one understood why this was being done. No one knew that the Yom Kippur War was about to break out. The Rebbe was doing this for our protection. M'Pi Ollalim vYonkim Y'sadta Oz, from the mouths of small children our strength is founded. Once the Yom Kippur War began the Rebbe demanded that we should celebrate Sukkos with great simcha. He said that only simcha provides the spiritual strength to be victorious. This approach was the opposite of the conventional wisdom of the Jewish orthodox world at that time. This is the approach of the Mordecai of our generation who can see how our actions have an effect on high like Mordecai about whom it says "Mordecai yada as kol asher naaseh" Mordecai knew what happened on high and how to change the decree. Through the simcha of Purim we will break the galus and bring the geula now. L'Chaim! A Freilichin Purim!