A Truly Heartfelt Purim l’Chaim Can Reach the Highest of Levels
By Rabbi Shimon Raichik
Everyone knows that on Purim we make l’chaim until we don’t know the difference between “Baruch Mordecai and Arur Haman, Blessed Be Mordecai and Cursed be Haman”. What does this really mean? Is it necessary to get so intoxicated? Some say that the main idea is that we should make a few l’chaims to get relaxed and free to celebrate Purim in the right spirit.
The Rebbe explains the true understanding of the Purim l’chaim in numerous Sichos by explaining the concepts of Baruch Mordecai and Arur Haman in our spiritual service of Hashem. Haman represents all types of negative things. Arur Haman represents observing the negative mitzvos. By observing the negative mitzvos we reject-curse the negativity of Haman. Mordecai represents all types of positivity. Baruch Mordecai represents fulfilling the positive mitzvos and that we are blessed to do a mitzvah.
In the Tikunei Zohar it says that Yom Kippur is like, “K-Purim”. How is it that Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year is only like, not as great as Purim and what does it teach us? We know that on Yom Kippur Hashem forgave the Jewish people for the cheit ha’eigel, the sin of the golden calf. It was also the day that Moshe Rabbenu descended from Har Sinai with the second set of Luchos. Therefore throughout all of history Yom Kippur is a day of forgiveness and a day that we renew our connection to the Torah on a higher level.
These two aspects of Yom Kippur are also found in Purim. On Purim the Jewish people reached a very high level of teshuva. Purim is also the day that the Jewish people rededicated and fully accepted the giving of the Torah.
On the special day of Purim the Rebbe’s fabrengens were very deep. The goal is to make l’chaim and to reach the level of not knowing, adei lo yada. Firstly a l’chaim loosens restrictions. To make l’chaim adei lo yada means to go beyond knowledge and information and to touch the essence of the neshama. When we reach a level where running away from an aveira (Arur Haman) or doing a mitzvah (Baruch Mordecai) is not different. They are both the expression of one essence that is happy to do either because both of them reveal that our neshama’s essence is connected to Hashem’s essence.
The Rebbe’s maamarim are very deep and the Rebbe wants us to delve into them. On the other hand the Rebbe wants us to throw ourselves into mivtzoyim and bring it to the farthest reaches of the planet. The Rebbe wants us to reach and to teach the Aleph-Beis to a Jewish child in Timbuktu. Each one of us has our preferences about what to accentuate because no two people are alike. At the same time the Rebbe wants us to be active in all areas and to be fully invested, 100% in everything we do, whether it’s learning a maamar or putting tefillin on with someone in Tanzania on top of Mount Kilimanjaro. We do both with the same intensity because they are both the expression of the same essence. This is the true meaning of adei lo yada and what we strive to reach on Purim and throughout the year.
May Hashem bless all of us to make a Purim l’Chaim with Moshiach this year.
A Good Shabbos and a Freilichen Purim!