Layehudim hayta ora

Layehudim hayta ora

Vesimcha vesasson vi-kar

(Esther 8:16)

Translation

For the Jews there was great light and joy and happiness and reverence

Audio

Click to Listen

Layehudim hayta ora: For the Jews there was great light

Background

This famous verse from the Book of Esther says “To the Jews there was light, gladness, joy and honor.” After having survived a threat of annihilation, our ancestors found reason to celebrate, and rightly so. Ora – light symbolizes our search for the qualities of happiness, the qualities of light and gladness, which happen in all times, not just in times of distress. That is why the verse is part of the Havdallah service each Saturday night, as we say good-bye to Shabbat and welcome the new week. Each week we pray for the opportunity that we will experience light and joy, gladness and honor.

Ora- what does it mean that the Jews had light? On Purim Mordechai is restored to a position of nobility, and the Jewish people once again have light, the light of Torah has been restored, the honor of Torah has been restored. Ultimately instead of facing destruction the Jewish people survive, and are allowed to resume construction of the Second Temple.

Purim is not only the celebration of our survival and triumph over Haman, but rather the eternal splendor , joy and divine light that the Torah’s wisdom can bring to our lives. Purim is a manifestation of the overwhelming joy of basking in the light that is Torah, the wisdom and inspiration that allows us to bring the light of the divine into our world.

compiled from various sources, not neccesarily from Reb Shlomo

Purim: Shlomo and the Egged Bus Drivers
Background

The Shabbat before Purim is Parshat Zachor. According to many Halachic authorities there is a Biblical requirement for everyone to hear the Torah reading on this Shabbat.

“Zachor” means to remember. On this Shabbat we take a second Torah out of the Ark and we read from the Book of Deuteronomy (25:17-19) about Amalek, a nation which always harbored an intense hatred for the Jews.

When the Jews left Egypt, there wasn’t a nation who dared to pick a fight with the Jews. Who in their right mind would start up with a people whose G-d just smacked around Egypt, the sole super-power of the times, with ten awesome plagues, and drowned the surviving few in a sea which split to allow the Jews to cross?! “Peoples heard and were agitated; terror gripped the dwellers of Phillistia. Then the chieftains of Edom were confounded. Trembling gripped the powers of Moab, all the dwellers of Canaan dissolved” (Exodus 15:14-15).

Only Amalek, driven by profound hatred which defied logic, came to battle the Jews.

We are commanded to constantly remember the evil deeds of Amalek and destroy them. We read this on the Shabbat before Purim because Haman was a descendant of Amalek.

A little Amalek lurks within every person. Amalek is the voice within the person which encourages a person not to allow him or herself to be inspired. No matter what sort of Divine Providence a person encounters — and everyone does — Amalek is shrugging it off.

Egged Bus Cooperative is the largest bus company in Israel, and the second largest in the world (after London Buses). A cooperative owned by its members, Egged employs 6,117 workers and has 3,303 buses for more than 1,038 service routes and 3,984 alternative routes all over Israel. Egged makes 44,957 trips every day, transporting about a million passengers over 810,519 km of roads. Egged’s bus routes reach most settlements, kibbutzim, moshavim and cities in Israel. Egged also runs local bus networks in most Israeli cities and towns.

Translation
The rose of Jacob thrilled with joy and exulted when they beheld Mordechai garbed in royal blue.

You have always been their salvation, their hope in every generation, to make known that all who place hope in You shall not be put to shame, nor shall all those who trust in You be disgraced forever.

Cursed be Haman who sought to destroy me; blessed be Mordechai the Jew. Cursed be Zeresh the wife of [Haman] who terrified me; blessed be Esther who [interceded] on my behalf. Cursed be all the wicked; blessed be all the righteous; and may Charvonah also be remembered favorably.

Transliteration
Shoshanat Yaakov, tzahala v’samecha birotam yachad tchelet Mordechai.

T’shuatam hayita lanetzach vetikvatam b’chol dor vador, lehodia shekol kovecha lo yevoshu v’lo yikalmu lanetzach kol hachosim bach.

Arur Haman asher bikesh l’abdi, baruch Mordechai haYehudi. Arura Zeresh, eshet mafchidi, beruchah Eshter ba’adi. Arurim kol hareshaim, beruchim kol hatzadikim. Vegam Charvonah zachur latov.
Click to Listen
Shoshanas Yaakov

Background

In Song of Songs, the Jewish nation is compared to a rose. Shoshanah (rose) is a reference to Shushan, recalling the verse “the city of Shushan celebrated and rejoiced” (Esther 8:15).

The reference to a shoshana (rose) is because there are two ways a people can be constituted.

1. Separate individuals who together possess an added quality expressing nationhood. Ex. A forest made up of trees. Each can stand on its own but together adding up to more than a sum.

2. Individuals who are incomplete in and of themselves and whose essence is that of belonging and interlacing in a group. Ex. Petals of a rose

The piyut expresses the second understanding of our nationhood, also described by Yakov and not by Yisroel.

Haim Yossef David Azoulay, known as Hida (1724-1807)The Chida adds that Purim is Roshei Taeivot (acronym)

P P’esach

V (vov)veSukkos

R Rosh Hashanah

Y Yom Kippur

M ‘M’atan Torah..

Audio

Click to listen

Purim: Nothing Else Matters

Background
The founder of the Chassidic Dynasty of Radomsk was Rabbi Shlomo HaCohen Rabinowicz ZT”L, author of the “Tiferes Shlomo” was also known as a great Baal Tfilah and composer of Chassidic music. He used to say: “New and beautiful nigunim for each holiday are just like a new and beautiful Esrog for Succoth.” The Chassidic Dynasty of Radomsk in Poland existed over four generations. Shlomo HaCohen Rabinowicz ZT”L (1801 – 1866), author of one of the best known classics of Chassidic literature; “Tiferes Shlomo” which is constantly being reprinted. He became Rov of Radomsk in 1842. Many stories are told about him.

The second Rebbe of Radomsk was Harav Avrohom Yissochor ZT”L, the Chesed L’ Avraham (1843 – 1892).

The third Rebbe of Radomsk was the Harav Yechezkel ZT”L, the Knesses Yechezkel (1864 – 1910).

The last Rebbe, Rabbi Shlomo Chanoch ZT”L HY”D, who perished with his family in 1942 in the Warsaw Ghetto was known for the network of Yeshivos “Keser Torah” he had established throughout Poland and Galicia. The Radomsker Chassidim during the period between the two World Wars, were counted among the three largest Chassidic movements in Poland.

Photo
In a car on the way to Krosno, the Radomsker Rebbe in the back, in the middle section of the car R’ Dovid Stahl from Lodz, R’ Hershel Pachter from Sosnovice, R’ Chaskel Besser as a young boy and his father, R’ Naftali Besser sitting next to the driver.

Audio

Click here to listen

Purim Blessings

Audio

Click here to listen to Reb Shlomo telling the story od Rabbi Yisroel of Ruzhin
The Shelach Manos of Tears

Background

In 1838, Rabbi Yisroel of Ruzhin was accused of complicity in the death of two Jews accused of being informers and was imprisoned for two years by the Russian authorities. On his release he moved to Kishinev, then to Iasi and other places before finally settling in Sadigora, Bukovina (Carpathian Mountains) in 1842. There he re-established his court in all its glory.