The Yahrtzeits (anniversary of the death) of many great Rebbe’s who inspired Reb Shlomo are celebrated during Adar. On Adar 4 is the Yahrtzeit of Reb Leib Sarah’s (1730-1796), a disciple of the Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov. One of the “hidden tzaddikim,” Rabbi Leib spent his life wandering from place to place to raise money for the ransoming of imprisoned Jews and the support of other hidden tzaddikim. On the 13th Adar we commemorate the Yahrtzeit of Reb Moshe Feinstein (March 3, 1895- March 23, 1986) and on Adar 20 we remember RebYoel Sirkes (1560-1640), who authored of the Bayit Chadash (“Bach”) commentary on the Halachic work, Beit Yosef. On the 23rd of Adar we commemorate the death of Reb Yitzchak Meir Altar (1799-1866), author of Chiddushei Harim who was a disciple of the Maggid of Koshnitz and Rabbi Simcha Bunim of Peshischa, and the founder of the “Ger” (Gerer) Chassidic dynasty. All his 13 sons had died in his lifetime, and he was succeeded (in 1870) by his young grandson, Rabbi Yehudah Leib Alter (the “Sefat Emmet”).

Reb Shlomo was always in “top form” during the week of Purim. He shared with us some of his deepest and most poignant Torah’s and Stories on Purim.

Here are some videos, music and stories and gevalt Purim Torahs!!

Be sure to come back on a daily basis as new content is added frequently!!

• Purim: Loving your neighbor like yourself
• Hamavdil Bein Kodesh L’chol
• Purim and Shelach Manos: Sending our love and our thoughts
• Purim: The beginning of our redemption
• Purim and Pessach: The beginning of our redemption
• Layehudim hayta ora: For the Jews there was great light
• Purim: Patience for people we love the most
• Purim: Shlomo and the Egged Bus Drivers
• Shoshanas Yaakov
• Purim: And Esther wrote – The role of Women in Judaism
• Purim: Nothing Else Matters
• Purim Blessings
• Purim: Tears as shelach manos
• The Fixing of Purim
• How Pinchas learned to say “GOOD PURIM ! ! !
• Saul and Mordechai: The holiest level of completely hating evil

He says, “Rebbe, that’s a good commandment for all year. But Purim I have to get drunk. So I gotta drink.” The Rebbe looked at him for a long time. He says, “If you love your neighbor like yourself, you can get drunk by giving a glass of beer to somebody else.” L’Chaim! L’Chaim!”

photo is of Rabbi Shlomo Halberstam, the first Rebbe of Bobov.

Everybody knows that the downfall of the world is ‘loshon harah’. The Gemara says that Haman is the master of ‘loshon hara’. Mordechai and Ester are masters of NON-’loshon hara’. On Purim we do not send ‘shalach manos’ face to face; we are telling each other, even behind your back, I shall not speak evil about you.

Anybody who has ever been up all night has tasted the awesome depth and sweetness of davening at dawn. Have you ever prayed by the Holy Wall at dawn?

So Purim is the beginning of our redemption. We’re waking up being drunk with the joy of being Jewish. Dawn is still too dark; we don’t really see each other. We only see with the eyes of our soul and my soul sees only G-d. On Purim I send out gifts but not face to face. This is how I let you know I see you with the eyes of my soul. That is why I love you so much.

from a Purim letter from Reb Shlomo zt”l 5752

Photo

Reb Shlomo with Zusha Ben Avraham Zimmerman

According to our holy rabbis it is the time when babies wake up and want to be nursed, the time when husband and wife wake up and want to be so close to each other. It is the time when the light of the Messiah is shining. It is a time when everyone dreams that today is the day of their redemption. Anybody who has ever been up all night has tasted the awesome depth and sweetness of davening at dawn. Have you ever prayed by the Holy Wall at dawn?

So Purim in the beginning of our redemption. We’re waking up and being drunk with the joy of being Jewish. Dawn is still too dark; we don’t really see each other. We only see with the eyes of our soul and my soul sees only G-d. On Purim I send out gifts but not face to face, This is how I let you know I see you with the eyes of my soul. That is why I love you so much.

Then, for thirty days we prepare ourselves. The way I prepare myself is by realizing that I don’t have vessels for redemption, What I must do is get rid of the old dirty vessels.

We are living in a crazy world, Everything is out of proportion, everything is inflated. The matzoh is just water and flour, the way it really is. Chometz is being blown up beyond proportion. On Pesach we change our dishes, everything is new. New light for new vessels. We realize we were only slaves because we did not receive G-d’s light with the right vessels. This is also true between other people and ourselves. On Pesach we have new vessels for each other’s love. The awakening is on Purim. But Purim is just one day, one minute. Light beyond vessels. Drunk. On Pesach I have new vessels.

Is there anything greater than the love of children for their parents or parents for their children? Is there anything sweeter than the questions of children? Seder night begins with children asking us the deepest questions. And we don’t really answer them, we just make the questions deeper; we are just telling children that we have the same questions all our lives.

The most terrible thing is that we keep pretending to our children that we do know the answers. On Seder night we admit we don’t know. But when Elijah the Prophet comes he will answer all the questions, no, he will not answer all the questions, but suddenly, in his presence, the questions will disappear.

We have no vessels to feel the pain of homeless people. That is why we are afraid to let them into our house. There is no peace in the world because we don’t have vessels for it. Yet on Pesach, the night of redemption, I have vessels for the homeless and I invite them to my house. On Seder night, hopefully, I have vessels to be one with my children. Let it be this year that we will have vessels to be one with the world.

There, is a matzoh of this world and there is a matzoh from heaven. The matzoh we eat at the beginning of the seder is matzoh from this world, matzoh of the earth. But at the end of the seder, when our children bring us a piece of matzoh, this is the matzoh from heaven. The matzoh which reaches so deep in us and makes us all into vessels to receive the light of Elijah, the light of redemption.

Some of us don’t even have vessels for our own souls. Do you know why we eat blown up bread? Why our lives are so blown up? It is because we cannot the sadness of the poverty of the bread in our lives. So we need to blow it up.

Our children steal the matzoh from us and bring it back to us later on. They am telling us, gevalt, are you holy. Parents, do you know what you could be to your children? Each time we console our children, when we take care of them, we become their Elijah the Prophet. Each time we kiss our children we are bringing the world closer to the Messiah. Seder night we are giving over our Yiddishkeit to our children. Please be so careful to give over the best to our children. We so often don’t teach our children because our Yiddishkeit has become blown up. So many people don’t believe in Israel anymore because they found the blown up Israel. On Seder night we give over Yiddishkeit the way it really is. On Seder night we fix our poor children who are turned off by blown up Yiddishkeit. What a night, what a night of all nights!

I wish you, brothers and sisters, the most glorious, divine seder.

Reprinted from Kehilat Jacob News New York, 5752

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..