Transcript
One of the closest students of the Baal Shem Tov, his attendant, was the grandfather of Rebbe Nachman. Rebbe Nachman of Horodenka. He had an amazing custom of always saying, gam zeh letovah, it’s all good. One time he was with the Baal Shem Tov and they were discussing the situation with Russia and the tzar. Rebbe Nachman Horodenka said, gam zeh letovah, it’s all good.
The Baal Shem Tov said jokingly, Baruch Hashem, you aren’t in the generation of Haman when he made his decree. What would have happened if Mordechai, who was obviously a tremendous tzaddik, was oblivious to what was going on? What would happen if Mordechai was oblivious to the decree of Haman? Just said, it doesn’t involve me.
In the second part of Likutei Moharan, Torah 7, ki merachamim manhigim, the merciful ones will be the leaders. Rebbe Nachman teaches that the perfection of the tzaddik is not to transcend the world, but the higher he goes, the more he shines his wisdom into the world. His wisdom of unity. By infusing his wisdom in his students, there’s no generation that’s orphaned.
Every single generation has tzaddikim, the continuum of the previous generation. As the verse says, in Kohelet, the sun rises and the sun sets. When this tzaddik leaves the world, another tzaddik is born. Every generation has true tzaddikim who are the aspect of Moshe. This is a deep glimpse into the essence of who Mordechai is.
According to the ARIZal, Mordechai is even on a higher level than Moshe himself. How can we even compare Mordechai to Moshe? Moshe is Moshe. According to the Kuzari, Mordechai is more expansive than Moshe. He’s rav chessed. Expansive loving kindness and that’s the expansiveness of Purim. How can we understand that?
The idea is that each tzaddik is on the shoulders of the previous generation. When it says that Moshe Rabbeinu passed away on the seventh of Adar and Moshe Rabbeinu was born on the seventh of Adar, we talked about the idea of the burial place of Moshe, as Moshe goes to a higher level. I alluded to another way of thinking about the birth of Moshe. Haman didn’t know that on the day that Moshe passed away, he left his da’as in the world. Haman didn’t know there was a Mordechai in the world. He didn’t know that Mordechai knew everything that was going on, that each word is a code word. He knew his da’as, everything, kol, is also a code word. Kol means everything that’s in the heaven and the earth. He had this expansive consciousness of knowing the highest of the highs and the lowest of the lows.
On Friday night, I was reminiscing with my oldest son, Yisrael Nachman. Way back when, on Purim, we would climb the stairs up to the top floor of this old Mea Shearim apartment, where the great tzaddik, Reb Yaakov Meir Schechter, lived. Each year, he would repeat this vort that made him the well‑known tzaddik that he is today.
Dali, Reb Yaakov Meir Schechter says, a person not only has to have emunas chachamim, belief in the righteous, but he also has to have emunah, faith, in the wicked. To believe that there are people who are actually plotting at all times against G‑d, His Torah and the Jewish people. According to Torah, Amalek is alive and well. From inception, from day one, the Amaleki people covered their identity. They appeared as Cana’anim. That’s their essence. They do not fight straight on. They fight behind a mask.
The same thing happened in the days of Sha’ul. The king of Amalek, Agog, appeared to be a gentleman. No one could fathom that the sophisticated Germans could perpetrate such atrocities against the Jews. Today, 80 years later, we are so much more sophisticated. It’s so much easier to hide behind a mask and mix up your opponent. Most of the world doesn’t even know that we’re at war. Not only does a person have to have emunas chachamim, belief in the righteous. They also have emunah, belief, that there’s people who are wicked. You cannot be oblivious of such a thing. If you are, you’re not a real tzaddik.
Mordechai knew, only those with wisdom of kol, all, all that’s in the heavens and the earth, know the plans of the enemies behind the masks. Believe me, they exist today big time. So what is one to do? How does one fight an invisible enemy? Especially in such a mixed‑up world of disinformation. In Likutei Halachos, The Laws of Gifts, Number 3, Rebbe Nosson teaches that one needs to go in the footsteps of our forefathers. Also in the ways of Mordechai.
Listen to these powerful words. Therefore, this war is the most difficult war in the world, the war against Amalek. He is the one mixing up the world and making it impossible for us to discern where the truth is. We live in a generation where falsehood appears to be truth. This is the aspect of the birth pains before Mashiach comes. Where the world is mixed up and the rectification, the tikkun, is only simplicity, temimus and peshitus, that anybody that wants to have mercy on his own soul, not to lose hope, each person according to the pain in his heart, has to behave with simplicity and truth and to scream out to Hashem, show me the absolute truth, that I should know who to connect to that’s going to connect me to the truth.
Rebbe Nosson says, this is what Rebbe Nachman teaches, that the tikkun, the rectification, is to get up in the middle of the night and to lament over the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash. Because it was our deeds that destroyed the Beis Hamikdash. In every generation that we’re not building it, we’re holding it back. Anybody that goes in this way, the derech hayashon, the old way, the ways of our forefathers, to get up in the middle of the night and introspect and to lament over the destruction of our own personal souls that caused the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash. To scream out to Hashem, as is fit, then certainly he will merit to know the absolute truth. Ki hachafetz b’emes mosrim lo ma’alah shel emes. Somebody who desires truth, they give over to him an angel of truth.
This is exactly what Mordechai did. When he saw the great power of Haman, as it says, and Mordechai knew everything that was happening in the world. The tzaddik knows the lowest of the lows, but he also knows the highest of the highs. The mercy of Hashem. Don’t forget, Mordechai is the numerical value of rav chessed, infinite mercy. Mordechai is the aspect of the tzaddik of the generation. He knew how the accuser messes up the world. It’s impossible for a person to know where the truth is. So Mordechai tore his clothes and he went out into the city and screamed a bitter cry. All the worthy Jews followed in the footsteps of Mordechai.
On ta’anis Esther, we can align with the prayers of Mordechai and Esther. We have to believe that there’s no orphan generation. Still today there are simple, holy people that are going in this way. It’s my mission to connect the world to these people. There is a real problem and there is a real response, a tikkun, tikkun chatzos. This is what I’ve been trying to do to bring down these ideas to the world. These are lofty, lofty ideas. The people in the generation of Mordechai laughed at him. Calm down. Take off those funny sackcloths. Drink a l’chaim with the king. It’s all kosher. Integrate. This is not politically correct. You’re causing problems.
Mordechai knew. He knew that this was the tikkun. Hashem transforms all that lament over Zion, p’eir tachas eifer, splendor instead of ashes. It’s clear to all eyes, through this story, that the man that donned the sackcloth, that didn’t care about his honor, in the end, and Mordechai goes out in front of the king in royal garments. This is splendor instead of ashes. It’s clear, Mordechai knew. He was going in the ways of the forefathers. The first redemption was through chatzos laylah. The story of Purim turns around in the middle of the night when the king can’t sleep. The king can’t sleep because there’s no Beis Hamikdash. This is the turning point, the hour where the chut shel chessed, the lovingkindness is aroused. This is our secret weapon.
So too, hundreds of times in the Zohar, it says that the final redemption will be through chatzos laylah. There’s an idea that everything will turn around for the best. This is an amazing story. We go from the darkest calamity, the decree of Haman and in a matter of years, the son of Esther, of all things, builds the second temple, within a matter of 15 years. V’nahafochu, don’t give up. There’s hope. There’s a rectification.
In the merit of all these tzaddikim, the verse that I say every night will come about, the verse in Yeshayah. The whole world will be filled with da’as and there won’t be any strife. There won’t be any war. In my holy mountain, ki beisi beis tefillah, from my house to the house of prayer for all the nations of the world. There’s an idea that everything will turn around for the best speedily in our days.
