The Ariz”l writes יום כיפורים – כ-פורים, Purim is compared to Yom Kippur the holiest day of the year. Not only that, it seems to be on a higher level, for Yom Kippur is like Purim.
What does this mean? How are we to understand that Purim, a day of costumes, food and wine is holier than the day of Atonement, Yom Kippur?
Rav Dessler explains that Yom Kippur is the day of כי ביום הזה יכפר עליכם...לפני ה' תטהרו where Hashem forgives us and we become purified; we achieve a closeness to Hashem, yet this comes out of יראה, fear. On the other hand, it is on Purim where we get close to Hashem out of אהבה ושמחה, love and happiness; out of recognition for the miracles that Hashem did for us and for seeing His constant Hashgacha in all that goes on in the world. Despite our being in galut and His presence sometimes hidden, הסתר. Closeness achieved out of love and happiness is a much higher level than one derived out of fear.
To explore this a little deeper, let us look at the words of the Vilna Gaon:
"ענין פורים שהוא נגד יוהכ''פ, כי שמונה עשר ימים טובים בשנה, שנים שנים, שבעה שבעה."
“Purim corresponds to Yom Kippur, for there are 18 days of Yom Tov during the year, a pair of twos and a pair of sevens.” What does this refer to? The first set of two refers to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the second set of two refers to Shemini Atzeret and Shavuot. The first set of seven refers to the seven days of Sukkot and the second set of seven refers to the seven days of Pesach.
וכנגדן ח' ימי חנוכה" והנה ח' ימים שאין גומרין את ההלל”
There are eight days where we do not say a full Hallel, the last six days of Pesach, then Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. To make up for those eight days, Chazal instituted a full Hallel on Chanukah.
The Vilna Gaon concludes that since Chanukah has the full Hallel, it does not need the formal obligation of simcha; there is no obligation to eat. To make up for that simcha, we have 6 days of simcha on Pesach, and two days on Rosh Hashanah, where there is an obligation to eat and enjoy the day. Finally, there is Yom Kippur, a day of atonement and refraining from food and drink, so we actually must refrain from simcha. To make up for that, Chazal instituted Purim, where we are obligated not just to rejoice with food and drink, but to rejoice a lot, go to far lengths to have and create simcha. Where does this simcha come from? As we will see below, after the miracles of Purim occurred, the Jewish people re-accepted the Torah out of a love for Hashem. In fact, as we will see now, the connection between Yom Kippur and Purim rests on the common theme of Kabbalat HaTorah. I will develop this even further:
What connection is there between Yom Kippur and Kabbalat HaTorah?
The original Kabbalat HaTorah began with Moshe going up to Har Sinai with the Jews saying נעשה ונשמה; it was a total and unconditional acceptance of the Torah. When Moshe comes down from the mountain he observes the Jews committing the sin of the Golden Calf, where upon he smashes the luchot, necessitating a teshuva process for the Jewish people. After Moshe helped us achieve forgiveness, he came back down on Yom Kippur with the 2nd luchot.That is the simcha of Yom Kippur – it is a day of Kabbalat HaTorah that came about from genuine teshuvah.
Yet there was one significant drawback - the Kabbalat HaTorah on Yom Kippur was out of אונס it was somewhat forced. As we find the Gemara in Shabbat פח says,
ויתיצבו בתחתית ההר – א''ר אבדימי בר חמא בר חסא, מלמד שכפה הקב''ה עליהם הר כגיגית, ואמר להם, אם אתם מקבלים התורה מוטב, ואם לאו שם תהא קבורתכם.
That Hashem lifted the mountain above the heads of klal yisrael and said, “accept the Torah and it will be good for you, if you don’t it this will be your grave.”
How could this have been באונס? Did we not have free choice?
The Maharal explains that we were not a physically forced to accept the Torah, rather we were אנוסים מחמת הכרה, it was total awe. We had reached the level of פנים אל פנים דיבר ה' עמכם, with awe we saw the importance of Torah and that the entire world rests on it. So did we have real choice? Yes, we did choose, but in that position who could have rejected the Torah??
We now have a better understanding of the nature of Kabbalat HaTorah on Yom Kippur. Now, take a step back and ask, didn’t the Jews accept the Torah unconditionally, with נעשה ונשמע? Why did we need this second, more forceful acceptance? Furthermore, we will soon see there was a third Kabbalat HaTorah on Purim. Why the need for a third?
נעשה ונשמע was a great accomplishment, to take Torah upon yourself unconditionally, but the downside is that just like you accept it upon yourself, you can easily just as easily give it up. That is why Hashem chose to “lift the mountain over us.” There has to be a certain element of it being forced to show that Hashem is in charge and there are consequences to not following Him. Yet that is all out of יראה. It was a Kabbalat HaTorah, but somewhat short lived, as seen with the quick mistake at the sin of the Golden Calf, as many have wondered how could the Jews sin so quickly after receiving the Torah. I believe the answer to be they accepted the Torah out of awe; it was so overwhelming, and so it was short lived. It wasn’t something they could hold onto for the long-term.
The Gemara says, אמר רבא אעפ''כ הדור קבלוה בימי אחשורוש, דכתיב (אסתר ט) קיימו וקיבלו היהודים
“During the times of Achashveirosh the Jews re-accepted the Torah, as it says, קיימו וקיבלו.”
One could ask, the order of the pasuk is incorrect, first it should say they קיבלו and then it should say קיימו? Therefore, Chazal explain, קיימו מה שקיבלו כבר, they accepted that which they had previously accepted. Rashi explains, מאהבת הנס שנעשה להם, meaning the Torah that was accepted out of אונס at Har Sinai, was not accepted out of love.
Were there no other miracles earlier in history between the time of the 2nd luchot and Purim? Why was it specifically this miracle which caused the Jewish people to re-accept the Torah?
The Gemara in חולין says, אסתר מן התורה מנין? ואנכי הסתר אסתיר, Chazal are teaching us that the times of אסתר were a time of הסתר פנים – and it was through the hiddenness that Hashem showed his "אנכי", meaning, through His running the world, in what seems to be the simple acts of nature. Yet He tweaked it for the benefit of the Jewish people. Until this point, all the miracles were נסים גלוים, open and undeniable. Those do not have the same long lasting impact on us. As we explained above, it was those miracles that were the drawback to the Kabalat HaTorah on Yom Kippur, with the 2nd luchot. They were too open and undeniable – as we saw, the Jews didn’t know how to handle this and integrate it into their everyday lives – the result was the חטא העגל.
Perhaps now we appreciate what Purim is all about! It is all about our recognizing the hand of Hashem in our lives through the hidden miracles of Purim. From those miracles we see the Hand of Hashem in every act of nature. This should bring us to a closeness and a love for Him. This can bring about the strongest kind of Kabbalat HaTorah. It is for this reason, we needed a third Kabbalat HaTorah, one that through love could last us for all times. This is the simcha we all need to connect to on Purim!
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Links to Other Purim Torah
- CLICK HERE to read my blog post from last year on Parshat Zachor
- CLICK HERE to listen to a shiur I gave last year at the YU Midreshet Yom Rishon on this topic. CLICK HERE to view the source sheet.
- CLICK HERE to listen to a shiur I gave on the Laws of Purim. CLICK HERE to a short synopsis I wrote on the Laws of Purim.
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