Imagine how you would feel the day you won the lottery! It would make no difference whether it was $45 million, $161 million or $276 million.
A spirit of overflowing glee and insurmountable joy would exude from every part of your being.
Undoubtedly, the unquashed, exuberant feeling would last for at least a day or so, and would only slightly wane over the next several days and weeks. In a more spiritual vein, the feeling of pristine spiritual purity attained after Yom Kippur likewise continues with us in the days that follow as we try to not let go of our elevated plane. The days after Purim are unique in that they combine the thrill of our physical lives being spared together with the spiritual elevation attained from an understanding of the Megillah’s events, and the profound lessons to be learned from the Mitzvos performed on Purim day. At the very least, we should now be experiencing the joy of being alive--and of having the zechus of making the most of our precious life through the study of Torah and performance of Mitzvos.
The Megillah relates that after Haman was advised that he was the only minister to be invited to an exclusive party with the King and Queen, he felt especially “Sameach V’Tov Lev” (Esther 5:9)--**happy and glad of heart**. Why was he so happy and glad of heart? Because there was no other person in the world like him--it was the King, the Queen...and him alone!
Rav Eliyahu Schneider, Shlita, explains that we, too, should feel this same elation in that we have been especially chosen--chosen like no other nation--to be Hashem’s standard bearers for the world by dutifully performing the Torah and Mitzvos. He incredibly points to the words of the Tochacha (the reproof) in the Torah which unequivocally teaches, in an almost identical language, that the reason we will suffer the Tochacha’s fate, is “because you did not serve Hashem “**happy and a glad of heart**”--i.e., that we did not properly appreciate and bask in our own uniqueness (Devarim 28: 47)! Furthermore, in contrast to Haman, however--who lived only for himself and for his position in this world--we live for infinitely greater purposes and for eternity.
Winning the state lottery compared to the enormity of what we can accomplish would be like telling a short joke at a four-hour long Purim Seudah!
It is fascinating to note that Rav Amram Goan writes that the Minhag in the two main yeshivos during the time of the Geonim, Sura and Pumbedisa, was to actually recite Tachanun on Purim--“for it is a day of miracles, and upon which we were redeemed, and so we must ask for mercy that we will be redeemed in the end in the same way that we were initially redeemed.” As we enter the portal between the Geulah of Purim and the Geulah of Mitzraim, a time in which for the next two weeks we will all be reciting Tachanun and/or other prayers for Geulah, we should be very mindful to recite them with strong and special Kavannah because, without mincing words, it is, simply stated, a time of Geulah. Everyone should try and keep a daily record, or at least a real mental note, of the special and sincere prayers he has made for the Geulah during this auspicious period.
Although we take leave of the Megillah for the time being, we must always remember the words of the Chovos HaLevavos (Shaar Cheshbon HaNefesh)--“Ki HaYamim Megillos--for each one of our days are scrolls,” we must write upon them that which we should [be proud to] remember about them. Each one of us is important, and each page, each scroll, of the book of our life, is filled with potential that only we--and no one else--can achieve.
We should be as elated every day with the results of our own personal Megillah, as we are with the outcome of the Megillah on Purim!
--------------------------
Reprinted with permission from Hakhel MIS
--------------------------
Important Numbers
