Kiymu V’Kiblu – Purim

אמר רב אחא בר יעקב מכאן מודעא רבה לאורייתא. אמר רבא אף על פי כן הדור קבלוה בימי אחשורוש. דכתיב קימו וקבלו היהודים. קימו מה שקבלו כבר.

So what does it mean that מכאן מודעא רבה לאורייתא? It obviously isn't intended to be understood literally. I mean we see that Hakadosh Baruch Hu certainly held us accountable from the time of maamad Har Sinai until kiyemu v'kiblu. So certainly the moda raba l'oraissa isn't literal. So what exactly is the pshat here? Whatever it was that was provided, why was it davka then? And finally the lashon of b'yemei Achashveirosh is a funny lashon. Say in the Al Hanisim we don't talk about b'yemei Achashveirosh, we talk about b'yemei Mordechai v'Esther. When we talk about different tkufos in Jewish history, so the natural way to refer to the tkufa is b'yemei Mordechai v'Esther, not b'yemei Achashveirosh. So l'chora a pshat is as follows. I think the Maharal in one place writes that מלמד שכפה הקדוש ברוך הוא עליהם את ההר כגיגית isn't to be understood literally. It doesn't mean Hakadosh Baruch Hu picked up the mountain and that there was actual physical intimidation and coercion. Doesn't mean anything. Nothing happened other than that which we read about in the Chumash. That Klal Yisrael lived through the year in which Hakadosh Baruch Hu performed the eser makkos, they lived through yetzias Mitzrayim, krias Yam Suf. The vividness and the clarity with which they experienced Hakadosh Baruch Hu's presence in the world, the immediateness of their experience of Hakadosh Baruch Hu was just so overwhelming that there wasn't any kind of normal debate or struggle whether or not to be mekabel Torah, it was just so overwhelming and overpowering that that's what resulted in kabbalas haTorah. The moda raba l'oraissa doesn't mean literally a moda raba l'oraissa, but moda raba l'oraissa means al pi the Maharal that we're called upon to be oved Hashem when Hakadosh Baruch Hu's presence is more hidden in the world, when Hakadosh Baruch Hu is a Kel Mistater. The moda raba l'oraissa means but the circumstances, the conditions under which Klal Yisrael was mekabel Torah was not that at all. They were mekabel Torah under circumstances where Yad Hashem, Hakadosh Baruch Hu's presence was so vivid and the giluy Shechina was so powerful and so overwhelming that the struggles that we have in what for us is the more normal state of affairs when Hakadosh Baruch Hu is a Kel Mistater is a totally different reality. And that's what it means that הדור קבלוה בימי אחשורוש. הדר קבלוה בימי אחשורוש. That's why takeh says bimei Achashverosh not bimei Mordechai v'Esther. That the point was that even when outwardly, in terms of geopolitics, b'derech hateva, it seemed like this was the the era of Achashverosh, not the era of Mordechai v'Esther. When Achashverosh was b'tokpo, when Hakadosh Baruch Hu's presence takeh remained hidden, and the nes of Purim was a nes nistar, so that already simulated the the actual conditions in which we have to be oveid Hashem. That's why davka then, at a time of מניין לאסתר מן התורה, anochi haster astir, davka in a time which appeared to be bimei Achashverosh, when Hakadosh Baruch Hu was again b'vchinas Keil Mistater, so this was the the corrective as it were to the כפה עליהם הר כגיגית. So what's the the just very briefly rabosai, let's just, so what exactly is the the approach? How do we come to grips again with this challenge, in many ways perhaps the most basic and fundamental challenge of maintaining and intensifying our avodas Hashem even without the overwhelming gilluy Shechina to which Klal Yisrael was zocheh prior to Ma'amad Har Sinai? So how do we maintain our avodas Hashem when we're relating to Hakadosh Baruch Hu who's Keil Mistater? So משל משל למה הדבר דומה. But let's say you live in a climate where it gets really really frigid. Way out in I don't know Minnesota or something, it can drop to 20 below zero, 30 below zero, and then with the windchill factor and on the radio they they warn everyone that there's a risk of frostbite and you can't leave any skin exposed, you have to wrap a scarf around your face. Okay. So that's one occasion that a person would have to be careful to be dressed that way. Another occasion might be that there's a certain bug, a certain virus going around and and they're afraid that if it begins to spread too much and and it's contagious that it could develop into an epidemic. So they tell people when you're outdoors, again, to make sure you're not breathing in the air and be more susceptible to infection, so you should make sure again to cover cover your face. Okay, basically the same same prescription. In the first case, a person doesn't have to concentrate on not forgetting, a person doesn't have to concentrate on not being masiach da'as because he walks outside, if he's not covered up, he's going to just feel that frigidity. And so now he doesn't really have to, hessech hadaas is not a pitfall with which he has to be concerned because again the experience of the cold doesn't allow him to forget. The virus, the germs that might be in the air, which might possibly trigger the epidemic is not something that the person sees, it's not something that he really experiences. Here he's going to have to hold, here he's going to have to make a concerted effort to remind himself that there's danger of an epidemic in town and that I have to take precautions. So here it's going to have to be an avodah not to be massiach da'as. The person who needs to wear the scarf around his mouth, around his face because of the cold, he doesn't have an avodah not being massiach da'as. But the other person certainly does have it and that is his avodah. If the reality doesn't overwhelm you, if the reality doesn't envelop you, so then the avodah is that a person has to work on not being massiach da'as. Now of course ultimately, the goal is that even while Hakadosh Baruch Hu is keil mistater, that a person is so acutely aware of His presence that he's always on that madrega of that the mashal is with the cold air. But talking on a more realistic level, if we're not holding on that madrega where a person feels and senses Hakadosh Baruch Hu's presence at all times, talking on a more realistic level, so then a person's avodah is to work not to be massiach da'as. Which basically is what the first Rema in Shulchan Aruch is in quoting the Rambam is teaching us.

שויתי ה' לנגדי תמיד הוא כלל גדול בתורה ובמעלות הצדיקים שישים האדם אל לבו שהקדוש ברוך הוא אשר מלא כל הארץ כבודו עומד עליו ורואה במעשיו.

So it requires a שישים האדם אל לבו, it requires a very concerted effort not to be distracted, not to forget. It's interesting al derech agada, the Gemara in Berachos we learned last year, the beginning of the fifth perek, the Gemara tells the story that

רבי ירמיה הוה יתיב קמיה דרבי זירא חזייה דהוה קבדח טובא.

I guess we would say he was on a high, so he thought he was a little bit of too much of a high. So amar lei בכל עצב יהיה מותר כתיב. It's good to be somewhat restrained. So he answers him amar lei ana tefillin manachna. What does that mean? So Rashi says k'badach tuvah he thought that he was יותר מדי ונראה כפורק עול. And Rebbi Yirmiya answers Rebbi Zeira tefillin manachna, I'm wearing tefillin והם עדות שממשלת קוני עלי. And the tefillin are a test to the fact that I'm carrying ol malchus shamayim. So it's interesting al derech agada, tefillin has an issur hessech hadaas. Tefillin is עדות שממשלת קוני עלי precisely because of the fact. That by tefillin you have an issur hesach hadaas. Simply, our avodah is to try to stay in touch with reality. When Chazal say on איש איש כי תשטה אשתו that

אין אדם חוטא אלא אם כן נכנס בו רוח שטות.

So what's the definition of a shoteh? Definition of a shoteh, again, not the way we use it colloquially, but al pi din, is someone who's out of touch with reality. Ikh veys he's lan beveis hakvaros, and the other simanim that the Gemara gives us. He's out of touch with reality. A person sins when he forgets Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Like the Rabbeinu Yonah explains in Sha'arei Teshuvah that cheit results because אין זה אלא מפני היות השם רחוק מכליותיו. We chotei when we forget Hakadosh Baruch Hu. That's what Chazal say,

אין אדם חוטא אלא אם כן נכנס בו רוח שטות.

That's the ultimate ruach shtus. Shtus means again to be out of touch with reality. So we think to be out of touch with reality is if I begin flapping and tell the tower to clear the runway, so we think that's out of touch with reality. Alright, so there's a case to be made for that also. But Chazal tell us, Chazal tell us the ultimate, the ultimate ruach shtus, a person forgets Hakadosh Baruch Hu. That's the ultimate ruach shtus. The ultimate ruach shtus, but very, very easy. Again, ultimately the goal is that through a life of mesiras nefesh for Torah u'mitzvos, for Talmud Torah, dikduk b'mitzvos, that a person becomes instinctively aware of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And that's the goal to which we to which we work. But the only way we get to that goal and what's crucial until or as one works towards realizing that goal is that there just has to be a very conscious, concerted effort not to be maysiach daas, not to allow ourselves to forget Hakadosh Baruch Hu. The Rambam says in the beginning of Hilchos Brachos, that's why Chazal bombarded us as it were with chiyuv brachos כדי לזכור את הבורא תמיד. Again, because Chazal recognized that this is the, this is the avodah of a person. It's what makes or breaks his avodas Hashem and it requires an effort, requires an effort. Ultimately, again with a little bit of a mashal, just like Reb Chaim Volozhiner writes in Nefesh HaChaim, he says the context of our Talmud Torah is supposed to be yiras Hashem and therefore before beginning to learn a person should learn a little bit sifrei yira, be misbonen about yira and even he says the need may be there periodically over the course of his time learning he may need to stop for a few moments to reinforce that. So what's the Nefesh HaChaim telling us? That when we want to create a certain context for what we're doing, so periodically that context may need to be reinforced. So certainly the same way that's true in terms of the יראת ה' היא אוצרו, the way that's true for yiras Hashem being the context of talmud Torah, it's certainly true for shivisi Hashem l'negdi as the context for everything we do in life. And if even in the course of talmud Torah we have to stop periodically to remind ourselves, to reinforce that context, so l'chora it's certainly the case that for the kiymu v'kiblu it also requires again periodic reinforcement. One of the biggest, biggest problems that we have is that we live too much just by routine, we live too much just by following schedules, and instead of doing that reflectively, we just do it too, too, too reflexively. And unless one is already holding on a madreiga where all one's instincts and all one's reflexes have been molded by emuna and by avodas Hashem, so that's going to be at odds with the kiymu v'kiblu. Person has to constantly be reflecting. My father zichrono l'vracha was was fond of a story, and I don't think I'm forgetting this detail but maybe I am, I think that it wasn't part of the story as it was told, about a rebbe who was out for a stroll at night and he was walking on the outskirts of a field. And the ba'al hasadeh had hired a watchman, a guard to protect the field. So the rebbe sees him there and he says to him, "So tell me, who do you work for?" So he tells him, "Such and such," and he, and then he says to the rebbe, "And who do you work for?" And the rebbe says, "I want you should come, you should come ask me that question on a regular basis, and who do you work for?" So even anshei madreiga feel that they need that reminder, so על אחת כמה וכמה we do, and certainly that should be a major focus of our avoda this time of year, the time of קימו וקבלו בימי אחשורוש.