Purim the Greatest Holiday
Like Yom Kippur
The myth is that Purim is a minor, minor holiday; a fun time. It certainly is not a serious or major Holiday. It has even been compared to the pagan Halloween.
To the initiates in Kabbalah Purim is known as the most important Holiday. Indeed, the Zohar, the principal work of Kabbalah states that the Holiday of Yom Kippur is almost as holy as Purim. This assertion is based on the full name in the Torah for Yom Kippur which is Yom Kippurim,, which can be read as “a day like Purim.”
Whatever we can accomplish on Yom Kippur we can also accomplish on Purim, with one caveat: We do it with feasting instead of fasting. We do it with joy and not with somberness.
More than Shavuos
If this is not enough to convince the skeptics who do not take mystical literature that seriously, the Talmud compares Purim to the Holiday of Shavuos, when we received the Torah at Mount Sinai. Purim is like Shavuos, but even more profound. The Talmud states that on Purim the Jewish people truly accepted the Torah without any compulsion, in contrast to the way they received the Torah at Mount Sinai On Shavuos, our Sages tell us, : Kafa aleihem har c’gigis, G-d suspended the mountain over our heads and “forced” us to accept the Torah.
Chassidus explains that they really had no choice because G-d showered them with such love, they couldn’t say no.
By contrast, during the time of Purim, Jews did not see G-d’s love; He was utterly concealed as the name Esther indicates. And yet, they had Mesiras Nefesh-self-sacrifice and did not give up their Judaism to save their lives.
This was the true acceptance of Torah.
This profound acceptance of the Torah was epitomized by Mordechai who is given the sobriquet Yehudi-even though he was from the tribe of Benjamin because he acknowledged one G-d and would not bow to anything.
We saw this refusal to bow in more recent times in the tragic and brutal murder of Daniel Perl, whose last words were: “I am a Jew.” This encapsulated the Shema Yisroel, affirming defiantly his belief in one G-d.
Story of Rabbi Hershberg who did not bow: Rebbe: “Don’t lose your gaon yaakov.” His name was Avraham Mordechai.
The Holiday of the Future
If comparing Purim favorably with Yom Kippur and Shavuos is not enough, the Midrash tells us that Purim is the only Holiday (some versions include Chanukah and Yom Kippur) that will be around in the Messianic Age. Its message is so powerful that it will still be prominent in the glorious future.
From the book Light from the Future: Purim by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
