On Motza’ei Shabbos, March 16, Amit Yaghoubi, well-known inspirational speaker, shared a beautiful shiur at Congregation Ahavas Yisroel. She began by stating that this year had been out of the ordinary. We want it to turn around from sadness to simchah. She shared a story with a lesson. A young woman became an orphan recently. She had very little money in the bank, but she called her rabbi and told him she wanted to donate all of her money to purchase tzitzis for the soldiers in Gaza. The rabbi first tried to discourage her from using all her money in case she needed it. She cried and was insistent that she wanted to perform this mitzvah. She said it would be a merit for her father, who was recently niftar.
She asked the rabbi to purchase the tzitzis and to also deliver them to Gaza. He ended up purchasing them and bringing them to Gaza. He was stopped at a checkpoint or juncture, where there were a lot of soldiers and there was an active terrorist on the loose.
The soldiers there asked for the tzitzis and so he began handing them out. One soldier in the distance, who was at his post and couldn’t move, called to the rabbi and asked him to throw a pair to him.
The rabbi aimed but the tzitzis landed on a hill at an angle from the soldier’s post. The soldier was keeping an eye on the tzitzis when he noticed that they were moving. It turned out they’d landed on top of a ditch and the terrorist was inside. The soldier shot at the terrorist. He said the tzitzis saved his life.
There is more to this amazing story. A man who lives in Florida heard this story about the orphan girl giving all her money, and he said that he would like to be her father and pay for her wedding and her apartment.
Amit shared that when Esther went to the king voluntarily, it meant that she was willing to give up everything in order to save the Jewish People. She noted how this orphan girl in the above story acted like Esther.
When Hashem sees that we are willing to give everything to help B’nei Yisrael, then Hashem helps.
Esther was Esther bas Avichayil. “Avi Chayil” means “my father the soldier.” Sadly, there are so many Esther bas Avichayils since October 7. How many will plead for us this year on Purim!
She then shared that sometimes we find simchah where we least expect to find it. Hashem gave us two Adars this year. Hashem wants us to find many ways to create happiness in our lives. She noted that the time of her lecture was Moshe Rabbeinu’s yahrzeit.
She taught that we have to ask ourselves if we are being pushed by our physical side or our spiritual side. The simchah of Purim is involved in physicality but it doesn’t enslave me. Hashem wants us to love our physical world to use it to serve Hashem but not to be a slave to it.
David HaMelech taught in T’hilim that Hashem has many ways to save us. We think we have to give Hashem advice on how to save a situation, but this is not true.
She then shared a story about the Chozeh of Lubin. He sent his disciples on a long journey to help a couple who lived in a place with no mohel so their baby could have a bris milah. The disciples encountered heavy winds and feared they would never make it in time, so they davened for the winds to stop.
Later, the Chozeh explained that this was wrong. Hashem had sent those winds to carry away a dreaded cattle disease. The idea here is that they should have just davened to arrive for the bris milah on time. They shouldn’t be davening to ask Hashem how to do it.
The Purim story wants to teach us how big Hashem is. We don’t need to figure out how He can save us. She shared how the Sin of the Golden Calf happened because the Jews panicked. They were afraid that Moshe Rabbeinu wasn’t coming back. She said that the mitzvah of Purim is to get to the place of “I don’t know,” and I’m not panicking. “We have to say, ‘I have no control, but I’m going to smile.’”
The simchah of Purim is “I don’t know how you are going to save us, Hashem, but that is okay because You know. In addition, I am happy that I don’t know.” There are parts of our lives that we don’t have answers to, and we don’t know how things will get figured out. She shared that we should think to ourselves about these things that we don’t know and thank Hashem for them. At Esther’s seudah, where the king told Esther that she could have what she wanted, we should ask Hashem, the King, for what we want. We don’t tell Hashem how to fix our issues, but we tell Him we are happy that He can fix them.
The main avodah in this world is “I should know to bring to my heart what I know and feel.” She shared that there is such a disconnect between the head and the heart. “Make sure your t’filah muscles are strong for Purim.” Daven and tap into the kol Yaakov. We have t’filah muscle memory from generations. We should come into Purim with the koach to see the final g’ulah.
The Queens community is grateful for this beautiful shiur.
By Susie Garber
