Once there was a millionaire, who collected alligators. He kept them in the pool in the back of his mansion. The millionaire also had a beautiful single daughter. One day, the millionaire decides to throw a huge party, and during the party he announces, "My dear guests, I have a proposition to every man here. I will give one million dollars, or my daughter, to the man who can swim across this pool full of alligators and emerge unharmed!" As soon as he finished his last word, there was the sound of a large splash in the pool. The guy in the pool was swimming with all his might, and the crowd began to cheer him on. Finally, he made it to the other side of the pool unharmed.
The millionaire was impressed. He said, "That was incredible! Fantastic! I didn't think it could be done! Well, I must keep my end of the bargain. Do you want my daughter or the one million dollars?" The guy catches his breath, then says, "Listen, I don't want your money! And I don't want your daughter! I want the idiot who pushed me into the pool!"
The approach of Queen Esther, who defeated Haman. Our Sages asked a strange question in the Talmud: “Where do we find a hint in the Torah to the Book of Esther. The Gemara answers with the words, “I will hide my face on that day.” Hashem’s most fearful warning had always been that there would come a time when there would be hester panim, the concealed face of God, when it would look as if, God forbid, Hashem stopped communicating with us.
That is how Chazal found a hint of Esther. We know that Esther is one of the only two books in Tanach that don’t contain the name of Hashem, the other one being Shir HaShirim. But whereas Shir HaShirim is a book about Hashem’s love for us, Esther is a fearful book because it records the moment when it was resolved “to destroy, to slay, and to exterminate all Jews, young and old, children and women, in a single day,” when the first warrant for genocide against the Jewish people was issued. Purim is the only festival in the Jewish year set entirely in Galut, in Exile.
Every other festival is based on an event that happened in Israel or on the journey toward Israel. Purim alone is set in the place of hester panim, when we are out of Israel, and where it is harder to feel the presence of God.
That is the Book of Esther. It comes from an almost secularized world, where we search for the presence of God in history, and fail to find it. Yet there is one line in the Megillah that cuts through like a knife and represents the most powerful statement in Judaism I know that Hashem has not abandoned us.
Towards the end of the fourth chapter, we find Esther telling her Uncle Mordechai about all the problems in interceding with King Achashverosh regarding the fate of the Jewish people. Mordechai listens and then responds to her with the famous words, "If you are silent and you do nothing at this time, somebody else will save the Jewish people. “But who knows, was it not for just this moment that you became a Queen, with access to King Achashverosh in the royal palace?"
This is the ultimate statement of divine providence, that wherever we are, sometimes Hashem is asking us to realize why He put us here, with these gifts, at this time, with these dangers, in this place. is our fundamental belief that God never abandons us, puts us here with something to do. Even in the worst hiding of God, if you listen hard enough, you can hear Him calling to us as individuals, saying "Was not for this very challenge that you are here in this place at this time?"
We don't know exactly how Hashem writes the script of history, but we do know that Hashem is calling on each of us, saying there is a reason why we are here, because He has something for us to do, something that only we can do. We can hear Hashem’s voice even when there's hester panim, when He appears hidden, even when the call, Vayikra, is written with a very small Aleph that you can hardly see and hear.
In the third chapter of The Laws of Repentance, Rambam teaches us how throughout the year, we should see ourselves as if we as individuals and the entire world collectively are evenly poised between merit and sin. Our next deed may tilt the balance of our life, it may tilt the balance of somebody else's life, even tilt the balance of the world. We never know when an act of ours will have consequences. Did Esther, growing up with Mordechai, know that one day, the entire future of the Jewish people will rest with her? You never know what significance one friendship or one little moment might have for you and for somebody else that might change the world.
Sometimes it seems so hard to believe all of this.
So here is a story we got to hear this week – and as would be expected it is connected to this verse, as it is a story about a book called Devar Malchut.
For 505 days, Omer Shem Tov, abducted by Hamas on Oct. 7th, 2023, endured extreme conditions, spending much of his time confined in underground tunnels and even solitary confinement.
The conditions of his captivity were severe. At one point, Omer was moved to a deep, narrow tunnel where he was locked in a tiny underground cell. He had no electricity, only a small flashlight, which often ran out of battery, leaving him in complete darkness. His food rations were reduced to just biscuits, and the water he received was salty and undrinkable. His father described how in his final days in that cell, Omer struggled to hold on both physically and mentally. He did not know how he would make it.
Amidst the horrors, Omer found an unexpected source of strength – a booklet called “Dvar Malchut,” left behind by an IDF soldier. Amid the darkness of captivity, the words of Torah became a beacon of
hope, helping him hold onto his faith. Now, after his release, Shem Tov and his family are searching for the soldier, Yoel Elbaz, to personally thank him for the spiritual lifeline that sustained him through his ordeal.
This is an unbelievable story.
Chabad in Israel publishes a weekly booklet of around 200 pages, including Torah learning for the week. The Torah portion of the Week, the Tanya of the week, Rambam, Talmud, Jewish law, stories, and Chassidic discourses. It also includes a few talks and discourses of the Rebbe connected to that week.
About one year ago, when IDF officer Yoel Elbaz left a Dvar Malchut booklet in Gaza, he had no idea that it would be picked up by Hamas operatives and given to a hostage in underground tunnels. Indeed, for Omer Shem Tov, the booklet was a source of strength, as he read it again and again.
The book was among several items given to him by his captors, originally belonging to Yoel Elbaz. Now, the Shem Tov family is searching for Elbaz so Omar can personally thank him.
When Hamas captors found books left behind by Israeli soldiers, they decided to share some with Omer. Among them was the Dvar malchut booklet of Va’era 5784. The terrorists also gave him a Hebrew copy of the novel "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest," which he read five times in captivity, as well as a booklet with the Traveler's Prayer and Psalm 100.
He began to study this booklet in captivity. Reading from the booklet gave Omer a sense of hope and encouragement in an otherwise bleak reality.
Despite the unimaginable hardships—being held in a cramped tunnel, deprived of food and water—he never lost hope. Even in the darkness of captivity, Omar remained connected to his Judaism. For months, he and fellow hostages made Kiddush on a single bottle of grape juice. On Yom Kippur, he desperately wanted to fast but had no way of knowing the exact date. Later, when he noticed Israeli radio had gone silent for a day, he realized he had missed it and felt deep disappointment.
During those difficult moments, he turned to prayer. “He prayed a lot, asking Hashem for something to change, to be moved from that place,” his father recalled. “After about 50 days, his captors came and transferred him elsewhere.” It was during that time that they brought him the Dvar malchut booklet.
But when you see what it said in that particular Devar Mlachut, it is astounding. The discourse of the Rebbe published there, which Omer kept on learning again and again, speaks of a situation when a person finds himself or herself in the depths of hell, in the darkest abyss.
Yedeidyah Meir, in his weekly Hebrew column, wrote how he wondered what messages were contained in this Devar Malchut of Vaeira 5784, that Divine providence sent to this Jewish soul in the abyss to provide strength and empowerment.
And he discovered two things:
First, Omer got to read the opening of that weekly portion, Vaeira:
I have also heard the Jews’ groaning, crying that the Egyptians are enslaving them, and I have recalled My covenant.
Therefore, convey to the Israelites: ‘I am God. I will free you from the oppression of the Egyptians, rescue you from their bondage, and redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great chastisements.
I will take you to Myself as a nation, and I will be your God. And you will know that I am God, your God, who is freeing you from the burdens of the Egyptians.
I will bring you to the land regarding which I raised My hand to swear that I would give it to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will give it to you as a heritage; for I am God.
But in that booklet, there is also a discourse by the Rebbe, known as Basi Legani, presented on Yud Shevat 5724 (1964).
And what is the theme of the entire discourse? It explores the words of the Zohar, that the Divine light extends even in the lowest and darkest of places, that even in the bottom of the abyss one can see a tiny glimmer of light that penetrates and permeates even the most remote spaces, geographically and mentally.
How can we even fathom the meaning of how a Chabad soldier takes it with him into Gaza, leaves it there, by mistake (or maybe intentionally, but who knows?), Hamas monsters pick it up and decide to give it Omer Shem Tov, the process the Rebbe is sending a message of incredible strength to a Jew in the darkest hell, telling him that as inexplicable all of this is, and we will never fathom and understand any of this, somehow in ways beyond our logic and imagination, “If I ascend to heaven, You are there; if I descend to the abyss -- [and I do not know of a darker abyss than Hamas tunnels in Gaza] -- You are there too.”
The entire discourse published in that Devar Malchut Omer received from the Hamas monsters revolves around this theme. The Rebbe dissects the life story of Joseph, who was kidnapped from his father, cast into an underground pit, and sold into slavery, where he ended up in another underground pit, in prison, rising ultimately to become the Prime Minister of Egypt. Yet, throughout all of it, he remained anchored in Hashem, untainted, untarnished, and fully present, morally, spiritually, and emotionally, because as low as he went, he was connected with the infinite core of oneness that transcends all and permeates all.
The Rebbe concludes the discourse with the idea of the Tanya (ch. 42), that every single Jew contains inside his or her heart a treasure of Yirat Shamayim, awe of Heaven, which is beyond logic, intellect and analysis, because it is a “piece of G-d literally” that defines the core of every Jewish soul, and which comes out at moments of complete sacrifice and dedication beyond logic, when you get to see the infinite holiness and divinity of the Jewish soul.
It is like Chassidus explains on the opening mitzvah of Tetzaveh, to bring the oil to Moses. A natural property of oil is that regardless of the proportions involved, it will never mix with water and will always float above it. We each have an essential self, a similar natural property - it can never be diluted, it can never be lost. A natural property of your neshama is that like a drop of oil it cannot possibly disappear even in an ocean of water and will always float above it.
While your essential self will always be there, you can choose to try to ignore it. ויקחו אליך שמן זית is telling you to try to connect with the continual voice of your neshama - to continually attend to it and take it to heart. You will then experience that it is your essential nature to float above it all.
Wow, is this not what we saw with so many hostages who in the darkest and least expected of places can hear G-d’s call and discover the “treasure of connection to Hashem?!”
What a lesson to each of us!
We must always ask ourselves, what does Hashem want of me in this place, at this time? Because there is always something Hashem wants of us, and we don't have to be special to have a sacred task. We can just be a Jewish woman called Esther, or anyone else, including a soldier called Yoel, somehow or another, our acts might have consequences that we cannot even begin to imagine. Even though you may feel sometimes that this is a world and an age in which there is hester panim, where you look for Hashem and you can't find Him, He is still saying to us “Was it not for this moment that I placed you here on Earth?"
When Hashem calls, may each of us have the courage to say 'Hineini, here I am, Hashem, tell me what to do and I will do it.' May we go out into the world, walking tall as Jews, walking unafraid, as Jews, and may we be true to our faith and a blessing to others regardless of their faith. May we hear the call of Hashem and answer it, with resolve, courage, and absolute dedication, until we see the entire seed of Amalek deleted from the face of this earth, speedily in our days.
HAPPY PURIM AND SHABBAT SHALOM,
Rabbi Yoseph Geisinsky
Mary Robinson wrote...