GOOD MORNING! Whether you are young or old, this is one of the most highly anticipated weeks on the Jewish calendar. This week we celebrate the holiday of Purim! Purim begins Saturday, March 23rd, at sundown, and families around the globe will gather in synagogues for the reading of Megillat Esther – the Book of Esther. People then return on Sunday morning to hear the Megillah read once again.

The holiday of Purim is a very special time; people of ALL ages dress up and go from home to home, spreading cheer and distributing gifts of food to friends and neighbors. The mitzvot of the day include mishloach manot – everyone is required to provide at least one person with two food items – and matanot l’evyonim – a specific Purim obligation to help those who are needy. These acts of gift-giving and charity are meant to foster brotherhood and unity.

Quite remarkably, there are some uncanny similarities between the events surrounding Purim some 2,500 years ago and the situation of the Jewish people today.

TheBook of Esther opens with the lavish party thrown by the Persian king Xerxes – (AKA Achashverosh) and takes place some seventy years after the destruction of the first Temple in Jerusalem. At the time of the destruction about 90% of the Jewish population were exiled from their ancestral home in the Land of Israel. The Jewish populace in ancient Persia were the survivors of that horrific war and included their children and grandchildren.

Along came a thoroughly evil man, Haman. He was a descendant of the Amalekites: an ancient archenemy of the Jewish nation committed to the annihilation of the Jewish people. Haman was able to manipulate Achashverosh to decree that all the Jews in the kingdom were to be slaughtered on the 13th day of Adar of the following year.

Pausing here, we can already draw some parallels to Jewish life in the 21st century. We too, are some seventy years removed from what is perhaps the greatest tragedy in Jewish history since the destruction of the Temple – the Holocaust. Our generation too, is comprised of survivors of that horror and their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

In 2024, we too have an implacable enemy sworn to destroy Israel – Hamas and their acolytes. Of course, it is no coincidence they are funded and organized by an ancient archenemy that hail from the land of ancient Persia: Iran. Sadly, there is an even stronger connection between Jewish life in ancient Persia and Jewish life in the 21st century: the existential threat of self-obliteration.

Almost shockingly, the Jewish generations that succeeded two of the most inconceivably tragic events in Jewish history fell into a downward spiral of self-destruction. Both the destruction of the Holy Temple (along with slaughter of the local populace and forced slavery of the surviving Jews removed from Ancient Israel) and the Holocaust resulted in a self-immolation had little to do with external threats. As we shall see, this was about the Jewish nation abandoning its rich history and legacy and utterly giving up on itself.

The Talmud (Megillah 12a) makes an extraordinary statement regarding the events surrounding Purim: “The student of R’ Shimon Bar Yochai asked, ‘Why did the Jews of that generation deserve to be annihilated?’ He answered, ‘Because they enjoyed the feast of Achashverosh.’” To understand this strange and enigmatic statement we need a little more background on the circumstances surrounding the story of the Megillah.

As mentioned, the Book of Esther opens with Achashverosh throwing an incredibly lavish and extravagant feast in the third year of his reign. Why did he wait three years and what was the purpose of this party?

According to the Talmud, he was celebrating that the Jews were no longer the “chosen people” and had been abandoned by God. Why did he believe that? There had been a prophecy that after 70 years in exile the Jews would triumphantly return to Israel.

Achashverosh waited until, by his calculation, the 70 years were up and saw that the Jewish people were still in exile as his subjects. This was when he made the extravagant feast celebrating the demise of the Jewish culture. To illustrate this point, he took out all the vessels that had been looted from the Holy Temple and used them at his party. He even dressed himself in the clothes of the Kohen Gadol – the High Priest – and paraded around in them. This party was meant to be a celebration of the end of the Jewish people and their special relationship with the Almighty.

Imagine for a moment the following situation: A non-Jewish law firm throws a holiday party at the end of the year and one of the founding partners stands up and makes a blatantly offensive antisemitic joke as part of his remarks. Most Jewish employees in attendance would probably cringe and lose any interest in what they were eating. Some might even leave in disgust. But any Jew who enjoys the joke, stays, and continues reveling in the party has obviously emotionally disconnected himself from his Jewish roots.

This is what Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai meant. The fact that the Jews could actually enjoy the feast of Achashverosh – a party with the sole purpose of celebrating the end of their culture – showed that they identified themselves primarily as Persians and not as Jews. They wished to abandon their Judaism and wholly assimilate into Persian culture. Thus, they were deserving of annihilation.

There is a shocking parallel here to Jewish life in the 21st century. Consider the following statistics: In 1880 the Jewish world population was approximately 7,800,000. By 1939 (right before the Holocaust) that number had grown to 16,728,000, a growth of about 110% in less than sixty years.

In 1960 the number of Jews worldwide was approximately 12,000,000. But in 2020 – the number hovered around 15,000,000 – a minuscule (and quite shocking) growth rate of only about 25%. By contrast, the American population in 1960 was 179,323,175 and in 2020 it was 331,449,281 – a growth rate of about 85%. By way of further comparison, the world population grew from about 3 billion in 1960 to 7.7 billion in 2020, a growth rate of about 150%.

To what can we attribute this absolute crash in the Jewish growth rate during the post-Holocaust years? Well, obviously, there are many factors such as birth control and generally smaller families, but that doesn’t sufficiently explain the incredible decline; particularly when you consider that average life expectancy has improved significantly.

Undoubtedly, the primary reason for this decline is assimilation – some Jews marry out of their faith, while others who marry within do not bother to raise their children with any Jewish identity. Some are born Jewish, even raised with Jewish ideals, but have long since abandoned and replaced them with American “values” and no longer identify as Jews. These people are barely even culturally Jewish (eating Chinese takeout on Christmas doesn’t count). The Jewish people are literally putting themselves out of business.

Unfortunately, even those who are proud Jews send their children to Ivy League schools where they are indoctrinated with the lies and hateful propaganda being fed to them by the entrenched far-left “liberals” who have seemingly usurped all the power at these formerly elite schools. These schools used to be about higher education; now they are primarily temples of political indoctrination.

This week’s poster child for this epic failure and the abandonment of one’s Judaism is none other than Jonathan Glazer – who directed a film that won an Oscar, for a Holocaust movie no less. He disgracefully used this platform to “refute” his Judaism and the Holocaust being “hijacked by an occupation that has led to conflict.” This fabricated narrative, used by tools of those with a political agenda to destroy a Jewish State, is the very essence of the issue.

Even if we manage to ignore the utterly stupid and fallacious argument of “occupation,” the fact that a Jew would use his platform to attack his own people and nationhood shows just how far so many Jews have fallen. Is the humanitarian situation in Gaza horrible and intolerable? Certainly. Is it the fault of the Jewish State or the Jewish people? No! Hamas is mistreating their own people and stealing humanitarian aid.

He was rightfully pilloried by many Jewish organizations and Jewish media, and you can readily read all about it so I will not waste any more space on this silly and ignorant man. But he is the quintessential example of a Jew who is a Jew in name only, one who will have no Jewish continuity because kowtowing to the liberal culture that wishes to demolish historic Judaism and Jewish values is at the very heart of assimilation.

The story of Purim is crucial to understanding not just the history of the Jewish people, but also the future of the Jewish nation. We must be cognizant that the very survival of the Jewish nation is dependent solely on our commitment to Judaism. When one goes so does the other. We must therefore recommit to our Jewish identity and decide to live and act as Jews. Only in this way can the ideals and purpose of this nationhood last until the final redemption. May it come speedily in our days. Amen.

Vayikra, Leviticus 2:1 - 5:26

The book of Vayikra (Leviticus) primarily deals with what are commonly called “sacrifices” or “offerings.” According to Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch: a “sacrifice” implies giving up something that is of value to oneself for the benefit of another. An “offering” implies a gift, which satisfies the receiver. The Almighty does not need our gifts. He has no needs or desires. The Hebrew word is korban, which is best translated as a means of bringing oneself into a closer relationship with the Almighty. The offering of korbanot was only for our benefit to come close to the Almighty.

Ramban, one of the essential commentaries on Torah, explains that through the vicarious experience of what happened to the animal korbanot, the transgressor realized the seriousness of his transgression. This aided him in the process of teshuva – correcting his erring ways.

This week’s portion includes the details of various types of korbanot: burnt offering, flour offering (proof that one does not need to offer “blood” to gain atonement), the first grain offering, peace offering, unintentional sin offering (private and communal), guilt (for an intentional sin) offerings – varied upon one’s ability to pay, and an offering for personal use of something designated or belonging to the Tabernacle or the Temple.