The Purim Mitzvot address Haman's Anti-Semitic Claims - Parashat Pekude 5776 - March 11, 2016

We are now in the month of Adar Sheni. The school is decorated and we are preparing ourselves for the festivities of Purim.

As we know, our Rabbis established four mitzvot of Purim:

• Reading the Megillah - each man and woman is obligated to read or hear the megillah being read on Purim evening and on Purim day
• Spreading happiness through delivering gifts of food - each man and woman is minimally obligated to give two food gifts to one person
• Eating a festive meal - each man and woman is obligated to eat a bread meal with wine and meat
• Charity to the poor - each man and woman is minimally obligated to give charity to two poor people

What message do these particular mitzvot convey to those who observe them?

To address one answer to this question, let us examine Haman’s plan to destroy the Jewish People. Haman’s suggestion to Achashverosh to destroy the Jewish people was uniquely formulated. Haman said, “There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom; and their laws are diverse from those of every people; neither do they keep the king's laws; therefore it does not profit the king to suffer them. If it please the king, let it be written that they be destroyed.” (Megilat Esther 3:8-9) 

There are four different elements to Haman’s argument to destroy the Jewish people.

1. The Jewish People are scattered
2. The Jewish People are dispersed among the other peoples
3. The Jewish People’s laws (halacha) are different than the laws of the land
4. The Jewish People don’t keep the king’s law

While Haman uses these arguments as a basis to advocate for the destruction of the Jewish People, there is – within his argument – an implied criticism of the Jewish People – they are assimilated and not unified. 

Each of the mitzvot of Purim counteract Haman’s criticisms. For the reading of the Megilah, we are commanded to read it in as large a group as possible (berov am hadrat melech). Through the mitzvot of feasting, giving food gifts and charity, we build unification within the Jewish People. Through keeping the mitzvot of Purim we strengthen the Jewish People and improve our connection to Hashem.

As we know, King Achashverosh decreed that the Jewish People were to be annihilated. Overnight, Haman and his allies were destroyed. The course of Jewish history was reversed. Through our observance of the Purim mitzvot, our Purim experience is a testament to our belief that G-d intervenes to secure the welfare of the Jewish people and that a dire situation can be overturned overnight. By performing these mitzvot, we testify that even in galut – in exile – G-d protects His nation from destruction. Through this observance, we reflect that Haman’s plan of destruction was entirely foiled and that we remain to serve Hashem. Even as our enemies would destroy every last Jewish man, woman and child, as evidenced by the recent murderous rampages in eretz Yisrael, we pray that the schemes of our enemies will be foiled and that we will be able to serve Hashem securely in our own borders.