Happy Purim! A short idea from Parashas Zachor...

The third posuk in Parashas Zachor is Hashem commanding the Jewish People to destroy Amalek once they have inherited the land He has given them. The word used for inherit is "L'Rishtah," with a dagesh, a dot, in the the letter Hey. Without the Dagesh, the posk would translate as "in the land Hashem, your God, is giving to you as an inheritance." With the Dagesh, and with the correct translation, the posuk translate as "in the land Hashem, your god is giving to you to inherit." The difference is that in the case with the Dagesh, Hashem is not giving the land as a gift. He is going to make us work for it. We are going to have to inherit it, put in our hishtadlus, conquer it and hold on to it and only after this is achieved can we go about the work of eliminating Amalek.

What is that Hishtadlus? We have to work not only to keep the land but to be deserving of the land and all that comes with it. It doesn't mean sitting in Kollel and expecting it to be given to you. It doesn't mean that just because we are sitting on the land that we deserve it automatically. It DOES mean we need to work for it every day and every night. We need to work for what we need and want. And this was Mordechai's message to Esther. She was afraid to go before the king. Mordechai admonished her and told her not to expect to just sit back and be saved just because she is the queen. If she wants to survive this crisis, Mordechai tells her, she will have to work at it just as hard as everyone else and the protection of the king will not help her. Esther takes this message to heart and decides to put in her hishtadlus and work to save not just herself, but her entire nation.

This is the message of Purim. It is the time the Jews finally accepted the Torah voluntarily - Kiyimu v'Kiblu - they upheld and accepted, and once they did, this led to the return to Eretz Yisroel and the rebuilding of the Bais Hamikdash. And when that message got lost, with all its nuances on how to work to retain the land Hashem was giving them to inherit, they lost it again, forgetting that inheriting the land was, and still is, a continuous struggle against the Yetzer Hara, in whatever form it takes, and involves great Mesiras Nefesh.

Yehi Ratzon that in the Zchus of all of us accepting and understanding the message of Purim, we will merit to return home to inherit our land permanently b'meheira b'yameinu.

Chag Purim Sameach