Daily Chidush: Who Is Wise? Hashem Provides The CURE Before The Illness

0:00Hello, how are you? I hope you're having a good week. I wanted to give you the chiddush of the day before we start our next shiur, b'Ezrat Hashem, in Miami. This week we're going to be reading Megillat Esther. Megillat Esther is a very, very beautiful story full of miracles. And the first question that Chazal asks in Masechet Megillah is, how come the name of Hashem is not mentioned in the Megillah? You know, I mean, it's part of the critical parts of the Torah, it's part of the Tanach. And it's the only book in the entire Tanach where Hashem's name is not mentioned. The same question that people ask today: Where is Hashem? How come He's not giving me a miracle to show me that He's really there, just like He did with the people of Am Yisrael in the desert, in Egypt, before, after, and in the Beit HaMikdash, through open miracles? Why doesn't Hashem just show Himself and make everyone a believer? Well, first and foremost,

1:23But He's going to show us these miracles through the Megillah without revealing them in an obvious way to anyone who is not delving into the matter. However, anyone who reads the Megillah can see that each small piece of the puzzle fits together so perfectly that it's impossible not to see them as open miracles from Hashem. Toward the end of the Megillah, when Chazal said Estelle, listen, we don't think that your idea of publicizing the story is a good idea. Maybe the goyim are going to go after us. They're going to be upset that we're mentioning Hashem. She goes, no, no, no. The goyim already know the story. They obviously saw it. And even they agree that Hashem was a very big part of it. Hashem was all of it. Just to give us a little bit of a taste of how Hashem works in our life and how we can connect it to Megillat Esther. We saw that in the beginning of the Megillah, after Vashti, the original wife of Ahashverosh, king of the world at the time, 127 countries, as it mentions in the beginning of the Megillah, she refused to go see him. The reason why she refused to go see him is because Hashem punished her for the wickedness that she made Jewish women work on Shabbat. He punished her and destroyed her beauty by giving her the disease of tzara'at.

2:48So after she refused, she didn't tell Achashverosh that, hey, listen, I have tzara'at—he's going to throw it in the garbage. She said, no, I'm not going. And by the way, I am the queen, Vashti, not Vashti the queen. Achashverosh obviously didn't take it too well, became furious, and he asked his advisors, what should I do? One of the advisors, his name was Memuchan. Memuchan, actually Chazal explains to us, is really Haman. And Haman said, "Not only do I think that you should punish her, but this whole idea that the king should have to ask permission from his advisors, I think you should cancel it. I think you should have complete authority over everything. I think that you should have no need to ask for any advisors, and you should punish her because if you don't punish her, then all of the wives of all of the men of all of the kings and all of the regular people will disrespect their husbands. You have to show as an example." Now, when I mentioned originally, I mentioned the names of the advisors of Achashverosh. Authority over everything: I think that you should have no need to ask for any advisors, and you should punish her because if you don't punish her, then all of the wives of all of the men, of all of the kings, and all of the regular people will disrespect their husbands. You have to set an example. Now, when I mentioned originally, I mentioned the names of the advisors of Achashverosh.

4:08It mentions Karshina, Shetar, Admata, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memuchan. We see here that the last name, the last person that was mentioned, was Memuchan, who was Haman. So why is he speaking first? Here, we have to go back to the Mishnah. And in the Mishnah, chapter 5, it tells us that... Section seven, it says seven traits characterize an uncultivated person and seven traits a learned one, meaning seven things characterize a fool and seven things characterize a wise person. A learned person does not begin speaking before one who is greater than he in wisdom or in years. He does not interrupt the words of his fellow. He does not answer impetuously. He asks relevant questions and replies appropriately. He discusses first things first and last things last. About something he has not heard, he says, "I have not heard," and he acknowledges the truth. The reverse of all these traits characterizes the uncultivated person, the fool. So, the first thing we see is that Haman violated this Mishnah, which shows that he is a fool.

5:30As much money as he had, because he was a very, very wealthy person, he was still a fool. Money does not make you smart; it makes you think you're smart, but it doesn't necessarily make you smart. Why? Because here we see that he was the last person that Achashverosh referred to, but he was the first one who spoke. That's not something that a smart person does. Usually, a smart person lets other people finish what their thought is. Because also one of the main things that we learn is that usually when someone has a lack of confidence, they're always interrupting other people. It not only shows a lack of confidence, it not only shows foolishness, but it also shows that the person doesn't actually care about the other person's idea, which is very, very unethical. The next important point is that it says he does not answer impetuously. Giving everything in one shot, right away, is not a good idea. He asks relevant questions. He replies appropriately. We see that the idea that Haman had didn't exactly pan out because when Ahasuerus asked the rabbis, which is even before his own wise people, the rabbis said, no, you know what? We know, they thought to themselves, we know that if we tell him to kill her, tomorrow morning he's going to wake up, and he's going to realize his wife is missing, he's going to blame us, he's going to kill us. If we don't tell him anything, then he's going to say, ah, you guys are useless, he's going to kill us anyway. So what are we going to say? They told Ahasuerus, listen, since the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash, they destroyed our ability to judge in the Sanhedrin, so we don't give any rulings. Not just for you, Your Honor, but anyone. We don't give any rulings.

6:46to kill her, tomorrow morning he's going to wake up, and he's going to realize his wife is missing, he's going to blame us, he's going to kill us. If we don't tell him anything, then he's going to say, ah, you guys are useless, he's going to kill us anyway. So what are we going to say? They told Achashverosh, listen, since the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash, they destroyed our ability to judge in the Sanhedrin, so we don't give any rulings. Not just for you, Your Honor, but anyone. We don't give any rulings. had a very, very clever way of getting out of it because sometimes, when somebody asks you for their opinion and you know that there's only a lose-lose scenario, the best thing you can possibly do is find a clever way to get out of it. However, on the other hand, We can never forget that if you see someone sinning, you have an obligation to rebuke them. Obviously, not by screaming at them in the middle of the street. You can't bring sin upon him, meaning that you have to rebuke him in a nice way to show him or her the right direction. Keep calm, be collected, and show things in a nice way. But at the same time, we can never forget that there's a time and a place for everything.

7:58After this, we see that it says about the wise person: he discusses first things first and last things last. About some things he has not heard, he says, "I have not heard," and he acknowledges the truth. The reverse is true for the foolish person. All of these things add up to one major conclusion: wisdom is demonstrated through humility and the correct order of understanding, while foolishness is characterized by an inability to recognize one's own limitations and a lack of honest engagement with the truth. Hashem not only wanted to show Am Yisrael that this wicked person, Haman, and this wicked king, Achashverosh, are fools, but He wanted to show Am Yisrael that He is in absolute control and He's going to use their own words against them. Because we find out at the end of the Megillah, when Esther, after praying very hard and getting the entire nation to do teshuvah and fasting for three days, which is the reason why many people actually this week, for years, fast three days for generations. Fast three days instead of only one day, which is going to be Wednesday. But the fast on Wednesday is the one that we have to do, not necessarily the three days, unless you can do it. But we see that after she fasted, after everybody did teshuvah, after everybody asked for Hashem's intervention... Praying very hard and getting the entire nation to do teshuva and fasting for three days, which is the reason why many people actually, for years, fast for three days for generations. They fasted for three days instead of only one day, and this year it will be on Wednesday. However, the fast on Wednesday is the one that we have to observe, not necessarily the full three days, unless you are able to do it. But we see that after she fasted, and after everybody did teshuva, and after they all asked for Hashem's help...

9:13To please, please help us, may Hashem provide the cure before the ailment. This very event at the beginning of the whole Megillah is the secret of how Hashem provided the cure before the illness. By using Haman to say to Achashverosh, listen, you shouldn't ask for any advisors or anything. When the time came and Esther told Ahasuerus, "Listen, there's a person that's trying to kill me. He's trying to kill my people." And he said, "Who?" And she told him, "It's Haman." Ahasuerus said, "Hang him right away." He didn't ask any advisors. Why? Because of the very same law that Haman suggested. So we see that sometimes we question Hashem: "Where are You, Hashem? Where are You, Hashem? Where are You, Hashem? How come You're not here today? How come this deal didn't go through? How come my wife is not happy with me? How come my kids are failing at school? Where are the miracles? How come I'm not feeling good?" Sometimes we go through troubles, not because Hashem wants to torture us, but because He wants to show us that we have to use those experiences, number one, to connect to Him, and number two, to see His miracles right in front of our eyes, because He already provided us the miracle before we even knew that there was a problem. Chazak ve'amatz, may Hashem continue to bless you, and b'ezrat Hashem, we'll talk again tomorrow.

10:18But he wants to show us that we have to use those experiences, number one, to connect to Him, and number two, to see His miracles right in front of our eyes, because He already provided us the miracle before we even knew that there was a problem. Chazak u'Baruch, may Hashem continue to bless you, and b'ezrat Hashem, we'll talk again tomorrow.