Purim - Taking Off the Mask

B"H

As we "shluchim" prepare a wild, spectacular Purim experience for the students here, I wish you a very Happy Purim! Our sages say, that the holiday of Purim draws down joy for the entire year-so make sure to have fun! To find your local Chabad center: www.chabad.org/centers/default_cdo/aid/15676/jewish/Advanced-Search.htm.
If you're a college student: http://www.chabad.org/centers/campus.htm


If you don't know the Purim story (see: www.chabad.org/holidays/purim/article_cdo/aid/645995/jewish/The-Basic-Purim-Story.htm), in short: In 4th century BCE, the Persian King Ahasuerus, who practically ruled the entire world at the time, was convinced by his evil advisor Haman to issue a decree against all the Jews to be destroyed. The King's Jewish queen, Esther, successfully changed the King's mind and he issued a new decree for the Jews to defend themselves. The Jews throughout the lands subsequently won a short war, and we celebrate that victory ever since.

Since we know everything in this world occurs b/c of a certain spiritual, inner reason- this harsh decree and subsequent reversal of good fortune resulted from the Jewish people's reactions to their surroundings.

After the destruction of the 1st holy Temple in Jerusalem, the Jews were exiled to nearby lands, primarily Babylonia. Soon after his ascension to the throne, King Ahasuerus threw a huge 180-day party (Beat that SDSU!) inviting all the town's residents to come.
Understandably speaking, the Jewish people of the area felt that it was time to "suck up" to the new King and decided to attend. At this party, the King displayed various vessels from the Jewish temple that had been seized after its destruction. The Jewish people enjoyed the feast greatly, and felt that, (although sadly they weren't in their holy land) at least they had a comfortable position in their new land.

This, our sages say, was what sparked the decree against us in heaven. The Jews put their trust in their country's king, instead of the true king-Hashem, the "King of all Kings". Soon after, the "physical" decree down here was issued. NOW, one would think, the Jews weren't in such bad shape! At that time, the Jews had a leader, Mordechai, who had a high political position and was stationed at the entrance to the king's palace at all times.
Not to mention our own Jewish QUEEN! We were seriously hooked up. But Mordechai and Esther realized what was really going on. That their people's fate lay in G-d's Hands. That their people were mistaken in their belief that "fitting in" and assimilating into the new culture was the path to success and joy.

Therefore they reacted to the news of the decree in an "unnatural" way. Instead of petitioning the king or holding rallies, Mordechai donned sackcloth and ashes, while Esther began fasting. Esther requested that ALL Jews throughout all the lands fast for 3 days and turn their hearts toward Hashem for help. Esther needed all the help she could get, for she was planning to risk her life and approach King Ahasuerus uninvited and ask for help (ed. note: we MUST use natural means in this world to succeed; however, knowing all along that G-d is the One TRULY behind our every success). Esther approached the king while fasting! You'd think she would spend many days of pampering and beauty sleep, with top makeup preparation. Anything but fasting! (ed. note: she wasn't an 80-pound model). So WHY did she fast? B/C she understood that Hashem was in Control! Not a king of flesh & blood.
The Jewish people responded in kind; spending a year in service of G-d and not being intimidated by the impending decree. They refused to give in and assimilate to avert the decree, never bowing down to idols and gathering in large groups to learn Torah in public.

IN 2009, where there are more "Kings and Queens" on CBS than ruling the world, WHAT can we learn from our beloved Purim story?
Significantly, the only book of the 24 books of Tanach W/OUT 1 mention of G-d's Name, is Megillat Esther-the Story of Purim. And yet it's obvious how G-d's Hand is apparent throughout the events, orchestrating and maneuvering everything perfectly into place. How everything is run by Hashem. True, no seas were split, and no water turned to blood. No voice came out to tell the Jews to follow G-d and "all would work out". But the Jews had 'bitachon'-trust in Hashem. And like a reflection in water, our turning of our hearts to G-d was reflected w/ the success we trusted in. The Jewish People realized that the true Hand behind every detail of their lives, the guiding force behind every step they took, was Hashem, and not the physical environment alone.
We too have our own Megillah story. Hashem's name isn't OPENLY seen or "mentioned", yet He places us where we are in life for a reason, and runs everything through the cloak of nature. We have to react the way the Jews did then, turning to G-d During our good times-and our hard times- and follow Him to Victory!

Let's celebrate Purim (Monday Night) and revel in the One who Guides the world and our every step. 'Megillat Esther' can be pronounced 'Megale hester'-to 'Reveal the Hidden'-that's the lesson of Purim and of life. When we bite into the hard surface of our hamantaschen pastry, and taste the sweet inside, let's remember the sweet inner reasons behind the hard points in our life. When you see other Jews dressing up w/ masks, remember that Hashem Wears a mask in this world, called Nature. Let's reveal Hashem's Presence in our own lives, and ask that Hashem stop being so discreet and Reveal His True Self with the coming of Moshiach Now!
Happy Purim!

Daniel
New Haven, CT

~4 Mitzvot of Purim~

1. Give charity to at least two needy people.
2. Send a minimum of two ready-to-eat foods to at least one person.
3. Sit down for a royal feast.
4. Read or hear the Megillah (Scroll of Esther) at night and by day.
(5. Monday day is the fast of Esther. Try your best!)

*For much more beautiful words on this subject by the Lubavitcher Rebbe: http://www.chabad.org/holidays/purim/article_cdo/aid/109296/jewish/Purim-Messages.htm

Words that pierced the heavens

B"H

I heard an inspiring story the other night from Rabbi Shmuel Lew, principal for the Lubavitch Seminary for girls in London, England:
(Rabbi Lew heard this story from his brother-in-law, Rabbi Moshe Feller of Minnesota, who heard it 1st hand).

There was a Chassidic family living in an observant Jewish section of Brooklyn, NY. Unfortunately for his wife and children, the man of the home had a change of views, and left his faith. The couple soon divorced.
Years passed, and the family's eldest son (who had followed his father's new path of life) became involved in a serious relationship with a non Jewish girl.
One day, the boy's mother received a call from her son that he was "happily engaged!"
To say the least, his mother's joy didn't match that of her son's.

"Will you please come to my bride's home? We're going to arrange the wedding plans, and even dad will be there."

"Since I don't approve of your marriage to this girl, I don't feel I can come." The boy's mother felt broken, knowing that this marriage would be ending the chain of the Jewish people through her son.

As much as he loved his mother, the son wasn't seriously phased and proceeded with his plans.
As the day of final wedding planning arrived, the boy's mother was at a loss of what to do. What could she do? She couldn't persuade her son to change his mind, and her husband surely supported his son's move.
Finally, she remembered that a holy Tzaddik (Righteous person) was buried in Queens, NY, the Lubavitcher Rebbe of Chabad, and that she had heard of many stories of miracles resulting from prayer at his grave site. The Rebbe was always known as a father of the entire Jewish people, worrying for every individual's problems.
With no other direction to turn, the distressed mother headed immediately to Queens, to pour out her heart in prayer. With tears coursing down her cheeks, she silently pleaded: "Rebbe, Do Something! Rebbe! Do Something...."

Later that day, the boy and his father sat across from his fiancee and future father-in-law, in their beautiful living room. The wedding planning was happily progressing, when the topic turned to the food to be served.
The bride's father suggested many dishes, including his favorite pork and meat dishes. The Jewish boy's father interrupted: "I can handle any food you want at the wedding, but I feel uncomfortable with pork." "Why do you care?" "I just feel uncomfortable with it, for me and my guests. I have to draw the line there." As silence ensued, the girl began to raise her voice: "I've been dreaming about my wedding ever since I was a little girl, and you stupid Jews are not going to ruin it!" Rising to leave, the girl removed her ring and threw it at her fiancee. Shocked and disgusted, the boy and his father stormed out of the house.

The boy's mother received a call later that night: "Mom, you'll be happy to know that I'm finished with that girl. I didn't know they were such anti-semites. Don't worry, I'll be looking for a Jewish bride in the future."

We have to realize the power of our prayers. One tear, one word with feeling, can pierce through all the heavens. Let's pray for the real things in life; the important things. Our sages say that especially effective are prayers we say for others. One verse of Tehillim (psalms) or Shema Yisroel before sleep, or even our own personal words, can change our personal world and the bigger world around us. Let's not forget to pray for the coming of our final Redemption with Moshiach now-
Shabbat Shalom!

-Daniel
New Haven, CT

The Amazing Fine Tuning of the Universe

B"H



In his best-selling book, "A Brief History of Time", Stephen Hawking
(perhaps the world's most famous cosmologist) refers to the phenomenon as "remarkable."

"The remarkable fact is that the values of these numbers (i.e. the constants of physics) seem to have been very finely adjusted to make possible the development of life". "For example," Hawking writes, "if the electric charge of the electron had been only slightly different, stars would have been unable to burn hydrogen and helium, or else they would not have exploded. It seems clear that there are relatively few ranges of values for the numbers (for the constants) that would allow for development of any form of intelligent life. Most sets of values would give rise to universes that, although they might be very beautiful, would contain no one able to wonder at that beauty."

Hawking then goes on to say that he can appreciate taking this as possible evidence of "a divine purpose in Creation and the choice of the laws of science (by God)" (ibid. p. 125).

Dr. Gerald Schroeder, was formerly with the M.I.T. physics department. He
adds the following examples:
>>
>> 1) Professor Steven Weinberg, a Nobel laureate in high
>> energy physics
>> (a field of science that deals with the very early
>> universe), writing
>> in the journal "Scientific American", reflects on
>>how surprising it is that the laws of nature and the
>> initial conditions of the universe should allow for the existence
>> of beings who could observe it. Life as we know it would be
>> impossible if any one of several physical quantities had slightly different values.
>>
>> Although Weinberg is a self-described agnostic, he cannot
>> but be
>> astounded by the extent of the fine-tuning. He goes on to
>> describe how
>> a beryllium isotope having the minuscule half life of
>> 0.0000000000000001 seconds must find and absorb a helium
>> nucleus in
>> that split of time before decaying. This occurs only
>> because of a
>> totally unexpected, exquisitely precise, energy match
>> between the two
>> nuclei. If this did not occur there would be none of the
>> heavier
>> elements. No carbon, no nitrogen, no life. Our universe
>> would be
>> composed of hydrogen and helium. But this is not the end of
>> Professor
>> Weinberg's wonder at our well-tuned universe. He
>> continues:
>>
>> One constant does seem to require an incredible
>> fine-tuning -- The
>> existence of life of any kind seems to require a
>> cancellation between
>> different contributions to the vacuum energy, accurate to
>> about 120
>> decimal places.
>>
>> This means that if the energies of the Big Bang were, in
>> arbitrary units, not:
>>
>>

100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
>> 000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
>> 000000000000000000,
>>
>> but instead:
>> 100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
>> 000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
>> 000000000000000001,
>>
>> there would be no life of any sort in the entire universe
>> because as
>> Weinberg states:
>>
>> the universe either would go through a complete cycle of
>> expansion
>> and contraction before life could arise, or would expand so
>> rapidly
>> that no galaxies or stars could form.
>>
>> 2) Michael Turner, the widely quoted astrophysicist at the
>> University
>> of Chicago and Fermilab, describes the fine-tuning of the
>> universe
>> with a simile:
>>
>> The precision is as if one could throw a dart across the
>> entire
>> universe and hit a bulls eye one millimeter in diameter on
>> the other
>> side.
>>
>> 3) Roger Penrose, the Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics
>> at the
>> University of Oxford, discovers that the likelihood of the
>> universe
>> having usable energy (low entropy) at the creation is even
>> more
>> astounding,
>>
>> namely, an accuracy of one part out of ten to the power of
>> ten to the
>> power of 123. This is an extraordinary figure. One could
>> not possibly
>> even write the number down in full, in our ordinary denary
>> (power of
>> ten) notation: it would be one followed by ten to the power
>> of 123
>> successive zeros! (That is a million billion billion
>> billion billion
>> billion billion billion billion billion billion billion
>> billion
>> billion zeros.)
>>
>> Penrose continues,
>>
>> Even if we were to write a zero on each separate proton
>> and on each
>> separate neutron in the entire universe -- and we could
>> throw in all
>> the other particles as well for good measure -- we should
>> fall far
>> short of writing down the figure needed. The precision
>> needed to set
>> the universe on its course is to be in no way inferior to
>> all that
>> extraordinary precision that we have already become
>> accustomed to in
>> the superb dynamical equations (Newton's,
>> Maxwell's, Einstein's) which
>> govern the behavior of things from moment to moment.
>>
>> Cosmologists debate whether the space-time continuum is
>> finite or
>> infinite, bounded or unbounded. In all scenarios, the
>> fine-tuning
>> remains the same.
>>
>> It is appropriate to complete this section on "fine
>> tuning" with the
>> eloquent words of Professor John Wheeler:
>>
>> To my mind, there must be at the bottom of it all, not an
>> utterly simple equation, but an utterly simple IDEA. And to me that
>> idea, when we finally discover it, will be so compelling, and so
>> inevitable, so beautiful, we will all say to each other, "How could
>> it have ever been otherwise?"

-Perhaps this "beautiful Idea" Prof. Wheeler wonders about, is G-d's Divine Idea. Chassidic thought explains, that when G-d Created the world, His sole Desire and plan was that we would ultimately make a home for Him on this very earth, by transforming the physical into the spiritual. How? Through fulfilling His Divine Will by performing Mitzvot (for ex., when a man wraps physical 'Tefillin' at the behest of G-d, or a woman lights physical candles to honor Shabbat), he and she are transforming this physical world into 1 big Mitzvah, i.e. a home for Hashem, thereby bringing closer the unity of heaven and earth.

Now let's do our best to do one more good deed and learn a bit more Torah, to bring this Intention of G-d's into its ultimate reality, with the coming of our Righteous Mashiach! May it be speedily in our days, before you even sign out of your e-mail account!
~Shabbat Shalom!~

-Daniel