Purim

The last in a four part series on the Alter Rebbe's Purim Ma'amar חייב איניש לבסומי

What needs to take place before a G-dly revelation?

First part of the Alter Rebbe's Ma'amar 'Chayav inish Lebesumei'

intro to the ma'amar Chayav Inish Lebesumei

Why do we celebrate Purim with feasting and drinking, and not just with saying thank you like on Chanukah? Because Purim isn’t about gratitude for a miracle. It’s about the miracle of still being here. It's the simcha of existence itself. The decree wasn’t just exile or slavery. It was total annihilation. And when that gezeirah was flipped, the soul of Am Yisrael danced with a joy that had no words, no form. Just presence. Just life.

In this class rooted in the Torah of HaRav Asher Weiss shlit”a, Rav Shlomo Katz guides us into the halachic and spiritual depths of Purim — when simcha isn’t a reaction, but a mitzvah that is the day. You don't need a reason to be happy. You're alive. We’re alive. And that's enough to get drunk on.

This is the simcha of a Jew who walked out of Auschwitz not with answers, but with breath. It’s not intellectual. It’s not earned. It just is. And if Purim really goes through us, we’ll taste that eternal simcha, not just on Adar 14, but the whole year long.

From the teachings of Reb Yakov Meir Shechter on Purim

On Purim, we drink to blur the lines. But maybe that’s just to uncover what’s been true all along: Hashem is always talking to us. Through people, through circumstances, through the exact words that happen to hit your ears when you weren't expecting them — it's all Him.

Inspired by the teachings of Reb Shlomo Carlebach ztz”l, Rav Shlomo Katz opens our hearts to the Purim avodah of being doped up on Torah, drunk with Shabbos, and intoxicated with the presence of Hashem in everyone we meet.

What begins as a humorous encounter with a New York Times reporter unfolds into a life-changing truth: if we can truly believe that every interaction is Hashem whispering to us, then we stop second-guessing, we stop doubting, and we start living with simcha, emunah, and fierce clarity.

Based on the teachings of Reb Ya'akov Meir Shechter for Purim

There’s one day a year where the gates are thrown wide open, and Hashem asks each of us: “מה שאלתך וינתן לך — What is it that you truly want?” That day is Purim. Not just a day of costumes and joy, but a sacred invitation to dream big, to daven from the deepest places in our hearts, and to stop limiting what we think is possible.

In this shiur given in Modiin (Feb 2018), we explore how Purim is a Yom Kippur of a different kind, where the avodah is joy, the battlefield is the soul, and the weapons are vulnerability and hutzpah d’kedusha. Through stories, niggunim, and the unforgettable teaching that Moshe Rabbeinu never spoke freely because he never asked, we are reminded: if we never ask, we might never see the miracle.

On Purim, don’t play it safe. Build your ramp. Ask for everything.

Every year, a dear friend calls me before Purim with the same question: "What’s your avodah this year?" And the truth is, that’s exactly how we have to look at Purim: as an avodah, a holy service, no less sacred than the work of the Kohen Gadol on Yom Kippur.

Drawing from the wellsprings of Reb Ya’akov Meir Shechter shlit”a, this shiur reveals how the four mitzvahs of Purim — Mikra Megillah, Mishloach Manot, Matanot LaEvyonim, and Seudat Purim, aren’t just obligations, they’re divine weapons, forged to help us annihilate the inner Amalek that mocks faith and belittles holiness. 

We go deep into what it means to fight with simcha, to wage war with joy, and to turn every act of giving, reading, eating, and singing into a direct hit against spiritual doubt.