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Before delivering the second discourse of Purim 1953, the Rebbe told a story about a Russian election where the crowd shouted “Hoo-rah!” for a ruler who oppressed the Jews. A chossid listened carefully — and heard something else: הוא רע — Hu ra — “He is evil.”
The Rebbe transformed that cheer into a proclamation of faith, leading the chassidim in a thunderous “Hoo-rah!" It seemed to me, declaring that wickedness is temporary and Hashem alone rules history.
Days later, Stalin died.
In 1991, during the Gulf War, the Rebbe republished that very discourse and distributed it to be studied on the 11th of Adar — a date that would again echo with the fall of a modern enemy.
When the world shouts, Purim teaches us to translate.
Hu ra.

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