[Avodah] Date of Purim

[Micha Berger]

On Tue, Feb 26, 2013 at 04:28:47AM -0500, Micha Berger wrote:
: The Ohr Sameiach (MC, Shemos 12:16, "[uvayom]") finds this significant,
: and he notes something similar about the date of Chanukah. "Binfol
: oyivkha al tismach" and "maasei Yadai tov'im bayam" mean that we do not
: make holidays celebrating war or their victories. Only the salvation we
: gained in their aftermath.

Back in May 2006, RJF wrote (I'm limiting myself to the part about the
MC on Purim and Chanukah, not the general recurring binfol debate)
<http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol17/v17n028.shtml#08>:

> I came across this shtickl in Meshekh Hakhmah [Shemos 12:16 sv. U'vayom
> Harishon Miqra Kodesh vGo'] who states the following: [paraphrased -jf]

>     ...That while other nations create a holiday and celebrate on the
>     day their enemies fell, it is not like that with Yisrael, for they
>     will not rejoce in the downfall of their enemies or celebrate a
>     holiday for that purpose, as it says Binfol Oyivkha al Tismakh vGo'
>     pen Yireh Hashem V'ra B'einav vGo', that a person who has refined
>     himself does not rejoice in the downfall of his enemies, because such
>     happiness is evil in the eyes of God, and this is the reason we don't
>     celebrate Pessah for on that day God punished the Egyptians, rather we
>     celebrate Pessah because on that day God took us out of Egypt, as for
>     the downfall of our enemies their is no Holiday and day for rejoicing.

>     ...And that is why on Hanukah the Holiday is celebrated for the
>     miracle of the oil and the reinstallation of the services in the Beis
>     HaMiqdash... and as the Military leaders were the kohanim, and to
>     avoid the possibility of their attributing the military victory to
>     their own strength rather than to divine providence, God performed
>     a miracle in the Heikhal, an area that was limited to the Kohanim,
>     so that they could clearly see his involvement in the miracles that
>     transpired, that these were not of natural causes.

>     ...And so by the Neis of Purim, the Holiday was established neither
>     on the day of Haman's hanging nor on the day that their enemies were
>     killed, as this is not a time for rejoicing for Yisrael, rather the
>     holiday of Purim was established on the day that they rested from
>     their enemies...

>     ...The Egyptians drowned on the 7th day of Pessah. Had God commanded
>     us later to keep the 7th day Miqra Kodesh, people may have thought
>     that this holiday was instituted in remembrance of the downfall of
>     evildoers, and in truth we find the opposite, that the angels did
>     not say Shirah, because HQBH is not happy in the downfall of the
>     evildoers. That is why it was specifically in Eretz Mitzrayim that
>     the 7th day was decreed to be Miqra Kodesh, prior to Qriyas Yam Suf,
>     to show that this holiday is not to celebrate their demise. And this
>     is clear in the Yalqut, that we don't recite Hallel after the first
>     day of Pessah because of Binfol Oyivkha al Tismah.

> AD KAHN DIVREI BA'AL HaMESHEKH HAKHMAH [paraphrased.]

> The Yad L'Hakhmah [notes printed on the MH in the MH Hashaleim] quotes
> the Divrei Sha'ul [RYS Natanzon ZT"L] who asks on the Meshekh Hakhmah and
> on the aforementioned Yalqut from the Gemara in Megilah where Mordechai
> told Haman that Binfol Oyivkha was only for Yisrael, and replies that
> perhaps there is a difference between a Yisrael and a non-Yisrael, when
> it is an individual. Should it be a group, Binfol Oyivkha al Tismakh
> would still apply [this Teirutz is the Yad L'Hakhmah's -jf].

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Life isn't about finding yourself
micha at aishdas.org        Life is about creating yourself.
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