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<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0">The following is from today's Hakhel email bulletin. (Please note that all extemporaneous symbols and misspellings were in the email that I received.)</p>
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<b><span style="FONT-SIZE: 13pt; FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman",serif">PURIM MOMENT:</span></b><span style="FONT-SIZE: 13pt; FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman",serif"> HaRav Shimon Schwab, Z"tl (Rav Schwab on Prayer, Artscroll, p.526) poses a question: Why does
the Megillah in some detail, and why do Chazal subsequently in <i>Ahl HaNissim</i>, spend the time and effort to describe that Haman was hung on a tree, and that his 10 sons were hung on the tree almost a year later. Why do we have to remind ourselves of this
every year in the Megillah and in the <i>Ahl Hanissim</i> so many times? Indeed, Rav Schwab points out—even in the Maoz Tzur off Chanukah we sing “<i>Rov Bonov Vekinyanav Al Hoetz Tolisa</i>—Haman and a good number of his sons were hung on the tree.â€
What special significance does the tree have to this very special day?</span></p>
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<span style="FONT-SIZE: 13pt; FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman",serif">Rav Schwab answers: Chazal (Chullin 139B) teach that Haman is alluded to in the Torah with the Eitz HaDaas--Hashem asks Adam: “<i>Hamin Hoetz Asher</i>…---Did you eat of the tree which
I commanded you not to eat? What is the relationship of Haman to the Eitz HaDaas –is it merely a play on words of
<i>Haman</i> and <<i>Hamin</i>? Obviously not. There is a great lesson here. Haman intended to commit the most heinous crime imaginable--the genocide of an entire people. The aveirah of Adam and Chava at first blush seems to be of no comparison whatsoever.
After all, they wanted to grow spiritually--to know the difference between Tov and Ra (Beraishis 3:5)--it was an Aveira for them to eat only because Hashem did not want to grow in this way at this time. They succumbed to the appeal which the fruit had to their
senses--albeit a supernal and lofty one. As Rav Schwab teaches: This was the most exalted form of an aveirah ever committed.†Nevertheless, the Megillah and Chazal teach that the worst possible aveirah known to man—genocide-- had its origins in the sublime
and elevated desire of Adam and Chava. This is the route of aveira, this is the path of the Yetzer Hara. Those ‘worst kind’ of aveiros start somewhere--they have their origin in the slightest of aveiros. Haman's aveira only began¦because of the
<i>Hamin</i> that engendered it.</span></p>
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<span style="FONT-SIZE: 13pt; FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman",serif">So, when we read and refer to--and even pray about --the Tree of Haman this Purim, let us make sure that we glean its great lesson. We will tell the Yetzer Hara--No, I am not going to begin--the
one word of Lashon Hara, the one bite of questionable food, picking up the muktza item because there must be some heter, not paying the worker what he asks because you want to teach him a lesson… all of the good intentions, all of the practically no aveira
of what you may be thinking, doing or saying—remember that 50 Amos high tree-- look up to its top—and to the little sapling! We will not follow Haman--we will follow Mordechai!</span></p>
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