Which holiday is greater, Purim or Passover? #shabbatzakhor#devartorah#parashathashavua

Two Hassidim were arguing which one of their respective rebbes was greater.  The first said: “Our rebbe is greater for what he says, God fulfills.”  The second Hassid replied: “We consider greater when God says something and the rebbe fulfills.”  

Saturday night begins the holiday of Purim. We might ask the question which holiday is greater Passover which is full of extra-ordinary miracles or Purim which has no overt miracle at all.  At first glance we would immediately say Passover.  Who could forget the 10 plagues and the splitting of the sea?  Those were awe inspiring events in our history.

Rabbi Mechachem Schneerson argues in his commentary on the Book of Esther that Purim is greater.  He writes:

“Chasssidic thought explains that Purim’s failure to break nature belies a superior quality. If witnessing an outright miracle is to see God at work, then a miracle garbed in nature-argues Chassidus-is, in fact a more profound revelation. Why? Because if God has to suspend the laws of physics in order to get the job done, then we have only demonstrated that He is the ‘God of the heavens’ and not truly the ‘God of the earth.’ A breach of nature is a moment when God appears to proclaim ‘It is impossible for Me to achieve this result without breaking the rules.’

“But in truth, God can do anything; He does not have to break the laws of nature to achieve any desired result, however impossible it may be. When we witness the impossible occur without any overt change in the natural order-such as that which transpired at Purim-we are seeing God work in a much more profound truly omnipotent way.

“Or, to put it in other words, the ‘spiritual source’ of the Puirm miracle was higher, therefore it was able to reach lower, penetrating and acting through the natural order of this lowly physical world.

“And this is the inner reason why, ‘All the Books of the Prophets and all the Writings will in the future Messianic Era be annulled, except for Megilas Esther’ (Rambam, Laws of Megillah 2:18)-because the Megillah contains such a lofty form of Divine revelation that it will shine forth even in the Messianic Era.” (page 56)

Purim asks of us to find other Purim-like miracles that we might miss because we are not looking in all the right places.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Greene