purim - ki tisa - adaloyada

Hi Everyone! Happy Purim! Good Shabbos!

"ADA LO YADA"
What does that mean?
"Until you don't know".
This phrase is normally used on Purim to mean that we drink until we don't
know.

What don't we know?
We don't know the difference between Mordechai and Haman.

So we get drunk enough to not realise the difference between Mordechai and
Haman.
What does that mean?

So there are many events in the Torah where a seemingly bad situation is
described. For example, after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot
flees with his daughters into a cave. Abandoned and all alone, the daughters
believe that they are now the only people left on the planet. In order to
produce babies, the girls feel that their only course of action is to commit
a sin whereby they produce children from their father. That looks pretty bad
- right?

Do you know what came out of this seemingly un-holy union? King David.
Unbelievable, right? How? One of the girls produced a boy by the name of
Moab. Ruth was from the people of Moab (she converted to marry Boaz). Ruth
was the great-grandmother of King David. And we know that the lineage of
King David will bring forth Moshiach. Unbelievable.

Another example is the sin of the Golden Calf in Parashah Ki Tisa. I'm not
on a level yet where I can tell you the goodness that came from such a
despicable act. But this is a perfect example of how you can easily fall
into the trap of believing that a seemingly bad event that happens in the
Torah must obviously and surely have bad outcomes for the Jewish people. But
does it?

I'll take this point to an extreme. The Holocaust was terrible. Did you know
that written into the declaration of independence of the State of Israel
there is a specific point made of the establishment of the state as a direct
result of the Holocaust. The Holocaust was terrible. But according to the
declaration, would we have had the State without the Holocaust? It's
obviously hypothetical, but that's what is written there.

So we get so drunk on Purim that we look at good Mordechai and evil Haman
and we don't know the difference. I was walking with my family down Rehov
Yafo toward the old city a few days ago (on the 14th of Adar). I stopped.
Mamash, I just stopped. I turned to my family and said, Do you realise we
would not be standing here today if it wasn't for the events of Purim!

Do you realise what we don't know on Purim? We don't know how much all the
events of this world, and all the people of this world, good and bad, are
all connected to Gd.

On Purim we realise that everything is connected to Gd.

May we carry that idea forward every day of our lives.