The Purim Shift: From Victimhood to Power (Shabbat Zachor/Tetzaveh) | Land of Israel Fellowship

Okay, so you know, everybody I'm sure is having our minds drawn to this obvious comparison between Haman and Haman and our let's say you know, President America's president Donald Trump having some let's say uncanny similarities with another King we might be reading about in the scroll of Esther and you know, some some similarities of maybe the Netanyahu being you know, a Mordecai level leader and that's all kind of cool, but I think those comparisons while they're fun might miss the fundamental prophetic level similarities that we can see taking place here on a spiritual level between what's happening now and what we're reading in the scroll of Esther just tomorrow night. Because why what do we actually celebrate on Purim? Like you know, what what are we actually celebrating? Um in order to know what we're celebrating, we have to ask ourselves what would have happened if not for this story if not for Esther and all of >> [sighs and gasps] >> all of those unfoldings taking place. So Haman had a plan. He made this lottery. He would have attacked us, right? All of the haters of Israel would have attacked us like they said they were planning. Would we be sticking out our necks like here right here slaughter us? Likely we would have had some kind of self-defense some kind of civil war trying to defend ourselves. Perhaps many Jews would be killed. Likely many Jews would be killed. We'd say well, you know, they attacked us first. They started this terrorism. We would maybe try to band together and find shelter. And how do I know that? Well, because in the megillah we see in the scroll of Esther we see the Jews are pretty serious fighters. We see this after they actually get permission to fight. The Jews were not just going to stick out their necks. They were pretty serious fighters. They weren't exiled 2,000 years in the exile. These were Jews who had just recently seen the demise of the kingdom of David's descendants. So, you know, they would they would probably fight back a bit and then it would blow over. There would it would be like one of those big terrible pogroms that we've seen in Jewish history. And you know, and we would probably mark it as a fast day or whatever. What flipped? What changed on Purim? Was that the Jewish power actually got permission to be unleashed. Not as a defensive October 7th please don't hurt us anymore posture, but as a preemptive strike. That is what is being marked on Purim. That's what's being prophesized and marked and told in the book of Esther. It's as if on Purim the Jews went from waiting for the strike, fasting, fretting, thinking how should we defend ourselves, right? To saying, you know what? Maybe people keep saying that they want to kill us and they keep taking actions in order to get ready to kill us. Maybe just this is crazy, but maybe maybe they're actually going to try to kill us. Maybe we should unleash some of our fury before the attack, before October 7th or worse than October 7th instead of waiting and saying, "Hey world, don't forget we have the right to self-defense." So Purim is not a day of regular like I there's no such thing as regular salvation, but a day of salvation in the classical way we think of salvation like on Passover. When we were completely helpless and we're at the sea and the Egyptians are chasing us and Hashem comes from heaven to cross us the sea and slaughter our enemies. It's a different type of story. It's a story of an Israel that has this latent power inside. This power that it's restraining that's wait waiting waiting to burst forth. And Hashem setting the scene in the perfect way to allow us to go through the process that's needed for us to overcome our own fear of releasing that strength that we have within us not to defend ourselves, but actually to go out proactively and do what's right to prevent future bloodshed. It's a completely different posture. And Hashem arranged all of the pieces just so that Esther and Mordecai would all be in the right place at the right time to bring this constellation of circumstances together, but in the end Hashem didn't take over. He threw the responsibility back on to Israel. And that is what is celebrated in Purim. What's amazing is that the Jewish calendar if we look at sort of the whole picture of the year starts with Passover Nissan. The month of Nissan is the first month. The month of the Exodus is the first month. That's when we become a nation. We always think about Rosh Hashanah, but biblically the first month is the time of the Exodus and that is the place where we start out being completely helpless as a nation of slaves depending on Hashem to do everything for us like like a child looking towards their parent. And the Jewish year finishes with this month this month of Adar with the holiday of Purim with the scroll of Esther with something much more mature. Us sanctifying Hashem's name by letting go of our fear and realizing that we had this strength all along. And that the truest sanctification of Hashem's name comes not from outward miracles coming into the world by but by actually by us living out and embodying the morality and the justice that Hashem exemplifies for us that Hashem demands of us in the world. And so I think that is actually the unfolding we're seeing now that connects us to the holiday of Purim that we're so by like the by the you know, unbelievable providence of Hashem in our in our lives having this all unfold right on the Shabbat of remembering Amalek right looking into the holiday of Purim. This is all unfolding because we see Israel actually stepping out and unleashing this power that we're that we've been you know, of course given by Hashem, but that Hashem has been waiting for us to realize it's time for us to release and unleash into the world in order to put end to evil murderous terrorists. Anyway, with that may we bless the soldiers of the IDF. Bless the soldiers of the United States of America. And Hashem should just bless us with tremendous victory. Bye guys. Happy Purim. Hey, that was a highlight from this week's Land of Israel Fellowship. If you liked that highlight, you'll love the Land of Israel Fellowship. Find out more on the landofisrael.com. Join our global community from over 50 countries around the world that gather together every Sunday live from Israel. Check it out on the link below. >> [music]