OPINION & COMMENT

Let Us Rededicate Our Lives

One of the main themes of Purim is commitment. Kiyemu vekiblu, the Jews of those days ratified a commitment made many years previously. They accepted of their own free will what their forefathers had accepted out of a less-than-free will: to keep the Torah.

Accepting Torah Willingly
by HaRav Dovid Povarsky zt"l

In the first part, HaRav Povarsky explained the important principle that one's ma'asim have fruits that benefit the doer himself, namely that the feedback from his good deeds, in turn, causes him to become a better person. His deeds are his fruits, and then these fruits have further fruits from which he himself benefits. In this way, HaRav Povarsky explained how the Jews in the generation of Purim accepted the Torah willingly when the great Dor Hamidbar did not. In the time of Mordechai and Esther, the acceptance was the fruit of deeds: "fasting, crying, and lamenting." The feedback of these acts made the doers great and led them to fully and willingly accept the Torah.

Nature Proclaims Hashem's Existence
by Rabbi Dr. Yehuda Aryeh Cohen

A Head of Wine
By Yaakov Sofer

Closer
by Rabbi Avi Shafran