The lot reveals Amalek's final downfall

בפסוק לימים האלה פורים על שם הפור.

On the pasuk: "These days were called Purim, after the pur (the lot)."

The Sefas Emes asks why the festival is named specifically after the lot that Haman cast, since that would seem to be a minor detail.

נראה שזה יסוד הנס.

It appears that this is the very foundation of the miracle.

The naming after the pur is not incidental — the lot itself reveals what the entire neis (miracle) was about.

ולכאורה מאי נ"מ בפור הזה.

At first glance, what practical difference does this pur make?

He sharpens the question: why should the specific lot Haman cast carry such weight?

אבל הענין הוא כי בוודאי כיון שהגורל נפל על ימים אלו.

But the matter is this: since the lot fell precisely upon these days,

The fact that the lot landed on this particular time was itself meaningful — it pointed to the limit of Amalek's strength.

בלי ספק היה זה סוף כחו של המן ועמלק שהי' בתוקף האחרון שיש להם.

without doubt this was the end of the power of Haman and Amalek, who were then at the very last measure of strength they possess.

The lot uncovered the final, outermost reach of Amalek's koach (power) — the point beyond which they could do no more harm.

לכן כתיב שראה כי כלתה אליו הרעה.

Therefore it is written that he saw "that the evil was determined against him."

Haman himself sensed that his capacity for evil had run out.

פי' שאין לו כח להרע עוד.

The meaning is that he no longer had any power to do harm.

The "evil being determined against him" means his own ability to harm Bnei Yisrael had reached its absolute end.

כי בוודאי כח הרשע להרע כמ"ש ועל חרבך תחי'.

For surely the strength of the rasha (wicked one) is to do harm, as it says: "And by your sword you shall live."

Esav-Amalek's entire vitality is bound up in the power to harm — that is what "living by the sword" means.

וכיון שנפסק שוב כחו האחרון הוא גאולה שלימה מתחת יד עמלק.

And since his final strength was cut off, this is a complete geulah (redemption) from beneath the hand of Amalek.

Once that last power to harm is severed, Bnei Yisrael are fully freed from Amalek's grip.

אם כי עוד יהי' מחיית עמלק בימי משיח.

Even though the full blotting-out of Amalek will yet be in the days of Moshiach,

He concedes that the ultimate erasure of Amalek is still future.

אבל כחו להרע לנו נראה שנפסק לגמרי.

nevertheless his power to harm us appears to have been entirely cut off.

Whatever remains of Amalek, his actual ability to injure Klal Yisrael was broken at Purim.

וכתיב והמן עמד לבקש כו'.

And it is written: "And Haman stood up to beg [for his life from Esther]."

The Sefas Emes turns to Haman's plea for mercy at the end of the Megillah.

כי גם בימי שאול לולי שפעלו הרשעים לעורר קצת רחמנות עליהם.

For in the days of Shaul too, had the wicked not managed to arouse a measure of pity for themselves,

He draws a parallel to King Shaul's war against Amalek, where misplaced compassion let Agag survive.

הי' להם מפלה לגמרי.

they would have suffered a complete downfall.

Amalek's survival in Shaul's time came only because pity was wrongly stirred.

רק שריחם שאול והעם כו'.

Only that Shaul and the people had mercy [on Agag and the best of the flock].

That very mercy was the flaw that allowed Amalek to continue.

וכמו כן רצה עתה המן לעורר רחמנות באסתר.

So too now, Haman sought to arouse compassion from Esther.

Haman tried to use the same tactic — stirring pity — to escape his fate.

אבל הם תקנו חטא שאול לגמרי.

But they completely repaired the sin of Shaul.

Mordechai and Esther corrected the earlier failure by refusing to be moved to misplaced mercy.

כי מאחר שנא' זכור את אשר עשה לך עמלק כו' תמחה כו'.

For since it says, "Remember what Amalek did to you… you shall blot out [the memory of Amalek],"

The Torah's command both to remember and to erase Amalek frames the whole obligation.

מוכח שכל נפילת עמלק תלוי בשנאת בני ישראל אותו כנ"ל:

it is proven that the entire downfall of Amalek depends on Bnei Yisrael's hatred of him, as above.

Amalek can only fall to the degree that Bnei Yisrael hold firm in their hatred of evil and refuse to be softened toward it.

Summary: The lot Haman cast revealed that Amalek had reached the final limit of his power to harm; Purim thus became a complete geulah, and where Shaul's misplaced mercy once let Amalek survive, Mordechai and Esther repaired that flaw — teaching that Amalek's downfall depends entirely on Bnei Yisrael's unwavering hatred of evil.