Purim reawakened love of Torah

ליהודים היתה אורה זו תורה.

"For the Yehudim there was light (orah)" (Esther 8:16) — "this is Torah."

The Sefas Emes cites Chazal's reading that the "light" the Jews gained in the Purim victory refers to Torah.

הגם שכבר קבלנו את התורה.

Even though we had already received the Torah.

This raises a question: the Torah was given long before, at Sinai — so what new "light" of Torah came at Purim?

אבל צריכין להיות דבוקים בתורה.

But one needs to be attached (davuk) to the Torah.

Receiving the Torah is not enough; the ongoing avodah is to cling to it with deveikus.

וע"ז אמרו חכמים במ"ח דברים התורה נקנית בהם שע"י הדברים הללו מתחברים אל התורה.

And about this the Sages said that "the Torah is acquired through forty-eight things" (Avos 6:6) — for through these things one becomes joined to the Torah.

The forty-eight "ways" of acquiring Torah are the means by which a person bonds himself to it beyond the initial receiving.

ז"ש היתה אורה.

This is the meaning of "there was light (haysa orah)."

The phrasing "haysa" (there was/became) hints at an acquired connection, not merely possession.

הויה וקנין.

A becoming (haviyah) and an acquisition (kinyan).

"Haysa orah" denotes both a coming-into-being and a kinyan — Bnei Yisrael acquired a renewed, living bond with the Torah at Purim.

ואיתא בגמ' מ"ח נביאים היו לישראל.

And it is taught in the Gemara: there were forty-eight prophets for Yisrael.

The Gemara records that forty-eight prophets arose for Bnei Yisrael over the generations.

וכולם לא החזירום למוטב עד ישועה זו בפורים.

And all of them did not return them to the good until this salvation at Purim.

Even all those prophets could not fully bring Bnei Yisrael back to wholehearted devotion — that was achieved only through the Purim deliverance.

ואותן מ"ח נביאים מכוונים למ"ח דברים שהתורה נקנית בהם.

And those forty-eight prophets correspond to the forty-eight things through which the Torah is acquired.

The Sefas Emes aligns the forty-eight prophets with the forty-eight ways of acquiring Torah — both are channels for binding Yisrael to the Torah.

וכמו שהוא בפרט.

And just as it is on the individual level.

For a single person, the forty-eight middos are how he personally acquires Torah.

כן כלל ישראל הי' הכנה שלהם כח אלה המ"ח נביאים שבאו להחזירן למוטב.

So too for Klal Yisrael, their preparation was the power of these forty-eight prophets who came to return them to the good.

On the national scale, the forty-eight prophets functioned as the collective "forty-eight ways," preparing Bnei Yisrael to reconnect with the Torah.

זה הדביקות אל התורה שנק' טוב.

This is the deveikus to the Torah, which is called "good (tov)."

Being returned "to the good" means being reattached to the Torah, which is itself called tov.

והקב"ה טוב ומטיב פרשנו במ"א שמלבד שנתן לנו התורה שהיא לקח טוב.

And "HaKadosh Baruch Hu is good and does good," which we explained elsewhere: that beyond His having given us the Torah, which is "a good teaching" (lekach tov).

Hashem's goodness is twofold: first, the gift of the Torah itself, called "a good acquisition/teaching."

אבל במתן תורה הדביק אותנו להיות בעצם תורה כמ"ש וחיי עולם נטע בתוכינו.

But at Matan Torah He attached us to become, in essence, Torah, as we say: "and eternal life He planted within us."

The deeper gift is that Hashem made the Torah part of our very essence, planting it as "eternal life" within us.

ועשה אותנו טובים.

And He made us good.

This implanting of Torah transformed Bnei Yisrael themselves into something intrinsically good.

וזה חלק התורה שבע"פ שהוא בנפשות בנ"י בעצם.

And this is the portion of Torah she-be'al peh (the Oral Torah), which is within the souls of Bnei Yisrael in essence.

The Oral Torah especially lives within the Jewish soul itself, an essential, internal possession.

אך עונותינו היו מבדילים.

But our sins were separating.

Sin creates a barrier that conceals and cuts off access to this inner Torah within the soul.

ובפורים החזירנו למוטב להיות דבוקים בתורה.

And at Purim He returned us to the good, to be attached to the Torah.

The Purim miracle removed that barrier and restored Bnei Yisrael's deveikus to the inner Torah.

וז"ש הדר קבלוה בימי אחשורוש.

And this is the meaning of "they re-accepted it (hadar kibluha) in the days of Achashverosh" (Shabbos 88a).

Chazal say the Jews re-accepted the Torah in Achashverosh's days — a renewed kabbalas haTorah on the level of inner attachment.

פרש"י ז"ל מאהבת הנס.

Rashi explains: out of love [arising] from the miracle.

According to Rashi, this re-acceptance was driven by the love awakened by the Purim miracle.

פי' ע"י הנס נתעורר האהבה שיש בלבות בנ"י אל התורה.

The meaning is: through the miracle, the love that exists in the hearts of Bnei Yisrael for the Torah was awakened.

The miracle did not create love from nothing but aroused the latent love for Torah already present in Jewish hearts.

וזה בא ע"י מפלת המן ועמלק.

And this came through the downfall of Haman and Amalek.

The reawakening of love depended on the defeat of Haman and his ancestor Amalek.

כי עמלק וכת שלו עומדין רק לבטל זו האהבה מלבות בנ"י.

For Amalek and his faction stand only to nullify this love from the hearts of Bnei Yisrael.

Amalek's entire purpose is to extinguish and cool the love for Torah and Hashem in the Jewish heart.

וגם מעולם הי' עומד על הפרק ויבוא עמלק בעוד שהיו בנ"י מוכנים לקבלת התורה.

And from of old he stood ready, as in "and Amalek came" (Shemos 17:8), while Bnei Yisrael were preparing to receive the Torah.

Already in the wilderness Amalek attacked precisely when Bnei Yisrael were on the verge of receiving the Torah, trying to disrupt that connection.

שזה הי' המכוון של גאולת מצרים.

For this was the purpose of the redemption from Mitzrayim.

The very goal of the exodus was to bring Bnei Yisrael to receive the Torah and serve Hashem.

בהוציאך את העם ממצרים תעבדון את האלקים כו' ההר הזה.

"When you bring the people out of Mitzrayim, you shall serve God... upon this mountain" (Shemos 3:12).

The exodus was explicitly directed toward the avodah of receiving the Torah at Sinai.

וזה סמיכת גאולה לתפלה.

And this is [the meaning of] joining geulah to tefillah (semichas geulah le-tefillah).

The principle of immediately joining redemption to prayer reflects this same goal — moving directly from geulah to standing before Hashem.

וזה הרשע עמד בדרך להפסיק בין גאולה לתפלה.

And this wicked one (Amalek) stood in the way to interrupt between geulah and tefillah.

Amalek's role is to insert himself as a barrier, breaking the connection between the redemption and the closeness to Hashem it should produce.

לכן המצוה לזכור השנאה שלו.

Therefore the mitzvah is to remember the hatred toward him.

Because of this destructive role, there is a standing mitzvah to remember and despise Amalek.

ובכל עת שיש מחיית עמלק יש לבנ"י אחיזה בתורה.

And whenever there is a wiping out of Amalek, Bnei Yisrael have a grasp on the Torah.

Each erasure of Amalek's influence reopens Bnei Yisrael's hold on the Torah and its love.

כמ"ש בית יעקב אש ובית יוסף להבה.

As it is written: "the house of Yaakov will be fire, and the house of Yosef a flame" (Ovadiah 1:18).

The pasuk depicts Bnei Yisrael as a consuming fire against Esav/Amalek — that fire is their burning love for Torah.

זה התלהבות בנ"י אל התורה שנאמר כה דברי כאש.

This is the fervor (hislahavus) of Bnei Yisrael for the Torah, as it is said: "Is not My word like fire?" (Yirmiyahu 23:29).

The "fire" is the passionate enthusiasm of Bnei Yisrael for the Torah, which is itself compared to fire.

ואז ובית עשו לקש.

And then "the house of Esav will be straw" (Ovadiah 1:18).

When that fiery love burns, Esav and Amalek become mere straw, consumed before it.

ובימי הפורים יש ב' הישועות.

And in the days of Purim there are both salvations.

Purim contains two redemptions joined together.

מפלת עמלק וקבלת התורה.

The downfall of Amalek and the receiving of the Torah.

The two are the defeat of Haman/Amalek and the renewed acceptance of the Torah — and they are intertwined, since removing Amalek enables reattachment to Torah.

ויש לשמוח בב' הדברים.

And one should rejoice in both things.

The simchah of Purim is meant to embrace both the victory over Amalek and the renewed bond with the Torah.

ארור המן מקודם בחי' סור מרע אח"כ ברוך מרדכי.

"Cursed is Haman" comes first — the aspect of "turn away from evil" — and afterward "Blessed is Mordechai."

The order mirrors "turn from evil and do good" (Tehillim 34:15): first one must remove the evil of Amalek, and only then can the good of attachment to Torah, represented by Mordechai, take hold.

וגם בכל שנה מתעורר ב' הדברים על ידי הזכירה שלמטה.

And also every year, both things are awakened through the remembrance below.

Each year, through our remembering and re-enacting Purim down here, both the defeat of Amalek and the renewal of Torah are aroused anew.

כמ"ש נזכרים ונעשים.

As it is written: "remembered and done" (Esther 9:28).

The verse teaches that whatever is properly remembered is thereby re-enacted — the remembrance below draws down the reality again.

וכתיב לעשות אותם ימי משתה.

And it is written: "to make them days of feasting" (Esther 9:22).

The Megillah commands transforming these days into days of feasting and joy.

פי' על ידי הזכירה נעשים ימי משתה ושמחה:

The meaning is: through the remembrance, they become days of feasting and joy.

It is precisely through our active remembrance of the Purim miracle that these days are renewed each year as days of true feasting and joy — reawakening both the downfall of Amalek and the love of Torah.

Summary: Though the Torah was given at Sinai, true avodah is to remain attached to it; the forty-eight ways of acquiring Torah (mirrored by the forty-eight prophets) are the means of that bond. At Sinai Hashem made the Torah part of the very essence of the Jewish soul, but sins formed a barrier concealing it. Amalek's whole mission is to extinguish the love for Torah in Jewish hearts and to interpose itself between redemption and closeness to Hashem. The Purim miracle, through the downfall of Haman and Amalek, reawakened that latent love and brought a renewed acceptance of the Torah — "hadar kibluha." Purim therefore holds two intertwined salvations, defeating Amalek ("turn from evil") and reattaching to Torah ("do good"), both renewed each year through our active remembrance, which transforms these into days of feasting and joy.