Concerning Purim, it says in Tikkunei Zohar, תיקון כ״א, that Yom Kippur, which is Yom Kippur, is יום כפורים. The word יום כפורים means the day like Purim. So in Tikkunei Zohar he compares Purim to Yom Kippur. But not only does he compare Purim to Yom Kippur, but it seems that Purim is even greater than Yom Kippur. Because if we say יום כפורים, that Yom Kippur is like Purim, so obviously Purim is greater. When we compare two things and we say one is like the other, so we're trying to compare this one to the other one. Which means that the other one is the main one and this one is like that. So here too, when we're saying that יום כפורים is that Yom Kippur is like Purim, so obviously Purim is even greater and Yom Kippur is like Purim. Now lichorah, in which way is bichlal Purim similar to Yom Kippur? And certainly why should we say that Purim is greater than Yom Kippur? Lichorah, Purim and Yom Kippur are two opposites, and it also seems that Yom Kippur is greater than Purim. On Yom Kippur we're not allowed to eat, we're not allowed to drink, we're supposed to have the five inuyim, the five things of suffering, all to stay away from physical pleasures, and we stay all day in shul and we daven, etc., etc. While on Purim we do the opposite. On Purim it's ימי משתה ושמחה, we drink and we eat, and we're involved in physical pleasures, so to speak, kivyachol. So lichorah, they're two opposites. And not only that, it would seem that on Yom Kippur, when we stay away from food and we stay away from gashmiyut, we're on a higher madregah than we are on Purim. So what is the pshat that in Tikkunei Zohar, that Yom Kippur is like Purim, which means that they're similar, plus that Purim is even greater?

Now the truth is, we do find something in Purim which is similar to Yom Kippur. We know that on Yom Kippur, one of the things that was done in the Beit HaMikdash was the inyan of goral. They used to throw lots. They would put both behemot next to each other, and they would throw a goral to see which behemah goes for a קרבן לה׳ and which one is supposed to go לעזאזל. Purim is also connected to lots, because the name Purim itself means lots. Because Haman threw lots to see on which day he should execute his decree of להשמיד, להרוג, ולאבד את כל היהודים, to kill all the Jews, and that's why we call it Purim. So we see that Purim is also connected to goral. The name of the Yom Tov is connected to goral, to throwing lots, and Yom Kippur is the inyan of goral. But likorah, what is the connection between the two that we say both have the inyan of goral? There's something else we see on Purim which needs explanation. There is a din on Purim that a person is supposed to drink עד דלא ידע בין ארור המן לברוך מרדכי. As the Gemara says in מגילה דף ז׳ עמוד ב׳, that a person is supposed to be so happy and drink so much wine till he doesn't know the difference between ארור המן and ברוך מרדכי. Blessed is Mordechai and cursed is Haman. Likorah, why is it important to reach that madregah? Why should a person reach the madregah of not knowing the difference between ברוך מרדכי and ארור המן?

But to explain that, first let's understand another thing that we see concerning Purim. The Gemara says in שבת דף פ״ח עמוד א׳, on the pasuk of the Megillah, קימו וקבלו היהודים, that the Yidden accepted upon themselves to keep Purim, so the Gemara says, קימו מה שקבלו כבר. They mekayem then, they fulfilled then what they had accepted a long time ago. And the Gemara explains, because like this, there is a מודעא רבא לאורייתא. Which means that till the time of Purim, a Yid could find an excuse why he doesn't keep תורה ומצוות. He could say, \"I didn't accept it willingly, I was forced to it.\" Because the Gemara says that כפה עליהם הר כגיגית. Hashem took the mountain on top of the Yidden and said to them, \"You must receive the Torah, accept the Torah, and if not, פה תהא קבורתכם, here you're going to be buried.\" So they were forced to receive the Torah. But at the time of Purim, the Gemara says, הדר קבלוה בימי אחשורוש. At the time of Achashverosh, the Yidden received the Torah again, which means they accepted upon themselves willingly to receive the Torah. So it comes out in the Gemara there that the inyan of Purim is similar to the inyan of מתן תורה. And therefore, it also says in the Megillah, וקבל היהודים את אשר החלו לעשות. That the Yidden accepted what they started doing. And the pshat here is, the way it says in sefarim, that they accepted then what they had started by מתן תורה. By מתן תורה they started the inyan of getting the Torah, and they finished it at the time of Purim, because then they received it with their own will. They received it ברצון הטוב, not by force. So we see that Purim is the same inyan of מתן תורה. We see another comparison between Purim and מתן תורה. By מתן תורה, we know it says that before they were able to receive the Torah, ויחן שם ישראל נגד ההר. It says that the Yidden rested there by the mountain, and it says ויחן, לשון יחיד, in singular, not in plural, and the Chazal say, As Rashi brings down on the pasuk from the Mechilta, that the reason it says singular is because they were כאיש אחד בלב אחד. At that time, they were all like one man with one heart. And it says that Hashem said, now they are fit to receive the Torah, because in order to receive the Torah, you have to have achdus among the Yidden, you have to have unity among the Yidden. And that took place at that time. We find a similar thing concerning Purim, because, as it says in sefarim, in Manot Halevi of the R' Shlomo Alkabetz and also in the Shelah and in Megillat Setarim on the Megillah, that the ta'anah of Haman was ישנו עם אחד מפוזר ומפורד בין העמים, there is one nation which is spread out among the nations. So what he really meant to say was that the Yidden are not ba'achdus. They are spread out among the nations; they are spread out among themselves, too. They are not ba'achdus. And that's why, to fix that, the first thing that Esther said was, לך כנוס את כל היהודים, go gather all the Yidden, bring them into achdus. And that's why, later on, when the miracle took place, the mitzvah of Purim is משלוח מנות איש לרעהו ומתנות לאביונים, to send משלוח מנות, to give מתנות לאביונים to the poor people. This shows the inyan of Ahavat Yisrael and the inyan of achdut Yisrael. Why? Because the reason for the gezeirah was because there is no achdus, so when you're metaken that the problem, you all have to do the opposite, which is achdus. So here, too, we see the comparison between Purim and מתן תורה. Just like by מתן תורה there had to be Ahavat Yisrael before, by Purim we also find the inyan of ahavat Yisrael: לך כנוס את כל היהודים and the inyan of mishloach manot and matanot la'evyonim. But the truth is, since we say that Matan Torah was just the beginning and Purim was the end, so Purim was the shleimut, the completion of what started by Matan Torah, so whatever we find by Matan Torah, in Purim it has to be even more, because that was the completion, that was the end. So that finished it off, that brought the shleimut to it. So the truth is we takeh find that the same two inyanim that we mentioned before, that by the time of Purim they received the Torah again, they were mekabel upon themselves Torah, and also there was achdut among the Yidden, but in a higher level even than it was at the time of Matan Torah. In which way was it higher? At the time of Matan Torah, it came, using the terms of chassidut and Kabbalah, it came milma'lah lematah, from above to below, which means it came because of an awakening from above. Hashem took them out of Mitzrayim, Hashem showed them all these different miracles, so certainly they were ready to receive the Torah and accept Hashem as their King. They were shown, they were given it min hashamayim from Hashem. There was a great גילוי אלקות, so to speak, there was a great revelation of Godliness in the world to them, so therefore they were ready to accept the Torah. And that is also the reason why they had achdut amongst themselves, the unity, because in order to have ahavat Yisrael, as we explained in a previous shiur, you have to realize that the neshamah is the ikar, Hashem is the ikar, then you're able to look at another Yid as if he is the same as you. Because if you're looking mitzad the body, mitzad the gashmiyut, everyone is different. You're different, they're different, not everyone can you love the same. In order to have the proper ahavat Yisrael, it's when you look at the ruchniyut, at the neshamah of the person. Mitzad the neshamah, they're all the same and it's all one with you. So because at that time there was a lot of גילוי אלקות, a lot of revelation of Hashem, so therefore it was much easier to perform the mitzvah of Ahavat Yisrael. Because when you have the revelation of Godliness, so the kedushah and ruchniyut is ikar, so then you look at the neshamah as the ikar, and when you look at the neshamah as the ikar, you're able to have Ahavat Yisrael. At the time of Purim, it was just the opposite. There was no גילוי אלקות, there was no revelation of Godliness. As a matter of fact, it was a great hester panim and a great cover up of the face of Hashem, as the pasuk says, ואנכי הסתר אסתיר פני ביום ההוא. And the Gemara takeh says that this is the pasuk that is a remez in the Torah for Esther, because in the time of Esther, it was a time of הסתר אסתיר פני, השם hid His face. It was a time that there was a decree of Haman which showed that Elokut, Hashem's love to the Yidden was covered up, and that's why Haman was able to make a decree להשמיד, להרוג ולאבד את כל היהודים. And nevertheless, the Yidden stood with a mesirut nefesh throughout the whole year, and it says in sefarim that if the Yidden would have given up their religion, then they would have been spared by Haman. And nevertheless it said not even one of them thought of giving up the religion. So they expressed their connection to Hashem, their mesirut nefesh to Hashem, not because it was a גילוי מלמעלה that was given from above, because as far as the giluyim, the revelations of above, it wasn't there. It came from within them. And it's self-understood that if it comes from within the people, it is much greater than if it comes from above. Because when it comes from above, it's not the pshat that the person reached that madregah. It was given to the person, so as long as that revelation is there, it's there, but when it goes away, it goes away, it wears off. But if it comes from within the person himself, mil'matah as we would call it, so then it penetrates deeper and it becomes part of the person, and that's a higher madregah. And that would be the real mesirut nefesh. At a time when you see Godliness, it's much easier to give yourself over to Hashem. That's not a real mesirat nefesh. But at a time when it's much harder, that's a real mesirat nefesh. As it was technically in the time of Haman, that the Yidden gave their lives for Hashem, because as we said before, had they given up their religion, Haman would have spared them, and they still didn't give it up, and they didn't know what the outcome would be, so they were ready for mesirut nefesh. That time was real mesirut nefesh, even more than it was in the time of מתן תורה. Even though the time of מתן תורה they were also ready to give themselves up, they were mekabel Hashem, mekabel the Torah, etc., etc. But still, it's not the real mesirut nefesh. The real mesirut nefesh was at the time of Purim. And this is why the level of Purim is even higher than מתן תורה, because מתן תורה came from maalah, but by time of Purim, it was a mesirut nefesh that came from within them, and therefore the קבלת התורה was greater, and the אחדות that is an outcome of their accepting the רוחניות of Hashem was also in a higher מדרגה.

This will explain the similarity between Purim and Yom Kippur, and also why Purim is greater than Yom Kippur. What is the ענין of Yom Kippur? We know Yom Kippur is called אחת בשנה, the one day of the year, and as Tosafot in Menachot דף י״ח עמוד א׳ explains, it means יחידה שבנפש. יחידה שבנפש refers to the person's essence of his neshamah, which is always ready to go on mesirut nefesh. When we say a Yid goes on mesirut nefesh, it is because he has this essence of the neshamah, which is connected to Hashem, and therefore he is ready to go on mesirut nefesh when he needs. If not for that, a person wouldn't be able to go on mesirut nefesh. Because to give up your life for anything is against the nature of a person. It's only because a Yid has this יחידה שבנפש, the etzem hanefesh, that's why he is able to go on mesirut nefesh. And on Yom Kippur, this level is revealed. And that's why on Yom Kippur the Kohen Gadol would go into the קדש הקדשים, because the קדש הקדשים was the, so to speak, the private place of Hashem, where the etzem of Hashem was. So the Kohen Gadol, as a representative of Klal Yisrael, would go in because that's the day when there is this connection between the etzem of the Yid and the etzem of Hashem. And that's one of the reasons it says in sefarim why on Yom Kippur there was the concept of goral. Goral means lots. Lots is something which is beyond sechel. If there is a logical reason why to choose one over the other, you don't throw lots, you don't make a goral, you just do according to your sechel. Or if there is a an inclination in the person מצד his מדות to do a certain thing, not the other, then you do it for that reason. When you throw lots, it's obviously at a time when you cannot choose, there is no reason why you should choose one over the other, there is no feeling one over the other, and you don't know which one to pick, so you throw lots. So lots, goral, always represents a level which is not מצד שכל, but something beyond that. And since on Yom Kippur, that is the day when there is this essential connection between Hashem and the Yidden, and the Yidden and Hashem, beyond any reasoning, beyond any logic, just because he has a neshamah, and this is Hashem, so therefore on that day they would throw lots. And this is also the reason why Purim is connected to goral. And that's why the name of the Yom Tov is Purim, to show that on Purim, there was a revelation of the etzem of the neshamah in the Yid, mitzad the Yid himself, which is even higher than the revelation that took place at the time of מתן תורה, because it came from within the Yid. And what came? This essential connection that they have, the mesirut nefesh that they have to Hashem because of their עצם הנשמה, which is expressed through the concept of a goral, which is not מצד שכל, not מצד מדות, not for any reason, just because of the עצם הנפש. And this will also explain why Purim is greater than Yom Kippur. Because on Yom Kippur, the way to express the עצם הנפש of a Yid is through not eating, through staying away from gashmius. In other words, gashmius would be a contradiction to this high level. Which means that this high level only penetrated the person, but only the person the way he is away from gashmius. If a person would get involved in gashmius, in eating and drinking, then he wouldn't be able to have this great level. On Purim, the level is so great that this עצם הנפש that's revealed on Purim is no contradiction to the person's gashmius, adarbah, that even when a person eats and drinks, he's able to have this great feeling of the revelation of his עצם הנפש. And that's why on Purim there is a din of משתה ושמחה, that you should drink and you should be happy. There's a chiyuv of סעודת פורים, to eat a seudah, because the kedushah of Purim, which is this great expression of the Yid's עצם הנפש, is so strong that it could penetrate even to the gashmius of a Yid, even into the food of a Yid. And that's why there is a din that a person is supposed to drink on פורים עד דלא ידע between ארור המן and ברוך מרדכי, till he doesn't know the difference between ארור המן and ברוך מרדכי. And the pshat is not that he takeh should not know the difference, because what is the purpose in a person chas v'shalom saying that המן should be blessed and that מרדכי should be cursed? Why do we want him to reach that point? The pshat is we want him always to know that ברוך מרדכי, that מרדכי is blessed, and מרדכי represents all inyanim of kedushah, that's blessed, and Haman, which represents all inyanim of kelipah, of evil, is cursed. But what we want a person to reach is that he should know that in a form of לא ידע, which means not only mitzad his sechel he should know that, but he should have the connection to ברוך מרדכי and ארור המן even higher than שכל, לא ידע, even when he doesn't know, which means he cannot use his logic, he still has this feeling of ברוך מרדכי and ארור המן. This is the expression of the עצם הנפש that we were talking about before. But this is even greater than on Yom Kippur, because on Yom Kippur you could only reach that point if you stay away from gashmiyut, you stay away from food, etc., etc. But on Purim, you could reach that even if you're involved in gashmiyut. And the reason for that is, because as we said before, Purim, the Yidden reached this high madregah, not because of the giluy that came from above, but it came from within the Bnei Yisrael themselves. And as we said before, if it comes from within the person himself, it penetrates deeper and stays longer. And therefore, this level that they reached on Purim penetrated so far that even while the Yidden are involved in gashmiyut, still they are able to feel this high madregah. If it would come from above, so it's limited to as far how far it goes, how far it penetrates. But when it comes from within them, that means that this is their whole being. If this is their whole being, then nothing contradicts it. And therefore this could express itself even through eating and drinking and being happy. And that's the reason why on Purim there is a mitzvah of סעודת פורים, there is a mitzvah of drinking, there is a mitzvah of ad delo yada, to show that this high madregah a Yid could reach on Purim could penetrate even into the food and turn the food into a mitzvah and turn the person's gashmiyut into ruchniyut, into kedushah, into this high kedushah which is connected to the עצם הנפש.