called me up and said, \"Maybe you use this topic.\" It's not a topic of a subject, but it is connected to the day. Today is שושן פורים קטן, and yesterday was פורים קטן. And from time to time, we discuss different dates in the Jewish calendar to explain what the meaning behind those dates are, and what significance they have for us, and not so much in the halacha aspect of it, but rather in the Chassidishe aspect of it, and the way it's explained in Chassidus, and the way the Rebbe explains the meaning behind these special days. So, being that today is שושן פורים קטן and yesterday was פורים קטן, this is the subject that we'll discuss today. Starting with just explaining first what is פורים קטן and שושן פורים קטן. We all know that, but I'll explain it anyway. פורים קטן, the literal translation of פורים קטן means the small Purim. שושן פורים קטן means the small Shushan Purim. We know that Purim is the Yom Tov, the holiday, that is in the month of Adar. The 14th day of Adar is the holiday of Purim. The 15th day of Adar is the holiday of Shushan Purim. We, in most, Yidden in most cities celebrate Purim. In Yerushalayim and other cities where they have walls around them, or they used to have walls around them that were built from the time of Yehoshua, they celebrate Shushan Purim. But even when we celebrate just Purim, Shushan Purim is also a Yom Tov to us. We don't say Tachanun, and different things that we have on Shushan Purim. Those that celebrate Shushan Purim, for them, Purim is also a Yom Tov. So, basically there are two days of Yom Tov in the month of Adar: Purim and Shushan Purim. The reason for the Yom Tov, we all know, is because of the story of the Megillah and the miracles that Hashem did for the Jews at that time. And that is in the month of Adar. We know that in our calendar, from time to time, we have two Adar's in the same year. We have an extra month. We have a leap year, and that's an extra month, which means within a cycle of 19 years we have seven leap years. We once had a class to explain why we have the leap, I'm not going to go into it again, it's just the general idea is in order to balance out the year of the sun with the year of the moon. Our calendar follows the year of the moon, which is the lunar year. Then we have the solar year. The difference between the lunar year and the solar year is in 11 days, because the year of the moon is really there is no year, the moon is made up of cycles of months, and 12 cycles of the month add up to 355 days, 354 days, while the year of the sun is 365 days, that's the cycle of the sun. Now, the seasons are connected to the sun, to the cycle of the sun, not to the cycle of the moon. And therefore, if we would just continue with the year the way we have it, the lunar year, then one year will be behind the solar year with 11 days, the next year will be behind with another 11 days, and then with another 11 days. After three years, we'll be 33 days behind, and then we will be with 44 days behind. What will happen is that the seasons are going to be all mixed up. Pesach is going to be in the middle of the winter, and Sukkot will be in the middle of the summer, and things will go up and down. Therefore, in order to straighten it out, every few years we have an extra month, which means that when we fall behind with 30 days, we add a month, now we're even. Then we fall behind with 11 days, we still stay that way, and then when we fall behind 22 days, sometimes after two years, sometimes after three years, we add a month. And it balances it out that within 19 years we have seven leap years, and in those leap years we have an extra month. The extra month that we have is towards the end of the year, which is in the month of Adar. We know Adar is the last month of the year, even though we know that the year starts with Tishrei, and therefore the last month would be Elul, but there is another way we count the year which is from the month of Nisan, as the pasuk says that this month is the first month, ראשון הוא לכם לחדשי השנה is the first month. So at the end of the year we add another month, and that is also Adar. So we have certain times two Adar's. In the Gemara, there is a whole discussion: when we have two Adar's, like this year, which of the two Adar's is Purim? One thing is clear: we don't have two Purim's and two Shushan Purim's. We're supposed to have one Yom Tov Purim and one Shushan Purim. In which one of the two months is it? And there's an argument actually in the Gemara: one opinion says it's in the first Adar, and one opinion says it's in the second Adar. The halacha, the way the Gemara says, is that it is in the second Adar. So Purim is in Adar Sheni. We have two Adars, Adar Rishon and Adar Sheni, first Adar and second Adar, so Purim is in the second Adar and so is Shushan Purim. But nevertheless the Mishnah says, אין בין אדר ראשון לאדר שני אלא מקרא מגילה ומשלוח מנות מתנות לאביונים בלבד. Which means the real difference between the first Adar and the second Adar is only in the actual celebration of Purim. That means we don't read the Megillah in the first Adar on the 14th day of the month, or in those places where it's Shushan Purim on the 15th day. We don't send שלח מנות or give מתנות לאביונים as we do on Purim. We only do it in the second Adar, not in the first. But otherwise, the first and the second Adar are the same. Which means that even though we don't do the special mitzvot on the first Adar on the 14th and the 15th of the first Adar, nevertheless, these two days remain special days. Being that they are the 14th and the 15th day of the month of Adar, and the month of Adar these two days in the month of אדר are special days, they remain special days without the special mitzvot. And that's what Purim Katan and Shushan Purim Katan are all about. When it comes to the 14th day of אדר ראשון, the first אדר, it is like Purim, but it's a miniature Purim, a small Purim, without the mitzvot, without the megillah reading, without sending שלח מנות. And then the next day, the 15th day of אדר, is Shushan Purim Katan. It's also like Shushan Purim, but the small one, the small Shushan Purim. And the halachah is that we do not say Tachanun. One of the things that we do keep on this day is that we do not say Tachanun. Like just in davenen, we say every day after the Shemoneh Esrei, we say אשמנו, and then we fall, we say Tachanun. On special days, special holidays, we don't say Tachanun. Purim Katan and Shushan Purim Katan we don't say Tachanun. Plus, there is a din that we're not allowed to have any תענית והספד. We're not allowed to fast. Those special days, there are many special days in the year that we're not allowed to fast, so we're not allowed to fast on Purim Katan, because it's a special day. We're not allowed to fast on Shushan Purim Katan either, because these are two special days, because they are, to a certain degree, a form of Purim. Then there is a discussion in the poskim whether on Purim Katan is there an obligation to make a party, to celebrate? Being that on Purim, one of the mitzvot on the real Purim is to have a seudah, to have a mishteh, which is a party. The question is, is there a mitzvah to have a party on Purim Katan? And those people who celebrate Shushan Purim, is there a mitzvah on them to have a seudah, a mishteh on Shushan Purim Katan? And there are differences of opinion. The Rema in Shulchan Aruch, we know that the Shulchan Aruch was written by the Mechaber, by Rabbi Yosef Karo. But then the Rema added his comments, and whenever we refer to the Shulchan Aruch, usually we mean the the Mechaber with the Rema together. We know the Shulchan Aruch is divided into four sections: Orach Chaim, Yoreh De'ah, Even HaEzer, and Choshen Mishpat. The section called Orach Chaim, that's the first, that's a section in itself, a whole section with many, many volumes, a few volumes. So the section of Orach Chaim finishes, the last last last halachot finish with the halachot of Purim. And then at the very end, there is a discussion about Purim Katan. And the Rema says that there are opinions that hold that on Purim Katan you also have to have a משתה, you also have to have a party. But the Rema says that לא נהגו כן, the custom is not that way. In other words, the halacha is that you don't really have to. Nevertheless, the Rema says, טוב לב משתה תמיד. That's how he finishes off. טוב לב means a good heart will always party. משתה תמיד, it means will have a משתה, will have a party, תמיד. תמיד is constantly. In other words, what the Rema is really saying, especially the way the Taz explains, that he's saying that even though the halacha really remains that you don't have to have a party on Purim Katan, but being that whenever you're in doubt whether to be happy or not, whether there is an obligation of a משתה, you should have, because טוב לב משתה תמיד. It's always good to be happy, so always follow the opinion of a משתה. And therefore, we should have a משתה, we should have some kind of party on Purim Katan. The truth is that Rema does not mention anything about Shushan Purim Katan, which is today, whether we have to have a seudah or a party or any type of extra simcha on the day of Shushan Purim. So the mefarshim say that being that the Rema says טוב לב משתה תמיד, it's actually a quote from a פסוק, but the Rema wrote brought it in connection to this question Whether we have to have a party on פורים קטן, and because of this פסוק, טוב לב משתה תמיד, you should always have a משתה, he says you should have, so obviously if we have a question, does it apply to שושן פורים קטן also, should you have an extra party or not, the answer is obviously yes, because טוב לב משתה תמיד, you should always have a party. This is the idea, the הלכה of פורים קטן and שושן פורים קטן. It's in אדר, the 14th and 15th day of אדר ראשון, and being that this is the day that had we only had one אדר, it would have been Purim and שושן פורים, it stays as a special day, and we have to have a special simcha, as the Rema hints, even though he doesn't say it clearly. Again, the Rema just said that the הלכה is we don't have to have, but nevertheless he hints to it by saying טוב לב משתה תמיד, that we do have to have a party, or some kind of extra simcha on פורים קטן and שושן פורים קטן. This is the simple part of the explanation of what פורים קטן and שושן פורים קטן is all about.

But we know that there must be something more to it. We know that in Chassidus, and especially in the Rebbe's שיחות, we always learn about different special ענינים, spiritual things that apply to the different holidays. And whenever we come to any specific holiday, Chassidus and the Rebbe in the שיחות always brings out how that specific holiday is so special, more special than any other holiday of the year. And one might ask, how is that possible? When we come to Pesach, we learn that Pesach is the greatest holiday of the year. Then we come to Shavuot, and we learn Shavuot is the greatest holiday, and then comes Sukkot, and Rosh Hashanah, how is that possible? You can't have everyone, everything being the greatest! The answer is no, you could. Everyone has something special. There is a certain aspect in Pesach that other holidays don't have, and in that aspect, Pesach is the greatest. Comes to Shavuot, Shavuot has a certain aspect in which that is greater than Pesach and Sukkot and the rest. And therefore, when we come to Pesach, which aspect do we stress? We definitely stress the one in which Pesach is the best. When it comes to Shavuot, we stress the one that Shavuot is the best. That's why we always say, comes to Pesach, Pesach is the greatest holiday, because we're stressing that point of Pesach. We come to Shavuot, we say that Shavuos is the greatest. Now, when we learn about every holiday being the greatest, it doesn't only refer to the major holidays. Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, that we'd expect. Well, Rosh Hashanah is something special that other holidays don't have, Yom Kippur, or even the holidays, and even the holidays of Pesach and Shavuos, Sukkos. Even when we talk about the minor holidays, we also find mainly in Chassidus and in the רבי's שיחות how each one is special. When we learn about Chamishah Asar B'Shvat, well, out of all the holidays of the year, we don't think Chamishah Asar B'Shvat, the 15th day of Shevat, which is ראש השנה לאילנות, it's Rosh Hashanah for the trees, what's so special? Well, it's a day we don't say Tachanun, but could that have something that no other holiday of the year has? Yes, we find חמשה עשר באב, there's so much in Chassidus about חמשה עשר באב. חמשה עשר באב, the 15th day of Av, it says holiday, it's a special day, we don't say Tachanun, but what can it be? Chassidus explains how חמשה עשר באב is the greatest. Actually, just the example that I'm using of חמשה עשר באב, we find it in the Gemara. The Gemara says, a Mishnah! A Mishnah says: לא היו ימים טובים לישראל כחמשה עשר באב וכיום הכפורים. There were no holiday as great, imagine, no holiday as great as the 15th day of Av and Yom Kippur. Now, the Gemara gives other reasons, but it mentions that this is the greatest holiday! Imagine. חמשה עשר באב is greater than Pesach! I mean, who, ask people on the street, no one heard of חמשה עשר באב, most people don't even know about it, but it is. And in Chassidus we learn a lot of things about חמשה עשר באב. The same is concerning Purim Katan. Purim Katan seems to be a Kleiner Yom Tov. Actually, it's called קטן! It's a small Purim, small Shushan Purim, so what could be about it? Nevertheless, we do find that there is something special in Purim Katan, and if we speak about Purim Katan, Shushan Purim Katan is the same, because it's an extension of Purim Katan, which we don't find in other holiday. There's something special about these two days. One of the proofs that it's special is that the whole Shulchan Aruch, I'm talking about Shulchan Aruch אורח חיים, that section of Shulchan Aruch, finishes with the laws of פורים קטן and שושן פורים קטן. And that's very interesting. The last, last lines, few lines of the whole Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim is about פורים קטן and שושן פורים קטן. Actually, the last halachot are about Purim, and right after After that it talks about פורים קטן, whether you have to have the simcha or not, as I mentioned before from the Rema. Now the fact that it's at the end shows great significance of the section in Shulchan Aruch called Orach Chaim, is the last, last piece of the Shulchan Aruch. And being as it's the end, we know a rule הכל הולך אחר החיתום, everything follows the end. Now, I must admit that the simple reason why it's the end is for a very practical, technical reason. Because the way the Shulchan Aruch is set up, it goes in such an order. First it talks about all the halachot starting from the morning to the night. That's how it starts. Shulchan Aruch starts with the halachot of ברכות השחר of what you do in the morning when you wake up with the ברכות and davenen, and goes on with קריאת שמע and tzitzit throughout, and then finally it finishes off with maariv, it goes to maariv and קריאת שמע על המטה. After it finishes with that, it continues with the special days of the year. First it talks about all the mitzvot of everyday, then it talks about Shabbos, הלכות שבת, then it starts off with the special holidays. Now it starts, the holidays start off with ראש חודש, and then when it goes into the Yamim Tovim it starts with Pesach. And since it starts with Pesach, now imagine, it goes Pesach, Shavuot, Pesach, ספירה, Shavuot, the three weeks, תשעה באב, that's how it goes on. It goes to Elul, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, שמיני עצרת, שמחת תורה, and then it goes on till finally what's the end? The end is אדר, so the end is Purim. So technically it goes in order, and it comes to Purim. Now, the reason why פורים קטן is at the end, because פורים קטן comes before Purim. פורים קטן is אדר ראשון and Purim is אדר שני, so really פורים קטן should be first, but that's not a question because, first of all, פורים קטן is not in every year. It's only in a leap year. Second of all, Purim Katan is an extension of Purim really. The real halachot are Purim. In the halachot of Purim we find that Shushan Purim, I mean Purim Katan, is part of the halachot of Purim, so being that it finishes with Purim, it goes through everything. That's the real, simple reason, I must say, why the end of the Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim is concerning Purim Katan. But we know that whatever is in Torah has a special significance. And even though the simple, technical reason is because this is the last in the order of events of the calendar, there must be more to it. The reason why it's at the end is because this is very, very important. We know that in everything the beginning is the most important part, that's usual. Usually in the beginning you set the tone, in the beginning you give the foundation. So whatever is the beginning is the most important. And whatever is at the end, that's like the climax. Again, this is something that's very, very important. So here being at the end of the Shulchan Aruch deals with the laws of Purim Katan, and automatically שושן פורים קטן, there must be something very, very special in Purim Katan and שושן פורים קטן.

Now, what is that? In order to explain what is the importance of Purim Katan, let's look at the end of the Shulchan Aruch and what the Rema writes. He writes like this, that we should always be happy and therefore in Purim Katan we should do things for simcha, and he quotes the פסוק, טוב לב משתה תמיד, as I said. טוב לב, a good heart, משתה תמיד, will always, tamid, have simcha, have a party, will always have simcha. So the Shulchan Aruch finishes with this concept of always being happy. A Yid always has to be besimcha. The beginning of the Shulchan Aruch starts also with the Rema, right the beginning, the beginning, the first words of the Shulchan Aruch is שויתי ה׳ לנגדי תמיד, which means I have Hashem in front of me always. The word tamid means constantly, steady, always. Now what we see here, very interesting, the Shulchan Aruch starts with the concept of tamid, something that's always, finishes off with something that's always. What are these two things? Two tamids. Two temidim. Now the word tamid, which means constant, also was the name of a קרבן. In the בית המקדש, they used to bring everyday, in the morning and the evening, two קרבנות, two sacrifices, and they were called the קרבן תמיד. And the two were called the שני תמידים, the two תמידים. We say it in davenen many times, שני תמידים. So the sefarim explain that here we also have two תמידים, two things which are תמיד. And that is the beginning of the Shulchan Aruch and the end of the Shulchan Aruch: שויתי ה׳ לנגדי תמיד, that ה׳ is always in front of me, and טוב לב משתה תמיד, that you always have to be happy. These are two things things, two תמידים, something that we always have to have. Everything in between, all the halachos from the beginning of the Shulchan Aruch till the end, everything in between is not תמיד, is not steady. Certain halachos are for the morning, certain halachos are for the afternoon, certain for the evening, certain for Shabbos, certain for Pesach, certain for Yom Tov, every halacha has its certain time. Tzitzit, tefillin, things that you do a certain time. But these two things are תמיד: the שויתי ה׳ לנגדי תמיד, that you always have to have Hashem in front of you, and also the you always have to have a simcha. What are these two things? The fact that you say that you always have to have Hashem in front of you, that is the concept of קבלת עול מלכות שמים. That's accepting the yoke of Hashem, which is basically the inyan of yirat shamayim. Yirat shamayim, you have to have the proper fear of Hashem, you have to have the acceptance of Hashem. And that's something that every second of the day, every day of the year, every year of your lifetime, you have to always have that yirat shamayim. And the second thing is that you have to have simcha. A Yid has to be happy. A Yid has to always always be happy. These two things are actually written in two separate pesukim and both in Tehillim. There is a pasuk in Tehillim that says עבדו את ה׳ ביראה, you should serve Hashem with fear, because you always have to have yirat shamayim, fear of Hashem. Then there's another pasuk that says עבדו את ה׳ בשמחה, you have to serve serve Hashem with simcha, with joy. And these are the two things that we have here in the beginning of the Shulchan Aruch and the end of the Shulchan Aruch. The beginning says you always have to have Hashem in front of you, always, and there is no moment of the day that you don't have Hashem in front of you. And you always always have to be besimcha. Why does a person always have to be besimcha? Not only when the person serves Hashem. See, the pasuk that we quoted now is עבדו את ה׳ בשמחה, means serve Hashem besimcha. That means when you daven, daven with joy. When you learn, learn with joy. When you put on tefillin, do it with joy. When you give tzedakah, do it with joy. When you eat matzah, do it with joy. But that's when you're doing avodat Hashem, when you're serving Hashem. But here it says טוב לב משתה תמיד, you always have to have this משתה, which means simcha, you always have to be besimcha. Even at a time when you're not serving Hashem. Now the truth is, there is no such thing as a moment when you don't serve Hashem. Whatever you do, you can serve Hashem. When you eat, you sit down for supper, if you eat properly, with the proper intentions and you make a beracha, and you have in mind that you're eating to be healthy so that you're able to learn better, daven better, so your eating is a service of Hashem. But that's an indirect service. So it's not really direct avodat Hashem. Here it says that you always have to be besimcha, that's for a different reason. It's not a different reason, actually, but it's different angle. A Yid, every moment of the day, is a Yid and has a neshama. Just that, just for that reason you have to be happy. You have to be besimcha for the fact that I am a Yid. There are people who walk around always joyful, happy, why? With all the problems, not only because we know whatever Hashem does to a person is for the good and therefore no matter what it is you have to be happy, more than that. We just have to be happy that we are Yidden and we are people that Hashem gave us a Torah, so not only while we're studying the Torah or while we are doing the mitzvot. We are people that have a Torah. We are people that were given mitzvot. We have a neshama. That itself should bring us to משתה תמיד, to always be happy. So we always have to have Hashem in front of us no matter what, something that we always have to think, and we always have to have the simcha of us being happy for what we are and for what we have. This always reminds me of the story of, I mentioned it many times, of that Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Berditchever, once when he came to shul and he went over to the amud to daven, and in most places they start the minyan with berachot, not like we do we start Hodu, they start with berachot, and he got up and he said all the berachot from the amud, and one berachah he skipped: the ברכה שלא עשני גוי, that He didn't make me a goy. They wondered, why didn't he say the berachah? So later, one of his talmidim asked him, Rebbe, why did you skip that berachah this morning? So he says, you don't understand. I woke up this morning, I opened my eyes, washed negel vasser, and I started thinking, I'm a Jew! I couldn't hold myself back, and I just burst out: ברוך אתה ה׳ אלקינו מלך העולם שלא עשני גוי! So I said it already. I couldn't say it again. I already said the berachah. The simchah he had from the fact that he is a Yid. And we say that in the morning: אשרינו מה טוב חלקנו ומה נעים גורלנו. How good is for us that we are Yidden, that we are, what, good is our share and our lot and our and our our inheritance... Etc., etc., so you have to be b'simchah steady. In any, any move that we make, anything that we do, there has to be simchah there. And that's the פסוק, טוב לב משתה תמיד. Okay.

Now we know that anything that we have constantly, listen here, anything that we have constantly throughout the year, any special thing, has a special day of the year when this is stressed, special day, and from that day we draw the power to feel that way throughout the year. Now let's I'll give an example of what I mean. We know that many, many mitzvot that we do are זכר ליציאת מצרים, are to remind us of our exodus from Mitzrayim, יציאת מצרים. We have to remember יציאת מצרים every day. It's a mitzvah. Not only every day, twice a day. In the morning and in the evening. למען תזכור את יום צאתך מארץ מצרים כל ימי חייך. You should remember יציאת מצרים all the days of your life. And we know what they say in the Haggadah: ימי חייך הימים, כל ימי חייך להביא הלילות. ימי חייך means all the days of your life is during the day, and then that means also at night. So every day and night we have a mitzvah to remember Mitzrayim, יציאת מצרים. So it's not something that we have once a year, it's every day. Nevertheless, there is one day a year or one season in the year which is set aside special to remember יציאת מצרים. And that is Pesach. So Pesach is זמן חרותנו, the time of יציאת מצרים. Even though every day we remember, but there is one day that from that one day we draw our nourishment to be able to feel יציאת מצרים every day. There is one day which is the main one, and from there it comes out to every single day. Another example: We know that we have to feel that the Torah is given to us every second. Every moment we receive the Torah from Hashem again. That's why in the bracha we say, ברוך אתה השם נותן התורה. We thank Hashem who gives us the Torah. We don't say ברוך אתה השם הנותן, שנתן התורה, that He gave us the Torah in past. נותן התורה means He gives us the Torah. So it says the reason is because actually Hashem renews מתן תורה every moment. So every moment we feel, supposed to feel, that Hashem is giving us the Torah. Nevertheless, there is one day a year, and really it's not one day, it's now it's two days of Shavuos, which is זמן מתן תורתנו, which is the time that we celebrate מתן תורה. The idea is that we have one day when we stress this point. This is the day that we focus completely on מתן תורה, and because of that, all year round we're able to draw that every day we should have the feeling of מתן תורה. Like Pesach, we focus on Pesach on Yetzias Mitzrayim, so every day we're able to take it out from there and do the same thing. When it comes to this inyan of simcha that we have to have constantly throughout the year, every moment of the day we have to have this feeling of simcha, which day of the year is the day that we focus on simcha, and that's a simcha that from there we draw the ability of having simcha all year round? Now, at first glance, I would imagine people would say Sukkos and Simchat Torah. זמן שמחתנו! Just like I said Pesach, I said Shavuos, the next Sukkos! Sukkos is called זמן שמחתנו, the time of our simcha, of our joy. And that would seem the time of simcha of the year, and from there we draw simcha. The truth is, it's not so simple. Because the simcha that we draw from Sukkos, since Sukkos is a special holy day—these are holy days, they're holidays, they're holy days—so the simcha that we could draw from Sukkos is only that when we're involved in holy matters we should be able to be b'simcha. In other words, from there we could draw the power, the strength that when we do a mitzvah we should do it with simcha. Because here we have a day that is a holy day, and there are special mitzvot during that time, and that's focused on the simcha, so from there we could take the simcha that whenever we're involved in holy matters we should be able to be b'simcha. We're talking about something else. When we say טוב לב משתה תמיד, that you always have to be b'simcha, that is not taking from at a time when you're doing something holy. We're talking about anything, any mundane thing that you're doing, you have to always be b'simcha. that seems to be a different type of simcha than Sukkos, and therefore to draw that type of simcha, which is from the fact that we are Yidden not involved in holy matters, that we can draw from Sukkos or Simchat Torah, because there the simcha is involving mitzvot. Simchat Torah it's involving dancing with the Torah, Sukkos it's with etrog and lulav, with sitting in the sukkah, ובכלל it's a Yom Tov it's a special time. So, therefore, we cannot draw the power of simcha throughout the year from Sukkos. We can't even draw it from Purim. Tell you why. Because Purim, as much as Purim is less holy let's say than Yom Tov of Sukkos, because it's not a day that you are אסור במלאכה, it's not a day that you're not allowed to work. You're allowed to work on Purim. It's not as holy. But nevertheless, the Yom Tov the simcha that we have on Purim is a simcha that is connected to the mitzvot that we have to do. מצוות מדרבנן, true the mitzvot are only from the Rabbis, but it's a simcha that is in connection to these mitzvot. There is a mitzvah of reading the מגילה, שלח מנות, מתנות לאביונים. So, there are mitzvot, so there are holy things that Hashem commanded us to do, in this case it's through the Chachamim, but it's all that's something that we were commanded to do and they bring about the simcha. But simcha of a Yid, the fact that he is a Yid, and this is תמיד טוב לב משתה תמיד that you always have to have it, which day can we draw it from? So, we have to find a day of the year which is a time of simcha, but nevertheless there are no special mitzvot on that day, the day is not holy in a special way that we could connect the simchah to that holiness, and nevertheless there is a special day of simchah, on that day there is a specialty of simchah, and when we find such a day, from there we draw the simchah of tamid, that special simchah that comes from simchah we draw it for the year, and which day is that? That is Purim Katan. Purim Katan, Shushan Purim Katan. Purim Katan is a day that we have no special mitzvot, we don't read the megillah, certainly we don't have an איסור מלאכה, we're allowed to work, it's not like Pesach Shavuot, it's not like Sukkot. It's not a time when we have a mitzvah of שלח מנות or reading the megillah. There is nothing holy in that day as we see it. Yesterday was Purim Katan, nothing that we did we just didn't say Tachanun but that's all. Today is Shushan Purim Katan, there is nothing there. And nevertheless, we have the concept of simchah here, and what kind of simchah? Simchah in connection to something special to to to Yiddishkeit, that's the day which is the source Imagine, this is how special it is. That's the day that's the source of the fact that a Yid is able to have simchah throughout the year, in the fact that he is a Yid, without anything else. All other simchot don't come because he is a Yid, it comes because of something that you have to do, a certain avodah, a certain mitzvah. And here it's something that comes without any mitzvah and nevertheless there is a concept of simchah, and it's a special day of the year, that's the day which is the source the shoresh, the root of simchah that we could draw. And not only for a year since Purim Katan is not every year, so it has to last for more than a year. So, it lasts for more, this is we draw this special concept of simchah that we take from there. And an interesting thing is this is connected to something else where we that we find here. Even the simchah

that we're talking about from Purim Katan is not an obligation. Not only we have no other mitzvot on that day, there is no obligation for us to have simchah. As I said before, you should the Rema says that there are two opinions, and he says that the accepted opinion is that we don't have to have simchah, and nevertheless, the Rema says טוב לב משתה תמיד, means there is a simchah with so little obligation, but nevertheless it's there. And one thing is clear and this needs some explanation, now try to explain it just in a few moments, the less obligation there is, and we do it for a godly reason, and the less obligation there is, that shows more how much that comes from within us. Anything that we're obligated to do by Hashem, so really it shows more Hashem's side. But we that we listen to Hashem, so we follow His instructions and we do what He wants us to do. But where when we're talking about something that comes from within us, our connection to God, so anything that has less obligation, I'll bring examples to it, anything that has less obligation, And we nevertheless do it, that shows more how much it comes from within us Yidden. The connection to Hashem comes from within ourselves. And this is what it's written concerning actually concerning simcha, but it says like this: We know that on Yom Tov there is a mitzvah, an obligation, a mitzvah, commandment of simcha. ושמחת בחגך the pasuk said, you shall be happy on your Yom Tov. So it's a מצוה מדאורייתא from the Torah, and it's a mitzvah that's clearly, clearly written in the Torah. Then we have another level of simcha which is called שמחת בית השואבה. During Sukkot, when they used to draw the water, they used to dance and sing. Nowadays we also have שמחת בית השואבה. Now שמחת בית השואבה is not written in the Chumash anywhere. In the Chumash it doesn't even say that they have to pour the water on the altar, on the מזבח during Sukkot, which was the reason why they drew the water. It's הלכה למשה מסיני. It was given over orally by Moshe by Hashem to Moshe Rabbeinu and he passed it down from generation to generation, but it's not even written in the Torah, which seems to be a lesser level of obligation, even though in truth we have to keep it just as just as importantly, but it's less, it's not even written. Then we have another level of simcha, which is hakafot on Simchat Torah. Now hakafot is not even הלכה למשה מסיני. It's not even a מצוה מדרבנן. It's not even a mitzvah, commandment that our rabbis instituted, like many other mitzvot that we have like Chanukah and Purim and things like that, and many other hundred mitzvot, hundreds of mitzvot. Hakafot is but a minhag, a מנהג ישראל, it's a Jewish custom, which, in our eyes, a custom is much less important than a real obligation, than a real commandment, a real mitzvah. But interesting is that when we look at how Jews celebrate these three levels, we'll see like this: Yom Tov, we're happy, sure, ושמחת בחגך, we're happy, we sing and we dance. Simchat Beit Hashoeva, the simcha was much, much greater than the simcha on Yom Tov, even up today. Simchat Beit Hashoeva, we dance and we sing. The Gemara says, מי שלא ראה שמחת בית השואבה, לא ראה שמחה מימיו. Whoever didn't see Simchat Beit Hashoeva never saw simcha. Simchat Beit Hashoeva is a greater simcha than the simcha of Yom Tov. Comes to hakafot, that's the climax of simcha. The minhag is that hakafot we dance and we sing with the Torah much more than even we dance and sing and we have simcha on Simchat Beit Hashoeva. The Gemara says Simchat Beit Hashoeva, not everyone used to dance. חסידים ואנשי מעשה, the tzadikim, the great people would dance, and all, כל העם, all the people, men, women, and children would stand around, women on top at the gallery, the men at the bottom, and stand around and watch, and only the great tzadikim used to dance. Hakafot, everyone dances. Obviously women not, because that's for tzniut reasons, but everyone dances. There is no difference. We don't say, well, you're a great תלמיד חכם, you come to dance, you're not so great, you... Everyone feels the simcha himself. Not only that you feel someone else's simcha. They say once R'' Yitzchak Barditchever saw a Yid, a very simple Jew, dancing with the... with the Torah on Simchat Torah. He walked over to him, he says, \"Well, you're dancing so much with the Torah, obviously you're a big תלמיד חכם. You probably have learned the deepest ענינים in Gemara.\" He says, \"Rabbi, I'm sorry, I don't know how to learn Gemara.\" \"Oh, so you must learn a lot of Chumash with Rashi.\" \"No, I can't learn Chumash.\" He went on and on, he has no shiur, he doesn't learn anything. Why, he's so simple he can't learn. So he says, \"So why are you dancing so hard with the Torah if you can't learn Torah?\" So he said to him, \"און אז א ברודער האט חתונה טאנצט מען נישט? And if a brother gets married, you don't dance? So it's a brother's wedding.\" So the Barditchever says, \"You're mistaking. It's not a brother's wedding, it's your own wedding.\" The simcha is great because of the Torah, whether you learn or not, because the connection to the Torah is there. But what I'm trying to bring out is a different point, that we see here that as the obligation diminishes, becomes less, the simcha is stronger. Why? Because when there is an obligation, then you're doing it because of the obligation, so it's not so much from within yourself. But when there is no obligation, and nevertheless this is a יידישע שמחה, a simcha that's connected to Judaism, to Torah, to mitzvot, connected, and it comes without an obligation, that comes from within us. Similar to what the Gemara says that Hashem claims, עריבים עלי דברי סופרים. We know that when we have certain mitzvot are from the Torah, מדאורייתא, certain mitzvot are מדרבנן. Now, everyone knows that a mitzvah from the Torah is more important than a מצוה מדרבנן. But Hashem says, I love more the mitzvot of דרבנן. Why would Hashem love more the mitzvot of דרבנן? So it says the explanation is because a מצווה מדרבנן shows on the Jew's connection to Hashem. A mitzvah that the Torah gave us, that Hashem gave us, are we Jews, we feel, we do it. But it doesn't show that we do something extra. The mitzvot that the Rabbanan made, the Rabbanan are representative of the Jews, and they made it, that means that mitzvot that came from within us. That shows our connection. Example given is from a father and the child. You have some children that will listen to whatever their parents tell them. Their parents tell them, and their father is very happy, their mother is very happy, no problem. Then you have some children, not only they do what they're told, they think to themselves, \"What would make my father happy? What would make my mother happy?\" And they go out of their way to make up their own things to make them happy. Now what where does the parents show more appreciation? Well, obviously if you do what you're told, that's very important, more important than doing something extra. But on the other hand, where does it show Where do we have this idea of coming from within us, from within the child, showing the child's connection to Hashem, to their parent, I mean, that's when you do something of your own. The same thing with Yidden and Hashem. The mitzvot are mitzvot, very important. But when it's a mitzvah that the Rabbanan made, that means it came from within the Jews themselves, that shows more that it's from them. And the same thing is with the simcha. The simcha of hakafot, which is only a minhag, it's not even an obligation, not even מדרבנן, which shows that as far as we have to we don't really have to do it, but nevertheless, we do it because this is something that we know Hashem is happy with, then the simcha is even greater. This simcha of פורים קטן and שושן פורים קטן is even more than hakafot. We don't actually dance or sing, true. That way it doesn't express. But it's not even a halacha in Shulchan Aruch. It doesn't even say as a minhag. It's not It's even less than a minhag. It's just hinted in the Shulchan Aruch, טוב לב משתה תמיד, it's always good to be happy, which indicates that we should have some kind of simcha. So here we have a simcha that number one, as I said before, a simcha that is not connected to any specific mitzvah, so it's a simcha, we call it שמחה בטהרתה, pure simcha for the sake of being happy for ourselves, not because we have something that we have to do. We have joy. Why? From within ourselves, because we are Yidden. And that is ex- expresses itself in the fact that it's not a mitzvah and not an obligation. And this is the specialty of פורים קטן and שושן פורים קטן. It has both extremes. On one hand, it is such a small Yom Tov. There is really nothing that we have to do on that day. It's not even like like חמישה עשר בשבט, what I mentioned before, where there's a minhag to eat fruit. There is no minhag to eat anything on on on פורים קטן, certainly not on שושן פורים קטן. So it's very little. But because of that, if the fact that there is a concept of simcha there, this is the source to the משתה תמיד, to the simcha that we're able to have all year round. The source, like I said before, you're There's always a day in the year that is the source of something that we focus on, and then all year round we are able to draw from it, we draw from פורים קטן. And that's why concerning פורים קטן in the poskim, it mentions, after it says פורים קטן you should be b'simcha, it says that this will bring the special simcha when Mashiach will come. Because when Mashiach will come, one of the things that will be will be simcha. The pasuk says, אז ימלא שחוק פינו. Then, אז, then, when is then, when Mashiach will come, the laughter of our mouth, which means the simcha that we have, will be full. Now we can't have a complete simcha. When Mashiach will come, we'll have. And the poskim connect the simcha of Purim Katan, imagine, Purim Katan to that, to אז ימלא שחוק פינו. Why? Because when Mashiach will come, the fact that we're Yidden, and the great simcha in that aspect of our connection to Hashem, not Hashem's connection to us, or Hashem's holding us and making us closer to Him, but our connection that comes from within ourselves, that will be revealed to the highest degree. Now, when do we have such a day? That is Purim Katan and Shushan Purim Katan. And from that, we draw throughout the year that we're able to have this feeling of being b'simcha, not only עבדו את השם בשמחה, serving Hashem, doing מצוות בשמחה, but also being b'simcha constantly, טוב לב משתה תמיד. Any questions? No? You already said something. Yes. You know, I I'm always like I say yes what to do and what not to do, but now that you've said something, then you feel like you have to do something. You know, so it sort of takes away the That's why in the Shulchan Aruch the Rema doesn't say you have to, but he hints, because it's not even Yeah, but what would you do No, but so you don't have to. We just I brought it out, but it doesn't become a chiyuv. Now that we know about it, does it make it less? So no, it doesn't make it less. No, it doesn't make it less. Yes. So, to go back to of Purim of course it doesn't really have rules and and, you know, customs like, you know, regular Purim. Right. Right. Right. Why is it does it mean that It doesn't mean, because it's the same month, it's Adar, they're both Adar. Since this is also Adar, so it should, and the fourteenth day of Adar is Purim, so this is something of Purim, some type of Purim. Yes. I've heard in the past that if you're obligated to do something, Right. it is greater than if you're not obligated. Right, right. So it's the opposite It's the opposite of what I just said. Okay. The question is a very good question and it's it has to come up. We know a rule, גדול המצווה ועושה משאינו מצווה ועושה, a person who's commanded and does is greater than a person who does without being commanded. And therefore, it would seem that if you're obligated and you do it, it's greater, true? That is true. But like I said in the beginning by the Yamim Tovim, everything has an aspect which is greater. That is concerning if you do a mitzvah that you're told, so since Hashem told you to do it, he put himself into the mitzvah, and with that mitzvah you reach a level of Hashem that on your own you would never reach. Only when he gives you that power, you're able to reach. That's why it says the mitzvot before Matan Torah, before they were commanded, the Avot did the mitzvot, but being they weren't commanded, they didn't they weren't able to reach beyond the framework of creation, because a person, who's a creature, part of creation, can't go out of that framework. But if Hashem gives you the mitzvah, he takes you out. And therefore, if you do the mitzvah because you're obligated, you reach that level or there is something in it that you don't have. That's one thing. But there's another aspect, and that's what I'm discussing here, is an aspect of how much do you express your connection to Hashem. From that angle, not of what you accomplish with the mitzvah, because when you do a mitzvah that you're commanded, there is Hashem in it and you reach a level of Hashem. But as far as expressing the person's feeling towards Hashem, you express more in something that you are not obligated to do, because you're doing it and you don't really have to. Like the mashal I gave before of a child. When you do what you're obligated, obviously if you don't do it, it's terrible, and if you don't do extra things, it's not terrible. So this is more important. So therefore, if you do it if you're obligated, it's more important. But on the other hand, who expresses his own love or feeling to his father or his mother, is when you do the extra. From that angle, looking at it from that perspective, this is greater. That's why it says that doing lifnim mishurat hadin, if you do beyond the requirement of the law, it is very it is it has some aspect that doing the law itself doesn't have. The Gemara, just for one second, the Gemara says that why על מה חרבה הארץ? Why was the Beis Hamikdash destroyed? Why was the Beis Hamikdash destroyed? And the Gemara answers, because the Yidden did everything according to the Torah. So the Gemara doesn't understand. If you do everything according to the Torah, that's a reason for the Beis Hamikdash to be destroyed? The answer is yeah, they did everything according to the Torah, nothing more, nothing beyond. And the commentaries ask, so they didn't do anything extra, for not doing extra, the Beis Hamikdash should be destroyed? The answer is, it's not because of what they did or what they didn't do. If they didn't do anything extra, that showed that they didn't care about Hashem. They didn't do anything wrong, but their caring was not there, because if you care, you always look, I want to make him happy. Let's see what he wants, let me figure out things, let me do extra, I know he'll be happy. And for that, yes, that showed where the Yidden were at. And from that perspective, yes, you do something you're not obligated, it is greater, it has more expression of the person than if you do something you're obligated. On the other hand, for being important, if you're looking at level of importance, certainly something that you're obligated is more important than something that you're not obligated. Isn't it that you can't add to the Torah? You're not allowed to add to the Torah. You can't come and say this is a mitzvah. The רבנן added hundreds of things. So the Rambam says, when it says לא תוסיף, don't add, it means don't say that this is a mitzvah Hashem told me to do. But if you don't say it's a mitzvah, you say just I'm doing it because I know this will make Hashem happy, but I'm not saying it's a mitzvah, then there is no problem. A mitzvah is a mitzvah. Well, so that in that mitzvah is true. That's a extra Okay, that's not extra. Yes. Yeah, but who receives the benefit? Who receives? When you make a mitzvah, you when you give it, Hashem is not concerned with Well, we're talk No, no, but if you did something that makes Hashem happy, you showed more your love to Hashem than if you do something that Hashem told you to do. gives you a mitzvah A mitzvah doesn't mean only giving tzedakah. A mitzvah means a good deed for yourself, and if it's to somebody, is אודאי certainly good, but even for yourself. Oh yeah, if a person is happy in the fact that he's a Yid like I was saying till now, that has nothing to do with another person. That, nobody receives it, you receive it yourself. There's nobody that receives it, it's something that you do on your own. Okay, since it's Shushan Purim Katan, we could say l'chaim, without an obligation. No one is obligated. I just want a small cup. This is פייוויש'ס לעקאך, it's really the פייוויש. But of course. Also l'chaim, l'chaim. This should be ממשיך שמחה for the whole year. Not only for the whole year, till next Purim Katan, till Mashiach. Lechaim, lechaim. One second, just a moment. Most, how many? They don't take full Shushan Purim or Purim Katan serious. We don't say Tachanun. No, we don't say Tachanun, that's about it. Unfortunately. If a person has אהבת ישראל, אהבת השם, and with the ziskeit, nu, I mean the real Purim of next month, but we have to have a beginning right now. Exactly. Yeah. Yes, what were you going to ask? Is it true that it's a big mitzvah to get drunk on Purim? Yeah, if you do it properly. Not just to get