as you might have guessed that the class tonight will have something to do with Purim since we try to stick to subjects which have to do with the time of the year. We don't always do that, but this year we're doing that. Now, concerning Purim itself, we have already had more than one class: one year about what Purim is, the other year. Today we're going to try to talk about a certain specific subject, not the general idea of what Purim is about, and that is let's call it the kabbalistic explanation of the different possible dates of when we could read the megillah. Because normally we know that the megillah is written is read on Purim. But we also know that there are two dates for Purim, Purim and Shushan Purim. Purim is the fourteenth day of the month of Adar or in a leap year, it's the month the month of Adar Sheni, the second Adar. And then we have Shushan Purim, which is another date that places that have cities which have walls around it from the time of Yehoshua ben Nun or that had walls around it from the time of Yehoshua ben Nun, even if it doesn't have now, read the megillah on the fifteenth day of Adar or, in a leap year, of Adar Sheni. So usually we know that there are two dates when the megillah is read: Purim in most places, Shushan Purim in some places. But those that are familiar with the Gemara Megillah know that the beginning of מסכת Megillah the beginning of the tractate megillah starts with the words מגילה נקראת, the megillah could be read בי״א, בי״ב, בי״ג, בי״ד, and בט״ו, that the megillah could be read on the eleventh day of Adar, the twelfth day of Adar, the thirteenth day of Adar, the fourteenth day of Adar, and the fifteenth day of Adar. And then the Mishnah continues to explain and it says, \"Those cities that have the walls around it, as we said before, read it on the fifteenth. Regular, normal, big cities read it on the fourteenth. Then you have kfarim, the villages that were around the big cities. In those times, times of the Gemara, they would read it sometimes on the thirteenth, sometimes on the twelfth, and sometimes on the eleventh.\" And the reason was because they did not They, in their own town, were not able to read the megillah. They didn't have enough people. They didn't have people to read. They weren't able to. They would have to go into the big city to hear the megillah. Now they would anyway go into the big city Mondays and Thursdays to bring the crop that grew in the fields to bring into the big cities. So they would go in anyway. So the chachamim said that instead of making them come in twice, so the Monday or Thursday that was before Purim that they would have come into the city anyway, they have a right to read the megillah, and they would be yotzei, they would have fulfilled their mitzvah of reading the megillah on that day. Now depending on when Purim came out: if Purim came out on a Friday, that means like this year the fourteenth day was on a Friday, then they would read the Megillah on the day before, the thirteenth. If it came out on Shabbos, let's say, nowadays it can't, but if it would have come out on Shabbos, they would read a day before. And sometimes they would read on the Monday before, whatever it is. So the earliest that's possible is the eleventh of Adar, sometimes the twelfth, sometimes the thirteenth. So the Mishnah says that the Megillah is read, can be read starting from the eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth. That's what the Mishnah says afterwards. Now, I'd like to really explain a little bit more according to Chassidut and Kabbalah what this means, but let's start with first explaining looking at it from the simple Peshat. The question that's asked here is why is the order in the Mishnah that talks about these dates, eleventh, I mean, in the Mishnah eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth, when really the main dates are the fourteenth and the fifteenth? So the Mishnah should have said Megillah is read on the fourteenth and fifteenth. Then sometimes in certain circumstances, in certain places also are able to read it the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth. Now one might say the reason that the Mishnah writes it in that order is because that's the order of the dates. Started off with 11, 12, then it's 12, 13, 14, 15. But is that a good enough reason that the Mishnah should change it from the way the order of the obligation is? It would make more sense that the Mishnah would go according to the order of where it is the greater obligation. Now, the greater obligation is the regular one, the 14th and the 15th, and then it should say. Besides that, the Mishnah could have written it in an order of dates, but backwards. The Mishnah could have written you could read the Megillah on the 15th and 14th, 13th, 12th, and the 11th, which would also be in an order of the dates, backwards, and it would fit to when the main obligation is. And if you look in the Mishnah, it's interesting, when the Mishnah, after it tells us 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15, and the Mishnah explains when the different dates apply, it actually starts backwards. The Mishnah starts off by explaining: The 15th day is read by those that are in the big cities with the walls around it, the 14th by regular people, and the 13th, 12th, and the 11th are read by the people who are in the villages. So we see the Mishnah didn't mind to go in the order of the dates backwards. So why didn't the Mishnah start that way? Then there's another question. The expression in the Mishnah is מגילה נקראת, the Megillah is read. And the Mefarshim ask, the Mishnah should have said not the Megillah is read, we read the מגילה, קורין את המגילה, should have said קורין את המגילה, we read the Megillah on the 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th. It's such a strange expression, the Megillah is read, as if it's read by itself. Someone has to read it, so they, so they said מגילה נקראת. So the Peshat here is, and this is what the Rebbe explains Peshat in this Mishnah, first in the simple Peshat, and he says like this: One might think, one might think, that the real dates of reading the Megillah is on the 14th and the 15th, as we assumed. But these dates of 11th, 12th, and 13th is only that the Chachamim allowed the people to do their obligation, but it would not make these dates the zman, the time of the Megillah. In other words, it's possible that these are not dates that these days are considered days where the Megillah is read. It's just a person who, because of the circumstances, the Chachamim said you're able to do it. And the Mishnah is trying to tell us that it's not so. The Mishnah is trying to tell us that these dates are all equal, that's why it starts with it. That when chachamim established that the people who live in the villages are able to read it on the 11th, 12th, and 13th, these are dates that the Megillah could be read. That's why the Mishnah does not just tell us קורין את המגילה, that you're allowed to read the Megillah. Had the Mishnah said that, it would be saying that the gavra, the person, is able to fulfill his obligation, but the time in itself is not really the time of the Megillah. So the Mishnah tells us, no, מגילה נקראת, it is the reading the Megillah is read, that this is a time for the Megillah itself, even though this is not the original time. And if we look in the Gemara, the Gemara says that this takanah, this din, that the people who live in the villages are able to read it earlier, when was that established? You look in the Megillah, in the Megillah it says that when Mordechai and Esther and the אנשי כנסת הגדולה, the chachamim of their time, established the Yom Tov Purim, and they said you should read the Megillah, so in the Megillah itself it says they said regular cities read it on the 14th, and in the cities with the walls read it on the 15th. It mentions, doesn't make mention of 11, 12, and 13. Nevertheless, the Gemara says that it's learned out from the words in the Megillah where it says that they said you should read the מגילה בזמניהם, in their times. It should have said you should read the Megillah in their time. Now, their time means that there was more than one, so it would apply to the 14th in most cities, the 15th in the cities with the walls. Why does it say in their times? So the Gemara says that what it means, what the pasuk means, that there are more times besides the two, and that's 11th, 12th, and 13th. So comes out according to this, when was this din established? At the same time that the din of the 14th and 15th was established. When Mordechai and Esther established the halachah that you have to read the Megillah on the 14th and the 15th, they at that time also added that these places that cannot read it on the 14th or the 15th should read it on the 11th, 12th, and 13th. And therefore, these are days not only when the person, for some reason, has the the right to read it, but these days became Purim days. And those places that you read it are Purim days. This is the zman, not just on the person. And this halachah also applies to nowadays, which means like this: This din that the villages around the cities would read it on the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth, that doesn't apply anymore. That the older mefarshim say that that was only at the time of the Gemara. That, excuse me, that halachah does not apply anymore. Nevertheless, there's a din in Shulchan Aruch that if a person is planning a trip, and he's leaving before Purim, he has to go before Purim, and he has no megillah to take along, and he doesn't know or he assumes he will not, and he will not have a megillah later on Purim, what should he do? So it says he should read it on the eleventh, twelfth, or thirteenth. He could read it then, without a berachah. But he should read it then because there is these are also days of the megillah. Now I have to go a step further and explain it even more. The Shulchan Aruch adds, taking from the Yerushalmi, that if you leave earlier, from the beginning of ראש חודש אדר, you already could read the megillah. And it's based on the pasuk where it says, החודש אשר נהפך להם, the month in the megillah it says, the month that was changed for them from sadness to happiness, etc., etc. So we see it's the whole month. Now when we say the whole month, I just meant to make clearer, it doesn't mean the whole month, it means from the beginning of the month, but after the fifteenth, you cannot read the megillah, because in the megillah it says, in the pasuk it says, ולא יעבור. ולא יעבור means you shall not go over. So you can't go after the fifteenth. But from the beginning of the month, if a person is leaving, even from the beginning of ראש חודש אדר, and he knows he will not have a megillah, he should read the megillah then. But there is a difference between these two times. From the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth, eleventh on, we said these are times of the megillah. That's the זמן המגילה, even though not lechat'chilah nowadays we have to read the fourteenth, but already times of the megillah. From ראש חודש, it's not the time of the megillah. But nevertheless, for the person to fulfill his obligation to a certain degree, he's able to start from ראש חודש. And this is the reason why the Mishnah starts off not by saying the megillah is read on the fourteenth and fifteenth and then going on to eleventh and twelfth, because then we would say, fourteenth and fifteenth are the right time, eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth, that's not the time of the megillah, it just the person could do it. So the Mishnah tells us, no, that on the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth is also time of reading the megillah, not like from ראש חודש. There it could be a difference in halachah, that what happens if a person has to read the megillah on the eleventh or twelfth, and there is another mitzvah that comes his way, which is first? Well, if this is the time of the megillah, then the megillah comes first. While from ראש חודש, let's say it's the third day of Adar, and he is reading the megillah because he's leaving, and another mitzvah comes his way, the other mitzvah which is the right time will come first, because reading the megillah on the third of Adar, even though he should, is not the time of the megillah, just on the person. But from eleventh, it is on the time also, the time became that way. This is, so to speak, the halachic explanation why the Mishnah starts with י״א.

I want to go a little bit deeper. What we see from here is something interesting. The real times to read the megillah, we know, is the fourteenth and the fifteenth, Purim and Shushan Purim. That's the real time. Those are the dates mentioned in the pesukim in the megillah. Then we said that there is eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth of Adar, which also became the time of the megillah. Now it seems that this is a concept of taking dates, dates which are not really, really the days of this mitzvah, and the halachah transformed these dates into a time of the mitzvah. That means they took a zman, a time, which is really not Purim, because Purim is the fourteenth and the fifteenth. That's Purim, that's when the miracle happened. The eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth is not Purim. And nevertheless we see here that the halachah that was established at that original time took days which are basically secular in comparison to Purim, and brought a mitzvah into the dates and transformed the dates into days of megillah, not only that you're allowed to do it, but the days themselves became. Why is it? Because Purim in general and the megillah in general follows along the same lines. And I'll explain what I mean. Purim in general, is a time when really, really, it's not really a holy time, and the chachamim brought kedushah into it, and the same thing with the megillah itself, that it's really not something originally that had a real holiness in it, and the chachamim brought into it. And I'll explain it in a moment, but I want to go back a step and say that really, to a certain degree, this is true by every Yom Tov. Every Yom Tov is like this. When we talk about the comparison of Yom Tov to Shabbos, so the Gemara says that יום טוב קביע וקיימא, יום—I mean Shabbos is קביע וקיימא, שבת is something that's set, that has nothing to do with us. Every seventh day of the week is Shabbos. From the beginning of ששת ימי בראשית, from the beginning of creation, every seventh day is Shabbos. Who established the kedushah of Shabbos? Hashem. So Shabbos to begin with, the seventh day, is holy on its own right. That's a holy day to begin with. How does Yom Tov work? Yom Tov, it says that nowadays we have a set calendar, but the way it was originally was, that every month the chachamim had to decide which day is Rosh Chodesh. It was always a question, a question of two days. The question was, was the previous month 29 days and the next day is Rosh Chodesh, the first of the next month, or was the previous month 30 days and the next day, the 31st, is really number one of the next month? And every month the Chachamim decided, based on the testimony, whatever reason, they decided, and based on their decision, Yom Tov would be, every Yom Tov. They would never know ahead of time which day of the week Pesach is going to be. See, we know, we can tell you now, in 25 years, what day of the week Pesach is going to be. But then they didn't know, it was set up by the Chachamim every week, that's what Hashem wanted. That means that really, the days of Yom Tov were not essentially on their own right holy, because it could have been that Yom Tov would be the next day. The Chachamim had the power, Hashem gave the Chachamim the power, to take a day which in its own right is not holy, and bring holiness into that day. That's the reason the Gemara says why in Shemoneh Esrei, I mentioned this more than once, at the end of the beracha, whether it's Shemoneh Esrei or in kiddush, we say ברוך אתה השם, שבת we say מקדש השבת, יום טוב we say מקדש ישראל והזמנים. מקדש השבת means we thank Hashem who made Shabbos holy. Yom Tov we say we thank Hashem who made the Jews and the Yom Tov holy. Why mention the Jews here? And if we mention the Jews together with the holiness of the Yom Tov, why don't we do that by Shabbos too? מקדש ישראל והשבת, השם made the Jews holy and Shabbos. And furthermore, if Yom Tov comes out on Shabbos, so we mention in the beracha both together. So what's the order? ברוך אתה השם מקדש השבת וישראל והזמנים. We say Hashem made holy the Shabbos and the Yidden and the Yom Tov. Why do we not say, if we're mentioning already the Yidden, מקדש He made the Yidden holy and the Shabbos and the Yom Tov? We say the Shabbos first, then we mention the Yidden and the Yom Tov. And the answer is because Shabbos doesn't depend on the Yidden. So when it comes to the holiness of Shabbos, we don't say thank Hashem for making the Yidden holy and the Shabbos holy, Shabbos is holy without the Yidden. But Yom Tov is holy only because of the Yidden. That's why we say מקדש ישראל והזמנים, He makes the Yidden holy, and because the Yidden are holy, that's why the days could be holy. זמנים means the times, because if not for the Yidden, these days would not be holy. And that's why we find that Shabbos in Chumash is called קדש, שבת קדש, the holy Shabbos. Yom Tov is called מקרא קדש. מקרא קדש means the calling of the holiness. That means Shabbos we don't call down קדושה, שבת the kedushah, the holiness is there. Yom Tov we bring in kedushah from the outside. When you call somebody, what does that mean? Somebody is over there and you call him, you ask him to come here. The expression in Tanya is כאדם הקורא לבנו, like someone is calling his son. We're calling the קדש, מקרא קדש, we call in the kedushah. So the general concept of Yom Tov is that these are days which essentially are not really holy on their own right, and Hashem said, \"You have a right and ability, a koach, a power to turn these days which are secular on their own right and bring kedushah into it.\" That's every Yom Tov. By Purim, we find something, within that category itself we find something special, because by Purim, it says in the Gemara that Esther sent a message to the Chachamim, asking that they should establish Purim as a Yom Tov, and they didn't want to. They had a whole discussion, and finally they decided to give in and they'll establish Purim as a Yom Tov, through the Anshei Knesset Hagedolah. Even more than that, Esther wrote to the Chachamim asking, \"I would like you to write a megillah. You should write down the whole story, that should be a Megillah written of this story.\" And the Chachamim originally did not want to agree. And finally after much discussion, they agreed. After they agreed, this Megillah is one of the כתבי הקדש, it's one of the 24 כתבי הקדש. כתבי הקדש refers to the whole Tanach: Torah, נביאים, and כתובים. Those are the כתבי הקדש. One of the כתבי הקדש is Megillat Esther, and it has the kedushah, the holiness, like any one of the sefarim, like any part of the Tanach, nothing less. But this came with a question, and then was decided. In other words, originally it really wasn't going to be there. They didn't really think it should be. And nevertheless, into something that's really not, the Chachamim decided and brought kedushah into something that's not. And the same thing is with the Yom Tov. Originally there was not going to be a Yom Tov. See, Mordechai asked, he wanted that there should be a Yom Tov that you shouldn't be able to work, should be a Yom Tov like Pesach, like Sukkot, you shouldn't be able to drive, a real Yom Tov like that. That the Chachamim didn't accept. But to make a Yom Tov as they did, the Chachamim said Eventually they said, \"Yes, we will do it.\" And which Chachamim are we talking about? The Anshei Knesset HaGedolah, I mean the greatest Chachamim of of all of all times. But we do see here that יום that Purim has a special quality, that it's a time when essentially it was not supposed to be, it didn't have the kedushah, and the Megillah is something that did not have the kedushah, and nevertheless, it was brought in. Therefore, it's by Purim that we find this concept that we have days which really should not be part of the Yom Tov: 11th, 12th, 13th, which really were not part of the Yom Tov, because the Yom Tov happened on Purim on the 14th and the 15th. And nevertheless, it's Purim that has the special concept that there are certain days which are really not the Yom Tov, and the Chachamim turned them into the Yom Tov. And as we said before, it is not only that they gave the people the right to read the Megillah on these days. They said these days became the zman. It is the zman of Purim, just like the 14th and the 15th, which is the reason we said before why the Mishnah starts with י״א. And this concept of taking something which really is not holy and bringing kedushah into it, we find by the Megillah for another reason, something that's known to everybody, but I'll repeat it again anyway. The Megillah is the only, only sefer of the כתבי הקדש, of the holy sefarim of Tanach, that does not have Hashem's name mentioned in it. It has hints for the name of Hashem. For instance, there's a pasuk that says, \"יבוא המלך והמן היום.\" The abbreviation is יו״ד ק״ה וא״ו ק״ה. Every time it says המלך is a hint for המלך, who is Hashem. Even when it says אחשורוש, the Gemara says sometimes it means Hashem, because the word אחשורוש means שאחרית וראשית שלו. אחשורוש is a combination of two words: אחרית and ראשית, end and beginning. Who's the one that is from end to beginning all over? That's Hashem. So when it says המלך אחשורוש, it hints Hashem. So there are plenty of hints. בראשית. So there are plenty of hints to Hashem, but Hashem's name is not mentioned in the Megillah. It's not mentioned at all in the Megillah. So on one hand, it shows on a certain low level, it's the only sefer. There's another one, but it's not really like it: Shir HaShirim. Shir HaShirim does not have Hashem's name in it. But the word שלמה, where it says there, is Hashem, and that's Hashem's name. In some places, according to one opinion, it's even holy, you can't even erase it. But Megillah doesn't have. What is the simple reason why the Megillah doesn't have Hashem's name? So the Ibn Ezra writes, the Alter Rebbe brings it in the Shulchan Aruch, a simple reason: because Mordechai knew, and the chachamim who wrote the מגילה knew, that the גוים are going to copy this מגילה into their books. And every time Hashem's name would be mentioned, they would have substituted it for the name of their idols. And Mordechai didn't want, the חכמים didn't want to do this, that's why they didn't do it. So obviously, the simple reason is because there is something lacking here. They were afraid that this could be used for עבודה זרה, and that's why they took it out, so it's not there, so there is missing the קדושה of On the other hand it says that you know why, a deeper reason according to קבלה why Hashem's name is not mentioned in the מגילה, because a name, even by Hashem, is a limitation. A name is a description, a name is הגבלה. When you a name means a we describe something. By Hashem especially, says in מדרש, when Moshe Rabbeinu asked Hashem, when he was told him to go take Yidden out of מצרים, and if they'll ask me what's your name, I'll come and say God sent me, who's God? What's his name? What shall I tell him? So the מדרש in חומש it says he answered: אהיה אשר אהיה, but the מדרש says Hashem said to him I can't tell you my name. I am called according to what I do. When I do chesed, I'm called קל. When I do גבורה, strictness, I'm called אלקים. When I do רחמים, I'm called הוי-ה, יו״ד ק״י וא״ו ק״י. When I have a war with the גוים, I'm called צבאות, לשון צבא. So Hashem's name, each name describes something, a certain attribute of Hashem. Even שם הוי-ה, יו״ד ק״י וא״ו ק״י, which is called the שם העצם, the essential name, or the שם המיוחד, the שם המפורש, is also a description. It's also a certain level within Hashem the way Hashem manifests himself in a certain way. When you want to talk about Hashem who is beyond any limitations, you can't call any name. So what do we do? So we find by aser- by עשרת הדברות when Hashem gave the Ten Commandments, he started off by saying: אנכי השם אלקיך, and he used the name הוי-ה, אנכי הוי-ה אלקיך. So it says אלקיך is אלקים, הוי-ה is יו״ד ק״י וא״ו ק״י, but before that he said Anokhi, I. And the Zohar says: What does I mean? I refers to Hashem who is beyond any description, beyond any name. It's השם דלא איתרמיז, who cannot be hinted, לא בשום אות ולא בשום קוץ, no letter, no name, not even a remez, because any name is already a limit. I. We do the same when we speak to Hashem, and we make a berachah we say also all three: baruch, blessed, we say אתה השם אלקינו, הוי-ה אלקינו. So Elokeinu is our אלקים, הוי-ה is Shem Havayah, and then before that we say Atah, you! Who's you? You is Hashem, the essence of Hashem the way he's beyond any limitations. So the megillah that doesn't have Hashem's name, in truth, is not because of a very low level. It is because of a very high level, because Hashem the way he's in the megillah is beyond any name. Now superficially, in simple peshat, it's a low level. It's because the kedushah is missing there, because the goyim, we're afraid of the goyim they might use Hashem's name for avodah zarah or something. But in that low level really is hidden the fact that there we have Hashem in the highest level, which I just use as an example like we find the same two extremes. It says when you wake up in the morning, and you right away as soon as you wake up before you wash negel vasser you say Modeh ani. So it says look at Modeh ani it doesn't have Hashem's name in it. Modeh ani we thank Hashem that you returned the neshamah, it doesn't say Hashem's name in it. Why doesn't it say Hashem's name in it? You talk to Hashem! Simple answer is, cuz you can't! You didn't wash negel vasser yet, your hands are tamei, and if your hands are tamei how could you mention Hashem's name? So it's because of the low level that's why we don't have Hashem's name. In truth it says, it's the opposite! It doesn't have Hashem's name because in Modeh ani we're talking to Hashem himself beyond any name. And that's the reason we could say it before negel vasser when our hands are tamei, because when we're talking about the essence of the neshamah of a yid that's connected to the essence of Hashem's, no tumah in the world could affect it! So, whether we're tamei or not, we could say מודה אני לפניך, to You! Who's You? No name, it's Hashem himself. So here we have also, in the low level which seems to be low, it's because you're tamei you can't mention Hashem's name, this contains the highest level. And the same thing with the Megillah. The and the same thing with Megillah that has Hashem's's, missing Hashem's's name because of a low level seemingly, but in it you have the highest level. Which means, that the Megillah represents the fact that you're able to take the great level of Hashem, the essence of Hashem, and bring it down into a place which seems to be low. And the same thing with the יום טוב Purim. The יום טוב Purim is a day which really, the chachamim did not want to make it into Yom Tov, which means really in essence essence it's it's a day which is very, very secular, has no kedushah. And nevertheless the end was that it brought down the kedushah there. Therefore, we have within this this Yom Tov, we have the second stage of the 11th, 12th, and 13th for the same reason that we take days which are not even special as far as this is concerned, and we make those days, the chachamim made those days into a special Yom Tov, into Purim, even though be'emet these are not days of Purim. And all this starts with י״א. The first one is י״א. It says in the in the Mishnah you read the Megillah on the 11th, 12th, and 13th, etc., etc. The 11th, 12th, and 13th, and this is going to get a little bit more kabbalistic, 11th, 12th, and 13th is what we start with, because the 11th, 12th, and 13th, according to Kabbalah we will see, represents this low level which could contain the highest level, as we said. In the lowest level you bring the low, in the lowest you bring the highest. And that is not only because these are days which are not a part of the Yom Tov, but the 11th, 12th, the ones that are supposed to read the Megillah on those days, that's what it represents. It represents that. And now I'll explain what I mean according to Kabbalah.

Now, to get a little bit into this these three dates, which means three times. You have certain dates where people who live in a walled city read the Megillah, you have a time when people who live in a regular city read the Megillah, and then you have people who live in the village who read the Megillah. So we have three categories. According to Kabbalah, people in the walled cities, people in the regular cities, people in the villages represent the three worlds: עולם הבריאה, עולם היצירה, and עולם העשיה, these three worlds. Because we know that usually we talk about the four worlds: אצילות, בריאה, יצירה, עשיה, but אצילות is beyond creation, so in the worlds of creation we have בריאה, יצירה, and עשיה. And it says that these three places, the walled city represents the world of בריאה, the plain city represents the world of יצירה, and the villages represent the world of עשיה. And it says further, we know that there are three main categories of מלאכים. Truth is there are more than three, there are 10, but the main three categories are שרפים, אופנים, and חיות הקודש. We say that in davenen every day. אופנים וחיות הקודש מתנשאים לעומת השרפים, לעומת השרפים, so you have the three categories. And it says שרפים are the מלאכים from the world of עולם הבריאה, אופנים are the world the מלאכים in the world of יצירה, and חיות הקודש are the מלאכים of the world of עולם העשיה. The מלאכים in the world of עולם הבריאה are called שרפים. Why are they called שרפים? שרפים comes from the word שרוף, to be burnt. These are מלאכים that have such a great understanding in Hashem that they feel so close that they actually get burnt in their wanting to get closer. In Yiddish we would say zei geyen oys. How would you say it in English? Zei geyen oys, they they, huh? Extinguish themselves or zei geyen oys because their desire, they're schlepped, they're being pulled to Hashem because of the great understanding. It doesn't say that the מלאכים called שרפים make any noise. Who are the ones that make noise, and I'm referring to the davenen that we say every morning? The אופנים, the חיות הקודש ברעש גדול. The אופנים and the חיות, they make noise, and they are לעומת השרפים, they stand facing the שרפים, and the שרפים don't make noise. Why don't the שרפים make noise? Because the שרפים, because they are peop- מלאכים who understand Hashem, so there is no רעש, there is no noise in their service of Hashem. The אופנים, which is the lower level, it says their way of serving Hashem is not through understanding, but through מדות. In other words, like this, maybe I jumped a little bit too fast, these three worlds, בריאה, יצירה, and עשיה, basically, more general, are connected to the three categories a person has, and by Hashem we find the same thing. There is מוחין, intellect, there are מדות, emotions, which the מוחין is חכמה, בינה, דעת, the מדות are חסד, גבורה, תפארת, נצח, הוד, יסוד, and then you have מלכות. מלכות is one of the מדות in truth, but it's a category by its own. It's קבלת עול. It represents not a מדה, but it represents הודאה, when a person gives himself over, קבלת עול מלכות, when you accept the yoke. These three worlds, בריאה, יצירה, and עשיה, it says בריאה is a world that there, the creatures, so to speak, of בריאה serve Hashem with מוחין. The creatures of יצירה serve Hashem with מידות, and the creatures of עולם העשיה, talking about the malachim, the spiritual עשיה, serve Hashem with bitul, with קבלת עול. Bitul means self-nullification, giving themselves over to Hashem. קבלת עול מלכות שמים. And therefore the malachim who are in עולם הבריאה, these malachim, they don't make noise, because we know that a person who is a בעל שכל, a very intellectual person, is not excited. A person who has emotion, emotional person, emotions come along with excitement, התפעלות. Emotions is excitement, and when you're excited you talk and it makes noise, excitement makes noise. A person who is a בעל מוחין, a person who is very intellectual, is always calm and cool. Everyone knows that שכל is cold, calm, cool. מידות are hot, excited, that's what מידות are. The malachim called שרפים who are in עולם הבריאה, they serve Hashem with שכל and they understand Hashem so much, זיי גייען אויס ממש to Hashem. The malachim in עולם הבריאה, they serve Hashem with middot, with their emotions, because the world of עולם הבריאה, היצירה I mean, יצירה there it's emotions. And therefore the אופנים make noise, because emotions is excitement, that's why we say in davenen they make noise. Then the מלאכים of עולם העשיה, which are the חיות הקודש, they serve Hashem because to them they just give themselves over to Hashem, they also make noise. It says they say the אופנים and חיות both make noise, but a different type of noise, not noise of excitement because you have the middot, but noise basically of shock, because when you give yourself over, you nullify yourself, it's like shock, something that's beyond you and you're completely batal, so you're shocked. You know, some people when they get a shock they screech, they're shocked. That's what the מלאכים are. It's like the Gemara says, interesting thing, the Gemara says, and I'll use this in connection to this, but the Gemara says it about something else, the Gemara says, we find in Yechezkel, in the Navi Yechezkel, he describes the מרכבה that he saw with great excitement and he describes it with all details. Then we have Yeshayahu Hanavi also describes a מרכבה, but doesn't make such a big fuss over it. So the Gemara says, you know why? Who is greater, Yeshayahu or Yechezkel? Yeshayahu was greater. So how come he doesn't go into this excitement over the over the מרכבה? So the Gemara says, I'll give you a mashal. You have two people. You have a person who lives in a big city with a wall around it, and then you have a person who comes from not find wall, a person who a big city, and then a person who comes from a village. And they both come to the capital city, and they both see the the majestic view of the the palace and of all the buildings. Who gets more excited? Well, the one that comes from a big city, he's used to it. Maybe this is nicer than what he's used to, so he looks at it, he's happy, but he doesn't doesn't jump out of his skin for what he saw. A person who comes from a little village who never saw anything comes in, he start shrieking, and that was Yechezkel. Yechezkel was like a בן כפר שראה את המלך, says like a בן כפר, a villager who saw the king, so he got all excited. Yeshayahu was in a higher level, so he was like a בן כרך שראה את המלך, like a man from a big city who saw the king, so he talks about it, but he doesn't get out of his, go out of his kelim as we call, doesn't go out of his skin. So the מלאכים who are called חיות הקודש, the reason they make noise because they're like a בן כפר, and as we said before, a כפר, a village, represents this lowest level of עולם העשיה, so they get excited, they make noise because they are batal to Hashem, completely nullified to Hashem, so they like shriek. But the אופנים, they also make noise, but they make noise, they serve Hashem with their midot and the midot bring out excitement. But the שרפים, they serve Hashem with מוחין, with their sechel, therefore they don't get excited. And in Kabbalah it says that the שרפים, which is עולם הבריאה, is like a city with a wall around it, the מלאכים from עולם היצירה is from a big city, but without a wall, and the מלאכים from עולם העשיה is like from the village, like we said before, like the villages. And it makes sense also. In a village you have a lot of obstacles. You have to work and plow the field, and you have a lot of things to do, in other words, it's not a very high level. The city, you don't have to work so hard, but you still have to be afraid if it doesn't have a wall, you might have enemies coming from the sides, you still have to need protection. But in the walled cities, then you're protected, then you're in the highest level. So it comes out like this, that the people from the villages, looking at it from a kabbalistic point of view, the people in the village represents the people who are in this low level, in the level of עשיה, where they don't have any understanding of Hashem, no emotions to Hashem. They just give themselves over to Hashem, that's just kabbalat ol, which is a very low level. At the same time, we know that these people who are in this low level, who don't have this great excitement in their midot and a great thing in the understanding in their mind, connect themselves to Hashem even deeper. That's why it says when it comes to the מלאכים, the מלאכים from the world of עשיה, the מלאכים called the חיות, are the ones that say, ברוך כבוד השם ממקומו. Blessed is Hashem from His place, all the way from there, because when you're in that low level and you give yourself over to Hashem, you're able to have a deeper connection, which is similar to what we said before, that the megillah which doesn't have Hashem's name in it, has in it the depth of Hashem which is beyond any name. So these people who are from the בן כפר, the people from the villages, who read the megillah on the 11th, 12th, and 13th, they are on the one hand the lowest, but they contain the greatest, similar to the general concept of Purim and the megillah. So this explains, according to Kabbalah, why the Mishnah, when it tells us the different times when you read the megillah, starts off with י\"א, י\"ב, and י\"ג, which are the days that the villages read, not the days when the normal people read, to show that this is the greatest level. It starts off with this because the highest level is, as much as it's on one hand the lowest level, because if you're in the village which represents עשיה, which is a level where you do not have this great feeling to Hashem and this great understanding of Hashem, you just give yourself over, but in this simplicity of the simple kabbalat ol of Yidden to Hashem, you have the simplicity of the essence of Hashem. The Baal Shem Tov said, the peshitut of an איש פשוט, the simplicity of a simple Yid, touches, reaches the simplicity of Hashem. If a person serves Hashem with his feeling, it's a limited connection, limited to his feeling. If a person, that's like the middle level. If a person serves Hashem with his intellect, it's limited to his intellect. But when you don't do it with your intellect or with your feeling, but you just give yourself over, which means you're lacking all these things, you don't have intellect, you don't have feeling, but you have the essence, which is what Purim stands for, and that's why the Mishnah tells us the dates, the first one is the dates of the people from the villages.

And this is connected to another thing. We know that Purim comes right after Parashat Zachor, when we remember, remember Amalek. Now, this has a connection to Amalek also. There's an interesting thing the Shlah says, I'll finish this in a few moments, the Shlah says, the Mishnah starts off saying that the Megillah is read on the 11th, and goes on all the way to the 15th. The שם הויה, Hashem's name י-ק-ו-ק is made up of two halves: י-ק and ו-ק. י-ק is י-ה is 15. ו-ק is six and five is 11. So the Mishnah starts off with 11, which is the ו-ק, and goes on to the end till the ט\"ו, the 15th, which is the י-ק. That's what the Shlah says. So the explanation is, we know the Gemara says, Rashi brings it, that Hashem says as long as Amalek is around, My name is not complete. The pasuk says, כי יד על כס ק-ה מלחמה לה' בעמלק. Hashem says, I have My hand on My chair, but the word chair is written כף סמך rather than כף סמך אלף, like כסא. It says Hashem's name there, but it doesn't say Hashem's full name, it says י-ק. So Hashem says as long as Amalek is around, My chair is not complete, and My name is not complete. All I have is י-ק, the ו-ק is missing. What does that mean? That means that Amalek is the one that's fighting with the ו-ק, and he's not allowing the ו-ק to take place. What is the י-ק and what is the ו-ק when we say Amalek is fighting? So we know it says in Chassidus and Kabbalah different explanations. But one of the explanations it says is that י-ק, first half of Hashem's name, represents a Yid serving Hashem with his intellect and with his emotions. That's the connection to Hashem. And the ו-ק represents already when that comes down into action, into giving yourself over to Hashem. And what Amalek, it says his klipah, what does Amalek represent? He does not want, allow that our understanding and our emotions should come down into our hands, into our actual doing the mitzvot. Amalek sometimes it says is represented by the neck. What is the neck? The neck is between your head and your hands. The head has the intellect, and the neck doesn't allow the full flow of the intellect to come into the body. That's where Amalek is. That's why the word Amalek comes from the word umalak. It says in Chumash, when they would shachat, they would slaughter an animal, you slaughter it by the neck. Then by the birds, it says the כהן ומלק את ראשו, with his nail he would have to separate between the head and the body. So Amalek comes from the word malak. He tries to separate the head from the body. You could have your head, you could have the intellect, and Amalek is יודע את רבונו, he knows, ומכוון למרוד בו, he wants to fight. So really, what is Amalek mainly against? He's not so much against someone learning. He would even not mind if someone feels towards Hashem, but to give yourself over beyond your understanding and your feeling, that he doesn't like. He doesn't mind if you think about Hashem like modern people do, you have Hashem in your heart, but not lemaaseh, not to do. That's what Amalek is. Amalek separates the י-ק from the ו-ק, and he doesn't allow the ו-ק to happen. Purim was a day when we overcame Amalek. So what was accomplished when you overcome Amalek? What was accomplished that the י-ק, I mean the ו-ק came back. The ו-ק, which Amalek is trying to separate, is comes back. And that's why the Mishnah, when it starts off by telling us when we read the Megillah, the first one it says is the 11th, which is the ו-ק, because that's what it is. And as said before, the whole idea of Purim is taking the low level, the place where you do not have your intellect and your emotions, but you do the ma'aseh and you give yourself over to Hashem, that should have and it has more even than the other levels. So the main thing of Purim is the י״א. And that's why the Mishnah starts off with י״א, and then goes on, י״ב and י״ג, till it goes all the way to the ט״ו, which is the י-ק. And this is the connection between Amalek and Purim. But after everything said and done, what we see from here is that these days that are read only by the villagers, which seem to be people like second class citizens, not so important, it's part of Purim, and not only it's part of Purim, these are days which are which contain a higher level even than the other days. And the truth is tonight is י״א, right? Today was י׳, tonight is י״א. So these are days already which are connected to Purim, and to a certain degree they have more than Purim. And if we do the right thing during these days, then we get to Purim, to י״ד and to ט״ו on Shabbos, and this year even to ט״ז, which is not Purim and you cannot read the Megillah, but it's פורים המשולש, where in Yerushalayim they even have Purim, a certain part of Purim they do on Sunday, we bring it to Sunday too. And then we have the three days of Friday, י״ד and ט״ו, and then Sunday, which is the third day, coming after another group of three days, 11, 12, and 13. Bichlal when it says when you have three together it's very strong. If you have double three, it's כפלים לתושיה, so this is a time when we're able to be mamshich the Purim and the kedushah throughout the whole year, that the whole year should be a purimdik(e) year, a freiliche year, a year of geulah, and the geulah of משיח צדקנו במהרה בימינו. Amen.

Yes. Do we have to read it twice? The Mishnah says you have to read it at night and read it in the morning, because anything that's supposed to be, אין אידיש I'll say, אריינגעהאקט אין קאפ, once is not enough. You have to review it. If you don't review it, the first time, many many times it doesn't get absorbed, doesn't penetrate. The second time when you review it, then it becomes strong. Yes. It didn't happen on Pesach. The three days that they fasted was on Pesach, but that's not the Ta'anis Esther. When we fast the Ta'anis Esther, it's not because of that. The Ta'anis Esther that we fast now, Ta'anis Esther, is not because of those three days. People make that mistake. It is because on the 13th day of Adar, that's when the Jews fought the goyim, and when they fight the goyim, it says you should fast as a way of prayer to Hashem. So therefore, since it's a zecher to what they did, we fast also. But the Rebbe once explained an interesting thing, why is it then called Ta'anis Esther? If it has nothing to do with Esther, it has to do with just the fasting of the soldiers, why do they call it Ta'anis Esther? So I remember by the farbrengen, there was a letter that the Rebbe wrote, and he asked the question, and didn't have an answer. But then this letter he wrote on Friday, and he didn't, the letter wasn't sent out, but Shabbos, by the farbrengen, he spoke about it, and he said, \"I thought about it, and I realized realized an answer, because the reason is because they fasted. The din is that soldiers who go to war, in order to win the war, to have a zechut they should fast. But then it says, if they're gonna fast, they'll become weak. So what do they do? So you have to accept upon yourself a החלטה, a neder to fast afterwards, and Hashem considers as if you fasted. So all these people couldn't fast. Who are the ones that couldn't fast? Everybody. Why? Because the danger was for every single Jew, so every single Jew was ready to go fight, 'cause a מלחמת מצוה. One person was not able to go fight, and that's Esther. And she was the only one that fasted. She was only able to fast. The other ones were only able to accept upon themselves the fast day. She was the only one that fasted, so it's called Ta'anis Esther. Then the Rebbe added this to the letter, so you see the letter gets printed, the letter he has the question, and at the end it says, \"PS, I thought about it again, and I came to and and I found an answer.\" And this is the answer the Rebbe wrote after the farbrengen. But it's not because of the three days. It's maybe a zecher. Some sefarim hold zecher. That's not the reason. Yes. What's the name of the מלאכים for עשיה? עשיה is חיות הקודש. And חיות הקודש in יצירה? Is אופן is אופנים. אופנים. And in the in בריאה, it's שרפים. Yeah. This year, because of the Erev Shabbos, when are we supposed to do משלוח מנות? Friday, yeah, Friday. We have to wash before 1:00? But to wash before, yeah. So? So do it before. The truth is you could do it later also, but it's better to do it before. Can you do it Thursday? No. No. You can't do it Thursday, you can't do it Thursday night, it has to be on Friday. All the mitzvot of Purim have to be done on Purim. You can't eat the meal Thursday night, it has to be on Friday. You can't do mishloach manot, you can't do matanot la'evyonim, to be fulfill the mitzvah. If you want to do mishloach manot just to be nice to other people and this, you could do it, you could do it today also. But as far as the mitzvah, the mitzvah is on Purim.