 We're back. We're live at 2 p.m. on a given Tuesday. And this is Community Matters. I'm Jay Fidel on ThinkTech. And once every couple of weeks, we get to talk to Rabbi Itchel Krasnjansky, the Rabbi of Chabad of Hawaii. And this is one of those days. We're going to catch up with the Rabbi. Thank you, Jay. Thanks for having me on the air. Always a pleasure. Great to have you here. Great to have these discussions. So last time we spoke, we spoke about Purim. We talked about Purim Katan and Purim Gadol. And that means the small Purim and the big Purim. Can we resume our conversation on that? Sure. Because this year in the Jewish calendar, which is a lunar calendar, is a leap year, meaning is an extra month. And that extra month is this Hebrew month of Adar. So the first 30 days of the month is called the small Adar. And the second one, which we're coming up on, is called the big Adar. And in the Jewish month of Adar, or in Israeli it's pronounced Adar, we have the big Jewish festival called Purim. So a couple of weeks ago, we celebrated the small Purim and now we're coming on to the big Purim, the main Jewish holiday. You have to ramp up to these things. Well, Purim is a very special day. It's a very joyous day. It's considered one of the happiest days in the Jewish calendar. And it's all because of the great miracle that took place then in old Persia, the Persian Empire, when one of the, not the first, but one of the more notorious anti-Semites rose to power and attempted to annihilate the Jewish people. We're living in Iran, Persia. Living in it. Well, actually the Persian king who was called Achashverosh, at that time the Persian Empire was the global power, was the superpower. It's bigger than it is today. It controlled 127 countries. Oh, wow. It was the most powerful nation. It competed and eventually swallowed up Babylonia, the ancient Babylonia. And the story, you know, the setting of the story is in Shushan, which is the capital of Persia. And we mentioned last week briefly the story, but we can do it super brief again just for our audience, that Heyman, who was the villain, the anti-Semite who wanted to destroy the Jews, the story begins with the king Achashverosh celebrating his kingship, his kingdom, invites many, many people to his party. And in a drunken stupor, he demands for his queen, Vashti, to come out to the guests and parade herself so he can show everyone her beauty. Well, she obviously refused. And the king consulted with his advisors who said that this is a very dangerous precedent for the wife to refuse the command of the husband, especially if the husband is the king. And if no action is taken, then all wives will refuse their husbands, and we cannot allow for that. So it was off with her head. So that today, they would be off with his head. And as a result of that, they had to find a new queen after Achashverosh sobered up and realized what he did. And so this is where the interesting part of the story begins, where there's this young Jewish girl, her name is Esther, who's the niece of one of the greatest Jewish leaders of that day, Mordechai. And Mordechai instructs her to join the pageant that the king's minister set up. It's a competitive competition, a beauty pageant. A beauty pageant, exactly. And instructs her that she shouldn't tell anyone of her origins, that she's Jewish. And as the story goes, she was chosen to be the queen. And so she was able to be there to thwart Haman's efforts. And specifically how it happened is the story goes that Mordechai would go to the palace on a regular basis to keep an eye on his niece, see how she's doing. Mordechai was also the head of the Jewish Supreme Court. And one of the requirements- He wasn't a judge, yes. Yeah, exactly. And one of the requirements is that he had to be versatile and know all the languages, all the spoken languages. So he understood the local language, the Persian language that they were talking. And he overheard two of the employees of the palace talking about poisoning Akhashviresh, the king, a plot to poison Akhashviresh. When he overheard that plot, he immediately sent word to Esther to forewarn the king and not to eat from the food because this is what he heard, overheard. And that's indeed what happened and the king's life was saved. A long while later, Haman could no longer tolerate the Jewish people. And what really got to him was the fact that Mordechai would not bow down to him. Because the tradition in Judaism is not to bow down only to God. And this infuriated him. And he decided not only to take out his revenge against Mordechai personally, but also against all the Jewish people. Specifically, in Mordechai, at one point, he approached the king's palace, wanting to have a meeting with the king, Akhashviresh, to talk to him about his plan and get permission to hang Mordechai in the square, the city square. But as it would be, that evening when Haman was thinking of coming to visit Akhashviresh, Akhashviresh couldn't sleep. He asked his attendants to read from the chronicles of the king. And they read, coincidentally, the story of how Mordechai saved the king's life. So when Akhashviresh came knocking on Akhashviresh's door and asking the king permission to hang Mordechai, I'm sorry, before even was able to request permission to hang Mordechai, the king right away said to him, because the king was coming off fresh from the story of how Mordechai saved his life, said to Haman, what do you suggest the king should do to someone who is so loyal and helpful and saved the king's life? How should he be rewarded? So Haman, the narcissist that he was, assumed that the king was speaking about Haman himself, Haman himself, because he was such a loyal servant to the king. So he said, well, truth be told, if someone is that special, then that person should be given the king's crown and the king's special clothing and should be taken on the king's horse and paraded throughout the city with people running in front of the horse, saying this is how someone who the king really appreciates is treated. So Akhashviresh said, well, that's a good idea. Now I want you to go do that for Mordechai. So that was the beginning of the end for Haman. And after Haman came up with the decree to annihilate the Jewish people, Esther requested a private party between herself, the king, and Haman. Haman again got very excited that this private party only with him and the king and Esther. And then they had another party and at the second party, the king said to Esther, what is it that you want from me? Anything you'll ask, I will provide. And she said, well, my people are in danger. And I want to plead for the safety of my people. She says, what do you mean? So that's when she revealed that she was Jewish. And the Haman was attempting to annihilate the Jewish people. So the king went into rage and it was off with Haman's head. And as a result, we celebrate the festival of Purim. Purim actually is a Persian war. Which means lottery, because it says that Haman, in wanting to figure out when, what time of the year would be best to execute on the plan to kill the Jews, he threw a lottery and he came on this month of other. So this month was a month where the danger was of total annihilation of Jewish people. Yet God, in a miraculous way, turned things around and not only were we not harmed, but now that everyone knew that Esther was Jewish, so the Jewish people were able to live in peace. So that is the celebration of Purim. It's a very joyous day. And because things were hidden and masqueraded, so the way it's celebrated is that the children, dress up and masquerade. And it's a wonderful, wonderful Jewish holiday. So it's this wonderful narrative, this great story for the ages. It sounds like a movie, you know, maybe you should make a movie of it. It's all written down in the scroll of Esther called the Megillah of Esther. And it's red. Exactly. And it's part of the Old Testament. You know, the Old Testament consists of 24 books. This is one of the 24 books that comprise the Old Testament, which we call the Tanach in Hebrew. Okay. And this is another word for it too. Megillah. And the Megillah is taken actually from the Bible then, from the Old Testament. Yes. Megillah in Hebrew means a scroll. So the literal name is the scroll of Esther. Okay. Because Esther and Mordechai wrote down the whole story. And Mordechai wrote it down. And Mordechai and Esther wrote down the whole story and instructed the Jewish people every year to come together and to retell the story and to celebrate the great miracle. So it's a true story. It's really happened. All of this really happened. Very true. Very true story. And then, you know, in March 1978, my wife and I were in Israel. Okay. Okay. And it was... Purim. It was Purim. Oh, wow. And we went into the temple to see what was going on. It was the happiest time. Everybody was so happy. And then we went into the temple to see what was going on. It was the happiest time. Everybody was so happy. And they were reading from the Megillah and making with the... Rocker. Everytime Haman's name was mentioned. Yeah. They were the noisemakers. Yes. And everybody was dancing. Yes. It was a beautiful thing. Yes. Yes, until today it's celebrated that way. And I mean, it's a very nice story with a very happy ending. But it also is a very, very important story. And it has a lot of important teachings that is very relevant to Jewish people today, as well as to all peoples. Yeah, the world. And... Let me take a short break, Rabbi. Let me come back. Rabbi Krasnijanski is going to tell us about the implications and the lessons from the Megillah, from the story of Haman and Mordecai and Achisferos and Esther, of course. We'll be right back. Thank you. Aloha. This is Winston Welch. I am your host of Out and About, where every other week, Mondays at 3, we explore a variety of topics in our city, state, nation and world, and events, organizations, the people that fuel them. It's a really interesting show. We welcome you to tune in, and we welcome your suggestions for shows. You got a lot of them out there, and we have an awesome studio here where we can get your ideas out as well. So I look forward to you tuning in every other week where we've got some great guests and great topics. You're going to learn a lot. You're going to come away inspired like I do. So I'll see you every other week here at 3 o'clock on Monday afternoon. Aloha. Aloha and Mabuhay. My name is Amy Ortega Anderson, inviting you to join us every Tuesday here on Pinoy Power Hawaii with Think Tech Hawaii. We come to your home at 12 noon every Tuesday. We invite you to listen, watch for our mission of empowerment. We aim to enrich and lighten, educate, entertain, and we hope to empower. Again, Maraming, Salamat po, Mabuhay, and Aloha. They were back on Community Matters. We're talking more about Purim with Rabbi Ichel Krasnjanski, who is the Rabbi of Chabad of Hawaii, who joins us from time to time to tell us stories like the story of Purim. So Rabbi, there's more to Purim than just this story. There are philosophical, religious, geopolitical issues and lessons we can learn. Can you tell me some of them? Sure. Well, firstly, I'd like to begin with a very interesting passage in the Talmud. Talmud, as you know, is the book of Jewish, the oral traditions. All of the oral traditions that comprise the way we Jews live today and our understanding of God's Word is all in the Talmud. And so over there, there's something very, very interesting. The Talmud asks a question. The Talmud asks about the story of Purim. Talmud asks, what did the Jews do so terribly wrong that they deserved this even possibility of total annihilation? Because the way we look at the world, the way the Jewish people look at the world, the way the Torah teaches us to look at the world, is that nothing that happens is coincidence or just bad luck. Everything ultimately is orchestrated by God. The good and the dangers, the good and the bad. And when the good happens, we need to give thanks to God for making it happen. And when challenges come or difficulties, we need to introspect and to fix whatever problem may be. So the Talmud asks, what did the Jews do so terribly wrong that this potential decree came about? The Talmud says something very interesting. And that is because the Jewish people, the Megillah opens up with a story. Achashreyas threw a big feast that lasted for six months and he invited all the subjects of his lands, including the Jewish people. And the Jewish people had such great pride and joy that they were included in the imitation. They were allowed to come and be part of the festivities. And that was considered bad and this terrible decree happened. Because of the pride? Because of rights. And the Talmud doesn't fully explain what was so terrible about being happy to be invited to the party. So in the mystical teachings of the Torah, they explain it as follows. And that's the relevance of the story of foreign to our lives and to the world today. The mystics teach us that the survival of the Jewish people in the diaspora is to be compared to a sheep, single sheep that's surrounded by 70 wolves. I wouldn't want to be that single sheep. And the conclusion of the statement is that it is but for our shepherd that we are protected from the 70 wolves. The number 70 is because in the Talmud, actually in the Torah itself, it refers to the 70 nations, the main nations of the world. So basically what this passage tells us that the survival of the Jewish people is a miraculous phenomenon. According to all laws of nature, a sheep that's surrounded by 70 wolves cannot survive. How is it that we survive? Because we have a shepherd that looks out for us, who's God. And our survival is actually miraculous. And as Ben Gurion, the first prime minister of Israel once said, that any Jew that doesn't believe in miracles is not a realist. If we go through history, if you look through the history of the Jewish people, you will find that according to all laws of nature, we should have been done with a long time ago. And yet all the powers that came up and attempted to destroy us, they're long gone. Some of them are not even footnotes in history. And yet the Jewish people are alive and well and not showing any signs of getting off the world stage. And it cannot be explained in any rational way. It can only be explained in a super-rational way. So this bad thing that happened, this risk of annihilation that happened in Persia, was a kind of lesson, it was a miracle, but it was also a statement that God was making. Right, so the mystical teachings tell us, so the mistake of the Jewish people was that they, not only came to the party because they were invited, so the right thing was to come, but they somehow thought that they now found a friend who's going to protect them. Because he's inviting us to the party. So now we have a friend in the highest, highest echelons of power, of the government, forgetting that for the Jew, it was almost like the sheep making a calculation that, you know, this wolf, I think I can work with this wolf. You know, he seems to be like a nice wolf. But that's a mistake, because a sheep cannot survive when it's kind of confronts the wolf. Because a wolf has his nature, which isn't going to change. Exactly, exactly, so that's true for all throughout our history, that our survival is actually as a result of God's protection, and also in our individual lives, you know, that we realize that ultimately, you know, the final script to what happens in our lives in a very detailed way comes from God, not from any, not from Akhashveresh or any Akhashveresh look alike. Of which there have been many. Right, right. So what can the world learn from this? What can the world learn from the story of that poem? Well, you know, we talked before the show about the curse of prejudice for the Jews, anti-Semitism. You know, the importance of working to rid oneself of such bias and hatred, bias that leads to hatred and leads to war and attempted annihilation. And we today need that. I mean, it seems that, you know, that this problem has invaded so many cultures and societies, not just against the Jewish people. You know, the famous line, I forget who said it, is when they came after the Gypsies, I was quiet because I'm not a Gypsy, I didn't really care. When they came after, you know, the Catholics, I wasn't a Catholic. We came after the homosexuals, I wasn't, I'm not a homosexual. Then when they came after me, and then it was too late, there was no one left to protect me. So we all have to be very vigilant and firstly work on ourselves to detox from that toxicity. Detox, yeah, detox the hatred. Yeah, and the piece I was referring to was a piece on National Public Radio this morning about the Anti-Defamation League, where years past it was organized to deal with anti-Semitism, but now it has sort of changed its mission to deal with hatred, to deal with bigotry, to deal with prejudice of all kinds around the country. And its report over the past, you know, a few months has been that go back two or three years, and we have enormous increase in hatred, in hate crimes, in prejudice in this country, and for that matter in Europe. And this is really unfortunate, and we really, we, all of us, the species, we have to change our way of looking at this. And really the way the Torah teaches us is that when a person is not filled with positive thinking, emotions, feeling, then there's a void within the person, and that's where the hatred and all the negativity sets in. So the only way to fight this negative is, as the Talmud says, a little light dispels a lot of darkness. If we bring in light into our lives, and people's lives are healthy and happy, then there's less room for bigotry and hatred. Living well. Living well. Well, that's really interesting, and I think we will want to keep that in mind at Purim and at other times as well. Now, if I can just bring it to, like, contemporary modern day, you know, Iran today is the country, you know, the former Persian Empire is Iran. And sadly enough, we hear the same anti-Semitism coming out of Iran today as what came out in the story of Purim. Iran is the only country in the world that openly spouses the destruction of the Jewish people, the destruction of the state of Israel. And they clearly haven't remembered the story of Purim. Clearly have not remembered the story of Purim, correct. We need another Acha's favoros. They have supported all kinds of terror organizations. They have made it clear they would like to destroy the state of Israel and everyone in it. And it's very sad that Iran has come to this and hasn't been able to, you know, see the light. And I believe that the United States approach, I don't want to get too political, but the United States approach, as opposed to Europe, in dealing with Iran is not to placate them or somehow accommodate them in the hopes that by accommodating them, they can keep them from building a nuclear or keep them in check. I think the only way is the way of our president, which is to actually be very harsh on them, and hopefully that will lead to a change in the whole structure of that society. The Mullahs are actually taking them down a really, really, really bad path. We have to watch them because they represent a great threat. Let me go to one other thing before we close. In fact, I'd like to do this as a regular matter if you don't mind. Every week at the service on the Sabbath, the people in the congregation and the Jewish congregation open the Torah, and they read from it with a silver pointer. And they read that section of the Torah that applies that week, and it's always different. It takes five or ten minutes to read it. It's always an interesting story. Can you tell us what the section of the Torah is for this week, Rabbi? Sure. As we know, what is called the Five Books of Moses, that's the Old Testament, and the second book is called Shemais, the English Exodus, and this Saturday we will be reading the last section of the second book. It's called Pikkudei. Pikkudei means the accounting. And in it we read about God's command to the Jewish people in the desert after they left Egypt to build a tabernacle, which in Hebrew is called a mishkan, that traveled with them, where God's presence was revealed, they brought sacrifices there, and this was the spiritual center of the Jewish people, and eventually once the Jewish people came into Israel, eventually King David, actually King Solomon built the first temple. That was destroyed after 400 years, and then Cyrus, King Cyrus also was Persian, gave the green light for the Jewish people to build the second temple, and that lasted for a couple hundred years until the Romans came and destroyed that, and today we are 2,000 years without a temple, but the Jewish belief is that a third temple will be built. So the Torah says, God says to the Jewish people, make for me a sanctuary and I will dwell in them. And grammatically it should have said I will dwell in it. It's one structure, why in them? So the commentaries say God was referring to the spiritual sanctuary in each of us, and we through the lives that we live, invite God into our lives and turn our life into a sanctuary. What a wonderful story. Thank you for telling us about the reading this week, Rabbi. Thank you, Jay. I hope next time we get together we can do it for that week also. Yes, please God. And thank you for telling us about Torah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Jay. Shalom and aloha. Thank you, shalom.