{"id":5897,"date":"2010-02-15T02:00:26","date_gmt":"2010-02-15T00:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ph.yhb.org.il\/en\/?p=5897"},"modified":"2019-06-11T10:38:25","modified_gmt":"2019-06-11T07:38:25","slug":"05-15-02","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ph.yhb.org.il\/en\/05-15-02\/","title":{"rendered":"02. Accepting the Torah Anew"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If we delve deeper, we will see that Haman\u2019s decree actually stirred the singular quality, the <em>segula<\/em>, of the Jewish people. The decree made it clear that the Jewish people were willing to make great sacrifices in order to hold onto their faith. After all, they could have assimilated among the gentiles and saved themselves from annihilation. Nevertheless, they did not try to escape their Jewish destiny. On the contrary, the decree inspired them to repent and strengthen their faith and commitment to the Torah and the <em>mitzvot<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>The events of Purim were so momentous that the Sages stated that Israel accepted the Torah anew at the time of A\u0125ashverosh. In a certain sense, their renewed commitment at that time was greater than their original acceptance of the Torah on Mount Sinai. When the Torah was first given, Israel was forced to accept it, as it says, \u201cThey took their places at the foot of the mountain\u201d (Shemot 19:17). The Sages comment (<em>Shabbat<\/em> 88a):<\/p>\n<p>This teaches that the Holy One, blessed be He, overturned the mountain upon them like a cask, and said to them, \u201cIf you accept the Torah \u2013 good; if not \u2013 here shall be your burial.\u201d R. A\u0125a b. Yaakov said, \u201cThis furnishes a strong protest against the Torah\u201d (since they accepted the Torah under duress, they are not obligated to uphold it). Rava said, \u201cEven so, they re-accepted it at the time of A\u0125ashverosh, as it says, \u2018The Jews upheld and accepted upon themselves\u201d (Esther 9:27) \u2013 that is, they confirmed what they had accepted long before.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Many commentators explain that God \u201coverturned the mountain upon them like a cask\u201d in a symbolic, spiritual sense. After all the great miracles of the Exodus from Egypt, the splitting of the sea, and the awesome revelations at Mount Sinai, it was impossible for the Jews not to accept the Torah. However, the question still remained: Would the Jews stay connected to God and His Torah even afterward, when they become detached from those miracles and wonders? Indeed, there were ups and downs, until the events of Purim took place. That is when it became clear that the people of Israel\u2019s connection to their faith and to the Torah were absolute. The terrible decree made it clear that the price of belief might be unbearable, but the Jews still chose to adhere to their faith, repent, and pray to God, without any coercion. Not only did they return to observe the 613 <em>mitzvot<\/em>, they even instituted additional <em>mitzvot<\/em> after they were saved: the <em>mitzvot<\/em> of Purim.<\/p>\n<p>Thus, we were privileged to build the Second Temple, and a door was opened for the advancement of the study of the Oral Torah, which was the main spiritual enterprise of the Second Temple era.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If we delve deeper, we will see that Haman\u2019s decree actually stirred the singular quality, the segula, of the Jewish people. The decree made it clear that the Jewish people were willing to make great sacrifices in order to hold onto their faith. After all, they could have assimilated among the gentiles and saved themselves [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-05-15"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>02. Accepting the Torah Anew - Peninei Halakha<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ph.yhb.org.il\/en\/05-15-02\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"02. 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