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Bird here to speak to us as all potential Shana Beth students. This is your first perk as possibly being a Shana Beth student. Thanks to hear from a bird. It's not easy to get in. Coordination was not kosher, but we were able to figure it out. So without further ado I think I just got hired by Ish for Shana Beth. So that was very good. Can I record? They said no. They said no. And I also want to thank Mrs. Rich for bringing me in. Mrs. Rich is not only a next door neighbor; she's also my future mother-in-law because my daughter is going to marry her son Avram. And they've been. They've known each other since the rich moved in, and from what I understand, I only learned this recently. They sleep in rooms that are separated by a wall, and they knock on the wall at night.
They're communicating through Morse code. In case you ever want to really know about the shiduch system in Ramah Pechemesh, we start them young. And in my building, in the building that we live in, our neighbors married each other. That's the first of Hashem's two shiduchim that will come from this house. So you may have put some pressure on me to teach Yerushalayim Bet, but I think I put pressure on you to marry off my daughter to your son. I want to start off by sharing a very beautiful Torah. Some of it is based on Torah that I learned from Rav Moshe Weinberger. I don't know if you've seen his new sefer on Purim. If you have not Absolutely wonderful, beautiful, and definitely worth your time. I have some of my own thoughts that are around this, but I really want to just say that it's miusla. The foundation of this parashah is really from R. Weinberger.
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The Gemara in Megillah, Dav Zion Amid Aleph, tells us a very strange thing. And I have the Mar Makomos here. I have one page, which is not helpful for any of you. But if you want to see it afterwards, it's all on this one page. The Gemara in Megillah tells us a very strange thing at the end of the story of Purim. After everything has been settled The Gemara tells us that there was a back and forth between Esther Amalca and the Chachamim of the generation. Esther Amalca, she said, "Kivuni leDoros, establish me for generations." What that meant was establish a yomtuf of Purim Write a megillah. And I would like for this story. To be a yamtiv, for it to be something that Klal Yisrael learns from for all time, and the Chachamim acquiesced. Took some time, but they acquiesced.
And then the Gemara says, not only did she say kivuni ladoros, not only do I want you to establish that this is a yamtiv, and not only do I want you to write a Megillah, but kisfuni ladoros. I want this to be something that you write as part of Tanach. That it's not just like this floating sefer. But that it's codified as part of Tanach. These are Esther Amalca's two requests, and eventually requests that the Chachamim of their time acquiesced to, and that's how we have the Yom Kippur of Purim today, and that's why Megillah Esther is part of Tanach. The question that I would like to ask is: It seems to be a rather strange request. She doesn't say write down the Purim story for generations. She says kivuni, meaning establish me for generations. Establish this as a yomtov does not appear to be the same as establish me for generations.
Esther Amalke is not a me monster. She's not one of these 2025 narcissistic teenagers who need to post on TikTok and have everything recorded. She's not doing that little like Purim like there's going to be some Purim TikTok trend of what's the I saw a Marishkite recently of like. TikTok, you have to say rhyming words. Talking about you ever hear this thing I'm dressed as this and it rhymes with I'm dressed as that. You've seen this. Kivuni la'dires, kivuni la'dires. Esther Amalke doesn't have a narcissistic bone in her body. She's a tzadikas And she is clearly a person who's deeply aware of Hakadosh Baruch Hu inside of her. We know that the Gemara tells us that when she was on her way to Achashveros, she felt that the Shechina left her. What is this idea of kivuniladars? Kivuniladars. Why does she make it about herself? That's the first question for tonight.
The second question for tonight, also based on the Gemara Megillah, Daf Yud Gimel Amidvez says as follows. I'm reading it inside. Amar reish lakish. Reish lakish says Galu v'yadua l'fnei Misha Amar v'ha'ya ha'olam. It's revealed and known before the Creator of the world. She'atid Haman lishkal shkalim al Yisrael. That Haman. Eventually would come and would be willing to pay ten thousand schkalim to Achashverosh in order to destroy Klal Yisroel. Lefikach hikdin schkalehen l'shkalav. Therefore, Hakadosh Baruch Hu brought the refuah before the makah. Hakadosh Baruch Hu said, "I'm going to already establish like a vaccine for Haman's ten thousand schkalim, which is the machtsis hashekel that Klal Yisroel brought in the times of the Mishkan." The Machshashekel that established the Mishkan that went to the daily carbarnos. So our schkalim came first, and therefore somehow because our schkalim came first Haman's schkalim were ineffective. It's interesting to note that it doesn't say we paid more than Haman.
The reason why Haman was ineffective is because our schkalim came first. What does that mean? Our schkalim came first. Thousands of years beforehand. Now Haman's shkalim are ineffective. We need to understand the inner meaning of this maimre chazal. Finally, and this is the last question for the night, Rashi in Shmos Rashi says, "What was this machzus hashekel?" Rashi says, "Here lo kemin matbea shalish." A kadosh baruch who showed Moshe Rabbeinu the machzus hashekel. He took it out from under the kisei akvod. He took out a shekel that was on fire. And he says, "U'mishkol a machzus hashekel," and that. Coin that he took out that was on fire. The weight of it was a half shekel. The Omer lo kaze yitnu, and he said to Moshe Rabbeinu, 'This is what I want. I want the machzass hashkel to be this matbea shalish, this coin on fire.' The question is, what does that mean? What does it mean to have a coin on fire? What's the idea of the machzass hashkel here?
The word shekel. We're used to thinking of the word shekel as coin. It's not really true. What does the word shekel mean? Tway. Who said that? Very good. Where are you from? From Rabbisheim. I knew there had to be some cheating. I grew up in the five towns. There's no way I would have known that. Where is Nahama Pechemish? Nahazi. I have a lot of good friends that live on that block. What's your last name? Provo. I know your dad well. The word shekel means to weigh. That's where the notion of coins being worth something comes from. It used to be, but today it's not like that. Today all money is basically made up. That's why there's something called Bitcoin. Obviously, it's not real. Nobody knows if it's going to go up or down. But it used to be that money would weigh something. So you would take a bag of coins. Coins would generally have a certain weight. They would place, like if you ever seen in the movies, which I'm sure you never saw growing up, like if they had, like in Robin Hood, like a bag of coins, and they would drop it on a scale. You would be able to know the value of something based on its weight.
So the word shekel really means to weigh something. What's the weight of something? What's the value of something? If you want to know what you value in your life, it's a very easy thing. What are you passionate about? We talk a big game about what our values are. But the truth is, you know exactly what a person's values are when you look at what they're passionate about. People that are passionate about something are on fire about it. This fiery coin that Hakadosh Baruch Hu says to Moshe Rabenu, this is the machzus hashekel that I want from them. What's Hakadosh Baruch Hu saying to Moshe Rabenu? He's saying. It's not interesting to me how much something is worth. Something could be worth ten thousand schkalim, could only be a half a shekel. The difference is where's the passion? The Yismach Israel of Alexander. I'm sorry. The Imrei Emes. Sorry, not the Yismach Israel. That's coming later. The Imrei Emes. The Gererba. He said as follows. The word shekel is Rashi Tevos.
Shachbucha, kumecha Lachtecha. What's the last thing you think about before you lie down at night? What's the first thing you think about when you wake up in the morning? What are you thinking about when you're going through your daily life? What you're passionate about—it's on your mind all the time. It doesn't mean that it's overt. It doesn't mean that a person is walking around on fire all the time. But it's what's part of their daily life. In fact, sometimes it's uncomfortable when we meet people that are so on fire about things because we're unaccustomed to it. I'll share with you a story. I once took a ride. I was walking somewhere in Ramat Echamesh. And somebody was driving by me. Somebody that I know. He's a rebbe in a certain yeshiva. He drove by. He rolled down his window and he said, "Can I give you a lift?" I said, "That's awesome." I was going to walk the whole way. He rolled. I got into the car. His wife called. He put her on speakerphone. Single most awkward car ride of my entire life.
This couple's been married for well over 20 years. It's like they just met each other and they're 16 years old and they're teenagers. At the end of the conversation, it was like, "I love you. I can't wait to see you." No, you hang up first. Are you still there? It was so uncomfortable. I wanted to open the car door and just roll off the side. It was the last place in the world I wanted to be. Now I don't like to speak lashon hara. The opposite. I do like to speak lashon hara, so I'm trying not to speak lashon hara. But it's an awkward situation. You want to ask somebody, 'What's the deal?' So later that week, I was with a chaver of mine who teaches in that yeshiva, and I said, 'Zaid, actually got a car ride with a rebbe from your yeshiva the other day,' and he looked at me right away and goes with Revploni, and I was like, yeah, how'd you know? He goes, did his wife call?
I was like And I like again, I don't want to say Lashinara, but I do. So I was like, yeah, how'd you know? He's like, nobody takes car rides with him, because it's a known thing that his wife knows when he's in the car, and they're so uncomfortable, and it's a known thing, nobody tramps with him. I was like, oh man, I wish I would have known that. I was the worst car ride ever. Something doesn't need to be that passionate to be true. It doesn't need to be that overt in order for it to be true. We live our lives, and even if we don't spend so much time with the people. Let's say for example, if a father is going out to work, I'm sure your fathers went out to work. That means they spent a lot of time out in the house. What you probably don't know about your fathers is the first thing they thought when they woke up in the morning is I want to support my family.
The entire day that they were working, running around like mishigayim, they were thinking to themselves, "This is in support of my family." And when they hit the pillow at night and they're exhausted, what did they say? That was a good day. I was able to support my family. What we're passionate about is something that we live Not something that we talk about. I want to say this in a very real way because I know this is a very real group of people here. Lots of people talk about their values. What you talk about doesn't count for very much in life. It's easy to talk a big game. It's easy to say I care about Hashem. Any seminary girl can come. I'm going to make fun of you for a second. It's easy for a seminary girl to come to Israel and at the end of the year to go. I just love Hashem. You don't.
That's a thing to say. That's a thing to say. Actually, to love Hashem is a lifetime achievement award. It's something that you have to wake up in the morning and put your passion into. It's something that you have to live. It's something that when you go to sleep at night, your head hits the pillow, and you say, "I lived today for Hashem." That's not a simple thing. You don't just naturally become that in six months. It's not easy. And I'm going to say this. Maybe it's embarrassing to her, but I'm going to say it anyway. We have Mrs. Libowitz in the room with us today. I'm a Talmud of her husband. I'm a Talmud of her husband. Is he my friend? He's for sure my friend. But it's a Talmud Chaver, and I want you to know the single most inspiring words that I can hear in any given day. The fact that you're out on that car ride.
I love your husband very much. He's the last guy in the world to have that car ride. I did not take a ride with Rabbi Rich either, nor with Rabbi Rafi, nor with Rabbi Hershel. I understand. I have a lot of. I want you to know that the most inspiring words that I can hear in any given day is if I daven basikin with Rabbi Libowitz every morning when he says out loud in his very loud Very specific way when he says sheyibone beis hamikdash b'meirah biyameinu he's a man who lives for Mashiach. I asked him how he was doing the other day. We were on the phone. He said it could be better. He could use some beis hamikdash. He could use some Mashiach. He's not. He's, and especially if you know him, and you're laughing right now, then you know that I'm not exaggerating. You don't get to say that at 18 years old. You don't just get to say that I care deeply about Mashiach coming and that I yearn for the Beis Hamikdash. That's a lifetime achievement award.
Your email address has to be bringmashiach@gmail.com It's something you have to live for years. If you're passionate about it, it's lived. If you talk about it, it's an ambition. You spend 30 years doing it. That's a life. What are you passionate about? That's what Hakadosh Baruch Hu says. It's not interesting to me when people write million-dollar checks. You'll forgive me for saying this in today's day and age. For some people, and we should all be blessed to be able to do this, it's not hard to write million-dollar checks. There are people that have so much money that to write a million-dollar check is not hard. But the Rebbeinu Shlom is not doing for million-dollar checks. The Rebbeinu Shlom knows how to support institutions very well. Five dollars, ten dollars, eighteen dollars, given legitimately, given from a deep place of passion, is worth just as much. The Rebbeinu Shalom, Rachmanu li baba, Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants our hearts. The machzus hashakel is not valuable to Hashem because of the amount. It's valuable to Hashem because it came with passion. It's b'shach b'cho uvkumecho uvalech d'chavaderech. There are three lessons that I want to highlight from the machzus hashakel. All of them are going to be important to us tonight.
The first lesson of the Maaseh Shachel is you are only half. Now most people hear this shmuuz and they go right because my other half is the rest of Klal Yisrael. For this shmuuz, your other half is the you that's in Shamayim. There's two halves of you And this again is not popular today in 2025. Pop psychology says do whatever you want, do whatever makes you happy. Don't forget about any of your responsibilities. Just be your best self. In Judaism, we don't have that concept. In Judaism, we have a belief system. You were created to become a certain person. Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave you talents, and you're meant to cultivate those talents in an effort to become this thing that Hashem made you to become. Chazal say, "Elo told us Hashemayin v'aret behi baram." Chazal darshan al tecri behi baram, Elo be Avraham. There was a created being called Avraham Avinu. You know what Avraham Avinu's godless was?
That he became Avram Avinu. There was an image of Avram Avinu and Shamayim. He became that. Yaakov Avinu and the Malachim were going up and down the ladder. What were they astounded by? Because the face of Yaakov Avinu was on the Kiseh Hakavod, and they saw someone who actually achieved his mission of becoming his best self. The Maaseh Hashachol tells us: You have a mission in this life. The mission is becoming the person that you were designed to become. That's the first thing every Jew needs to know. You're not here to chill. You're not here in this world to relax. You're here in this world to be a growth-oriented person. Now I know that sounds like a seminary thing to say. And then when you're a couple years out of seminary, you roll your eyes and you go, 'No, that's not what I meant to do.' I want you to know that it's a frustrating thing to adults.
People who get off of this path. People who get off of the path of being growth-oriented people, life does not work for them. In fact, I would go so far as to say that the design of life is that it always keeps pushing you back until you're in self. I heard a great line from a therapist once. He's not a Jewish therapist, and he's pretty well known. But it doesn't really matter what his name is. He said a very smart thing. He said every lie eventually catches up to you. Because every lie is a ripple with the truth. Our job in this world is to be aligned with the truth. And when we're not aligned with the truth, life doesn't work. It will constantly push you back to center until you realize that's a lie. That's not the way that I'm meant to be in this world. There is a way that we are meant to be. Again, I know in 2025 that's not popular. Be whatever you want to be. Be whatever you want to feel. Do whatever you want to do. The truth is, it doesn't work for the world. And if you look around in the world today, people are saying out loud. I'm not going to say it out loud right now because I'm being recorded, but you can figure out what I'm talking about. It doesn't work to do whatever you want in life.
There's something that we're meant to become. The question is, are we becoming it? You have a machzis hashekel, something that's a half of you that's up there. Our job is to join our other half. To bridge the gap between who we really are right now and who we ideally want to be. That's our mission in this world. That's the first lesson of the machzis hashekel. There's a second lesson of the Ma'aseh Hashem. The second lesson of the Ma'aseh Hashem is What weight do we have in the eyes of Hashem? The words Haben Yaker Li Efrayim that Efrayim is my precious son. Do you know when they were said? Do you know when Yirmiyahu and Navi said it? When Klal Yisrael was at an all-time low spiritually. La Yehudim Haysoira, v'Simcha v'Sason. Excellent And not even Rama Pei Chaimish girls. Va'yikar. What was restored on Purim The yikar of a Jew The preciousness of a Jew.
The Ma'asas Hashachar tells us you have weight to the Rebbeinu Shalom. Not only do you have a mission, but your preciousness to the Rebbeinu Shalom is eternal, even in your lowest moments. This is a critical thing to know. As we're going through our mission in life, what many of us don't realize is it's okay to make mistakes. You're not going to be perfect. But when will you fall off? You'll fall off when you start to think to yourself I guess I'm no longer precious to Hashem. That's what kills us. In any relationship, it's like that. Any couple can get into a fight and they can recover. When they can't recover When they think the people that we love no longer value us, that's when things really start to deteriorate. When it's like I guess you just don't care about me anymore. If you don't care about me anymore, why should I put my effort into this?
We have a mission. Hashem created us for a mission. That's step one. Step two, Hashem will love you even if you are imperfect. You are a shekel to Him. You have shikul. You are weighty to Him. You are kaved. You're heavy. You're important to Him. You're machtzas hashekel. Half of you is you. Half of you is Hashem. You're a part of Him. That means you're going to be precious to him no matter what. That's not a thank you Hashem bumper sticker thing. That's a das that every one of us has to have. We have to walk around knowing that no matter what mistakes in our life, we don't get off of this relationship. We don't leave the path because we know that mistakes are part of the process. I want to share with you that today, especially today, in these moments right before Mashiach comes This is one of the biggest challenges.
Most people know intuitively that they have a mission they were created for. Some people try to avoid it, but eventually it comes back. We see very wealthy people who spend their life pursuing materialism that, in their 40s and 50s, after they're multi millionaires, find their way back to the base. Medrash. I have a chaver of mine whose father, one of the wealthiest people, I can't tell you where in a specific town of five, is a very wealthy person. Imamish has an unbelievable house. Unbelievable cars, gorgeous pool in his backyard. At some point, it stopped working for him. He's like, I have all this stuff, but now what? And he started learning with one of the rosh yeshiva in the neighborhood at five o'clock in the morning. It became a very big balstaka. His tayra, his davening, it took on completely new dimensions. He expressed to me major regret in his life that he didn't raise his children with this type of passion. Most people can understand I have a mission, and the mission is not pursuing stuff. The mission is pursuing the truth of who I'm meant to become.
But the hardest thing in the world is to know what to do after I fall? What do I do after it's not perfect? Am I still precious to Hashem? How many of us don't raise your hands? The answer is everybody. How many of us went to sleep like a pig so we have a hard time waking up like a lion? I'm not proud of what I did the night before. Am I really going to talk to Hashem the next day? When you get to be parents yourself, you're going to learn that parents want to hear from you most after you've made a mistake. Parents don't expect you to be perfect. Imagine a child who's again. I know this module doesn't work so well today because everything is digital. But let's say you didn't have a phone. Let's say there was no such thing as Uber, and your father says to you, "I'm not going to be able to pick you up. Here's fifty dollars. Take a cab. I'm in the middle of an important business meeting. I know you're going to a neighborhood that after a certain time of night it's not a good neighborhood."
Do me a favor, don't tramp. Just take a cab. Here's $50. You went shopping in that place. The dress that you wanted or the skirt that you wanted. I really don't know the difference between a dress and a skirt. You can ask my wife. I'm not making that up. I don't know 100% the difference between a dress, a skirt, and a blouse. I have some ideas, but I'm not 100%. I wish I was making that up. But let's say that dress, skirt, blouse that you wanted to buy. It's fifty dollars more than the amount that you had, and in a moment, in a ruach sh'tos, you decided, "I'm just going to spend the money and I'm going to figure it out."
Now you're in the parking lot. The mall is closed. It's a dangerous neighborhood, and the only person that you can call to come pick you up right now is the dad who gave you the fifty bucks, and you're terrified to call because you're going to call him and say, 'Dad, I made the mistake and I spent the fifty bucks that you told me not to spend, and that you're busy right now and that you're not going to be able to come pick me up.' But of course, you're in a dangerous neighborhood, so you call your dad. You're terrified. Your dad picks up, even though he's in the middle of a meeting, because of course he values you more than the meeting that he's in. He picks up the phone and you say, 'Dad, I made a mistake. I'm in this dangerous neighborhood. I know you told me not to spend the 50 bucks' But I did. What does a father do in that moment? He leaves the meeting and goes to pick you up because, as frustrated as he is, you are the most important thing in the world to him.
We make a mistake, and we think that Rebbeinu Shalom doesn't want to hear from us after we did an avera. That's when Rebbeinu Shalom wants to hear from us the most. You did an avera; you need help. Every father wants to be there for their child. Every mother wants to be there for their child. It's our issue that we can't talk to Hashem after we did the avera. So I went to the place where they sell vegetables in the morning, and now I don't feel particularly good about myself. So am I going to wake up in the morning and daven? What's the answer? You have to wake up in the morning and daven. Much more today than you did yesterday, because that's when you need the siyata d'shmaya to recover. That's when you need to have the hard conversation about who I am. Lesson number two from the Ma'asas Hashkayl: You have weight. You're precious. At the end of the Purim story, what did we discover? As far as we felt from Hashem, the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed. We were under threat of death for an entire year.
As far as we felt, Hashem doesn't care about us at all. At the end of the day, Hashem was there for us. It restored our feelings of Jewish pride. And the last one is the Ma'asas Hashachar tells us, and this is huge. The Ma'asas Hashachar tells us Small actions make a big difference. If you know you have a mission, and you know that no matter how far you fall, you're always still on that mission, and you're always still worthy of Hashem's love and connection, then you know that small actions make a huge difference. I'm going to tell you, girl, something. When you get engaged, I hope that your husbands or your chassans at that time will buy you a diamond ring. But if he comes home on a random night with a diamond ring That's weird. If your husband comes home with an enormous gift at a random time, that's strange. I'll share with you a beautiful story. My mother had a best friend who was very, very wealthy and exceptionally generous. My mother worked; she was a teacher. I have a sister who's 16 years younger than me.
This woman who was exceptionally wealthy My sister grew up in her house. She was literally her babysitter. It was the biggest joke in the world. The woman was worth, I think, if I'm not mistaken, they wrote in the cover of the New York Times financial section that in one day her husband made 50 million dollars. They were very wealthy people. She babysat for my sister. It meant that she raised my sister because my mother was working and during the day she was taking care of my sister. She spoiled my sister rotten. Today, baruch Hashem, my sister is a mother of herself. She's grown up a lot. She's no longer that kid. My sister grew up spoiled rotten. She got everything she wanted. One day, this woman came to my house, dropped off my sister, and guess what? She had a little beautiful, cute orange cat, a little kitten. Because my sister said, "I want a cat," so she bought her a cat.
Which is not a gift. It might be a gift for my little two-year-old sister, but not a gift for my brother who was allergic to cats, nor for my father who hates pets. My mother looked at her best friend and she said My husband is going to kill me. I can't have a cat here. So this woman said to my mother, 'She said, "What does your husband want?"' So my mother said, 'I don't know, like a 72-inch TV.' She said, "I'll be right back. My father came home." There was a 72-inch TV in the house. My father's reaction was, 'What happened?' If you get somebody a 72-inch TV and that's what they really want, there's a cat right behind it. If your husband gets you a huge gift, that's not a sign of love. That's a sign that something went very badly. Small actions. What was that?
You're married. Why? What do you get for you? What yeshiva is he in? I'll talk to him. When you get married, you know what you find out. The way to love somebody is not by giving them big gifts. It's by noticing small things. Small things that you can do. And everybody has their own love language. There are five of them, right? Yeah. But it can be as simple as someone taking out the garbage. My wife made a very big deal. I took out the garbage like two weeks ago or a week and a half ago. She walked in the house. I took out the garbage. She's like, "Thank you so much for taking out the garbage. It was so meaningful." I said, "You know what? I didn't know that's what it took. There will not be garbage on our front step ever again." I have been taking out the garbage religiously ever since then, and every time I do I make sure to WhatsApp her and go, 'Took out the garbage, right?' I want that validation as a husband. Tell me, Amo Asim, right?
This is not about her; it's about my own self-esteem. The taking out the garbage can be worth a lot more than a diamond ring. The Machzis Hachekel, a Malach comes and tells you "You got to do big things for Hashem. Every day needs to be Yom Kippur. Every day needs to be Purim." It's not true. That's not the way real relationships last. The machzis ha shekel, the small half a shekel, that's what makes a big difference. The Gemara tells an amazing story. The Gemara tells us that Haman came to Mordechai on the day that Haman was going to bring Mordechai around and parade him around Shushan. He showed up, and Mordechai was teaching And Mordechai saw Haman coming, and he said, 'Chevra, Haman's coming to kill me. Run.' So the chevres scattered, and Mordechai put on a tallis and he started davening. Haman came; he didn't kill them, and he asked the chachamim what Mordechai was just teaching you.
And they said he was teaching us the halachos of kmitza. The small handful of flour that's brought for the karbon that the poor people bring. And Haman said, "Your small amount of flour that you bring is going to end up canceling out my ten thousand schalim." It's the small kharban from the poor person who gives whatever he has because he loves Hashem. It's much more powerful than the big gift of ten thousand schkalim. And if you're paying careful attention, you see that these three things, these three lessons, they flow from one another. Number one, you have a mission. Number two, that mission is eternal, even if you make mistakes. And number three, that mission means you don't have to have every day be poorim. You have to do small things every single day to have an awesome life. I want to go back to that original statement from Esther Amalca. What did she say?
She said, "Kivuni l'adiras, kisvuni l'adiras, establish me for generations, write me down for generations." What I'm about to say might sound cliche, but it is true. How many of us realize in this room that there's a Megillah being written about each and every one of us? If you had to write a Megillah about your year so far this year and you were totally honest Nobody else will ever read it. What would it say? Who were you in September? Who were you in December? Who were you in February? Who will you be in June? Everything you did this year was being written down. There is no action that doesn't matter. Every one of us is writing a Megillah. But what most of us don't realize, and this was the lesson that Esther Amalca was trying to teach every one of us Is this what gets established?
This is who you are. It's not random. It's part of Tanach. She says our tyra, the story of our lives, it's not something that doesn't matter. It's a part of Tanach. And it has to be ledayre diras. Our actions make a difference ledayre diras. You don't realize now that the small decisions you make will have an enormous impact on who you are in the future. An enormous impact, and what appears to be sometimes small decisions are massive. What you think is a machzis hashechel decision—it's a small thing that has major ramifications. That's the megillah of your life that you're writing. Every one of us is writing a megillah, and that's what Esther Amalke says. It's not for her own gaiva. She's not a me monster. This is not TikTok. She's not saying kiv uniladayas. I need to make sure that I have a legacy. Esther Amalca could care less if nobody else in the world ever heard her name. It was a lesson for all of us that the hidden lives that we have The Esther Amalca that Hester Panim, that which is hidden and concealed from everybody else, is being written down and it matters tremendously. Who you are in this world is a Megillah that you write.
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