Purim’s eternal message
By: Rabbi Dovid Samuels
There is a well-known but difficult teaching from Chazal[1] that all the festivals are destined to be nullified in the World to Come – all except Purim, which will endure forever, as it says[2], “And these days of Purim shall not pass away from among the Jews.” But what makes Purim so special? Is the miracle of Purim somehow greater than the Exodus from Egypt or the Splitting of the Sea? What’s more, the miracle of Purim occurred in a hidden manner, unfolding within what appeared to be a completely natural, logical sequence of events. If that miracle was so great, why wasn’t there a single open miracle in the entire Megillah?
“A hidden miracle is actually greater and more elevated than a revealed one.”
On face value, we would conclude that Purim was perhaps the least impressive, maybe even least important miracle that we celebrate. But Chazal are teaching us that the opposite is true. It is precisely because of the fact that no revealed miracle occurred in the Megillah that this miracle is so great! It was so great that it came from, what the Maharal of Prague calls: a higher, hidden place. In other words, a hidden miracle is actually greater and more elevated than a revealed one. The miracle of Purim occurred as a hidden miracle – a nes nistar – because its source is higher, rooted in the deepest, most secret realm. This needs to be explained. How is a hidden miracle which operates within the regular framework of the world’s governance be considered greater than one that shatters the natural order?
This issue is made harder in light of the famous teaching of the Ramban[3]: that revealed and open miracles are intended to teach a person that everything, even the regular day-to-day happenings are all really miracles from Hashem. From this we see that our belief in the Creator who governs His world specifically comes from revealed and open miracles! From them, we learn about Hashem’s Providence even in matters that appear to follow the world’s natural order. The revealed and open miracle is thus supremely important, for from it we learn to believe. If so, why does the Maharal say that the loftiest and most exalted messages from Hashem don’t manifest through revealed miracles but rather are concealed within the veil of ordinary, routine governance?
A hidden miracle seemingly requires deep contemplation and heightened awareness for a person to recognise it. The difficulty becomes even more acute when we realise that on Purim, not only is the miracle concealed within an apparently natural sequence of events, but even the one who is meant to publicise the miracle exists in a state of dulled senses and lost consciousness as the Gemara[4] states: “A person is obligated to become intoxicated on Purim until he doesn’t know the difference between ‘cursed is Haman’ and ‘blessed is Mordechai’.” How is it possible that a person should mark such an important event through drunkenness, which is a reprehensible trait, especially when it leads to a situation where instead of serving Hashem with joy, one loses his faculties and becomes unaware of the miracle that occurred?
To understand this matter, we must examine the essence of the miracle that occurred on Purim.
Esther’s coronation as queen in place of Vashti occurred before Haman’s rise to power and before the harsh decree that followed. In the Megillah it says, “After these things, King Achashverosh promoted Haman.” Chazal[5] expound on the word “after”: it means “after Hashem created the cure for the affliction, for He does not strike the Jewish people unless He first creates their cure. But for the nations of the world it is not so; rather, He strikes them and afterwards creates a cure for them.” The question arises: what difference does the order make? What does it matter if the affliction was created before the cure or after it?
The Maharal explains that when the cure preceded the affliction, it emerges that the affliction was never truly dangerous from the outset. It was designed from the beginning to be part of a two-stage process: appearing in the first stage and being healed in the second. Therefore, when the complete picture is revealed and it becomes clear that the cure was created even before the affliction, we understand that there was never an evil decree to begin with. Rather, it was a deceptive appearance, designed from the start to lead to salvation in a script whose good ending was clear and written in advance. We can illustrate this through an image of someone lying on a table with a man with a blade in his hand standing over him. At first glance, anyone who sees this sight would be shocked. We would suspect the worst of the man holding the blade. But if we see bandages and needles with surgical thread on a table next to the patient, we will immediately understand that the surgeon is working to heal the patient, not to hurt him. The ‘remedy’ which has already been prepared gives an entirely different context to an otherwise terrifying scenario.
“What appeared to be evil was never truly evil; it was always good!”
A hidden miracle means that events unfold according to governance that was dictated in advance, appearing natural, because the “Director” provided the cure before the affliction, so that the affliction itself was never dangerous, not even for a single moment. In such governance there’s a pre-scripted process of v’nahafoch hu – it was turned about – where it becomes clear retroactively that from the affliction itself, Hashem prepared the cure. What appeared to be evil was never truly evil; it was always good! Such a process is more sublime than a story in which there’s a natural order including a stage of genuine danger, where the Creator must then shatter the natural order with an open miracle to save His children. This clarifies why a hidden miracle is more exalted than a revealed one.
Regarding the Megillah, the Mishnah[6] teaches: “One who reads the Megillah out of order has not fulfilled his obligation.” This is because regarding the miracle of Purim, the order of events is critical. The greatness of the miracle lies in the fact that the cure preceded the affliction, so there was no danger from the outset, and everything was pre-scripted and must be understood to be good from the beginning.
The festival of Purim is there to reveal the great secret hidden in the Megillah – and in all of our lives’ events – where looking backwards one sees that the salvation preceded the trouble and sprouted from within it. What people perceived during the process as something bad was nothing other than good that was known and pre-scripted from the start. This secret is revealed to a person when he understands that there’s an inner dimension not apparent on the surface, just as within his own personality there’s an inner dimension that isn’t revealed. And it is for this purpose we have a cup of wine on Purim. Wine is a liquid that is concealed within the grapes, and imbibing it correctly allows a person to reveal a side of himself that would otherwise be hidden. The intoxication – ad d’lo yada – is merely allowing the inner self to become liberated from the intellect that seeks to conceal it. It is about revealing the hidden, just as the story of the Megillah (which is from the word megaleh – reveal) was a process of revealing the hidden cure that Hashem intended for the Jewish people before the threat against us was even created.
This fundamental realisation will be revealed to everyone in the future. “And Hashem will be King over all the earth; on that day Hashem will be One and His Name will be One.”[7] On that day – in the future – we will not see, chas v’shalom, a change in Hashem Himself, for Hashem is One forever. Rather, the change that will occur is from our perspective. Only in the future will we understand that there isn’t governance of chesed and governance of din separately, but even what appeared as punishment and judgment actually stemmed from Hashem’s kindness with His creations. This futuristic insight is revealed to us through the festival of Purim and the reading of the Megillah.
According to this, it’s completely understood why all the festivals will be nullified in the World to Come. After all, we’re dealing with a commemoration of the Exodus from Egypt, which is a revealed miracle of shattering the natural order. In the future, we’ll see retroactively that the attribute of judgment never truly reigned and nothing was ever bad – rather, it was kindness and good from the outset. By contrast, the miracle of the Megillah occurred from the beginning in this manner: that one who examines it can see already now, not only in the future but in this world, that everything was fully good and there wasn’t even a single moment of judgement and punishment. It’s therefore clear that we’re dealing with the sort of miracle that exposes the system of governance that will reign in the future, and it’s understood why this miracle won’t be nullified even in the World to Come.
This profound teaching of the Maharal offers us a transformative lens through which to view our personal struggles and setbacks. When we face difficulties – whether in parnassah, relationships, health, or any other area – our natural tendency is to see them as purely negative, as obstacles that Hashem must later help us overcome. But the lesson of Purim’s hidden miracle teaches us something deeper: very often, the “cure” is already embedded within the affliction itself, even if we cannot yet perceive it. The job loss that seems devastating may be steering us toward a better position; the disappointment that feels crushing may be protecting us from something harmful; the delay that frustrates us may be perfectly timed for our ultimate benefit. When we internalise this perspective, we don’t merely wait passively for Hashem to “fix” our problems through some dramatic intervention. Instead, we actively search for the hidden good that’s already present, asking ourselves: “What is this situation teaching me? How might this difficulty itself contain the seeds of my salvation?” This doesn’t mean we deny our pain or stop davening for relief – rather, we approach our challenges with emunah that just as Esther was already queen before Haman’s decree, Hashem has also already woven the solution into the fabric of our current struggle. Living with this awareness transforms us from passive victims of circumstance into active seekers of the hidden Divine kindness that surrounds us, even in our darkest moments. And while it is a perspective that is only fully achievable in the World to Come, Purim allows us to ‘read the Megillah’ of our lives and connect to some of that goodness and joy that lies beneath the surface.
