Difficulty 6
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Background on the Rav: A Gaon who fasted for 40 years, only eating at night in order to prevent the harsh decrees that were hanging over the heads of Jewish people in his time. After his death the decrees seemingly fell on the head of his son and successor who was murdered in the Holocaust with our countless brothers and sisters, G-d should avenge their Blood. He used complex mathematics to explain Jewish Law and its reasoning.
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"Our Rabbis taught us that one celebrates Purim in cities that were walled(in the land of Israel) in the days of Yehoshua Bin Nun on the 15th of Adar, in order to bequeath honor to the land of Israel."
The only city that was given the honor to celebrate Purim on the 15th of Adar was Shushan due to the fact that it was the city in which the miracle of Purim occurred and the Jews there had to fight a day longer than the Jews outside that city who celebrated their redemption of the 14th of Adar, while in the capital(Shushan) the celebration did not begin until the 15th . However the Rabbis wanted to honor all of Israel so they said all the cities in Israel that were walled in the times of Yehoshua Bin Nun(Joshua the successor of Moses) will also have this status, to celebrate Purim on the 15th of Adar(as though the miracle happened there too).
We have a question to contemplate: Why during this time(after the miracle of Purim, which occurred in Babylon) did the Rabbis deem fit to honor the land of Israel?
The answer can be explained according to this logic:
The story is told in Medresh, that Mordechai was starving with Haman in the wilderness. While Haman ate all his rations immediately, Mordechai wisely portioned them. Soon Haman was starving and begged Mordechai to give him some of his food, Mordechai agreed, if Haman agreed to sell himself as a slave to Mordechai.
It is brought down(m. Megilah p.15) that after this incident Haman grew in wealth and influence to the extent that he purchased the Jewish people from Achashveyrosh for a vast sum of silver. When Haman informed Mordechai of this, Mordechai asked rhetorically, "if a slave acquires something, who really acquires it? the slave himself or the master?". The answer being clearly, the master.
We have to understand, why did G-d create a situation in which the Jewish people were sold to the slave of a Jew?
The answer can be explained as thus: We learn(m. Sandhedrin p.105) The reason the the Jews came to idolatry was due to the fact that they reasoned "G-d has sold us into slavery(we were exiled into Babylon, slaves to Nebuchadenetzar) , after a master sells a slave is there any connection left between the two?". i.e., why should we still be required to serve G-d and do his commandments?! "So, G-d answered in the Megilah through the prophet, "Nebuchadenetzar is my slave...".
The Jewish people believed that they were slaves of Nebuchadenetzar and did not contemplate on the fact that G-d is the ultimate master, since "all that a slave acquires, his master acquires". That truly it was G-d, Nebuchadenetzar's master who acquired them. This lack of realization was the source of their sin. So once again G-d sold the Jewish people to a slave of a master(the Jews to Haman, the slave of Mordechai).
If the Jewish people would realize and contemplate on the principle that a master acquires what his slave acquires, that all along they were G-d's people and would return to Torah and Mitzvos, they would also come upon the reality that they had not been sold into their destruction by being sold to Haman(who was a descendant of Amalek and desired to destroy the Jewish people, G-d fordbid), but rather Aderaba(the opposite is true) , by being sold to Haman they were delivered from the slavery into the hands of a Jew, a servant of G-d, and were truly receiving their freedom!
Had they not come to that realization, then just like they would practically not serve G-d because they mistakenly thought they now belonged to Nebuchadenetzar, they would practically also be destroyed by Haman as they also regard themselves as sold to him(G-d forbid!).
G-d gave over to the hearts of the Jewish people to realize the truth, that they were Jews, servants of G-d and they were free from their bonds and conquered Haman, B"H.
Now we can understand why our sages gave honor to The Land of Israel in connection to the miracle of Purim.
It says(m. Sanhedrin p. 91) that "the sons of Afrika(not necessarily modern day Africa), complained to the Jewish people, "it is written that Canan will inherit the land of Canan, behold, we are the sons of Canan and the Jewish people the sons of Shem we should receive the land!". The Jewish people responded, "true however the Torah also says that Canan will be a slave to his brothers and therefore, all that a slave acquires, it is truly his master who acquires it!"
So we understand now, that the Jewish people realized the truth that all that a slave acquires is not truly his, but rather belongs to his master. Therefore, after the miracle of Purim the Jewish people understood that the land of Israel was truly theirs. Although it was once called the land of Canan, these people have no true claim on the land.
Through accepting the Yoke of heaven and realizing who is the true king of kings, we should not just pay honor to the land of Israel, but all our exiles should return and inhabit the land securely without any more contention for its ownership, all this with the coming of Moshiach Tzidkenu, Teikef u'mi'Yad!
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