Mishloach Manot with Dry Wheat and Ginger -- Rabbi Eliezer Berland Shlit"a

ON THE HOLIDAY OF PURIM, WE ALL RUSH FROM PLACE TO PLACE TO FULFILL ONE OF THE MITZVOT OF THE DAY: TO SEND MISHLOACH MANOT (GIFTS) TO OUR FRIENDS.  ALSO DURING THE TIME OF THE AMORAIM, THEY WOULD SEND MISHLOACH MANOT, BUT FOR SOME REASON, THE AMORAIM CHOSE SPECIAL GIFTS THAT DID NOT INCLUDE CHOCOLATES OR LIQUEURS…

Below is a special description from Moreinu HaRav Eliezer Berland shlit"a, from Tractate Megillah, with novel insights that no ear has yet heard about the secrets hidden in the Mishloach Manot of the Amoraim.

The Gemara in Megillah 7b says: “Rabbah sent to Mari bar Mar.”  He was a great tzaddik and was called “Mari bar Mar.”  He (Rabbah) sent with Abaye “a basket filled with dates and a cup filled with the flour of roasted wheat.”  This is the secret of wheat.  Esther was a reincarnation of Ruth.  When [Ruth] became a convert, she merit to something that no other person in the world merited to.  It’s specifically the converts who merit to what no other person in the world merits to.  [She merited] to bring Mashiach ben David.  Therefore, she revealed the secret of wheat.  This is the secret of “a cup of the flour of roasted wheat.”  A cupful of the flour of dry wheat from the oven, which is such sweetness, the greatest sweetness that it’s possible to imagine.

“Abaye said to him”:  Abaye said to Rabbah, “Such sweet things you have sent.”  Because on Purim, the sweetness of the river that flows from Eden is revealed.  On Purim, everyone ascends to the Garden of Eden, and everything that we eat and drink on Purim is the “Yain HaMeshumar” (the preserved wine), the wild ox and Leviathan.  It’s all the birds from the Garden of Eden, the Leviathan from the Garden of Eden, the wild ox from the Garden of Eden.  Abaye said to Rabbah, “What’s going on here?!”

The “Kedushat Yom Tov” says that on Purim, the secret of “Baruch Mordechai (blessed is Mordechai)” is revealed.  The secret is “who I truly am,” and this is revealed specifically on Purim.  This is “Baruch Mordechai,” because “Arur Haman (cursed is Haman)” turns into “Baruch Mordechai.”  So the “Kedushat Yom Tov” says that someone who knows that he is Haman, who discovers that he is Haman, can merit to “Baruch Mordechai”!  A person has to know that he is Haman.  If he knows that he is Haman, he can merit to be “Baruch Mordechai”!

This is what Abaye said to Rabbah: “What will Mari tell you?”  Because Rabbah wanted to lower himself.  Rabbah only saw that he, in essence, is Haman, that he himself is, in essence, Haman, and through this, he would be “Baruch Mordechai.”  “If a peasant becomes a king, does he not take the basket down off his neck!”  [Rashi comments: “Will he not take off his neck the basket that he was used to taking when he was still a villager and feeding his animals?  Here you became a king and leader in Pumbedita, and you only send him ordinary, commonplace items.”]  The basket remains forever, because basket (HaSal) is the gematria (numerical value) of Haman.  The Gemara reveals to us that the “basket” is 95, which is the gematria of Haman.  This is the secret of “Memuchan.”

Because the Gemara says (Megillah 12b) that Memuchan is Haman, but Tosefot in the name of the Midrash say that Memuchan is Daniel, because Daniel is the gematria of Haman, because Daniel is also 95 = HaSal (basket).

But [Abaye] didn’t understand the hint that Rabbah wanted to say [about himself], that he is Haman.  He alluded to this in the gematria of “HaSal,” that Rabbah showed that the basket was standing over his neck.  The moment that I know that I myself am Haman, then it’s possible to be “Baruch Mordechai.”  This is the work of all one’s life – the basket never leaves one’s neck.  The basket is the numerical value of Haman.   He knows that he himself is Haman.  Therefore, he merited to two disciples like Abaye and Rava, that Abaye pointed to the sky and Rava pointed to the ceiling (see Berachot 48a).

Mari bar Mar “sent back to him [Rabbah] a basket filled with ginger.”  He sent him ginger.  Ginger root is the secret of “a river that flows from Eden.”  This is the secret of the Garden of Eden.  Therefore, ginger (zangvila] contains the letters of garden (gan).  He revealed to him the secret of the river that flows from Eden.  “The river that flows from Eden to water the garden.”  Where does the river flow from?  From the Tree of Life.  Because on Purim, the Tree of Life is revealed.  The Tree of Life is revealed every Purim.

Because Purim is the secret of the revival of the dead, that it’s possible to attain the secret of the revival of the dead.  This is what the Gemara relates afterwards, that Rabbah arose and slaughtered Rabbi Zeira.  With his own hands, Rabbah grips Rabbi Zeira and slaughters him, because Rabbah knew the secret of Purim, that on Purim, everyone rises for the resurrection, even a person who was slaughtered, even a dead person!  And this is what the Gemara reveals to us in Megillah 7b: The secret that on Purim, it’s possible to resurrect a person, because the secret of Purim is the secret of the resurrection of the dead, the secret of the complete redemption.  May we merit it speedily in our days, Amen!