Purim 2025: The Final Edition

The parallels between the Purim story and modern times are uncanny and astonishing. As Rav Moshe Shapira would often say, using his powerful language of metaphor, “The festival of Purim was the mehudara kamma, the ‘first edition’ of Haman, the source of all that is evil. We’re living in the mehudara basra, the final edition. The tree ascending fifty amos is in his courtyard, waiting to hang Mordechai, the source of all that is good. He’s ready to destroy, slay, and exterminate all the Jews, young and old, infants and women, in one day.”

Rav Moshe asked, “What does Hashem want from us? Why doesn’t He just bring the Geulah? Year after year, the only constant is the worsening of our situation. Are we getting any better? Doesn’t He see that waiting for us to change (as a people) isn’t happening?”

The only thing we see with clarity is how current events are imitating the Purim story. Ha’olam mechaleh es atzmo, the world is hurtling full speed into self-destruction.

Rav Moshe’s biggest fear was that people like us would fall into a sense of apathy and slumber. In the words of Haman, “yeshno am echad, we’re a nation asleep” (Megillah 13b). We could get used to a decadent and immoral society, with families falling apart, and a deep, fake world exacerbating the anxiety of a generation grappling with substance abuse, who spend much of their life hiding behind screens. We could exchange a world of true beauty for one where music, art, speech, and clothing are devoid of any refinement, with heimishe kids asking, “Rebbi, what’s wrong with a tattoo?”