Machshava:

Purim 

Collections: Rabbi Weinberger: Purim

Description

Purim is related to the word pirurim (crumbs). Amalek is the klipah (husk) of coldness and ice, and brings us to the Gehinom of sheleg (snow). The Gemara says that Hashem gave us the mitzvah of machatzis hashekel (the half-shekel obligation) to offset the shekels of Haman that were used to buy the destruction of Am Yisrael. We get excited about big things, but do we get excited about the small things? The coldness is that we think that Hashem only wants the big things, when really Hashem loves all of the small things, the pirurim. Every moment of a tzaddik's life is big. The machatzis hashekel was used for the regular daily offerings in the Beis HaMikdash. Just a little bit of Jewish fire can burn away all of the coldness of Esav. The whole avodah (spiritual work) of Purim is that we really don't know the power of all of the small actions that we do.