Based on the teachings of Rav Yitzchok Hutner (1906–1980) from "Purim In A New Light: Mystery, Grandeur, and Depth" (David Dov Publications, 2003, Section II, Chapter 3) interpreted and adapted by Rabbi Pinchas Stolper (1931–2022).
Presented and organized by Rabbi Yitschak Rudomin
The Talmud in Tractate Gittin 57B teaches that the direct descendants of Haman the Amalekite (who lived in ancient Persia about 2,500 years ago) eventually became students of Torah in Bnei Brak in the Holy Land of Israel over 2,000 years ago!
Rav Hutner points out that this could have only taken place if Haman's descendants became genuine converts (Geirim) to Judaism. However, in the Mechilta of the Torah's Oral Law, based on Exodus 17:14 where it states: "I [God] will totally obliterate the memory of Amalek from under the heavens", it clearly teaches that therefore "we (the Jewish People) do not accept Amalekite converts". Rav Hutner's question is how did it happen that the Amalekite descendants of Haman, who was one of the worst Amalekites in history, were later in time accepted as genuine and sincere Jewish converts?
Rav Hutner presents an intriguing solution that would be worthy of the greatest sleuth, greater than "Sherlock Holmes". Rav Hutner teaches that the solution to the above complex question and puzzling contradiction is to be found in the role and interplay of Yom Kippurim (the Day of Atonement, ordained by the Torah, and the holiest day on the Jewish calendar) and Purim (one of the happiest and seemingly most frivolous Jewish festival, ordained by the ancient rabbis). Note the similarity in the names of the two days.
On Yom Kippur, in the Yom Kippur Machzor (prayer book), after the prayer recitations of the "I have sinned" Viduyim ("confessions") the following prayer is recited: "Concerning the sins that are known to us we have already enumerated them and have admitted our responsibility; however, those sins that we are not aware of (due to forgetfulness, lack of knowledge, etc) are certainly known and revealed to You (G-d)."
What is the basis for including the "sins I am not aware of" that "are known only to You (G-d)" in the context of my request that I be forgiven? Rav Hutner teaches that from this we learn an important new insight, that when we acknowledge sins of ours that "are known (to us) and revealed before God" this also serves to rectify the "sins that are not known (to us but are known to G-d)." We can be forgiven for the unknown sins the same way that we can be forgiven for the sins that we know of concerning ourselves and that we have knowingly confessed to.
Rav Hutner continues that the Halakha (Jewish Law) provides us with an insight which has been taught by our greatest rabbinic Sages. This insight is in no other place than in reference to the process of obliterating the nation and people of Amalek.
To clarify: There is a contradiction in terms of whether, on the one hand, the evil Amalek should at all times be totally obliterated. But on the other hand, how did it happen that good and genuine Jewish converts descended from Amalek and then managed to live as accepted righteous Jews in the town of Bnei Brak in the Holy Land of Israel, known for its esteemed Jewish sages and pious Jews?
Rav Hutner teaches as follows, that the solution lies in the duality of the commands in the Torah concerning the evil nation of Amalek. In one place in the Torah God commands the Children of Israel: "You must obliterate the memory of Amalek from under the heavens." (Deuteronomy 25:19). While in another place God said about Himself: "I will obliterate Amalek" (Exodus 17:14). The Torah clearly states that the only solution for the problem of Amalek is its obliteration. Yet the Divine contribution of God saying about Himself that "I will obliterate Amalek" can be applied more liberally says Rav Hutner in that God in His Ultimate Wisdom may choose to "erase the memory of Amalek" in a most peculiar, out of the ordinary, unusual way by allowing chosen citizens of Amalek to circumvent the Halakhic (Jewish Law legal) restrictions and mislead the Sanhedrin (Jewish Court) into accepting their conversion!
Since the true facts were not revealed to the Sanhedrin and they were unaware that the convert/s before them were Amalekite/s they (the Sanhedrin) proceeded to convert them and thus the prospective converts became legitimate converts to Judaism. According to Rav Hutner, who is teaching a big Chiddush (novel interpretation) here, that is obviously the way in which the Amalekite descendants of Haman the Amalekite managed to become Kosher Jews (by converting) and to learn and teach Torah in Bnei Brak. It was by deception, something that the Dayanim (Judges) of the Sanhedrin were not aware of but that God was obviously fully aware of and allowed to happen for His own inscrutable reasons but having to do with a "roundabout way" of "erasing" and "obliterating" the memory of Amalek!.
Rav Hutner's astounding conclusion is that for reasons we are unable to comprehend, they were enabled by Heaven (G-d) to to learn Torah in Bnei Brak for the sake of correcting them. Rabbi Stolper adds a concluding observation to this that here we see the desire of Hashem (G-d) to accomplish a measure of Tikun Olam ("perfecting the world") by bringing creation and mankind to "correction/s" through accepting even the Amalekite converts into Klal Yisrael (the Jewish People).
In this regard Rav Hutner rounds out the connection between important aspects of Yom Kippur and Purim teaching that it was our great Sages who taught that Purim, which is the time assigned to the obliteration of Amalek, is also the time for making all of the corrections that need to be made in a concealed way. The role that God's Divine Wisdom assigns itself is to superimpose itself over circumstances and limit how a Jewish Court (even as great as the Sanhedrin) enforces its obligation to obliterate Amalek.
In this way the verse in the Torah that declares that "I (G-d) will obliterate Amalek" in Exodus 17:14 restricts the verse "You (Israel) must obliterate the memory of Amalek" in Deuteronomy 25:19 and here is the nexus and connection between Purim's Ad Delo Yada (drinking and getting drunk to the point of "not knowing the difference' [between cursed be Haman and blessed be Mordechai]", according to the teaching of Rava in the Talmud, Megillah 7B and Yom Kippur's "acting without knowledge" (when we pray for God's forgiveness of our unintentional mistakes).
There is a deliberate effort on Purim is to cloud the intellect through drink. That which the great Jewish Sages taught concerning Yom Kippur somehow being a "mirror" of Purim (based on the interpretation that "ki" in Kippur when pronounced "ke" means "like" [as in "similar to"] so that "Yom KePurim" which is "Yom Kippur" can also mean a "day like Purim") has its roots here. Just as Yom Kippur rectifies transgressions that took place openly through knowledge, so does Purim rectify transgressions that took place unknowingly "without knowledge" ("Ad Delo Yada").
The "acting without knowledge" of Purim is the equivalent of creating the situation of Yom Kippur's confession of sins that are "not revealed to us". The Purim "acting without knowledge" is our way of crying out to G-d: "before You (G-d) our hidden sins are revealed and known."
Rabbi Yitschak Rudomin was born to Holocaust survivor parents in Israel, grew up in South Africa, and lives in Brooklyn, NY. He is an alumnus of Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin and of Teachers College–Columbia University. He heads the Jewish Professionals Institute dedicated to Jewish Adult Education and Outreach – Kiruv Rechokim. He was the Director of the Belzer Chasidim's Sinai Heritage Center of Manhattan 1988–1995, a Trustee of AJOP 1994–1997 and founder of American Friends of South African Jewish Education 1995–2015. From 2017–2024 he was a docent and tour guide at The Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in Downtown Manhattan, New York. He is the author of The Second World War and Jewish Education in America: The Fall and Rise of Orthodoxy.