The story of Purim can be told very briefly.
They wanted to kill us. G-d saved us. Let’s eat.
To give a little more detail: The main facts of Purim are that King
Achashverosh was persuaded by Haman to agree to exterminate
the entire Jewish people in his kingdom. Esther who had been
chosen as the new queen managed to miraculously avert the
decree by following the instructions of her uncle Mordechai who
was the Jewish leader at the time.
The Jewish people were given the right to self-defense. The
intended pogrom was warded off by our people who fought back,
and thus the outcome was in our favor.
Instead of being a dark, tragic and disastrous event, it was a
totally transformed outcome. One with light, joy and glory.
We celebrate with incredible joy until this very day.
On Purim we read the entire Megillah at night and day. We recall
all the details.
The longer story contains many details that unfolded over a
decade.
Click here for full Megillat Esther Purim story.
When you live through a story that unfolds gradually over many
years, you may not notice the miraculousness of it all. Only when
reading it as one narrative with all the facts lined up neatly in
sequence do you clearly see the guiding hand of Hashem
weaving together all the details to create the fantastic outcome of
Purim.
Hashem is always running every detail of the world and our lives.
Sometimes we get to see openly how Hashem is coordinating
things. oftentimes it is quite behind the scenes. It may take years
for things to develop. By that time, you may have forgotten the
earlier details and thus not even see the Divine Providence of
how it all came together.
On Purim it’s a great time to try and ‘join the dots’ and see the
‘hand of Hashem’ in the developments of your life.
In that vein I would like to share a comment about the picture I
shared this week of a bulldozer in Ko Pangan.
The bulldozer is the first stages of the building of a women’s
Mikva for family purity that has begun in the yard of Chabad
House of Ko Pangan.
Let me join some dots and go back three years to an article I
wrote in February 2022.
Hashem gave me a special opportunity this week.
As Covid shut the world down, I had been hearing more and
more, of Israeli families relocating to the island of Ko Pangan. As
part of my mission from the Rebbe to spread Torah throughout
the Thailand region, I realized it was time to pay a visit, and feel
out what Ko Pangan was like and consider how to best service
the Jews living there.
An opportunity arose. A friend from Bangkok was visiting Ko
Pangan and introduced me via video call to a family living on the
island who has a son approaching Bar Mitzvah. The ceremony
and celebration will take place in Israel, but they asked me if I
could teach the boy to prepare him. I now had a concrete mission.
A Jewish boy, reaching the age of manhood, and I had the
opportunity to teach him how to put on Tefilin and be called to the
Torah. This to me is presented the perfect and irresistible reason
to make time to visit Ko Pangan and meet the family.
It is always a challenge to find the time to make exploratory trips
of this nature. Hashem presented me with the perfect opportunity.
Earlier this week I found that I could not enter Israel to attend a
memorial event, because of Covid restrictions. This left me with
two days that I had in my schedule to be in Israel but because of
Covid restrictions I was not able to go. I asked my wife if she
would be game to go to Ko Pangan for the day. When she heard
the reasons, to further our mission of spreading Torah and
meeting a potential Bar Mitzvah student, she gave the green light.
Off we went. Flight to Samui. Transfer to pier. Speedboat/ferry
ride of 30 minutes to Ko Pangan. Hot sun. Choppy waters. Strong
smell of engine fuel. I can’t say we enjoyed the ride. In the
pictures it sounds nice, and the word speedboat ferry sounds
glorious. Which is why you can’t rely on social media posts to
experience life. You need to get out there and actually experience
things.
We visited various areas of the island and had some very
enlightening and informative meetings and experiences. We had
a meeting with the Bar Mitzvah boy. We met just across the street
from the pier. I put on tefillin with the father and confirmed that
they would come to Bangkok for some lessons, which we would
complement with lessons via Zoom. Off we went to the return
ferry.
The ferry departure time was 16:30. At about 16:25 they started
boarding. Jumping into the bobbing boat was not something I do
every day but we made it in safely thank G-d. After sitting down
on the boat, I took out my phone and noted the arrival of a new
voice note from a number in the USA that I didn’t recognize. That
voice note had arrived at 16:28.
As the boat was revving up its engine to leave the island, I
listened to the note. It was from a friend of mine in Yeshiva. He
called to tell me that his son – who has the soul of a ‘searcher’ –
would be coming to spend six months on some island not far from
Ko Samui to learn Muay Tai. He was sending me the note to
introduce his son to me and tell me that he was coming. He didn’t
know the name of the island. Only that it was near Ko Samui as
his son said he would visit Chabad of Ko Samui periodically.
I couldn’t believe my ears.
I asked my friend (not sure what he was doing up at 4:28 AM in
the USA) is the name of the island Ko Pangan? He confirmed a
few minutes later that yes, his son was coming to Ko Pangan. I
told my friend that I was just concluding a fact-finding mission and
was on my way off that very island.
Divine Providence at its best.
I could not have received greater heavenly confirmation to our
itinerary than this.
Just as we had concluded a pioneering visit to the island, we got
a further sign that indeed Ko Pangan, while being famous for its
parties, has another dimension to it. It is also a haven for people
looking for meaning and purpose in life. Apparently against the
backdrop of this calming and peaceful island people are able to
slow down and get more in touch with themselves.
Wouldn’t this be a wonderful location to spread the depth and
meaningfulness of Torah? We left from this short visit with a much
deeper understanding and feeling about the nature of the island
and the mindset of the Jewish people who choose to call it home
or pay it visits of varying lengths.
TO BE CONTINUED PLEASE G-D.
This was my article from February 2022.
By the next Rosh Hashana we had already had a young
pioneering couple Rabbi Dovi and Miri (nee Ashkenazi) Deutsch
who had taken up the call to spread Torah and Mitzvot in Ko
Pangan.
My friend who had called me while I was on the ferry sent some
startup funds to get the project going.
A short while later a property became available at a price almost
too good to be true. A dedicated group of our visionary supporters
recognized the unique opportunity and jumped in to make the
purchase happen. Thank G-d a home for Chabad of Ko Pangan
was purchased.
Before the young couple moved to Ko Pangan, they visited the
Rebbe’s Ohel in New York.
Every Shul needs a Sefer Torah so R’ Dovi wrote in his note of
prayer to be read at the Rebbe’s resting place that he is asking for
a blessing to find a Sefer Torah for the new Chabad House he will
be opening.
Prayers also need to be accompanied by concrete actions. Before
going in to pray he made a phone call to a rabbi friend in Israel to
ask if he knew someone who would gift or lend a Sefer Torah to
him. The friend said he didn’t know anyone. A few minutes later
the friend calls R’ Dovi back.
‘Someone just walked into my office and told me that he wanted
to write a new Torah in honor of the healing for his daughter who
was not well. I told him that my friend just called me because he is
opening a new Synagogue in Ko Pangan and needs a Torah. We
are now calling you together. In about a year you will have a new
Sefer Torah for the Chabad House in Ko Pangan’.
The donor was elated to hear that R’ Dovi was about to pray at
the Rebbe’s Ohel and asked him to pray for his daughter as well.
About fifteen months later the Torah was completed. By this time,
it was after October 7 th . The donor’s son in law was in army duty
in Gaza and was seriously injured. During those very days that
the Torah was being completed and the celebration was
underway, the son in law had a miraculous medical turnaround
and is healing well thank G-d.
It was only natural that when R’ Dovi went to visit Israel a few
months ago, he went to see the donor of the Torah to thank him
once again for the great gift of the Sefer Torah to Chabad of Ko
Pangan.
The donor heard about how much active Jewish life there is in the
island and heard R’ Dovi speak about the need for a woman’s
Mikva. He made an offer that left R’ Dovi speechless. ‘Prepare the
architectural plans and tell me the general projection of costs as I
would like to have the merit of building the Mikva at Chabad of Ko
Pangan’.
A few weeks later he sent the first payment for the Mikva and now
the bulldozers have begun to work….
TO BE CONTINUED PLEASE G-D.
This is but a small glimpse of the workings of Hashem that He
allowed me to witness firsthand.
It is a privilege, in honor of the joy of Purim, to share this with you.
And I humbly suggest and invite you to try and find similar things
in your life in which you see the Divine Providence of Hashem’s
wondrous ways working through the seemingly mundane
trappings of your life.
In our parsha of Tisa this week when Moshe asks to see
Hashem’s glory, Hashem says ‘You cannot see My face,” says
Gd, “for no man shall see Me, and live. . . . You shall see My
back, but My face shall not be seen.”
Some commentators say that this alludes to the fact that you can
only see Hashem’s plans ‘from the back’ in hindsight. When the
story is still ‘in front’ it is still unfolding, it may look unfair,
disjointed and haphazard. We are not privy to Hashems plans.
After the dust settles, sometimes many years later, in hindsight,
we may be granted the gift to see the dots and join them together
in the miraculously uplifting path that Hashem leads us on.
This is one of the lessons we can take from the story of Purim and
the Parsha in tandem.
This will help enhance your fulfillment of the mitzvah to rejoice on
Purim with unbridled enthusiasm.
When you contemplate and find these hidden miracles in your
contemporary life in 2025, just as He did miracles for us back then
in the days of Purim, you feel embraced and uplifted by the
personal and individual attention that Hashem gives us.
We should always have REVEALED GOOD and be able to see
Hashems miracles and wonders to us constantly, until we merit
the ultimate and final joy of the coming of Mashiach. AMEN!
Lechayim! To LIFE and to SIMCHA JOY!!!!
Happy Purim
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Yosef Kantor