The convergence of events is striking: the U.S. and Iran are both signaling readiness for war, with Trump giving Iran roughly 10–15 days to reach a nuclear deal — a deadline that lands precisely around Purim. Meanwhile, nationwide protests that began in late December 2025 have spread to every province in Iran, with a death toll in the thousands. And all of this unfolds under a sky featuring a rare planetary parade and a blood moon falling on the night of Purim itself, exactly as Rabbi Mendel Kessin explained in a recent lecture.

When the Israelites stood at Mount Sinai, they uttered one of the most remarkable declarations in Jewish history: Na’aseh v’nishma, “We will do and we will hear/understand” (Exodus 24:7). By placing action before comprehension, the Jewish people demonstrated a radical, unquestioning loyalty to God’s commandments, pledging to fulfill the Torah even before knowing its full contents. This was no ordinary commitment. The Talmud (Shabbat 88a) teaches that this act was so noble that angels bestowed two crowns upon each Israelite: one for ‘doing’ and one for ‘understanding.’ It represents the quintessential “leap of faith,” where observance itself becomes the path to understanding, and experiential Judaism takes precedence over intellectual demand.

Yet the Talmud also teaches that this first acceptance was, in some sense, incomplete. The Midrashic tradition understands the Sinai experience as carrying an element of coercion — the mountain was held over them, so to speak. It was only during the events of Purim, centuries later, that the Jewish people reaccepted the Torah entirely of their own free will.

The verse in Megillat Esther (9:27) captures this with the phrase kimu v’kiblu, “they confirmed and undertook.” Where Sinai was shadowed by external pressure, the Purim re-acceptance arose from love, gratitude, and the clear recognition of divine providence, even in a story where God’s name is never once mentioned in the text. The hiddenness of God throughout the Megillah makes this recognition all the more profound. The rabbis teach that Purim completed what Sinai began, transforming the Jewish relationship with Torah from obligation into joyful, voluntary devotion.

This devotion to God’s Torah, as expressed on Purim, bears potential for a great reward.

“We have an opportune moment right now, before Purim, to bring a great light into the world,” Rabbi Kessin teaches.

“Haman chose the month of Adar as the time to destroy the Jewish people because Moses, the greatest of all prophets, died on the seventh of Adar. What Haman failed to consider, however, was that the seventh of Adar was also the day Moses was born. In the very date chosen for destruction lay the seed of its reversal.”

The Rabbi explained that this is the essence of Purim: V’nahafoch hu, “and it was turned upside down” (Esther 9:1). This phrase, central to the Purim narrative, describes how Haman’s decree of annihilation was transformed into a day of celebration and Jewish triumph. It points to a hidden miracle, one in which natural events shift suddenly and unexpectedly for the good. It is an expression of divine intervention that is present but concealed. The custom of wearing costumes and reversing roles on Purim is itself a reflection of this principle: the world is not always what it appears to be, and the darkest moments carry within them the potential for the greatest light.

While Moshe plays the central role in Israel accepting the Torah at Sinai, he seems entirely absent in the story of Purim when the Jews actively and willingly accepted the Torah. But Moshe does play a key role, introduced, ironically, by Haman. It is a moment when the gates of heaven are especially open, when prayer carries unusual weight, and when spiritual opportunity is at its peak. “The seventh of Adar is the yahrtzeit of Moshe,” Rabbi Kessin explains, “who was Moshiach ben Yosef, the Messiah from the house of Joseph. Haman threw lots to determine the day he would murder the Jews. He chose the fourteenth of Adar because that was the month Moshe died so he thought it boded ill for Israel. But he did not take into account that this was also Moshe’s birthday.  As such, the seventh of Adar is what the tradition calls an et ratzon, a time of divine favor (Psalms 69:14). This was the nature of the day, when evil is revealed to be good.”

Just as Purim transformed Haman’s genocidal plan into his own demise, political events surrounding Iran are gearing up to do the same. Earlier this month, Hamidreza Haji Babaei, the deputy speaker of the Majlis (Iranian parliament), issued a personal threat aimed directly at the president of the US. 

“In about a month, we will recite the funeral prayer for Trump, the United States, and their allies,” he said. He issued his threat exactly one month before Purim.

Similarly, last week, President Trump issued what amounts to an ultimatum to the Islamic Republic of Iran: reach a deal on your nuclear program within 10 to 15 days, or face military consequences. The deadline lands squarely on the eve of Purim.

Rabbi Kessin’s teaching centers on a crucial distinction between the two messianic figures described in Jewish tradition. Moshiach ben David is the spiritual redeemer, the royal leader who will usher in the final era of universal peace and divine knowledge. But before him comes Moshiach ben Yosef, the “suffering servant,” the national and political catalyst who brings about physical, technological, and national rectification in the world.

Rabbi Kessin identifies Moses himself as the archetypal Moshiach ben Yosef. This connection is illuminated by a detail at the Exodus: it was Moses who personally took the bones (atzamot) of Yosef out of Egypt (Exodus 13:19). Rabbi Kessin links this to the concept of atzmut, essence. By carrying Yosef’s bones, Moses was symbolically taking the very essence of Yosef – his qualities of endurance, hidden faith, and national leadership – and elevating them to the next stage of history. The arrival of Moshiach ben Yosef marks the turning point from the era of exile and darkness to the threshold of redemption and light.

“To mark this transition period and honor Moshe as Moshiach ben Yosef, we should light candles in his memory,” Rabbi Kessin suggests, making the inner significance of this auspicious date tangible through action.

Just as Purim completed the Jewish people’s acceptance of the Written Torah, Rabbi Kessin teaches that we now stand at the threshold of an equally momentous transition.

“Mankind is getting ready to move onto the next stage of geula, redemption, by accepting the Oral Torah on Purim, just as we completed the acceptance of the Written Torah on Purim,” he explains.

This idea is embedded in the very language of the Torah. The commandment Veshinantam levanecha, “And you shall teach them diligently to your children” (Deuteronomy 6:7), part of the Shema prayer, contains a subtle but profound hint. The word veshinantam shares the same Hebrew root as shen, meaning tooth. The image of the tooth teaches us that Torah is meant to be passed orally, mouth to mouth, from generation to generation; not merely transmitted in writing but internalized, articulated, and spoken. This oral transmission is what gives Torah its vitality and continuity across the ages.

Veshinantam also shares its root with Mishna, the Oral Torah itself. And the Midrash Rabbah states plainly: “The exiles will only be gathered due to the merit of the study of Mishna.” It is the Oral Torah, Rabbi Kessin teaches, that holds the key to the next stage of redemption.

The Purim story, Rabbi Kessin explains, carries within it a cosmic rectification that echoes through history. King Saul, who had the potential to be Moshiach ben Yosef, failed in his defining moment when he refused to fully execute God’s command to destroy Agag, King of the Amalekites (I Samuel 15). That failure had consequences reaching centuries forward. Haman the Agagite, a direct descendant of Agag, arose to threaten the entire Jewish people.

“This was rectified when the Jews rose up and killed Haman, the Agagite descended from Agag,” Rabbi Kessin says. What Saul left incomplete, the Jewish people of Persia finished.

And this pattern, he teaches, is being repeated in our own era. Today, radical Islamist forces, identified in the kabbalistic framework as Yishmael, are using the power of Persia — Iran — to attempt the destruction of the Jewish people, just as Haman once did. The neutralization of the Iranian regime is therefore not merely a geopolitical event but a messianic reenactment: the final eradication of Amalek that must be completed in the era of Moshiach ben David.

Rabbi Kessin points to several remarkable astronomical events as portents of this charged moment in history.

Recently, the moon passed directly between the Earth and the sun, producing a striking annular “ring of fire” solar eclipse, visible only from Antarctica. It is a sign, Rabbi Kessin suggests, of divine preparation.

More dramatically, a blood moon, which is a full lunar eclipse casting the moon in deep red, will be visible across Asia, Australia, the Pacific Islands, and the Americas on Purim itself, the 14th of Adar (March 3). “This is Hashem preparing to carry out judgment on the nations,” Rabbi Kessin says.

Additionally, six planets — Mercury, Venus, Neptune, Saturn, Uranus, and Jupiter — are aligning in the evening sky in a rare celestial parade. While small groupings of three to five planets occur every few months to years, a parade of six or seven planets is highly unusual, according to NASA.

Notably, Mars, known in Jewish tradition as Ma’adim, from the Hebrew adom (red), associated in the Talmud (Shabbat 156a) with energy, judgment, and intensity, recently fell out of alignment with the other planets. Mars is the planet of Esav in kabbalistic tradition. Its absence from the alignment carries its own symbolic weight.

“Mars, the red planet, is the planet of Esav,” Rabbi Kessin explains. “This is to show that Esav is no longer in alignment with the imminent Moshiach ben David.”

Jewish tradition holds that Ein mazal l’Yisrael: Israel transcends astrological influence through Torah and mitzvot. The energy of Mars, however intense, is not a barrier to the Messianic era. Rather, it is destined to be elevated and brought under divine sovereignty, contributing to the universal knowledge of God that will define that era.

All of this converges on what Rabbi Kessin sees as an urgent practical mission. 

“The greatest deficiency is that we don’t have a textbook,” Rabbi Kessin said. To rectify this, he is currently developing a project called Mishnaic Maps, a revolutionary educational system designed to make the entire Oral Torah accessible to every Jewish person, regardless of background or prior learning.

Based on the structured methodology of the RaMChaL and advanced principles of memory and visual learning, the system organizes the Mishnayot into clear, visual frameworks, with fold-out learning tools that enable students to achieve full mastery of an entire tractate in as little as two hours, and mastery of the entire Oral Torah within one to three years through just a few hours of daily study. The textbook, titled RAMAT, Rapid Mastery of Torah Using Mishnaic Maps, can be taught to anyone over the age of 9.

“The exiles will only be gathered due to the merit of learning Mishna,” Rabbi Kessin reminds us. Making this learning available to the entire Jewish people is not a pedagogical project alone; it is a messianic one.

Rabbi Mendel Kessin holds a doctorate in Clinical Psychology, received his rabbinical ordination (smicha) from Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, and has dedicated more than 65 years to Torah scholarship and service to the Jewish community. He has delivered over 700 public shiurim.

You can learn more about Mishnaic Maps and contact Rabbi Kessin on the website. Rabbi Kessin invites you to help sponsor the project and bring it into the world.

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