Why do we celebrate Purim with feasting and drinking, and not just with saying thank you like on Chanukah? Because Purim isn’t about gratitude for a miracle. It’s about the miracle of still being here. It's the simcha of existence itself. The decree wasn’t just exile or slavery. It was total annihilation. And when that gezeirah was flipped, the soul of Am Yisrael danced with a joy that had no words, no form. Just presence. Just life.

In this class rooted in the Torah of HaRav Asher Weiss shlit”a, Rav Shlomo Katz guides us into the halachic and spiritual depths of Purim — when simcha isn’t a reaction, but a mitzvah that is the day. You don't need a reason to be happy. You're alive. We’re alive. And that's enough to get drunk on.

This is the simcha of a Jew who walked out of Auschwitz not with answers, but with breath. It’s not intellectual. It’s not earned. It just is. And if Purim really goes through us, we’ll taste that eternal simcha, not just on Adar 14, but the whole year long.