From Shabbos to Purim to...

A Guest Post from Chedva Haber in honor of Purim

Mar 02, 2026

Did you ever wonder why we end Shabbos with a passuk from Megillas Esther, but we don’t make havdala from Purim?

I can’t say that I’ve been losing sleep over it, but it has been on my mind for some time. So, in order to get some clarity, I went on a deep journey with the help of teachings of Shira Smiles, Michal Horowitz, Rav Dov Winston and Rav Aryeh Cohen.

Let’s start off with some insight into what Shabbos could mean to us with the exploration of Friday night Kiddush.

The first part of kiddush are passukim from the second perek of Bereshis, of which, the last few words are “Asher Bara Elokim La’asos”. One might wonder why the passuk doesn’t end with Elokim - That HaShem created. What is the la’asos coming to add? There is so much that it adds, but for the purpose of this dvar Torah, I’m quoting the Chizkuni who says that La’asos is simply L’taken, to fix.

Rebbitzin Shira Smiles explains the concept further:

“When Hashem created Adam, He breathed into him his soul and clothed him in a special light. When Adam sinned, Hashem took this light away and concealed it. When Bnei Yisroel said, “naaseh venishma/we will do and we will hear,” two angels bearing crowns came down for each Jew, crowns of that primal light. Unfortunately, when we sinned again with the golden calf, Hashem again took away that light, giving it only to Moshe whose face shone with that light upon his descent from Sinai. This is the gift in which Moshe rejoices writes the Shvilei Pinchas. But Hashem has a special treasure, Shabbos, which He then gifts to Bnei Yisroel. This gift repairs the relationship between ourselves and Hakodosh Boruch Hu. And Moshe then shares this gift of light with Bnei Yisroel on Shabbos.
Why do we get this gift on Shabbos? That light is the light reserved for tzadikim in upper realm of olam haba, and since Shabbos is a reflection of olam haba in this world, it is the appropriate time to experience a glimpse of this aura.”

Ok, so now that we appreciated that Shabbos is something special which can be an out of this world experience, let’s fast forward to how we depart from it. We say goodbye to Shabbos with Havdala, which has an interactive element of saying “l’yehudim hayesa orah…” The Rema writes that this is a minhag for men, women and children.

That leads us directly to our opening question and more. Why do we say this passuk aloud and why do we add - kein teheya lanu? What is the connection between Shabbos, Purim and havdala? Even more so, if the man is saying havdala, why do the women who don’t usually say havdala, partake in this minhag?

Let’s go through havdalah for a minute or two to understand other connections.

First, we have the bracha of the wine - what would Purim be without wine? For now, let’s just note that wine is something that we don’t share with non-Jews.

Rabbi Glatstein in Maggid HaRakia pulls together some beautiful sources which I’ll quote and build on briefly below.

After the wine, we have the bracha of besamim. The Shvili Pinchas explores how Esther, who was known as Hadassa is represented by the Hadas which some specifically use for Besamim to highlight Esther’s replacement of Vashti who is compared to Sarpad (more on that soon). Also Mordechai is hinted to in MorDror, a spice we know from the ketores. Mordechai and Esther were the influencers of the generation and in a sense (pun intended) they provided a good scent for Klal Yisrael and a good scent lingers even generations later.

You might think that other Yomim tovim would get a shout out now - maybe Chanuka is hinted to in the aish, but no - the Chasam Sofer says that Mordechai is called Mordechai ben Yair from the shoresh of ohr and if that is not enough, we use a candle with 2 wicks to represent Mordechai and Esther.

Last, we have the bracha of hamavdil, listing out the differences of kodesh & chol, ohr & choshech, yisrael & amim, yom hashvii & sheshes yimay hamaaseh.

So clearly Purim is very connected to havdala, but why? And why then isn’t there havdala on Purim?

To answer those questions, let’s look at Megillas Esther.

The 10th passuk starts with “Ba’Yom HaShvii”, which is Shabbos according to Rashi and other meforshim. It was also the 7th day of the party and that was when Vashti was asked to appear indecently in front of Achaveirosh. When she was killed, it was part of the beginning of the miracle of Purim. The midrash tells us that Vashti, who may seem like a minor character in the story, was being punished mida kneged mida for having forced Jewish women to work on Shabbos in an undignified manner because she specifically understood the power of keeping Shabbos.1

Further in the megilla, there is a subtle debate whether Purim should get the official status of Yom Tov. The 19th passuk in perek tes states “simcha, u’mishteh v’yom tov” and then in the 22nd passuk it states “la’asos osam yimei mishteh v’simcha”. Why the difference? Mordechai had initially proposed that it be a day without malacha and Bnei Yisrael didn’t accept it. According to Rav Hutner, if it would have been a yom tov, there would need to be havdala, which is a disconnection. We want to keep the connection to Purim even after the day is finished. Therefore, women partake in quoting the passuk from the megilla because it represents connection within havdala.

Where else do we see a continuation of kedusha?

Rashi teaches us that Sara Imeinu had the light of the Shabbos candles from one erev Shabbos to the next. This symbolized Sara’s connection to kedushas Shabbos allowing it to penetrate into the week. The Magein Avraham points out that women don’t drink from the havdala wine and Rav Yosef Chaim Zonnenfeld says the reason is because we women have the ability to keep the kedusha of Shabbos through the week. The Avnei Nezer says that all Jewish women can tap into their DNA from Sara Imeinu and be involved in weekly matters without being influenced by their level of Chol.

I found that fascinating because I’ve heard many ideas of what a bas Yisrael is (kol kevuda bas melech pnima, chochmas nashim bansa beysa etc) and I have never heard specifically that we have that perpetual connection to Shabbos from Sara nor what the significance of that would be.2

Also, speaking of Shabbos candles, in Parshas Tezaveh, when referring to the menora, the baal hatorim notes that נר מצוה ותורה אור - There is a deep connection between the light of Shabbos candles, the mother’s tefillos by candle lighting and the Torah of Am Yisrael.

There is more to elaborate on this, but let’s get back to why specifically we say the passuk of “l’yehudim hayasay ora”3 of all the passukim in the megilla.

If we look where this passuk is, it is right after the passuk which we also say aloud by megilla reading and that’s when Mordechai comes out “melifnei HaMelech” in the royal garments. If someone has never heard the megilla before, it would be quite strange. Maybe they would even think that a chapter is missing. We are saying that the Yehudim celebrated while the threat of their lives and future descendants was still very real! They didn’t yet experience the neis of v’nahapochu.4

This moment was when Klal Yisrael recognized the hashgacha pratis. Mordechai was being honored by King Achashveirosh and they took it as an indication that they are once again being cherished by Melech Malchei HaMelachim. It was their moment of teshuva, of accepting the Torah from ahava, kimu v’kiblu. Bnei Yisrael had Emuna and responded by showing that they are holding onto - Orah - Torah, Simcha - Yom Tov, Sasson - Bris and Yikar - Tefillin.5

Those specifically are items that set us apart from the other nations and show our pride in being HKBH’s am hanivchar.

Michal Horowitz asked, why Shabbos is not in the list?

I’d like to suggest that each of these nekudos is something that we give HaShem, while Shabbos is something that He gives us

For instance:

Torah - we must be amel b’Torah to acquire it6
Y"T - we are oleh la'regel once we were mekadesh the zman/chodesh and we also have to do the mitzvos of the day7
Milah - we have the commandment to do milah8 and so many Jews through the ages were moser nefesh for this mitzvah and walk in the ways of the bris shel Avraham Avinu
Tefilin - something a Yarey Shamayim gives of himself to HKB”H on a regular basis

Shabbos is different from all of these because whatever we do or don’t do, Shabbos is kadosh. As we say in Kiddush, it was given/created by maaseh bereishis9, before Am Yisrael was born. The day is intrinsically holy and much later, it was gifted to us, the holy nation.

Hence, when the Yehudim reaccepted the Torah upon themselves in the Purim era10, in essence, they were saying: HaShem we are prepared to be moser nefesh, to give of ourselves, to do for You. Their re-acceptance of Torah was a new commitment to Torah and mitzvos through love.

In her book “abled”, Michal Horowitz shares from Rabbi Ephraim Shapiro that alef and mem is a significant theme which connects to the word Emuna.

On Shabbos Kiddush, we say zecher l’yitztzas mitzrayim. Who were the shlichim who took us out of Mitzrayim? Aharon and Moshe. Havdala, as we have established, is connected to Purim with Esther and Mordechai, another alef and mem pair.

Perhaps we can compare Shabbos which is a day me’ayn olam haba, to how yetzias mitrayim was full of nissim gluyim. Havdala is leading into the chol, which is more related to the nes of Purim with the seser. Havdala is a time of transition. When we say l’yehudim at havdala, we remind ourselves that even as we depart from the special day and lose our neshoma yesayra, we believe that we have the power to stand tall and be proud of being different (literally havdala).

After havdala, many have a custom to sing about Eliyahu HaNavi. Eliyahu is another Alef and Mashiach is a connecting Mem.

Perhaps, by understanding the statement that the Jews in Persia made, we can learn a clue to how we can connect our Shabbos to yom she’kulo Shabbos via the koach of Purim and Havdala. Kein Teheyeh Lanu. Amen.

This dvar Torah is dedicated as a refua shleima to Simcha Yitzchak ben Miraleh Yudkeh b’soch shear cholei Yisrael. May his family and all those supporting cholim have continued strength and clear siyatta dishmaya.

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