Likutay Moharan - Volume 2 - Torah-teaching 74

Likutay Moharan II Torah 74: After Purim, They Read the Parsha of Parah

After Purim, they read the parsha of Parah [Red Heifer], which is a preparation for Pesach [Passover]. For they read the parsha of Parah so that they will be careful to purify themselves from the impurity of a dead body, so that they will be pure to perform the Pesach. Purim is named after the pur [lot] (Esther 9:26) (and see in the intentions of the Ari, of blessed memory, regarding the secret of “he cast a pur” and the secret of the Red Heifer). And afterward, the Parah is performed, for Purim is certainly a pathway and a way to Pesach. “His lips are roses, dripping with flowing myrrh” (Song of Songs 5:13). “His lips” is the aspect of Pesach, peh sach [the mouth speaks] (as brought). “Rose” [shoshanah] is Esther (as brought in the holy Zohar and the writings of the Ari, of blessed memory) [shoshanah in gematria equals Esther]. “Dripping with flowing myrrh” [mor over] is the aspect of Mordechai, mar dror [pure myrrh] (Chullin 139b), the language of freedom, the aspect of the freedom of Pesach. Therefore, the combination of Purim is hinted at in Pesach, in the verse: “Seven days you shall eat matzos, as I have commanded you, at the appointed time of the month of spring, for in it you went out from Mitzrayim, and they shall not appear before Me empty” (Exodus 23:15). “From Mitzrayim and they shall not appear before Me empty”—the initial letters are פּוּרִים [Purim]. For Purim is a way to Pesach, so that they will be able to be careful from chametz [leaven]. [And he stopped in the middle of the matter and did not reveal more.] For in the beginning, all beginnings were from Pesach, and therefore all the mitzvahs [commandments] are a remembrance of the exodus from Mitzrayim. [And he did not complete.]