The Gemara asks: Where is Esther hinted to in the Torah? Chazal point to this week’s parsha:
“וְאָנֹכִי הַסְתֵּר אַסְתִּיר פָּנַי בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא” — “I will surely hide My face on that day.”
The words haster astir allude to Esther, and to Hashem’s hiddenness in the Purim story.

The Ramban explains: hester panim means Hashem withdraws His open providence. It looks like He’s gone — but He isn’t. We saw this in Purim. When Haman rose with his plan l’hashmid u’l’abed et kol hayehudim, it looked hopeless. Where was Hashem? Hidden. Yet behind the curtain He was orchestrating every detail of salvation.

The Maharal teaches that this is Purim’s greatness — the miracle wore the costume of nature. Every event looked ordinary until you stepped back and saw Hashem’s masterpiece. That is why Chazal say Purim will never be nullified, even after Mashiach — because it reveals the eternal truth that even in hiding, Hashem is present.

But when Hashem hides, we often give up. The Sforno explains that people think they have failed Hashem so badly there is no way back. But Hashem says otherwise: “I will never abandon you.” He hides so we will search, long, and rebuild the relationship stronger than before.

Rav Dessler reminds us that hidden miracles are no less miraculous than open ones. The difference is only whether we notice them.

Rabbi Akiva Tatz gives the mashal of a man walking into your home in a clown costume. At first you struggle to guess who it is. But once you recognize him, he removes the mask — no reason to hide anymore. So too with Hashem. He hides in our world, but the moment we recognize Him, the mask falls away. When we look at the sunrise, the stars, nature, our survival, and the hashgacha in every moment and say, “This is Hashem,” we fulfill “Zeh Keili v’anveihu” — just as at Yetziat Mitzrayim.

In this parsha, Hashem also commands Moshe to complete the Torah, teach it, place it by the Aron, and promises it will never be forgotten. History screams it: every time we thought Torah was lost, it came back stronger — after the Churban, after the Crusades, after the Holocaust. Each of us has a mitzvah to write a Sefer Torah, a personal reminder that Torah is proof of Hashem’s love and of our eternal bond with Him.

We are living in hester panim. The world looks natural. Yet the Midrash says: “Wherever Israel is in exile, the Shechinah goes with them.” If we open our eyes, we see miracles everywhere — the survival and flourishing of Am Yisrael, the return to Eretz Yisrael, Torah blossoming across the world, and daily moments of hashgacha pratit.

Purim teaches that what looks like the end can flip in an instant — venahafoch hu. Geula works the same way. Hashem is waiting for us to notice Him in the hidden. Every time you whisper, “This is Hashem,” another layer of the mask falls.

And when enough of us see Him clearly… the hiding will end, and we’ll stand together — not just at the threshold of geula, but dancing through its gates as Hashem’s presence fills the world.