Listen: Rav Berland shlit"a Explains Why We Dress Up and Why We Pray in Public

A lesson from the holy tzaddik, Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a, from the morning of 14 Adar 5778. "The entire virtue of communal prayer is, 'And they cried out to Hashem with strength.' When a person is alone, he can cry out to Hashem for 5 or 10 minutes, but when he is in the public, he can cry out to Hashem for 24 hours. Therefore, they established communal prayers so that people could cry out to Hashem with all their might, to release all their strength in cries. Those who have not cried out until now should cry out from now on, from Purim, and those who have not prayed should begin to pray from now on."

"There are costumes that one must not give up all year round; if he is a good boy, he should continue with that all year. Regarding this, the Ramban says in Parshat Bo in the laws of clothing (the final Ramban in Parshat Bo) that we wear costumes on Purim in order to perform a tikkun (rectification) for all the nations of the world. By dressing in the garments of all the nations of the world, one clarifies the good that exists within all the nations of the world."

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