Drinking Rachamim

The Gemorah in Sanhedrin (70a) says that in the description of Noach’s drinking after the mabul it says the letter vav thirteen times.  Why is it significant that the letter vav appears 13 times?  The mabul was a time of tremendous din resulting in the complete destruction of the world.  (The 7 days of creation correspond to the 7 middos for on each one of the days there is a greater power to one of the middos.  Similarly, this is felt in the thousand years that correspond to one of the days, and it was in the second thousand years of the world’s existence that the mabul occurred.)  Noach was looking for a way to mix some rachamim in to the din.  According to the Kabbilists wine represents din.  The 13 times it says the letter vav in the saga of Noach’s drinking correspond to the 13 middos of rachamim.  The letter vav represents the drawing down from heaven to earth (Egeres Teshuva in Tanya.)  That is why the ו  is shaped like a hook for it connects heaven to earth.  Noach was attempting to draw rachamim into the gevuros that were present in the world.

That is the ability we have on Purim.  We take this day which looked like it was going to be a day of din and turn it into rachamim.