There is a famous gemarra in Ta’anis: ?????? ??? ????? ????? Rashi says something very interesting on this phrase “The days of Purim and Pesach”.
This means the Simcha of Adar continues to, and through Pesach.
The reason Purim is in Adar Beis in a leap year is so it can be closer to Pesach. R’ Chaim Friedlander (in the Sifsei Chaim) says that we should try to see the parallelisms between the geula of Purim and Geulas Mitzraim.
1. When one learns the Megilla, one can see that Esther acted in a special way, in order to show future generations that the Yeshuah truly came from HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Firstly, she decreed days of fasting and prayer. Then she went into the kings room without permission (remember, it took 30 days to get permission. This was Nissan, and the Jews were sentenced to die 11 months later, nevertheless, she risked her life). Then, she asked for a party. Since she did not see a sign from Hashem yet, she asked for another party. Prior to the second party, Mordecahi was paraded around on the horse. That was her sign from Hashem. This was all done lest one say it was “happenstance”
Additionally, We see from Makas Bechoros that it was only from Hashem. (Obviously this was on a much greater scale).
2. In both cases, that got Klal Yisroel in trouble was assimilation, and the Yeshuah came through a ma’aseh which showed separation.
During the time of Achashverosh, the Yidden went to his seudah, for they were worried that not going would we an insult to the king, and would strain relations. The 3 days of fasting was a kapara for that.
The Beis HaLevy says that after Yosef died, Klal Yisroel stopped doing bris mila (once again, a larger scale than Purim) since they wanted to gain favor in the eyes of the Egyptians. Remember, relations were good. Yaakov avinu caused the famine to stop and Yosef made them into a world superpower. But since Klal Yisroel went out of their way to assimilate, therefore Hashem sent them a ???? ???-???, ??-?????, ??? ??-???, ??-????. The result of assimilation will be hatred.
What was the teshuva Klal Yisroel needed to do? Look at the Midrash about the Korban Pesach. They needed to shecht the god of the Egyptians and eat it. This was especially difficult since as the midrash states, many homes were forced to house Egyptian firstborns (as there were G-d fearing Egyptians who thought their kid would be saved if in a Jewish home [it did not save them]).
May we all be zoche to carrying over our Simcha form Purim into Pesach.
72, not bad for short notice, eh?