Mi-shenichnas Adar marbim b’simcha—Whoever brings in the month of Adar is abundant with joy and happiness!
This weekend we usher in the most joyous of months on the Hebrew calendar: Adar. Throughout Adar we proclaim, “Be Happy! It’s Adar!” We prepare for the craziness of Purim. On Purim we are supposed to dress up in clothes we normally would not wear (costumes). On Purim we are also supposed to have so much fun that we cannot tell the difference between good (Mordechai) and evil (Haman—booooo!). Purim and the weeks leading up to it are about forgetting that which was supposed to occur (the hanging of the Jews on the gallows) and instead we are simply supposed to have fun. The whole month!
Why this month and not the other months? Shouldn’t we also be happy and excited when it comes to Chanukah? Or Passover when the Israelites were freed from slavery?
Some say that the celebration of the month is about leading up to Purim, and that from now until then we should only be thinking of happiness, with Purim being the culmination of this weeks-long partying. Others look to the calendar and the cycle of months and seasons. Nisan, the month that follows Adar on the calendar, is the first month of the year according to the Mishnah (there are four different “heads” of the years, with Nisan being one of them, just as Tishrei is the head of the year as well, depending on what and how we are counting). Thus, Adar is the last month of the calendar year. Adar is also the end of the season, as Nisan and Passover bring forth Spring and the end of the season of rain.
No matter how one views or chooses to understand Adar, whether for its place on the seasonal calendar or simply because of Purim, let us all take a moment or even a week to enjoy and celebrate!
Be happy! It’s Adar!
Shabbat Shalom!
