Adar A Month of Joy
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The Talmud in tractate Taanis p.29a says, "When Adar
begins we increase our joy." Since this year is a leap
year on the Hebrew calendar, there is an additional month
of Adar. This month is called Adar Rishon(the first Adar)
and next month is called Adar Sheni(the second Adar). That
means this year has two months of joy!
There is a tradition that Moses was born and died on the
seventh day of Adar. What is his mystical connection with
this month? In many ways Moses can be considered a "complete" person.
He reached the highest level of holiness a person can reach.
He received the highest level of prophecy of any prophet
past and future. Similarly, Adar is the last of the months
on the holiday calendar, and in this way represents a kind
of completion. The sages say that Adar is the best month
to try to remove your personal barriers to holiness. And
by removing those barriers you create the potential for the
greatest joy. Moses, because of his high level of achieved
holiness, had a potential for a high level of joy. This joy
may actually have been the conduit for his high level of
prophecy. Maimonides writes that it's not the prophecy that
makes the person holy; it's the holiness a person possesses
that makes him or her fitting to receive prophecy. The sages
say that prophecy can only come to someone who is happy.
Yirmeyahu, Shmuel, King David and others were not moping
around in a bad mood when they received prophecy. There's
a tradition that some of the prophets even used music to
help put them in an elevated mood in order to experience
prophecy.
So we see that joy is not merely an end in itself. We can
say that God would love a world filled with happy people.
However, more importantly, it is a tool for higher states
of consciousness. One of the most famous kabbalists who ever
lived was called "the holy Ari". When his disciples
asked him how he reached his level of holiness he replied, "It
is because of the intense joy I feel whenever I do a mitzvah."
Another indication of this idea is that the kabbalists connect
the letter "kuf" to the month of Adar and link
it to the word "kadosh" which means holy. A person
who experiences true joy is lifted above the mundane, and
able to see the world in a more elevated way. It is the "yetzer
harah", that side of us that relates more to the body
than the soul, which actually desires depression and leads
us there. Joy is increased when we focus on our blessings.
Depression is increased when we focus on what we lack. We
have the power to choose between the two. We have so many
blessings that we take for granted. People who can walk rarely
say to themselves "Thank God I can walk." Christopher
Reeves is around to remind us that not everyone can walk.
Anyone who can walk should say to God every day "Thank
you for giving me the ability to walk."
The astrological sign of this month is called Pisces, the
fish. Pisceans tend to be on the spacey side, slightly out
of touch with the physical world. Sometimes this quality
is what it takes to connect to spirituality and holiness.
(Moses was a Piscean).
The best way to reach holiness is through the wisdom of
the Torah. That is why the symbol of the month is fish. Fish
are surrounded by water, which we've mentioned before is
a symbol for the wisdom of the Torah. A fish cannot survive
on a sip of water; it must be engulfed by it. Our goal should
not just be to taste spirituality, but to be completely absorbed
in it.
Adar reminds us that an integral part of holiness is happiness.
True happiness is not achieved by satisfying our physical
desires, as the body would have us think. Just as the prophet
uses music to lighten his mood in order to access the spiritual
world, true happiness comes through using the pleasures of
this world to elevate our consciousness in order to bind
our thoughts to spirituality. That's the opportunity of the
month.
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