Did Jew Know That - It's Time for More Good Times

by Rabbi Peg Kershenbaum, Temple Judea Scholar-in-Residence

It’s cold. The groundhog rolled over and went back to bed. Mounds of snow remain. But the Jewish calendar, the very one that gave us Tu b’Shvat with its flowering trees and fruits of all types when we were up to our knees in winter, is about to enter the month of Adar, the last month of the year. But instead of thinking “end of the year,” “December,” or “more winter,” we are warmed by the words of the Talmud, “When we enter Adar, our simchas (happy times) increase.”

Adar brings the holiday of Purim and the lead-in to Pesach as the calendar begins again (Nisan). Now, Purim, you may recall, is a madcap sort of holiday that brings its own type of merriment. But it wasn’t supposed to turn out like that for us. Purim was supposed to have marked the date of the destruction of all Jews throughout the vast Persian Empire, if a certain villain who shall remain nameless had had his way.

That villain (hint: the only thing that remains of him is either his three-pointed hat or similarly shaped “pocket” now fashioned into the cookies we eat on Purim) had drawn lots to determine the date for our destruction. The 14th of Adar had come up and our fate looked grim.

It may be that, as Einstein quipped, “God doesn’t play dice with the universe,” but it seems that God, otherwise absent in name from the Megillah, the scroll that we read on this holiday, had other plans. While some would credit Queen Esther with saving

the day through a combination of desperation, psychology and sex appeal, there may be something even more at play in the reversals of expectations that are the trademark of this model holiday. Purim could have been the prototype inspiring the summary of our holidays as a whole, “They tried to kill us; God saved us; let’s eat!”

So, was it God or Esther who saved the day? The Jewish answer to such a question is “yes.” (Either/Or is so binary!) We are in partnership with God. Often, it is we humans who start the ball rolling, inspiring God, as it were, to finish the task. So, when we are told that “When we enter Adar, our simchas increase,” that is likely to be true when we actively look for joyous times, plan happy occasions, and do kind things to bring smiles to others. We can help ourselves to awaken feelings of gratitude to our Divine Partner (and human ones, too!), say a Shehechianu, the prayer acknowledging that God has kept us alive, picked us up and brought us to a sacred time of celebration and “nosh some Hamantaschen.”

Chazak! Chazak! V’nitchazeik! Be strong! Be strong! And let us strengthen one another!