Rosh Chodesh Adar

Notable Dates in Adar

• 3 Adar - Dedication of Second Temple in Jerusalem in 349 bce
• 7 Adar - Yarhzeit of Moshe Rabbeinu
  
• 14 Adar - Purim
  
• 15 Adar - Shushan Purim
  
• 21 Adar - Yarhzeit of Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk

Absurd Dreams Are Really (Good)

based on the teachings of HaRav Yitzchak Ginsburgh

A Sense of humor

Sefer Yetzira is the first Kabbalistic text attributed to Abraham and compiled in its final form by the Tannaic sage, Rabbi Akiva. It enumerates the 12 months of the year and explains that each corresponds to a Hebrew letter and a particular sense, or talent, which is controlled by a particular organ of the body. The month of Adar corresponds to the Hebrew letter ק (pronounced: kof), its talent is laughter, and the organ that controls this talent is the spleen. Because the Jewish reckoning of months begins with the month of Nisan, in the Jewish year, Adar is considered the twelfth and final month. This means that laughter is the last of all human traits implying a well-known verse from the chapter on the woman of valor: “She laughs, awaiting the final days.”1 After all the ups and downs of the entire year, we enter a month of healthy and cathartic laughter.

Indeed, laughter is the best medicine and it has the power to turn all of the pain, misery, and difficulty of the past year into goodness and joy. At the end of the year, we find ourselves still standing, thank God, and all of the fears that we harbored in our souls (lest so and so happen…) are transformed and sweetened by our laughter. This transformation is alluded to in one of God’s connotations: “the Fear of Isaac,”2 which literally means “fear [itself] will laugh!” This is the theme of Purim, the holiday that we celebrate in Adar. On Purim we celebrate how all the fears of Haman and his planned genocide of the Jewish people were overturned. The fear turned into laughter. This is why the motto of the month of Adar is “abound with joy.” When there is but a little amount of joy, it tends to remain concealed in the heart. But when there is an abundance of joy, it overflows and is expressed as booming laughter.

Laughter is the best medicine

Because laughter is linked with the ability to turn things around, it is an important ingredient for health. In fact, its healing potential is so great that it can cure even the most difficult of maladies. This link has been recognized since ancient times. In those times medicine recognized four fluids or humors as conducting the various energies— psychological and physical—that determine the body’s health:

• White phlegm was identified with the conduction of joy and spirited behavior.
• Black humor was identified with melancholy and lethargic behavior
• Green humor (or phlegm) was identified with cravings and obsessive behavior.
• Red humor (or blood) was identified with anger and energetic behavior.

Each of the four humors was believed to have a particular controlling organ in the body. The organ controlling the melancholy and lethargic influence of the black humor was considered the spleen. Yet, as was noted above, in Kabbalah, the spleen is considered the controller of the sense of laughter, indicating that laughter has the power to not only modulate melancholy but as is revealed in the month of Adar, to completely transform it into joy. In Hebrew, there is a beautiful allusion to this transformative quality of laughter, because the two idioms “black humor”  (מרה שחורה ) and “happy thought” (הרהור שמח ) have the same exact letters!

A [Chassidishe] Story for Rosh Chodesh

The Lunar Files

By Tzvi Freeman

Arguing with G-d is an old Jewish tradition. Abraham did it, Moses did it, most Jewish grandmothers do it frequently. But, according to our sages, the first to argue with G-d was the moon.

Before we get to that story, it's important to point out just how ludicrous arguing with G-d really is. Here you have the first belief system that ascribes absolute omnipotence to a single deity. Power over everything, both in heaven and in earth. He knows all, directs all, and everything that occurs comes from Him. Everything -- including Abraham, Moses and your grandmother. And they argued with him.

It doesn't stop there: They usually win.

We must say, therefore, that G-d wants to argue. It's part of The Plan. Furthermore, we must say that He likes losing arguments (most of the time).

I can empathize. After all, what fun is it to run a world so passive that its inhabitants agree with whatever you do? There would be no challenge, no thrill. It's that interactive experience that G-d desired in creating the cosmos. And a lot of that comes from losing arguments with your own creations.

In fact, the rabbis of the Talmud recount that when G-d lost an argument with them once, He laughed and said, "They beat me! My children beat me!" So, He really does get a kick out of the whole thing.

Arguing with the moon -- and losing -- was also part of the plan. G-d set her up to it.

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