Tonight is Rosh Hodesh Adar
משנכנס אדר מרבין בשמחה
When we enter Adar we increase our joy
Adar is the end of the year (there are actually two ends of the year: The Nisan- Nisan cycle, counting from Yetziat Mitzrayim , and the Tishre-Tishre cycle, counting from the creation of the world). Regardless, the end of the year requires a special Avodah/service which we will soon explain.
Our rabbis tell us that Yaakov and Esav split everything, including the months of the year. If we split the months into winter and summer months, we see that Yaakov Avinu took Tishre, Heshvan and Kislev- the high holiday season ending with Hanukah. Essav took Tevet ( there is a fast day in Tevet commemorating the beginning of the destruction of the Bet HaMikdash) Shevat (which comes from the root words meaning “staff of punishment”) and Adar.
Then they split the next months: Yaakov took Nisan, Iyar, and Sivan
(which has in it Matan Torah and Yetziat Mitzrayim) and Esav took Tamuz, Av ( both of which have fast days) and Elul.
Yaakov was called Yaakov because he grabbed onto the heel of Esav. He took the heel back- this refers to the end of the year. Yaakov grabbed back Adar and Elul, and therefore there is extra work and Avodah that has to be done in the months of Elul and Adar. In Elul, we work on Yirat Shamayim/ Fear of G-d. In Adar we work on simcha/ happiness.
משנכנס אדר מרבין בשמחה
Those who enter Adar increase their joy
Of course, there is no simcha without Bitachon. That’s the source of simcha.
There is another point, that I would like to share, which I saw this for the first time this year, in Rav Chaim Palaggi’s sefer Moed L’Kol Chai (chapter 31), where he talks about the month of Adar. He quotes his son, Hacham Avraham Palaggi, who points out the following: If you write down all of the Hebrew months which are all Torah names, you will notice that the 22 letters of the aleph bet are included, except for six letters- ג,ה,ע,פ,צ,ק
This is not a coincidence. Rav Chai Pilaggi says that it’s because it’s - mussar remez/ a hint to a lesson: No one knows their time. “No one knows, when they are standing in Nisan, whether they will make it to Adar.”
This has had special significance this past year, during the height of Corona, which started in Nisan. Nobody knew whether they would make it to Adar.
And if you re-scramble those six missing letters, it spells פגע קצה
you have reached the end.
No one knows whether they will reach the end, but we did reach the end, and Hashem should continue to give us many long years.
Those are the words of Rav Chaim Palaggi,
Amen, Ken Yehi Ratzon.
This is another thought for us to contemplate as we begin the month of Adar. We made it! We made it the end of the year. This isn’t something to take for granted. The Hovot HaLevavot writes in Shaar Avodat Elokim (which is a sefer based entirely on Hakarat HaTov- gratitude) about the original Hasidim of old, the pious people. When good things happened to them, they’d be afraid. Why? Because they feared that they might not fulfill their requirement of Hakarat Hatov/ thanks to Hashem. They worried that they would not reciprocate properly for all the wonderful things they get. They didn’t base their Avodat Hashem on the fear of the bad things that might happen to them. they based their Avodat Hashem on the fact that they were receiving goodness from Hashem, and they wanted to reciprocate. We have to take this approach. Of course, we want to change things, and we rely on Hashem to change things for the good. But we can never forget to say Thank You, to appreciate the situation that we are in, and everything that has happened until now. This is something to do specifically as we start Rosh Hodesh Adar.
In the words of Rav Chaim Pilaggi
פגע קצה
We have reached the end of the year. Baruch Hashem!!
We have reached the end the year, alive and well.
This isn’t something to take for granted, in any year, but especially this year, when close to half a million Americans didn’t make it to the end of the year.
Let us take this time to have Hakarat Hatov, and have a new reason for
משנכנס אדר מרבין בשמחה
When we enter Adar we increase our joy
There’s another reason to have simcha in Adar- because we made it to Adar!
Have a Hodesh Tov.