2020/5780

After months of waiting, we have finally arrived at the joyous month of Adar. As many of us danced this week while singing the words of the well known Gemara (Taanit 29a)  MiSheNichnas Adar Marbim BeSimcha, it certainly behooves us to ask why the entire month of Adar warrants celebration. Is it because the Purim miracle was so great that observing the holiday itself is insufficient? Why not celebrate when Kisleiv arrives as we anticipate the holiday of Chanukah as well? 

Many explain that the status of the month of Adar was already recognized by Haman. The Gemara (Megillah 13b) relates that when Haman’s lottery fell out on the 13th of Adar Haman rejoiced, thinking that Adar is a bad month for the Jewish people as Moshe Rabbeinu died in Adar. As the Gemara points out Haman was mistaken as Moshe was also born in Adar and, as such, it is a very positive month. Therefore, part of the celebration of the reversal Haman’s plot in our favor (VeNehephach Hu) we also recognize that the entire month which Haman assumed to  be one of bad Mazal is in fact the opposite. It is a month of Simcha! 

However, the Sefat Emet, Masechet Taanit 29a, has a remarkable explanation of the Simcha of Adar suggesting that it may have nothing to do with the celebration of Purim. What then could it be based on? The Sefat Emet points out that the month of Adar always begins with Parashat Terumah, where the Torah describes the necessary material to be donated to the Mishkan. Similarly, the month of Adar is when messengers of Beit Din would travel to Jewish communities to remind everyone of the obligation to donate the annual half-shekel that went towards the fund in the Beit Hamikdash from which all communal korbanot were brought. For this reason we read Parashat Shekalim the Shabbat before Rosh Chodesh Adar to remind us of that very obligation. The Simcha of Adar, suggests the Sefat Emet, is the willingness of the Jewish people to contribute to the Beit Hamikdash/Mishkan as a way of ensuring the Shechina rests in our midst. The same excitement exhibited by Am Yisrael in the Midbar to contribute to the construction of the Mishkan is renewed every year in Chodesh Adar when we donate our half shekel contributing to the function of the Beit Hamikdash. 

The desire to create a home for the Shechinah as the source of Adar’s Simcha, we suggest is also part of the theme of Purim. When Rashi explains the Gemara’s statement, Taanit 29a s.v. MiSheNichnas Adar, of MiSheNichnas Adar... he says that we rejoice because “Yimei Nisim Hayu LiYisrael VaPesach,” “These days of Pesach and Purim were days of miracles for the Jews”. Why does Rashi add Pesach to the Simcha of Adar? I suggest that Rashi may be pointing out that we can’t look at the holiday of Purim in a vacuum. Consider that one opinion in the Gemara, Megillah 14a, suggests that the reason we don’t say Hallel on Purim is because despite being saved we were still slaves to Achashveirosh. Unlike the Geula of Pesach where we became a nation deserving of the Torah a few weeks later, the Purim story concludes with the Jewish people lacking a complete Beit Hamikdash and still living in Persia. We must celebrate and thank Hashem for being saved from Haman but that Simcha is incomplete without the complete restoration of our autonomy with a Beit HaMikdash to house the Shechinah. Adar being the month where we work to bring the Shechina closer to us should be the greatest source of joy inspiring us to work that much harder to experience the ultimate Geula of the month of Nissan with the rebuilding of the Beit Hamikdash Bimheira B’yameinnu.