Six More Weeks Until...

“Punxsutawney Pinchas saw his shadow. There’s gonna be a second Adar.”

On February 2, we woke up to the fact that there are six more weeks until…PURIM!!! 😊 

I know you were thinking that, since Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, we’re in for six more weeks of winter. That may (alas) be true. But Groundhog’s Day was also Rosh Chodesh Adar Rishon, which means six weeks till Purim.

 

Two Adars can make things complicated in calculating a Bar Mitzvah or commemorating a yahrzeit. They may also provide a double dose of joy. The Talmud (Ta’anit 29a) teaches: Mi’shenichnas Adar marbim besimchah – When Adar arrives, we increase our joy. Some spoilsports would like to posit that only the second Adar gets a boost of simcha. After all, the source of the joy is Purim, and that is celebrated in Adar Sheini. I prefer to be machmir (strict) and follow the view that we should increase our joy in both months.

 

What’s with all this happiness in the first place? Why are we instructed to increase our happiness one month out of the year? If you’ll answer that it’s because of Purim, my response would be, “What about Pesach or Chanukah or Sukkot?” Why the month-long (or two months-long) exercise in increased happiness?

 

It’s not easy to be happy.

 

There is a vast literature about happiness. There is a happiness index, a ranking of happiest countries (Israel is #13; the US is #19), and a whole field of positive psychology. There is also no one formula for happiness. Each person is different.

 

Judaism values joy and happiness. (We could spend days discussing the difference between these two words as well as how to translate simchah into English.) If I could summarize Judaism’s approach to achieving happiness, it would be: It’s a process.

 

The last comment of Rabbi Moshe Isserlis (known as the Rema) to the first section of Shulchan Aruch is to quote Proverbs 15:15: “One that has a happy heart has a continual feast.” Is this really the way to end the book of Jewish law dealing with daily living? Actually, yes. After 697 chapters of how Jews wake up, pray, observe Shabbat, and celebrate holidays, Rema closes by stating that it’s the totality of life that will contribute to happiness. There are moments of celebration and joy, but a happy heart emerges from the vastness of life’s experiences.

 

It’s not easy to be happy. It’s a process that can be incredibly rewarding, but it’s a process. Jewish mysticism (Tikkunei Zohar 22) notes that the letters forming the Hebrew word “besimchah” (with joy) are the same letters that spell “machshavah” (thought). In a world full of distractions and shortened attention spans, this is a reminder that some things require attention, focus, and patience.

 

That’s why Judaism puts a month of joy on the calendar. Maybe it’s the right time of year – slower winter months, less going on, heading into a festive Purim-Pesach season – for us to increase our focus on happiness. As David Sable, puts it: It’s a month to practice being happy. This year, we have two months. The onset of two Adars of increased joy won’t necessarily make us happy. They do, however, give us extra time to consider what bring us joy and how we might be able to bring joy to others.