Parshat Pekudei: משנכנס אדר מרבים בשמחה

חז''ל say משנכנס אדר מרבים בשמחה, that when Adar begins we have to increase our level of happiness. The truth is that we have to be בשמחה all year round, but in Adar there is an added Simcha. As the pasuk says (עבדו את ה' בשמחה (תהלים ק' ב – the entire avoda of a person has to be with שמחה.

In Parshat Ki Tavo, in the section of the potential curses that could come upon the Jewish people, the pasuk says "תחת אשר לא עבדת את ה' אלקיך בשמחה ובטוב לבב מרוב כל." – That we will be cursed if we do not serve Hashem with simcha. A lack of simcha is not just a detail, it represents missing the whole avodah. For example, if you have a fully furnished house, but it is missing a coat rack and you throw your coat on a chair, you are missing the coat rack. That is a detail;  it doesn’t prevent you from living. But simcha in a person is the whole purpose of a Jewish person. If that is lacking, he is missing everything. Even when looking at the setup of the moadim, Purim being the last holiday of the year has its root in simcha.

In every generation we have to contemplate what will bring us to simcha. In our generation, specifically with so much darkness and hatred in the world, a time with terrorist bombings and stabbings, it is difficult to be b’simcha. What do we do?

Let’s look at it from the other perspective. The Gemara in Taanis (26b) says משנכנס אב ממעטין בשמחה, when the month of Av begins, we decrease the amount of simcha we have. So to counter the extra simcha in Adar, we decrease the simcha in Av, ultimately leading to Tisha B’av where we areach the pinnacle of sadness, עצבות. When looking at this further we see that mankind is built on both, שמחה ועצבות, happiness and sadness. There are some people that look at the glass half empty and those that look at it as half full. Those who look at it half empty always see their lack of success and their mistakes as glitches or happenstance. With this approach, Tisha B’av would appear as a result of some random mistakes the Jews made in the world, which brought about Tisha B’av. Other people look at the glass half full, where everything happens for a reason. Chazal teach us to have this approach; they say Tisha B’av occurred as a result of the Meraglim (spies) reporting all the bad they perceived would be found in the land of Israel. Chazal say that night was Tisha B’av and Hashem said to the Jews, “tonight you are crying meaningless tears, so I will give you a real reason to cry in the future.” This means that there are certain times of the year set aside for destruction, such as Tisha B’av and that is why the events of the Meraglim could take place, and the crying occurred on that day. Similarly, this is why the destruction of both the first and second Beit Hamikdash took place on Tisha b’av, a day set aside for destruction. So just as Adar is set aside for happiness, Av is set aside as a time of sadness. Just as Purim has a megillah of simcha, Tisha B’av has the megillah of Eicha; one of sadness.

There is a question asked by many commentators: How could Yirmiyahu Hanavi compose the megilla of Eicha if he lived the worst time of destruction, and we are taught that prophecy can only be received in a time of happiness? Was Yirmiyahu happy in such a destructive time? The answer is yes. Somehow there was an element of simcha that he had, despite the destruction that was going on. If he could be happy at a time that the Beit Hamikdash was destroyed, then we can be happy in our times as well. But to understand this, we need to recognize the Torah viewpoint of happiness is different than that of the general world. The truth is that a Jew’s happiness does not come from his wealth, his intellect or any other material possession. True lasting happiness stems only from a spiritual connection that we have with Hashem. Material things wax and wane, but are only temporary. Our connection to Hashem and to his Torah is everlasting.  We may not understand why Hashem allows innocent people to be murdered, but these events tend to bring us closer to Him; they usually arouse our connection to tefilla to beg Hashem to give comfort to grieving families and to prevent future deaths.

We know that at the time of the Purim story Jews were destined to death. But through Hashem’s masterful pulling of his puppet strings, all within the normal course of nature, Hashem saved the Jews. So Purim represents our emunah; our unwavering belief in Hashem. It is a belief that He is watching over us every minute of every day, and all that happens to us is for the best. We may not always see it or understand it, but if we believe it, we will live a life of simcha; a life where we always see the  glass as half full.