Lessons from ADAR, Elephants and Monkeys:
Week #1 , 1. Jews united; working together is critical. 2. They prayed for a miracle; appreciating Who’s really in charge. 3. They followed Mordechai; we need strong leadership. 4. Esther put a pragmatic plan in motion. HINT #1: Joy comes from proactive participation, not armchair grumbling.
Talmud: On Purim a Jew is required to drink until one cannot distinguish between Cursed is Haman and Blessed is Mordechai.”
We must put our trust in G-d and avoid the anxiety that dominates the “in-between” state of the problem (Cursed is Haman) and the solution state (Blessed is Mordechai).
HINT #2: Joy comes from trust in G-d that in the end everything follows a plan and that He knows best.
All other holidays celebrate the “highs” of our nation. And therefore their joy is limited. Highs don’t last. Purim celebrates a time when we were at a low point, and thus demonstrates our relationship with G-d is a constant. HINT #3: Joy is the state of accepting your Jewish identity and destiny.
Continuing…
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” (Declaration of Independence: July 4, 1776) What’s misleading about these self-evident truths?
You’re not entitled to happiness; your right is merely to pursue it. For happiness itself, we need to look elsewhere. Perhaps the pursuit itself may be getting in the way; the more we pursue happiness, the more it evades us. So what you need to be happy? Nothing! Exactly what you have, where you are and how you are, are the only essential ingredients for happiness. You see, happy is not what you become when you have x, y and z. It is what you become when you recognize the good in your present situation. But, “How can I be happy with what I have when I don’t have what I want?” Two options: (A) Work hard to get what you want. Several problems: You may work hard and never get it, or you may get it, and find that it’s not what you really want. (B) Work at being happy with what you have. Decide that you will decide what you really ‘want’. How can you arrive at such a decision?
SeferYetzirah: Each month each corresponds to a Hebrew letter and a particular sense or talent, (and controlled by a particular organ). Adar corresponds to the letter ק (kof), its talent is laughter. Adar is the final (12th) month. This means that laughter is the last of all human traits. Note: “She laughs, awaiting the final days.” (Proverbs 31) Laughter has the power to turn all of the pain, misery, and difficulty of the past year into joy. This transformation alluded to in one of G d’s nicknames: Pachad Yitzchak/the Fear of Isaac (literally: fear will laugh!) This is the theme of Purim. The fear turned into laughter.
Seven times every nineteen years, we have two Adars. Significance: Regarding quantities (particularly dietary laws), the Torah prescribes that a 60:1 ratio is a nullifying ratio. Likewise, 60 days of laughter have the power to nullify and sweeten any bitter taste leftover in our mouths from the preceding year. HINT #4: Joy cannot be achieved by hiding from pain, but turning it around. Two brothers: Rabbis Elimelech & Zushe in jail.
Talmud, Berachos: Cannot dream of a PILA (elephant) B’KUP(F)A D’MACHATA (through the eye of a needle). The letter with which the month of Adar was created is ק, koof. Kof (in Hebrew) is monkey (without a doubt one of the most entertaining animals and one of the few animals capable of actually smiling and laughing).
Baal Shem Tov: snake strikes fear because it was created from the essence of fear. Likewise, a monkey makes us laugh because it was created from the essence of laughter.
Kof also means the eye of a needle. Why mention such an absurd image?
Midrash Perek Shirah (The Song of Creation): King David documents the various songs continually sung in praise of the Creator by different parts of nature. The song of each creature describes its essence. The song of the elephant: “How great Your actions are, G d!” (Psalms 92:6) Seemingly appropriate. Something deeper: לְךָ ה הַגְּדֻלָּה וְהַגְּבוּרָה וְהַתִּפְאֶרֶת, וְהַנֵּצַח וְהַהוֹד כִּי-כל בַּשָּׁמַיִם וּבָאָרֶץ לְךָ ה הַמַּמְלָכָה Yours, O L-rd, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty; for all that is in the heaven and in the earth. Yours is the kingdom, O L-rd…. (Chronicles, 29:11) Verse enumerates the seven divine attributes (sefirot). Great refers to G-d’s infinite capacity for creation that turns the nothingness into somethingness.
Image: If elephant represents G d’s infinity revealed in His power of creation, then the tiny eye of the needle represents G d’s finite aspect. The elephant through the eyelet symbolizes G d’s infinity within His finite aspect. This is exactly what our world is. This reality is so beyond the normal capacity of our minds that one cannot imagine it. Chassidus: Were a person to fully grasp how he is being created at this very moment something from nothing, he would immediately return to nothingness. Kabbala: Everything, from the smallest sub-atomic particle to the biggest elephant, is continually moving back and forth (Rotzoi V’shuv) from non-existence to existence.
The essential residue of a human being from which he or she will be recreated is called the זולה םצע - luz bone, same gematria as טחמה ףוק - the eye of the needle = 248, the numerical value of “when they were created.” See אֵלֶּה תוֹלְדוֹת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְהָאָרֶץ, בְּהִבָּרְאָם: בְּיוֹם עֲשׂוֹת ה אֱלֹהִים אֶרֶץ וְשָׁמָיִם These are the generations of the heaven and of the earth when they were created (בְּהִבָּרְאָם) in the day that the L-rd G-d made earth and heaven. (Genesis 2:4) Chassidus: Interplay between the infinite and finite aspects of the Almighty.
Conclusion: The finite aspect of our own physical reality is continuously dependent on G d’s infinite aspect.
The very existence of the eye of the needle (G d’s finite aspect) originates in the elephant (His infinite aspect); as if the elephant creates the eye of the needle and then jumps through it! But the elephant does not emerge from the other side. In other words, on our side of the cosmic needle’s eye, we are not aware of G d’s infinity. Everything on our side seems limited, well behaved, fitting within the confines of nature’s laws.
Adar’s joy originates in our ability to transcend this concealment. Childbirth: Pain has a purpose, an ending, at which time there is the greatest gift. Remember the difference between the pain of suffering and the pain of joy. HINT #5: Try to imagine that which the Talmud says cannot be done: Come to the conclusion that the next moment/event is brand new and about to be created by G-d’s infinite (goodness and mercy). Reb Zusha: Should have sent you to someone who has experienced suffering.
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