Turning Back

Why is a leap year determined by adding a month of Adar, why not any month? Why is the leap month referred to as a second Adar, why not give a new name? The Sefer Yetzirah associates the month of Adar with laughter. What is the connection? And why do we add in rejoicing already from the beginning of Adar? 

The Gemarah Betzah (15b) says אמר רבי יוחנן משום רבי אליעזר ברבי שמעון: הרוצה שיתקיימו נכסיו יטע בהן אדר, שנאמר אדיר במרום ה. Rashi explains אילן חשוב הוא יש לו שם למרחוק ואומרים פלוני יש לו אדר בשדהו ומתוך כך היא נקראת על שמו ואם הולך למדינת הים ובא אחר והחזיק בה יש לו עדים הרבה שהיתה שלו ואילו מכרה היה הקול יוצא להיות נקראת על שמו של שני. On the possuk the Gemarah cites  אדיר במרום ה, Rashi explains שאדר לשון קיום וחוזק ולכך נקרא אדר. We see the word אדר means a form of strength (the Bnei Yissachor in maamer 1 cites this Gemarah in connection to Adar and explains the Gemarah לפי דרכו, עיי"ש.) For further elucidation of the word אדיר the Maharsha in Menachot (53a) says מבואר לשון אדיר מלשון חוזק ואומץ בדרך הידור במתחכם להתחזק על דבר מה (see there his explanation of the Gemarah.) The word Adar means to not just stand up to something but to have the strength to overcome an opposing force. That is why planting the Adar will give one the capability to overcome claims against the person's ownership of the field. It is the ability to be able to reverse the fortune of the the natural flow of events and turn things over.  

With this we can understand the laughter of Adar. As explained on  the blog in the past ('The Laugh Of Yitzchak', 'Laughter') laugher is evoked when there is a curveball. When things don't follow the path that they seemed, but there is a punchline that introduces something else. ונהפוך הוא, when everything is overturned is the greatest joke. This is the joy and the laughter of the month of Adar. It is part of the essence of the month that it is a time of rejoicing. The Purim story with the נהפוך הוא ending happened this month because Adar is the month of rejoicing, it is not a month of rejoicing because of Purim. 

The Kedushas Levi (Parsshas Teruma and Purim) related the word אדר to the אדרת אליהו, the special garment Eliyahu word and he interprets Adar to mean a form of clothing and interprets לפי דרכו עיי"ש. However, that interpretation doesn't fit with Rashi and the Maharsh"a. However, it can be explained in reverse, the word אדרת is related to the word אדר because it was a garment designated for a prophet. When one received prophesy as is clear from pessukim and described by Rambam (Yesodey HaTorah 7:1 וּבָעֵת שֶׁתָּנוּחַ עָלָיו הָרוּחַ, תִּתְעָרֵב נַפְשׁוֹ בְּמַעֲלַת הַמַּלְאָכִים הַנִּקְרָאִים 'אִישִׁים' וְיֵהָפֵךְ לְאִישׁ אַחֵר, the person immersed in prophesy becomes transformed into a different person. The middah of אדיר is present when the person receives prophesy and is given the power to transform his being, ונהפוך הוא לאיש אחר (based upon Rav Moshe Shapiro with added sources.) 

There is another word which shares the last tow letters of the word אדר and that is the word הדר. The Ketav V'kabbalah on the possuk והדרת פני זקן (Vakira 19:32) quoting Shadal says the word הדר is related to the Aramic word הדר (to return) and explains in context there, that when one is in awe of someone else they back off, return, out of fear. Presumably one would say that is why something that is beautiful, הידור מצוה, is the same word, for one steps back to admire the impressive view. The ultimate beauty, the ultimate הדר is when everything is shown to have its purpose. As the Leshem explains this is what תחיית המתים means. It is not merely people coming back to live but as the words say תחיית מתים, giving life to what was dead already. All past events, that which was long left for dead, will be rejuvenated, will be dusted off from the tumah attached to them, and play a role in the ultimate tikkun.  

The ultimate joy, the שחוק that we are awaiting is the אז ימלא שחוק פינו. Purim is a taste of that final joy. The world that seems to be an entity devoid and separate from G-d is revealed to be the place to bring the ultimate tikkun. That is the final laugh. This is why the month of Adar is the leap month. The idea of the leap year is to unify between the solar and the lunar year. To remove the divisions that exist. The division of sun and moon represent the greater division of the world and G-d. The lining up off the schedules of the solar and lunar system represent a מעין of the greater joining of the future. This experience is felt during the Adar month.  

After Adam sins, he is told קץ ודרדר תצמיח לך. The sin of the eitz haddas led to tumah being introduced into the world and now there was a need for a process of birur, to get through thorns and bristles to obtain food. The sin of the eitz haddas is the root of the power of המן as the Gemarah (Chullin 139b) says המן מן התורה מנין? המין העץ. The tikkun to דרדר is אדר when the דר is adjoined to א - אלופו של עולם. And ultimately the דר will turn into a מקום דירה לו יתברך בתחתונים. The month of Adar gives us the ability to turn everything around and bring it back to its ultimate purpose.

Laughter

Why is Yitzchak named for laughter?  Why is Yitzchak able to open up the wells that Avraham had dug but the Phlishtim closed up?  Why is it ליצני הדור, as Rashi says, that deny Avraham's birth of Yitzchak?  Why are they called ליצנים?  Why is it that Yizchak is seen מצחק את רבקה אשתו?   

When Sarah sees Yishmael מצחק she says he has to go.  Similarly, after the sin of the agel the possuk says ויקמו לצחק.  Why are those acts of צחוק negative but the צחוק of Yitzchak is positive?  

What is the nature of צחוק?  The word צחוק can be split into צא חוק, to leave the natural order.  The middah of צחוק is to be able to go outside the boundaries of the normal order of things.  Entertainment, משחקים, is a way of escape.  It is a way of leaving the natural grind of life and escaping to a false existence.  The middah of צחוק can be negative when one leaves the order of morals, of a healthy way of life, and turns to sin.  When צחוק is positive it is used to bring a higher existence into the normal order.  This is the צחוק associated with Yitzchak.  This is a צחוק which only becomes ultimately realized at the end of the story.  

The middah of Yitzchak, of gevurah seems at odds with צחוק, it would seem the polar opposite?  But it is actually gevrah that leads to צחוק.  The wells of Avraham, the middah of chesed, are counterbalanced by the Pelishtim who are the embodiment of the tumah of chesed.  The Pelishtim are able to close up the influence of the positive chesed of Avraham with chesed of tumah.  The middah of Yitzchak, of gevurah, is to be able to bring out the capabilities from within a person and that was not able to be removed by the Phlishtim.  The ability to bring out dormant powers, to bring out kedusha from where it does not seem to be capable to exist is the middah of צחוק.  To be able to access kedusha where there would seem to be nothing there, to be able to access a higher level, is the middah of צחוק in the positive.    

The Sefer Yetzirah associates the middah of צחוק with Adar for Adar is the time when things seemed totally bleak.  Haman saw it as the month when Moshe Rabbenu died, it the last month of the year, a time which seems dead and bleak.  However, it is also the month of the birth of Moshe.  From the darkness ,unexpectedly, comes a time of great light and joy.  The opposite of what things seemed at first blush is the ultimate joke, the צחוק.   

This is why the life of Yitzchak is constantly being seen through the prism of צחוק.  The ליצנים don't want the power of laughter to be used for the positive, they wish to highjack it for the negative and could not accept that the legacy of Avraham would live on through Yitzchak.  Their claim was that Avraham's only son is Yishmael who is מצחק is a sinful matter.  That is the leztanut.  They wish to use this middah of צחוק not as a way of illuminating the world but as a way of darkening the world.  They claim that Yishmael has inherited the middah of צחוק and that they are not bound by Avraham's teachings of ethics and morals (based upon shiur of Rav Avraham Shwab, and "Looking Into The Sun" chapter on laughter, see also Tzitkas Hataddik #260.)

Rosh Chodesh, Adar, Mishpatim

This week is the parsha of Mishpatim, Rosh Cohdesh Adar 1.  What is the common denominator of these various occurrences?   

The parsha of Mattan Torah is split between Yisro and Mishpatim.  In the parsha of Yisro, the giving of the Torah with the great event that is maamad Har Sinai is recounted.  This is the giving from the side of Hashem.  The parsha of Mishpatim describes the kabbalah of Klal Yisrael, the naaaseh veneshma.  The giving of the Torah is kedusha breaking into the barriers of the world. The receiving of the Torah is accepting, bringing the Torah into the boundaries of the world.  

The holiday of Rosh Chodesh is a day in which the holiday aspect is not so apparent.  For many people it is just a longer Shacharit, but the day is the same like any other.  The kedusha of the day is not apparent.  Why is this so?  Since the holiday of Rosh Chodesh corresponds to the renewal of the moon.  It is a reminder that even when things seem to be going downhill, when the light is diminishing, there is a renewal of the light.  The holiday reminds us that even when the dark days of the golus seem so bleak, Klal Yisrael will not be lost.  The Rosh Chodesh holiday reminds us that even during the chol, when the kedusha is not readily seen, still we are not forgotten.  The holiday aspect only will become recognized in the future.  The possuk at the end of the haftorah of Shabbas Rosh Chodesh is וְהָיָ֗ה מִֽדֵּי⁠־חֹ֙דֶשׁ֙ בְּחׇדְשׁ֔וֹ וּמִדֵּ֥י שַׁבָּ֖ת בְּשַׁבַּתּ֑וֹ יָב֧וֹא כׇל⁠־בָּשָׂ֛ר לְהִשְׁתַּחֲוֺ֥ת לְפָנַ֖י אָמַ֥ר י״יֽ.  The Yalkut says that in the future every Rosh Chodesh will become a time of aliyah l'regal.  The holiday aspect of Rosh Chodesh will be fully recognized.   

The addition of a 13th month is to keep the solar year and lunar year aligned.  This is a  hint, a prelude, to the time of when והיה אור הלבנה כאור החמה (Yeshayua 30:26,) when the moon will shine like the sun.  The addition of a Rosh Chodesh Adar specific, beyond every Rosh Chodesh, is a time where the light of the future shines a small ray on us in the present.  There is a prevalent custom to add in the beracha of Rosh Chodesh where there is a 13th month the words ולכפרת פשע.  The additional month is a כפרה for the diminished light of the moon, which is the source of the darkness in the world (see Toras Menachem 5711 Mishpatim.)  Hence, Rosh Chodesh Adar is a super Rosh Chodesh of sorts.  It is a time of celebration of the holiday, above nature, being absorbed into nature just as Mishpatim is the parsha of bringing the Torah down into the laws and details of everyday life.