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 aliened.  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.