THOUGHTS FOR THE MONTH OF ADAR II 5765

Dear Friends:

Recently some members of my family experienced an armed robbery. Two men entered their home at 3 am and pointed a gun at them. Thank G-d they were not harmed; money and jewelry were taken.

I thought to myself: this should not have happened now! This is the Month of Adar, the season of simcha, happiness, "Mishenichnas Adar marbin b'simcha….! With the coming of Adar happiness increases." Isn't this a month in which we would expect only simcha, and not such a traumatic experience?

But when I thought about it more deeply, it occurred to me how in certain respects this experience fits in very appropriately with the month of Adar.

What is simcha?

Simcha is the state in which we see that evil has been vanquished and that the goodness and power of G-d rules the universe. The month of Adar represents the height of simcha, and the height of Adar occurs at Purim when the darkness is illuminated by the full moon.

What occurred on Purim?

Purim is the moment when we as a nation in exile face the embodiment of evil, Haman, the descendant of Amalek, whose sole purpose is to try to destroy us. On Purim we realize that evil is real; it's not a theory! The simcha is to see that real evil is defeated and to know that, if we learn the lesson of Purim, we can do it again!

We can defeat evil forever.

How?

Queen Esther asked us to cry out to G-d as one People, and re-accept His Torah with an understanding that we can't live without it.

How do we know that we can't live without Torah?

Because we've experienced the evil! Only through that traumatic experience are we able to comprehend that there is no recourse for us outside of unity among ourselves and rededication to the Torah which has sustained us since the beginning of time, against all odds and all enemies.

Yes, evil is real.

But G-d governs the world, and on Purim we discover how to defeat evil.

May we soon experience the world of goodness and complete simcha we all so deeply desire.

A Freilichen Purim!