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Known as a month of celebration and happiness, the late-winter month of Adar contains the joyous holiday of Purim that takes place mid-month. Purim, however, isn’t the only thing that makes Adar special.
By: Chabad.org
- Be Happy Now!
The Talmud tells us that “when the month of Adar arrives, we increase in joy” to welcome a season of miracles. Accordingly, the Talmud tells us that this month is fortuitous for the Jewish people.
2. What’s in a name?
The Hebrew name “Adar” is related to the word “adir,” which denotes strength and power. The Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, points out that the term adir is used to refer to the Jewish people. What could be more apropos for the month when the Jewish people’s fortunes are strong?
3. Double Your Joy. Double Your Fun.
Adar is the only month in the Jewish calendar that comes back for seconds. The Jewish leap year, or shanah me’uberet (literally “pregnant year” in Hebrew), occurs approximately once every three years. In order to assure that the lunar months of the Jewish year stay in sync with the solar calendar, an additional month of Adar is added. Purim is celebrated in the second Adar.
4. Moses Passed Away
Tradition relates that Moses passed away on 7 Adar.
The Talmud tells us that when the evil Haman, villain of the Purim story, wished to destroy our nation, he staged a lottery to determine the most opportune date. When the lot (called a pur, hence the holiday name of Purim) fell on Adar, he rejoiced. What better month to punish the Jews, he thought, than Adar, when Moses passed away? Surely, no month could be lower for the Jewish people . . .
5.*Spoiler Alert* It was Moses’ Birthday as Well
What Haman did not know was that Moses passed away on the very same day he was born—the 7th of Adar! The day of Moses’ birth, the Talmud relates, helped avert the evil decree.
6. A Whole New World
In 1940, on the 9th of Adar II, the Previous Rebbe, Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, of righteous memory (1880-1950), disembarked at the New York Harbor. Fleeing from Nazi Germany and the Holocaust of European Jewry, the Previous Rebbe did not merely seek refuge in America. Instead, he laid the foundations for Chabad’s revolution in Jewish engagement and life in the Western Hemisphere. This day is celebrated by Chabad chassidim around the world.
7.Under the Sea
The zodiacal sign (mazal) for Adar is Pisces, or dagim in Hebrew. In Jewish tradition, fish are a sign of blessing and fruitfulness. Also, just as fish live in water, the Jewish people thrive when immersed in the Torah, which is compared to life-giving water.
8.Haman Died in . . . Nissan!
Though we celebrate the miraculous events that brought about the holiday of Purim in Adar, Haman was actually hanged in Nissan. Purim commemorates not Haman’s death, but rather the time when our ancestors rested after their miraculous salvation and victory in battle.
9.On the Way Out!
Adar was the last month the Jewish people spent in Egypt before the Exodus. Adar’s joy is so great, in part, because it serves as the opening to an even greater rejoicing: the miracles of Passover.
Have a happy month!
More on the Month of Adar
This month, Adar l, is an added month in the Jewish leap year—a shanah meuberet (lit., “a pregnant year”)
The Jewish leap year, which occurs seven times in a 19-year cycle, has 13 months so that the lunar-based Jewish year (which is 354.37 days) should remain aligned with the solar year (365.25 days) and seasons.
It is important to keep the calendars aligned in order for the festivals to retain their positions relative to the seasons as prescribed by the Torah. The added month is called Adar I, and is inserted before the month of Adar (termed Adar II in leap years).
Adar is the official “happy month,” as is written: “As soon as Adar begins, increase in joy!” In a leap year, we have two months of extra happiness!
The festival of Purim, celebrated on Adar 14, is in Adar II in leap years, while the 14th of Adar I is marked symbolically as Purim Katan—Minor Purim.
A Silence Louder Than Words
The 27th of Adar marks an unhappy anniversary. On this day in 1992, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, “The Rebbe,” suffered a severe stroke, which robbed him of his power of speech and led to the illness from which he never recovered. This is the date when the voice which educated, inspired and encouraged millions of Jews and gentiles was stilled.
As the Rebbe always taught us, we look to the Torah portion of the week to gain insight and perspective. Incredibly, this week’s portion offers a resoundingly clear message regarding this anniversary, as well as Chabad’s apparent state of “leaderlessness.”
This week we have a compound Torah reading—the combined portions of Vayakhel and Pekudei. The Rebbe pointed out on many occasions that these two names convey an important message. Vayakhel means to “gather” and “congregate.” Moses gathered the nation into a kahal, a congregation. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts; the congregation is a new entity which, like a marriage, is greater than the sum of its members. Each and every one of us is a paфrt of this greater body, the Jewish people, unified, mixed and blended with each other.
Having said this, we proceed to Pekudei, “numbers”: the numbering and counting of each individual vessel in the Sanctuary. Yes, the total is greater than the sum of its parts, but Moses counts the individual vessels, because each individual component is independently significant. The same holds true with the Jewish nation: each Jew is endowed by the Creator with a uniquely precious personality, and is individually significant—not just as part of the total. Every Jew serves G‑d in a unique and inimitable fashion. Both vayakhel, the congregation, and pekudei, the individual, are absolutely essential components in the construction of a Tabernacle where G‑d’s presence will be manifest.
In 1950, the Rebbe was crowned as the seventh leader of the venerable Chabad-Lubavitch movement. At that point, Chabad possessed a prestigious history—but not much of a present, and it certainly did not seem to have a bright future. This glorious movement, which had once laid claim to hundreds of thousands of adherents throughout Eastern Europe, was almost completely decimated by the Nazi Gestapo and the Soviet KGB. The “grand” Lubavitch synagogue in Brooklyn, where the Rebbe presided, couldn’t comfortably fit more than 150 people!
Over the next decades, the Rebbe cultivated Chabad, building it into one of the largest Jewish movements of modern times. He did this through vayakhel—uniting all Jews by talking to the collective Jewish soul.
