PROACTIVE HAPPINESS

Dear Family,

I hope everyone is well.

Mazal Tov to Alisa on your birthday next week. Wishing you a happy and productive year Alisa.

We have now entered the month of Adar, and this year it is a leap year and so we have 2 Adars.

And Adar means that we should now be extra HAPPY - mishenichnas Adar marbim BESIMCHA - 'when Adar enters we should increase in joy'.

And how should we be happy?

I saw an interesting vort this week on how to be happy, which is explained by the root of the word.

But the root of the English word and the root of the Hebrew word give very different instructions!

The root of 'happy' is hap which means fortune or luck.

Ie it is saying that when things go well, you will be happy, and if not , you will be unhappy (Not a very happy situation!)

The Hebrew word for happiness is BESIMCHA and if you rearrange these letters it spells out MACHSHAVA

Machshava means THOUGHT.

And the instruction to us is that happiness depends on our thoughts IE IT IS OUR CHOICE, AND IT IS IN OUR HANDS, IF WE WANT TO BE HAPPY

3 areas were mentioned where we can exert this choice:

1. Look at what we have, rather than what we are missing. Count all the blessings Hashem has given us as an individual.
2. Hashem does not owe us anything. Therefore see everything that we have, as a gift. And when we get gifts, this makes us happy.
3. When we indulge ourselves, we will be partially happy, and only for a short time. When we help others, this will bring happiness to our whole being, and will have a long lasting effect.

And then I saw another interesting point from the Rebbe, about the fact that the 2 months of Adar add up to 60 days.

In halacha there is a concept that 1 part of a forbidden substance will get lost if it is mixed in with 60 parts of an allowed substance.

Translated to Adar this means, that if we make an effort, to be happy on all the 60 days of Adar, this should eliminate any negativity or difficulty, that we may have within ourselves. Ie the 60 days of happiness (allowed substance), will dissolve our negativities (forbidden substance) 60:1

Wishing everyone a Gut Shabbos and 60 days of Adar happiness.