JOY OF ADAR

Dear Family,

I hope everyone is well.

Mazal Tov to Daniella on her upcoming birthday next week. I hope all is going well with you in every way Dani, and wishing you a wonderful year

Tonight is Pepe's Yohrtzeit, and we wish Mommy long life. All our Family have fond memories of Pepe from Tunisia, and when he spent the last years of his life in our home. We should have Mashiach now, when we can all be together again with all departed loved ones.

I saw a dvar Torah from Rabbi Ginsburgh, from Sefer Yetzirah, about Adar.

According to Sefer Yetzirah, each Jewish month has a corresponding zodiac sign, colour, letter of the Hebrew alphabet, one of the 12 Tribes, a sense, and a controlling organ or limb of the body.

When Adar enters we increase with SIMCHAH - JOY

• The mazal (zodiac) of Adar is Pisces - the Fish. The Hebrew word for fish is dag, and the Hebrew word for worry is daag. The fish of the joy of Purim, convert all the worry in the head of man to the ultimate joy of redemption, with the new birth of self from the 'unknowable head'. (Fish in Kabbalah are a symbol of 'concealed reality')
• Adar is the 12th and last month of the year
• Adar is related to the word adir, which means strength. Our Sages say that the mazal of Adar is strong ie Adar is a month of good fortune
• The festival of Purim marks the high point in Joy for the entire year.
• The Jewish Year begins with the joy of the redemption of Pesach, and ends with the joy of the redemption of Purim
• Joy breaks through all barriers
• The Hebrew word for Leap Year is ibur, which means 'pregnant'. It is the joy of Adar which makes Adar the 'pregnant' month of the year (ie 7 years of the 19 year Jewish Cycle, are leap years, where we then have Adar 1 and Adar 2)
• When we have a leap year, Purim is always in the second Adar. Again, in order to link the redemption of Purim to the redemption of Pesach. There is a saying that 'the end is wedged in the beginning.'

Wishing everyone a Gut Shabbos and a Happy Adar!