How do we increase in simcha just because adar enters?
The strange thing is that when adar enters, very often we find ourselves challenged by difficult situations, depression, sadness, worry and many problems. Because this is the month where we need to get rid of Amalek. And that requires a fight, a battle. It is a battle against apathy, impurity, negativity: those things that affect our service of Hashem with happiness.
So how do we win that battle? By increasing in happiness. Even if we don’t feel like being happy.
We just need to put music and dance. WE just need to put on a happy face and keep laughing and smiling even if inside we feel like crying.
Can we do it? yes, just the same way we smile at our children even if we are in the midst of a huge fight with our spouse because we don’t want our children to see us sad or broken. Same thing now: we do not want to look sad or feel sad or be down , no matter how many reasons we have to justify falling apart. So we pretend. WE laugh, we smile, we dance …… and strangely enough, going through the motions somehow influences our feelings.
This is the month of nehepach hu: when everything can change around in one moment. And the key is to keep laughing and smiling and being bsimcha. In one moment everything can change for the better.
When Esther hamalka stood in front of Achashverosh and risked being killed, all of a sudden the king extended the golden scepter to her. And each and every one of us stands in front of Hashem, the King of Kings, and He extends the golden scepter to each of us as He chooses to do so.
But to encourage that, we need to boost our faith in Hashem, to get rid of doubts and impurity. To do that we need the power of simcha.
So start laughing and dancing…..
This month is ruled by the Hebrew letter Kuf, which represents a monkey. Just as a monkey is constantly turning somersaults, so too this month things are constantly changing. One moment we can be down, the next moment we can be up. In one second can come our salvation.