It is Adar! Mishenichnos Adar marbim bsimcha…when Adar enters, we increase in joy. But it is not always easy to feel happy. How should we increase in joy if we dont feel happy in life? if we have problems, worries, fears, aggravations….it is very difficult to suddenly develop a feeling of joy. I was contemplating this idea today and then I thought of something. An actor or actress cannot always be in a happy frame of mind. Many times they could be depressed, full of sadness, frustration etc. But when the show begins, they have to throw away all those negative emotions and put on a happy face. This is especially true for comedians! They need to make others laugh whether they feel happy or not. That is quite a task. So how do they do it? Well, they put on the show. No matter what they are feeling personally, they push that aside and concentrate on the show, on making others happy, on projecting an image of happiness. And I think that is what we learn from purim. On purim there is a custom to wear masks. A mask hides our true self yet at the same time allowing us to reveal a hidden dimension of ourselves. And simply by doing that, we are able to actually feel the part and act the part. In life we need to wear a mask. Many masks. We need to realize that life is a show. The Creator of the world writes the script. We are merely the actors and actresses. We have to do our best to play our parts with happiness, to bring joy to our Creator. And when we do that, we actually begin to feel the part. We begin to feel that joy. So in life, we need to wear our masks and change masks all the time just like someone in a show…..and when we do that, we truly will start to feel happy. So when you wake up tomorrow, put on a smile. Wear that mask for the sake of your spouse, children, coworkers, friends, relatives. And after a while, the mask will become so much a part of you that it will become your new reality. I think this is the key to finding happiness in life and serving G-d with joy. and this year we have two Adars. 60 days of joy. And as we know, in Judaism there is a principle of botul b’shishim. Something non kosher that gets mixed into something kosher is nullified within sixty , botul bshishim, if there is 60 times the amount of the kosher food. Same with Adar. The 60 days or rejoicing in Adar nullifies any negative aspects of life and changes everything to joy. So make the choice to wear a happy mask!