Today is the first day of the month of Adar (II). The talmud says that just as a person must minimize their happiness as the month of Av enters, so too one must increase their happiness when the month of Adar enters.The month of Av is when many tragedies befell our nation and is a time of national mourning. When a person is in a state of anguish, stress, pain and suffering it is all encompassing. This state is difficult to escape and a person is totally occupied by the issues at hand. In the same sense that at those times a person is all encompassed by their suffering, when the month of Adar enters a person needs to be in a situation where the happiness is all encompassing. We need to try and stay focused on happiness and joy.

This is obviously a difficult state to attain and the secret to life that everyone is looking for. What is the answer? I think most people will agree that generally children are the happiest people. They are incredibly resilient to the issues and crises that they may face. As we grow older and wiser this all breaks down. We tend to think that we are faced with bigger challenges, real stress and real issues whereas children their "issues" for the most part (from an adult perspective) are laughable. Nevertheless, in their world and reality their struggles and issues are no less important than ours. Then what is the real reason for this shift? I think that the answer is because as we grow older we tend to think we control our world and surroundings. We think we are running the show. Children understand that they have parents who love, care and will protect them and make everything alright so they are able to throw their issues onto their parents to deal with. Adults though feel that they need to be in control, they need to have all the answers. If we approach life like children, children of Hashem, and we realize we aren't running the show but He is, then we can reach this state of happiness with greater ease.

The Purim story shows us this exact point. Everything that looked bad and tragic was all being orchestrated and run by Hashem for our best interest.

May we merit to strengthen our understanding that we aren't really in control and reach true happiness this Adar.

Chodesh Tov and Shabbat Shalom,

Heath