The Joy of Adar

by | Feb 9, 2016 | Soul

Here are some ideas I heard about simcha, joy:

The Ari z”l once said that the reason he merited ruach hakodesh (divine revelations) was because of his great joy in fulfilling mitsvot. 

“In our times”, said the Alter Rebbe of chabad, “we no longer have the emotional strength to do teshuva with bitterness, rather we must do teshuva with simcha. Truthfully, teshuva is  a great cause for simcha for there can be no greater joy than ‘finding oneself’ and reuniting with our father. “

Rebbe Nachman of Breslov writes that a person should find in himself the tiniest amount of good and be joyful from it. Furthermore, a person should find joy even through seemingly pointless or physical activities (but obviously not sinful ones) such as dancing and it will bring him to simcha. Once a person is in a state of simcha, he will be able to draw himself towards joy of mitsvot.”

“When Adar arrives we increase our level of happiness” (Ta’anis 29a). All year long Jews are meant to feel the tremendous sense of joy that accompanies the opportunity of serving the King of kings. As we draw closer to this unique time we are expected to raise our spirits to an even higher level. What is the reason for this change?

‘There is no joy greater than eliminating doubts (Responsa Rema).’ Adar and Nisan are months in which Hashem performed extraordinary miracles for the Jewish people. The high level of clarity of faith that we can reach through celebrating and studying these events, gets rid of any hesitation we may have about believing in Hashem’s total domination of world history. When everything is clear, we realize that our Father in Heaven is watching over us every moment of the day and we are free to experience the simcha (happiness) which is the true status of our nation.” By Rabbi Daniel Travis

 

And here are some beautiful quotes by Rav Noach Weinberg z”tl that I read on aish.com. I thought they were very powerful:

 

  • The battle for life is a battle for sanity.
  • The essence of wisdom is to know yourself.
  • The key to greatness is doing a spiritual accounting. Every day, set aside time to ask yourself: What am I living for? What do I need to change?
  • Infatuation is blind. Love is a magnifying glass. Who loves you more than anyone in the whole world? Your parents. Who knows your faults better than anyone in the whole world? Your parents.
  • Love is the pleasure of focusing on the virtues of another.
  • It is a greater pleasure to love than to be loved. So why spend so much energy on gaining the approval of others? Work on loving them instead.
  • The opposite of pain is no pain (i.e. comfort). Equating comfort with pleasure is the definition of decadence.
  • The Talmud says that every person must say, “The world was created just for me.” That means each of us is responsible for the entire world.
  • The essence of free will is to choose to be a soul, not a body. The battle is to do what your soul wants, not what your body feels like doing.
  • We all want greatness. No one says, “I wish to be mediocre.” Everyone harbors the secret desire to save the world.
  • Torah is not a history book. It is Toras Chaim – literally Instructions for Living, God’s manual teaching on how to fulfill our potential and get the most out of life.
  • God is our father in Heaven. Like a father, all He wants is for us to get the maximum pleasure in life.
  • “I can’t” is idolatry. If the Almighty helps us, we can change the world. And if He doesn’t help, we can’t do anything.
  • Happiness is choosing to take pleasure in what you have.
  • The natural state of every human being is joy. We learn how to make ourselves miserable.
  • When people say, “You’ll grow up,” what they really mean is, “You’ll give up like I did.”
  • The Six Constant Mitzvot are the goals of Judaism.
  • Judaism isn’t all or nothing. Every mitzvah is a gold mine.
  • Every effort is a success, even if you don’t see the results.
  • There are no accidents. The Almighty is always sending us messages, and He’s a very articulate teacher.
  • If you don’t know what you are willing to die for, you haven’t really begun to live.
  • If being good is worth dying for, then it is worth living for. And if it is worth dying and living for, then it is certainly worth enjoying.