Rosh Chodesh Adar

It is brought in the Gemara says: "Just as when Av begins one decreases rejoicing, so too when the month of Adar begins, one increases rejoicing." We explained that this increase of joy in Adar corresponds to the joy that was reduced in Av, as it is written: "Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all you that love her, rejoice with joy with her, all you that did mourn for her” (Isaiah 66:10). and it is also written: "Our dancing is turned into mourning" We interpret this to mean that that which we were able to attain from the Holy Temple through our is now attained through mourning.

The essence of joy in Adar comes from the collective giving towards the Terumah. This is because the building and Avodah (worship/service) of the Temple brought joy. And even now when we do not have a place to do the physical service of the Temple, we still nonetheless need to search for this kind of devotion and desire.

And it seems like our sin while the Temple still stood was that we did not engage in the service with necessary desire or joy. Therefore, the repair (for this spiritual breaking) comes from simply cultivating that yearning and desire without any physical action.

And these days (Adar)

are ones in which this arousing of our hearts takes place...

The verse states: “They cast pur, that is, the lot” (Esther 3:7). A Sage taught the following baraita: Once the lot fell on the month of Adar, he, Haman, greatly rejoiced, for he saw this as a favorable omen for the execution of his plans. He said: The lot has fallen for me in the month that Moses died, which is consequently a time of calamity for the Jewish people. But he did not know that not only did Moses die on the seventh of Adar, but he was also born on the seventh of Adar, and therefore it is also a time of rejoicing for the Jewish people.

...Another [Baraitha] taught: On the seventh of Adar Moses died, and on the seventh of Adar he was born. How do we know that he died on the seventh of Adar? For it is written: So Moses the servant of the Lord died there; And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days; Moses thy servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over [this Jordan]; Pass through the midst of the camp, and command the people, saying: Prepare you victuals; for within three days ye are to pass over this Jordan;and [v] and the people came up out of Jordan on the tenth day of the first month; deduct the preceding thirty three days, thus you learn that Moses died on the seventh of Adar. And how do we know that he was born on the seventh of Adar? — For it is said: And he [Moses] said unto them, I am an hundred and twenty years old this day; I can no more go out and come in. Now, ‘this day’ need not be stated; why then is it stated? It teaches that the Holy One, blessed be He, sits and completes the years of the righteous [exactly] from day to day and month to month, as it is said,the number of thy days I will fulfil.

(1) The Divine spoke to Moses, saying: (2) Tell the Israelite people to bring Me gifts; you shall accept gifts for Me from every person whose heart so moves him.

It is brought in the Gemara says: "Just as when Av begins one decreases rejoicing, so too when the month of Adar begins, one increases rejoicing." We explained that this increase of joy in Adar corresponds to the joy that was reduced in Av, as it is written: "Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all you that love her, rejoice with joy with her, all you that did mourn for her” (Isaiah 66:10). and it is also written: "Our dancing is turned into mourning" We interpret this to mean that that which we were able to attain from the Holy Temple through our is now attained through mourning.

The essence of joy in Adar comes from the collective giving towards the Terumah. This is because the building and Avodah (worship/service) of the Temple brought joy. And even now when we do not have a place to do the physical service of the Temple, we still nonetheless need to search for this kind of devotion and desire.

And it seems like our sin while the Temple still stood was that we did not engage in the service with necessary desire or joy. Therefore, the repair (for this spiritual breaking) comes from simply cultivating that yearning and desire without any physical action.

And these days (Adar)

are ones in which this arousing of our hearts takes place...

The Gemara cites additional homiletic interpretations on the topic of the revelation at Sinai. The Torah says, “And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet God; and they stood at the lowermost part of the mount” (Exodus 19:17). Rabbi Avdimi bar Ḥama bar Ḥasa said: the Jewish people actually stood beneath the mountain, and the verse teaches that the Holy One, Blessed be He, overturned the mountain above the Jews like a tub, and said to them: If you accept the Torah, excellent, and if not, there will be your burial. Rav Aḥa bar Ya’akov said: From here there is a substantial caveat to the obligation to fulfill the Torah. The Jewish people can claim that they were coerced into accepting the Torah, and it is therefore not binding. Rava said: Even so, they again accepted it willingly in the time of Ahasuerus, as it is written: “The Jews ordained, and took upon them, and upon their seed, and upon all such as joined themselves unto them” (Esther 9:27), and he taught: The Jews ordained what they had already taken upon themselves through coercion at Sinai.

Our sages (Shabbat 85) comment on Exodus 19,17: "They stood underneath the Mountain," that G–d threatened that if the Jewish people would not accept the Torah, the Mountain would crush them. This proved that acceptance of the Torah by the Jewish people at Mount Sinai was an act performed under duress. It was not until after the events of the Book of Esther that the Jewish people accepted the Torah on an entirely voluntary basis.

In this new willing acceptance, the Torah, which had previously been a burden for them, now became like a ray of light for them, something which they had never before experienced.

An allusion to this revolutionary change in the Jewish attitude to Torah is found in the words והדת נתנה בשושן הבירה, "and the law (religion) was really given in Shushan the capital" (Esther 3,15).