A Spark of joy

This week was a big one for the cosmos. 

On Tuesday we celebrated the new moon of Adar which ushered in the Lunar New Year (year of the fire horse !), the beginning of Ramadan, and Ash Wednesday. It was an interfaith cosmic mash up that I hope activated some kind of intergalactic portal that makes world peace imminent and irresistible. Or at the very least, transforms the rubble of Gaza into a glorious garden, freezes ICE agents in their tracks and melts all weapons into musical instruments. 

The Talmud teaches that when the Adar begins, joy increases. But what’s the right way to “increase [our] joy” in the context of so much loss and suffering? 

As a community, we have grown very familiar with the ways that Yom Kippur is like Purim. This year, I am realizing we may need to draw upon the discipline of Yom Kippur to give us the spiritual permission that Purim demands. 

In his teachings on Purim, Rabbi Kalonymous Kalman Shapira’s Esh Kodesh, written in the Warsaw Ghetto, pulls us even further in this direction: 

שכמו יוה״כ התענית והתשובה ביום זה, לא אם רוצה אותם האדם לעשותם עושה, רק בין אם רוצה בין לא, מקיימם מפני גזרת הקב״ה, כן גם שמחת פורים, לא רק אם האדם מעצמו בשמחה או עכ״פ במצב שיכול לשמח…

To paraphrase, he explains that most of us don’t actually want to fast and afflict our souls and do the work of Teshuvah on Yom Kippur, but we do it anyway because it is “decreed”, which is to say, it's a collective practice. So too with Purim, which is not only for people who personally feel raucous or joyous, or find themselves in a situation worth celebrating…

רק גם אם הוא בשפלות ובשבירת הלב, המוח וכל רוחו נרמס, חוק הוא שצריך עכ״פ איזה ניצוץ של שמחה להכניס אל לבו.
Rather, even if you are yourself feeling low and broken hearted, like your mind and spirit have been trampled, it is a statute that you must, at the very least, bring a spark of joy to your heart.

And the good news is that you don’t have to do that alone. We are gonna ignite that spark together. As I write I am listening to the Purimshpil come to life and it's cracking me up! But even still, if the joy feels unattainable there is a path for you. 

While the popular Purim brand is irreverent revelry, the core mitzvot of Purim are actually all about chesed. We are instructed to give gifts to everyone in our community who needs it (matanot l’evyonim) and share food with our friends (mishloach manot). Purim is about being excessively generous, whether we feel like it or not. And in my experience, there is so much delight in bringing others joy. 

So as you prepare for Purim, in addition to thinking about your costume, I encourage you to consider where you do want to donate money this Purim. At KT, we will be collecting money for Juntos. And can you make a list of all the people you might want to send care packages to? And if none of that is accessible to you, perhaps you can practice metta, and wish yourself and the world well. 

Perhaps the thing we need most this year is to express care for our community, and in doing so, we might feel more whole and an unexpected spark of joy. ​