The Mitzvah of Joy in Adar: How Happiness Opens Gates and Brings Salvation

One of the most beautiful mitzvot of the month of Adar is joy. “When Adar enters, we increase in joy” (Ta’anit 29a). Simply smile and rejoice until “one no longer knows,” boundless joy without limits.

It must be said that for women, this is one of the most challenging mitzvot. Rejoice? Until you no longer know?! Help…

Why Is It So Hard to Be Joyful?

If we go back in time to the creation of the world, to the day Adam and Chava sinned, God punished them. Let us focus on the words spoken to Chava: “To the woman He said: I will greatly increase your pain and your pregnancy; in pain you shall bear children” (Bereishit 3:16).

God separated the curse “your pain” from “your pregnancy,” teaching us that regardless of pregnancy, a woman’s life revolves around recurring pain. Added to this are the pains of pregnancy, childbirth, and raising children, which together form our blessed daily routine.

What was God telling us? Dear woman, throughout your life you will contend with sadness and endless toil. It will meet you often, “greatly, greatly,” at many points in your life.

A Joyful Woman Is a Living Miracle

If so, encountering a smiling woman, a woman filled with joy, is a miracle beyond nature, one embedded in creation itself. You are truly a walking miracle.

Joy is our unique inner work. You will have countless reasons to fall into sadness, and every day you must search for a reason to rejoice today, despite everything and in spite of it all.

Joy Opens Gates

Remember that every time you are sad, something above closes for you. A gate is shut by the power of a downcast face. It may be a gate of livelihood, a gate of children, or a gate of marriage. “A locked garden, my sister…” (Shir HaShirim 4:12).

And yet, a single smile of yours can open oceans of happiness and abundance. As the Baal Shem Tov said: “Sadness locks the gates of Heaven. Prayer opens locked gates. Joy has the power to shatter walls.”

Joy Without a Reason

To be joyful, there is no need for a reason. We rejoice simply because we are commanded to do so.

The Piaseczner Rebbe explains this beautifully in his book Esh Kodesh (Purim discourse, 1940). This is why Purim and Yom Kippur have similar names, as noted in the Zohar, to teach us their shared meaning.

On Yom Kippur, you fast whether you want to or not. It is the mitzvah of the day, and even if all you did was fast, the merit of the day itself brings atonement and salvation.

“So too with the decree of Purim,” he writes. “Not only when a person is commanded to rejoice, or at least is in a state where they can make themselves joyful, must they rejoice. Even if a person is low, brokenhearted, their mind and spirit crushed, it is a law that they must introduce at least a spark of joy into their heart.”

On Purim, joy is the mitzvah of the day. Whether you want to or not, you must rejoice. It is the obligation of the day, regardless of your situation. Even if your joy comes out of necessity, that merit still counts and can bring tremendous salvation.

The Power of Choosing Joy

What an extraordinary task it is to increase joy and move yourself into a month in which you set all of reality aside and allow joy to carry you somewhere else.

What is the power of joy? Joy breaks all boundaries and can dissolve enormous difficulties.

It is told about Rabbi Zusha of Anipoli and his brother Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk that they were once thrown into prison in Russia. They were devastated to discover that a foul smelling bucket stood in their cell, making it impossible to study Torah or pray.

One brother filled with sorrow began to cry. “We cannot even learn Torah here. What will become of us?”

Immediately, the other brother took his hand and said, “Not praying because of the stench is also a mitzvah. So let us fulfill it with joy.”

The brothers began to dance in their cell, and all the Jewish prisoners joined them. The prison commander could not understand the source of such joy. He was brought to see them and asked, “What is all this joy about?”

They pointed to the foul bucket.

“If that is what brings you such great joy,” he said, “I will remove it from your cell immediately.” And he did.

The brothers rejoiced again. “Now we can study Torah in cleanliness and holiness.”

Joy That Redeems

A prison. Filth. No Torah. No prayer. And yet they dance. See the elevation of the soul. For them, joy was an obligation in every situation, and joy itself rescued them from the filth.

This is the power of joy in every circumstance. As the Baal Shem Tov explained the verse: “For with joy you shall go out” (Yeshayahu 55:12). A person who wishes to emerge from their troubles must rejoice. Only joy can pull them out of the stench that fills their life.

A Blessing for the Month of Adar

May we merit to increase joy this month. Take one smile a day, dance with your children, hum yourself a song, and you will see for yourself what salvations this precious joy will bring you.