Days on the Jewish Calendar: Adar
Guest Shiur: Rav Wolfson on Adar Sheini and Parshas Pekudei
A guest address by Rav Refael Wolfson, mashgiach of Yeshiva Torah Vodaas, given at the yeshiva around Parshas Pekudei in a leap year's Adar Sheini. Opens with a chassidic discourse connecting the mechatzis hashekel, the βlostβ extra shekalim that became vavim la'amudim, and Megillas Esther's hidden Name to the theme of Adar Sheini as the most hester-panim point on the calendar -- tied to shevet Dan, Amalek, and Esther as the neshamah of hashavas aveidah. Closes with a long string of personal stories about the Rebbe, including a sandek episode caught on the Living Torah dollars footage and a Purim kuntres he was initially asked not to bring in.
Parshat Shekalim: Part 1
Traces Moshe Rabbeinu's puzzlement over how a mere half-shekel could serve as kapparah for the Cheit HaEgel, and the coin of fire Hashem showed him as the answer, explained through the Baal Shem Tov's mashal of the goldsmith who forgot to light the fire. Develops why the Torah insists on precisely half a shekel rather than a whole one to express a Yid's sense of incompleteness apart from Hashem, and how the two halves combining into one shekel mirrors the covenant Hashem renewed with the Jewish people. Connects this dynamic to the wholehearted acceptance of Torah that triggered the miracle of Purim.
7 Adar: Part 1
Explores the tension in halachah between fasting on 7 Adar as Moshe Rabbeinu's yahrzeit and the Gemara's evidence that the same date, his birthday, makes it a day of joy, drawing on the Tanchuma's teaching that a tzaddik's birthday carries its own simcha. Shows how Haman's own words in the Megillah reveal that the month he thought was cursed by Moshe's death was in fact blessed by his birth, explaining why the joy of Adar extends across the whole month and not only to the thirteenth. Resolves the apparent contradiction by distinguishing two reasons for a fast day, showing that simcha and teshuvah can coexist on the same day.
Parshat Parah: Part 1
Traces why Parshat Parah is read before Parshat Hachodesh despite the chronological order of events at the Mishkan's dedication, then examines the category of chukim, mitzvot with no discernible reason, and why Parah Adumah stands out as the one even Shlomo Hamelech, the wisest of men, could not fathom. Develops the Alter Rebbe's teaching in Likkutei Torah that this chok represents the entire Torah in miniature: since Torah is Hashem's unlimited chochmah, it can never truly fit into a limited human mind, and every reason we grasp for a mitzvah is only the surface of something infinitely deeper. Concludes that a person must still labor to understand Torah's reasons while remembering that the Torah of the present is only a fraction of what will be revealed in the days of Moshiach.
Parshat Hachodesh: Part 1
Reconciles Rashi's statement that Kiddush HaChodesh is the first mitzvah with the Rambam's and Zohar's ruling that knowing Hashem comes first, showing that Rashi means the first mitzvah given to Klal Yisrael as a nation in the order the Torah records it. Uses the Ibn Ezra's question about why the Torah never spells out how to calculate months to establish the authority of Torah SheBaal Peh, and shows through the Yerushalmi how the beit din's power to fix the calendar actually reshapes the physical world. Concludes that Kiddush HaChodesh was placed first because it models the Torah's whole purpose: sanctifying zman, the one category that encompasses the entire creation, just as every mitzvah sanctifies the physical object it uses.
Purim: Part 1
Opens with two puzzles about the Megillah, its Persian-derived name and the total absence of Hashem's name, before turning to Rashbi's discussion in the Gemara of why the Jews merited the decree: pleasure taken in Achashverosh's feast, and, for Jews outside Shushan, an old bow to Nevuchadnetzar's idol. Develops the deeper explanation that the decree was not a punishment but the natural result of the Jews trusting the king's protection instead of Hashem's, draws the parallel to Yetzias Mitzrayim, and closes with a question-and-answer on the seventy nations and the limits of explaining tragedies like the Holocaust.
Parshat Shekalim: Part 2
Revisits the classic question of why the mitzvah of machatzis hashekel calls for a half-shekel when every other korban and kli sheis demands wholeness, and develops three answers: a Yid's ten kochos joining Hashem's ten sefiros, one Yid's ten kochos joining another's through ahavat Yisrael, and the nefesh elokis joining the nefesh habehamis so that even mundane activities are elevated to kedushah. Shows how all three explanations trace back to the same recognition that the neshamah, a chelek Elokah mimaal, is only a complete metzius when united with its source.
7 Adar: Part 2
Explores the well-known observation that Parshat Tetzaveh, read around Moshe Rabbeinu's yahrzeit of 7 Adar, is the only parshah since his birth that never mentions his name, despite being addressed to him directly as ΧΧΧͺΧ. Using the Zohar's teaching that a tzaddik is found in every world, including this one, more after his passing than during his lifetime, distinguishes between a name, which reveals only the superficial gilui of a person, and the word atah, which points to his essence. Ties this idea to the gematria of ΧͺΧ¦ΧΧ (501, one beyond the revelation-level 500) and the 101 pesukim of the parshah, both pointing to the essence that remains beyond the revealed name.
Parshat Parah: Part 2
Explores the Yerushalmi's description of Parah Adumah as 'taharatan shel kol Yisrael', purification belonging to every Jew, even though most people are never obligated to purify themselves from tumat met, and the Rambam's chiddush that the ashes must lechatchilah be kept ready for anyone who might need them. Develops the idea, rooted in the principle that every physical halachah reflects a spiritual counterpart, that Parah Adumah represents teshuvah, since tumat met parallels the spiritual death caused by aveirot tracing back to the Cheit HaEgel. Concludes that because no person, however righteous, is ever completely free of teshuvah, the mitzvah's ashes and by extension Shabbat Parshat Parah itself become a zman mesugal when teshuvah is accepted most readily.
Parshat Hachodesh: Part 2
Uncovers the connection between two events separated by a year but sharing the same date: Hashem's command of Kiddush HaChodesh on the eve of the Exodus, and the erecting of the Mishkan a year later, both on Rosh Chodesh Nisan. Explains the Gemara's teaching that the day of the Mishkan's dedication 'took ten crowns' through the Kli Yakar's reading of eser atarot as the revelation of the highest godly level, keter, within the lowest physical world, tracing how that revelation began temporarily at Sinai and the Exodus before becoming permanent with the Mishkan. Shows why the pairing is strongest when Rosh Chodesh Nisan itself falls on Shabbos, a day that carries its own taste of Olam Haba.
Purim: Part 2
Builds the case, from the Zohar's reading of Yom Kippurim to the single day both holidays share, for why Purim reaches a level beyond Yom Kippur precisely because its holiness is expressed through eating and drinking rather than through affliction. Contrasts Chanukah's open miracle with Purim's miracle dressed in nature, returns to the Gemara's account of why the Jews merited the decree, and closes with why Esther chose to fast for three days before an audience where nature alone called for looking her most beautiful.
Parshat Zachor
Examines the Magen Avraham's question of why zechirat Amalek alone merits its own special krias haTorah, when the Torah commands remembering Matan Torah, Shabbos, the Egel, and Miriam's lashon hara as well, and why an act with seemingly no lasting communal significance outweighs foundational events. Shows that the mitzvah of remembering Amalek is independent of the mitzvah to destroy him, which is why it remains obligatory even today when Amalek can no longer be identified. Develops the chassidic reading of Amalek as the voice inside every Yid that cools off excitement for Torah and mitzvot, severing the connection between the mind's understanding and the heart's feeling, mapped onto the kabbalistic split between the name's two halves.
Purim
On the surprising comparison in Tikkunei Zohar between Yom Kippur's fasting and Purim's feasting, tracing it through the goral each day shares, Purim as the willing completion of what began at Matan Torah, and why the deepest point of a Jew's neshamah -- revealed on Yom Kippur only through abstaining from food -- reaches even further on Purim, penetrating into the eating and drinking itself.
The Decree and Salvation of Purim
The Gemara's search for why the Jews deserved a decree of total annihilation lands on a surprisingly mild cause, enjoying a kosher party, and resolves through the Midrash's image of the Jewish people as one sheep among seventy wolves: Jewish survival is naturally impossible, sustained only by a miracle that Hashem withdraws the moment a Jew starts to feel protected by nature rather than by Him. Feeling at home under Achashverosh's rule turns out to share the same root as bowing to Nevuchadnetzar's idol, a quiet belief that something other than Hashem controls one's fate. The salvation that follows, disguised entirely within natural events like Esther's fast and her approach to the king, answers that very mistake, and closes with the practical lesson that enjoyment belongs only in matters of kedushah, with the physical treated strictly as a vessel.
The Inner Megillah
Megillat Esther stands alone among the Kesuvim in never once mentioning Hashem's Name, a fact the Ibn Ezra attributes to a concern over idolatrous forgeries, but Chassidus reads as the opposite of a deficiency: the Megillah is bound to the level of Anochi, the essence of Hashem beyond any name or description, hidden precisely within the concealment hinted by Esther's own name. The same pattern, something seemingly lowly turning out to be higher, recurs in the Megillah having been written only at Esther's request rather than by divine command, and in the halachic order of its permitted reading days. A kabbalistic tour through the three types of cities, the three worlds, and the three levels of angels closes with the teaching that the simplest, most action-oriented level connects most directly to Hashem's essence, tied together with the Shelah's gematria and the ongoing fight against Amalek.
Purim Katan
Tracing Purim Katan and Shushan Purim Katan from their simple halachic footing β the extra Adar of a leap year, the Rema's hint that one should still make some kind of simcha β into the deeper question of why the Shulchan Aruch's laws close with precisely this obscure day. The answer centers on two βtemidimβ bookending the Shulchan Aruch, yirat shamayim and constant simcha, and why the least-obligated joy of the year reveals the deepest, most essential connection a Yid has to Hashem.
The Four Parshiot
Walks through the origin and order of Shekalim, Zachor, Parah, and Hachodesh, including the Gemara's link between the machatzis hashekel and the failure of Haman's decree, and the halachic reasoning for reading Parah immediately before Hachodesh so a person is tahor before the korban Pesach. Unpacks a Yerushalmi dispute over why the two cannot be separated by a Shabbos, tracing it to a deeper chassidic idea that Parshat Hachodesh represents the avodah of a tzadik (the Yidden who left Mitzrayim as new converts) while Parshat Parah represents the avodah of a baal teshuvah, and that the two can never be treated as unrelated. Closes by distinguishing how a tzadik's teshuvah works today, as part of the ongoing striving to close the gap between neshamah and Hashem, from how it will work in the era of Mashiach, and applies the lesson to the balance every Jew needs between being a tzadik and being a baal teshuvah.
Parshat Shekalim
Reviews the halachic background of the four parshiyot and the mitzvah of machatzis hashekel, then asks why Moshe Rabbeinu needed Hashem to physically show him a coin before he could understand a command that seems, on its surface, perfectly simple. Develops the answer through Tosafot's question and the mashal of the goldsmith's fire: a half-shekel could only atone for the total severance of avodah zarah because it reaches the one connection to Hashem that can never be cut, the essence of the neshamah. Explains why the mitzvah specifically calls for half rather than a whole coin, as an expression that a Jew and Hashem are only complete together, and traces how this same idea of two halves becoming one protected the Jewish people at the time of Haman and underlies the mitzvah of Ahavat Yisrael.
Parshat Zachor
Surveys the mitzvah of remembering Amalek within the six daily remembrances recited after davening, and explains through the Magen Avraham why only Amalek merited its own designated Shabbos when the other five already have a Yom Tov or a daily mitzvah to anchor them. Develops the chassidic definition of Amalek as safek, coldness, and ultimately, in the Chazal's words, knowing one's Master and intending to rebel, then pushes further into the deeper reading of Amalek as the force that severs the head from the body, blocking resolutions made in the mind from ever reaching speech and action. Closes by connecting this to why Amalek specifically tried to block Matan Torah, the event meant to unite lofty spirituality with physical action in this world.
Parshat Parah
Traces the halachic background of Parshat Parah and the Yerushalmi's question of why it is read before Parshat Hachodesh despite the parah adumah having been commanded after the Mishkan was erected, including the Rambam's ruling that its ashes must be perpetually available across all nine parahs made in history. Develops the deeper idea that parah adumah represents teshuvah, since tumat meit stems from the aveirah of the eigel just as the aveirah of eitz hadaat brought death into the world, and explains why even a tzadik needs this same inner teshuvah to shed the residue of his own ΧΧ©ΧΧͺ. Unpacks the strange contradiction that the parah is a korban slaughtered outside all three camps yet must face the Heichal, showing how teshuvah alone can reach and purify a place even a korban cannot, and closes with why Hashem deliberately left parah adumah as the one mitzvah with no reason at all, so that the rest of Torah would never be mistaken for a wisdom limited to human understanding.
7 Adar
Opens with the Gemara's account of Haman casting his lot on the month of Moshe Rabbeinu's passing, and Rashi's comment that his birth on the same day outweighs it, then asks why that should be true when a tzadik's yahrzeit is usually considered the greater day. Develops the idea that Moshe's neshamah shined from the moment of birth because his middah is emet, eternal truth that cannot wait to be revealed, and explores what it means for Torah itself to be emet even as it is clothed in this world of falsehood. Explains why only Moshe and Yaakov Avinu merit the description lo met, did not die, since their neshamos are klalus that live on in every Jew, and closes by tying Zayin Adar to the roots of both Purim and Pesach, plus a discussion of transforming the sheker of this world into emet through the construction of the Mishkan.