By Linda Klempner
WLCJ Vice-President, Patron/Scholarship Patron Chair
Adar is the happiest month of the Jewish calendar. Why is Adar so special? It’s the month we celebrate Purim. The Talmud states, “When Adar enters, joy increases”— may it be so in all of our lives.
The celebration of Purim 2026 begins on Monday evening, March 2. Purim is a religious holiday that is the easiest, and in some respects the hardest, to understand. On the one hand, the basic nature of the holiday seems clear—you are supposed to have a good time, to rejoice in the simplest sense of the word, by having a feast with good food and good liquor. It is the custom to dress up in costumes and wear masks following the tradition of Purim as a holiday of disguise where nothing is quite what it seems. The idea is to reveal the hidden identity of the person behind the mask. In fact, every single thing we do on the day is connected with this theme—revealing the hidden. We give mishloach manot, parcels of food to friends, and charity to the poor. In these ways, we reveal our feelings of warmth and friendship that we have for others. We also drink more than we usually do.
For 17 years, the WLCJ Sisterhood Affiliate at Or Olam Synagogue in New York City has run a highly successful mishloach manot project. To keep the momentum going, the organizers send out an annual letter reminding previous participants of who was on their giving list the year prior. This thoughtful tradition makes it easy for members to renew their participation and often inspires them to add new friends to their lists. The mishloach manot bags themselves are always a delightful surprise; in addition to traditional sweet treats, recipients have found festive additions like masks and groggers. These creative inclusions allow everyone to fully participate in the joy of the Megillah reading and enthusiastically drown out Haman’s name.
The key personality in the Megillah, of course, is Esther, her name coming from the term seter, which means “hidden.” She lived through a time when the presence of Hashem was seemingly hidden from the Jewish people. And she rose to the occasion to help save the Jewish nation
And maybe most notably, the Megillah itself doesn’t feature the name of Hashem. No mention of God in the entire book, but Hashem was behind everything that happened. And so, our aim through reading of the Megillah is to reveal the hidden presence of Hashem at that time, and indeed through many occasions in our history.
Our mystics tell us that Purim is the holiest day of the year. I might have thought that was Yom Kippur, but they say that Yom Kippur “is a day like Purim.” As I think of the comparison, they are right. On Yom Kippur, in the absence of physical and material pleasures, it’s not difficult to achieve great heights of spirituality. But on Purim, as we eat and we drink and we have no inhibition, it is an equally great achievement to reveal the hidden presence of Hashem in our lives.
Purim serves as a model for us to follow throughout the year so that on all occasions, we can feel the presence of Hashem and raise our level of holiness and spirituality.
May you succeed in revealing the hidden, and have a Purim Sameach and Rosh Chodesh Tov; be happy, it’s Adar!
Shabbat Shalom,
Linda Klempner
WLCJ Vice-President, Patron/Scholarship Patron Chair
The post Unmasking Adar: Finding the Divine in the Everyday first appeared on Women’s League for Conservative Judaism.
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