By Christine Darg

Jerusalem Channel

We have entered the 12th Hebrew month of Adar, known as a month of celebration and happiness, because Adar contains the joyous holiday of Purim, the Feast of Lots, that takes place mid-month. (This year Feb. 25)

At Purim the tables were turned on God’s enemy due to the fasting and prayers of Queen Esther, who exposed the villain and antisemite Haman.

Purim is a plural word in Hebrew meaning LOTS. Purim celebrates the time in history when the corrupt politician, Haman, prepared gallows for God’s man, but Haman was hung on the very gallows he had prepared.

Proverbs 16: 33 declares, “The LOT is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD.”

According to the Talmud, “when the month of Adar arrives, we increase in joy” to welcome a season of miracles.

Adar was the last month the Jewish people spent in Egypt before the Exodus.

Adar’s joy is so great, in part, because it serves as the opening to an even greater rejoicing: the miracles of Passover.

CHODESH TOV! V’ SHABBAT SHALOM!