Feb. 23, 2024

Celebrating the Joys of Purim Katan: Finding Happiness in Tradition and Halacha

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Season 6

Unlock the mysteries of Purim Katan, the lesser-known counterpart to the jubilant Purim celebration during a leap year. Grasp the subtle ways we're encouraged to find joy in the everyday, as prescribed by ancient traditions and the wisdom of the Shulchan Aruch. This episode is your chance to understand the delicate balance between adhering to halachic guidelines and embracing a spirit of happiness, especially when the calendar gifts us an extra month of Adar.

Let's stroll through the halachic intricacies and timeless wisdom surrounding Purim Katan. We reflect on the Shulchan Aruch's directives that set this day apart from its more boisterous sibling, Purim. With insights from the Vilna Gaon on contentment and the Ramah's commentary on celebrating life's daily joys, we explore how to approach this special day with a glad heart. Whether on a bustling Friday or a quiet weekday, this episode promises to enrich your understanding of Purim Katan and inspire you to elevate your happiness as a form of divine worship.

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Questions or Comments? Please email me @ michaelbrooke97@gmail.com



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To party or not to party?

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That is the question.

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For a Purim kattam, the small Purim, is upon us, a day that is a quasi-joyous day, for while Purim, the OG, real Purim, has been pushed off because of the leap year to the second Adar, there is still a halachan shulchanarekh, in fact the very last chapter of all of our achayim in chapter 697, that tells us that one cannot eulogize, one cannot fast, one should not say tachanon on Purim kattam.

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And toh svoz, rajba and orana, the great medieval rishonah, medieval commentators have a dispute whether or not this necessitates the celebration and an increasing of happiness and eating, partying and drinking on Purim kattam.

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And the Ramah tells us that our custom is to not have a full blown Purim on Purim kattam.

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However, one should remember to increase a bit in the very last citation of all of Ramah's commentary on shulchanarekh at the end of 697.

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The Ramah quotes a verse from King Solomon's great book of Proverbs, the Tov'lei Mishdut Tummid, that a glad heart, a content heart, is constantly drinking.

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It's odd.

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Does the Ramah mean to tell us that one should party?

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What does he mean by this line?

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Is it trying to bookend an idea?

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From the very beginning of shulchanarekh to the very end the commentators discuss.

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However, what is very clear is that on this pussik, this parable in 1515 of Mishdut the villain agone tells us that Tov'lei Mishdut Tummid, why is a happy person constantly drinking?

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For Well, just look at a Mishdut guy, a drinking guy, a drunkard, on Purim.

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He could care less about your insults, could care less about what Tom Dicker-Herry has to say about him or how Sally thinks that she's a low life.

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He's a low life, none of it matters.

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He could care less about what anyone else thinks, but singing and dancing and being joyous with God and one's own personal obligations to his Creator is all that matters, and you break free from the chains and shackles of what other people think.

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In the same vein, is a Tov'lei a happy person, someone who chose happiness, someone who chose to focus on the good parts of life, then anything that he sees, witnesses or hears, it's like another lechayim, it's like another shahadavadka.

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For Tov'lei a happy person is Mishdut Tummid, because everything only increases his gratitude to God, his own personal thanks, his own personal love and happiness.

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He's happy for you, he doesn't care what you think, he's just trying to do the right thing.

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So, literally, tov'lei a happy heart, someone who chose, no matter what, to focus on.

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The good is Mishdut Tummid.

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He's constantly drinking, so while I'm put him caught on, especially on Friday, where there could be some issues of increasing with too much food, lest one go into the Sabbath with a full belly talk to your rabbi for more advice about that.

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And while I'm put him caught on, it's not clear if one should really go for a full blown perm during adoration.

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But all commentators, all posts, can agree that increasing in your happiness, in your gladdened heart, and not caring what anyone else thinks about you and just doing what you believe that the Almighty wants from you, becoming a content, joyous, happy person.

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Well, that everyone agrees to.

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Because Tov'lei Mishdut Tummid, what a way to finish our Haim Shulchanar, what an important avodah for us to work on on this perm katan, to choose to be happy and stop caring about what everyone else thinks.