The Purim spirit is still in the air as I finish packing away the last bit of supplies and uploading the online album of another amazing holiday. Although Passover will be here in less than a month with all the joy and celebration it brings, I always wonder how to channel the holiday cheer into the plain gray days.
Merriam-Webster defines joy as “the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires.” But Judaism teaches that joy is a religious obligation. King David writes in Psalms “Serve G-d with joy” and divine service is constant, even when life is bleak. Maimonides refers to joy as a “huge service” one needs to work hard on achieving. How is this even possible?
Around Purim 1977 the Rebbe wrote a letter to a woman in Israel who complained about her feelings of worthlessness and the plain drudgery of daily life.
“One of the tips for raising your morale is to reflect on how every single person is G-d’s messenger to do good and increase goodness in the world. Normally this is not accomplished through revolutions and thunderous self-sacrifice. Rather, through living your daily life in accordance with the Code of Jewish Law, and through being active, specifically with activities that society refers to as “gray” and “small.” Helping people around you and educating yourself step by step (without skipping and rushing). This can all be accomplished… on the “gray days.”
In this week’s parsha we learn how the entire Jewish nation was implicated in an idolatrous scandal merely 40 days after receiving the Torah at Mt. Sinai. They were on such a spiritual high after experiencing the most epic divine revelation, only to crash into the depths of sin and guilt, endangered by G-d’s threat to destroy them.
Through a series of events that forever lives on as Moshe’s finest hour, which included breaking the Two Tablets and intense negotiating with G-d, disaster was averted and the nation was bequeathed a new set of tablets containing the same Ten Commandments they heard at Mt. Sinai.
Although the Jews failed miserably in keeping the commandments in such a short time, G-d did not change them nor alter the divine plan. Because Jewish living is not exclusive to perfect saints who heard G-d speak at Sinai. Every law and observance is accessible to every Jew, and even on the gray monotonous days, you are able to fulfill your G-d given mission on earth. Appreciating this fact well and living by it, is a sure way to brighten the gray days and live joyfully all the time.