When I went to Google the phrase “mi shenichnas Adar marbim b’simcha” – I couldn’t remember where in the Gemara it appears (the answer is Taanit 29a) and I wanted to cite it properly here – the autocomplete results were all for different songs. Something about that pushed at the exact Adar-negative buttons I wanted to explore in this piece. I was looking for a line of Gemara, trying to find context and give a citation. And the internet, as trained by millions of users, was only offering me canned frum music.
Mar 11·edited Mar 11Liked by Rabbi Avigayil Halpern
As somebody who dislikes mandatory fun in all its guises, religious and secular, I strongly resonate with this piece. But also... when I read R. Hutner, I can conceive of a reformulated social fabric outside Edom's hegemony, a culture that is thick and Jewish and free, at least in the abstract. But when I read your quote from Srinivasen, who I am not otherwise familiar with and which I find very powerful, I'm left with an idea that feels radically individualistic. Once I take on the discipline of better understanding what joy is to me, how do I then turn around and experience joy in community? I figure out how to give mishloach manot in a spirit of friendship, but how do I also accept them? This is a process that starts out alone, but it's not a mitzvah that can be done without relationship.
Please don't take this as criticism, your devar Torah is sticking with me and I'm trying to think with it, and ask, "What next? Thanks.
As somebody who dislikes mandatory fun in all its guises, religious and secular, I strongly resonate with this piece. But also... when I read R. Hutner, I can conceive of a reformulated social fabric outside Edom's hegemony, a culture that is thick and Jewish and free, at least in the abstract. But when I read your quote from Srinivasen, who I am not otherwise familiar with and which I find very powerful, I'm left with an idea that feels radically individualistic. Once I take on the discipline of better understanding what joy is to me, how do I then turn around and experience joy in community? I figure out how to give mishloach manot in a spirit of friendship, but how do I also accept them? This is a process that starts out alone, but it's not a mitzvah that can be done without relationship.
Please don't take this as criticism, your devar Torah is sticking with me and I'm trying to think with it, and ask, "What next? Thanks.