Ki Tisa
R. Nachman of Breslov on Parashat Ki Tisa, read on Shabbat Ki Tisa · Adar · Erev Purim approaching — with one of this week's three questions for the two of you.
We are in Adar — the month, the Sages teach, in which joy is increased. Not 'experienced when circumstances allow' — increased, deliberately, as a chosen practice. Rebbe Nachman, perhaps the strongest voice in our tradition on this, said it bluntly: mitzvah gedolah lihiyot b'simcha tamid — it is a great mitzvah to always be in joy. Always. The radical move in Nachman's teaching is that joy is not the response to favorable circumstances. Joy is a chosen discipline, a posture you take before you have been given a reason to take it. The Megillah we will read this week is a story of attempted destruction that turned, at the last moment, into joy. We do not wait for the world to give us reasons to be joyful. We give the world joy as our offering — and in time, the world responds in kind.
When was the last time you chose joy in our home before the circumstances made joy easy? What did the choosing cost you, and what did it give back?
The full week — the passage itself with its source, the other two questions, and the closing verse of hope — lives in the app. Together Tomorrow on the App Store.