Niflaot mi-Toratecha: Adar & Joseph

We can find an allusion to the month of Adar in the verse, “And Joseph would bring the evil reports about them to their father (Genesis 37:1).” In fact when we read the verse carefully we have the word Joseph, followed by three Hebrew words beginning with the three Hebrew letters that spell out Adar, as if to say Joseph is Adar. This of course reminds us of the teaching of our Sages that the twelve months correspond to the Twelve tribes and that the month of Adar represents Joseph.

This is especially appropriate when there are two months of Adar in a year, a leap year, for Joseph represents the attribute of Yesod, which we know has two parts, the two testicles. These two parts that form the base of the Yesod represent the two months of Adar.

The two parts of Yesod represent influence that comes from above to below, Yesod being the final point at which it is able to share all the influence with the physical world – Malchut, and it also represents the point at which stirrings from below begin to reach up above again through the attribute of Yesod.

This would mean that the month of Adar represents the perfect meeting point between the stirrings above and the stirrings below. Therefore it is appropriate for a person to make a special effort during Adar, especially when there are two Adars, to pay attention to the stirrings from above, and to take all his actions and transform them into stirrings from below.