It's Time for some Optimistic Food for Thought!
Rabbi Mendel Kaplan, Chabad @ Flamingo

As I hear the wind howling outside and see the snow swirling in the window, I take little comfort in my warm and comfortable office environment. Soon I will have to venture back into the great freezing outdoors. Poetically speaking living in peaceful Canadian serenity shouldn't necessarily afford us that much comfort as the dark clouds and stormy winds of war blow across the seas.

However, regardless of your personal level of comfort or concern, no fanciful stretch of imagination is needed to suggest that we all, as Jews and citizens of the free world find ourselves in a very a fateful time. 

"Timing," people say, "is everything." If there is any truth to that, it should provide us with an opportunity to replace the gloomy forecast with real hope and serious optimism instead. Allow me to explain.

For us, time is recorded in a rather unusual fashion. On one hand we follow the lunar cycle, and our months revolve around the moon. Yet our holidays, which are celebrated on appointed days in the Hebrew months, are seasonal, and thus, it is the solar orbit, which dictates our years.

This system is however intrinsically flawed because 12 lunar months are more than 11 days short of the solar year. Enter the Jewish solution, a leap year, which rather than an extra day or two means an extra month every few years. Consequently the twelfth month of Adar occurs twice, once as Adar Rishon, and a second time as Adar Sheni.

To be sure, each Hebrew month brings with it's own unique spiritual energy and dynamic. Regarding Adar, Jewish law states "MiShenichnas Adar Marbim B'Simcha,"  freely translated "When [the month of] Adar arrives [one should endeavour to] increase [their sense of] joy." The Talmud refers to the month of Adar as "HaChodesh Asher Nehepach Lohem" which means "that in the Purim era, this was the month in which the tables were turned on our enemies, as their ill intentions against the Jews were transformed into their own undoing and downfall. It is also considered to be the most Mazaldik (a time of good omen, a propitious time for good things to happen) month in the Jewish calendar.

Adar apparently pulsates with good mazal, vibrant joyous energy and potential for positive transformation. Talk about timing.

Wait, it gets better. In the winter of 1992 our sainted mentor, the Lubavitcher Rebbe of righteous memory imported a fascinating concept from the "laws of forbidden mixtures" e.g. the laws governing possible "contamination" of kosher foodstuff by un-kosher substances to the "World- of-Time."

In a word, the Halacha states that if a questionable substance becomes fully integrated with kosher food that has sixty times more volume, the entire mixture remains acceptable as kosher!  This idea is called Batul BiShishim meaning [negative matter is] nullified by [the overwhelming majority of] sixty times in volume.

The Rebbe went on to suggest that since during a leap year the days called Adar (when you include Shvat 30, which is the first day of Rosh Chodesh Adar) number sixty, consequently they have the power to nullify negative vibes with their joyous and mazaldike energy. And since Adar's properties are those of transformation, this increment of time can readily transform the darkest of futures into illuminating brightness.

So take heart and smile, the timing couldn't be better. With additional Torah study, Prayer and Acts of Kindness and Compassion we will hopefully change the course of time and once again re-experience Purim miracles and wonders. May we merit to be blessed with the "light and gladness, and joy and honour" so vividly portrayed in Megillat Esther, and see the arrival of true peace upon earth with the coming of Mashiach speedily in our days!