From Hiddenness to Joy

From Hiddenness to Joy

We live in a world of hiddenness.

We do not see God. We do not see the full picture of our lives. We do not understand why certain things unfold the way they do. 

That hiddenness is not a flaw in creation; it is part of its design.

The Torah tells us that there are hidden things that belong to God and revealed things that belong to us. God’s ways are deeper than our understanding. Divine orchestration nowadays does not announce itself. It moves quietly beneath the surface of events.

Even within us, the most essential part is hidden. Our bodies are visible; our Neshama / soul is not. And yet it is the soul that animates us, that connects us to eternity. The deepest forces in life, the part that loves, experiences faith, exhibits courage, is invisible, and yet it shapes everything.

Hidden does not mean absent. Hidden can mean precious/holy.

Our task is not to rip away every veil. We are not meant to understand everything. But we are meant to reveal what we can: to bring the hidden light of holiness into the open through the way we live.

We reveal God when we choose goodness.

We reveal God when we act with kindness.

We reveal God when we align our lives with God's will.

This is the joy of Adar.

Adar is the month when we celebrate a story where God’s name is not written, yet God’s presence can be seen in retrospect and with a desire to seek it out.

What looks like coincidence is divine intervention.

Adar trains us to see the hidden hand of God in our own lives.

We work to trust that our own stories are being held, even when we cannot see how. When we live with that awareness, anxiety melts away, gratitude grows and joy deepens.

The joy we experience when we feel, connect to and live in partnership with God increases when we give.

When the Jewish people built the Mishkan (Tabernacle), they were asked to give their gold, silver and other valuable materials. They gave with full hearts. Their generosity transformed hidden devotion into visible holiness.

Giving connected them to God and gave them great pleasure.

The same is true for us. There is profound joy in giving: to each other, to sacred causes, to building what God asks us to build. Giving reveals the Godliness within us.

In conclusion, joy increases when we connect to God, when we do what God wants of us and when we give.

In a world of hiddenness, our role is clear: to trust the One who guides, to uncover the holiness within, and to reveal light through the way we live.

May this month of Adar be filled with the deepest and most profound experiences of joy