Ah, joy! Happiness! Who among us can’t use a little more joy in our lives? Wouldn’t it be nice to be a happier person? But the how seems far more challenging than the what. How can we become more joyful? What can we do to discover happiness?
In truth however, the what is actually as. if not more, important than the how. Because after all, if we don’t understand the true nature and persona of joy, how can we expect to find joy? If you don”t know what you’re looking for how can you find it? So what exactly is joy and happiness? What are its ingredients?
Please join Rabbi Jacobson in this Purim Katan (small Purim) workshop and discover the mystery behind the “smallness” of Purim: What does a “small” Purim even mean? Can joy be measured in terms of small and large? Learn what the “small” Purim teaches us about the key to finding true and lasting happiness.
Thanks, Rabbi Jacobson. You have me thinking about why we need joy in our lives.
For the past four years I have been giving away Easy buttons from Staples, that say, “that was easy”. I say it is to encourage people to take easy steps in life. But it is also important to value easy steps and appreciate them.
How, often to we downplay the importance of simple, easy efforts in life? Without joy and appreciation easy efforts may be sabotaged.
I think one of the keys to happiness, is just this, to value easy efforts. Easy steps may lead to great results, if we persist. A teacher offers a simple lesson and changes a student’s motivation. But if the student does not appreciate the lesson with joy, he may lose out.
I was thinking about Purim. Esther spoke to the King, in the name of Mordechai, Megillah 2.22. A simple effort, saved the King’s life. In the Megillah, we learn how Esther persists with the King in two joyful banquets, she makes her case and the people are saved!