Today we conclude Adar I and usher in Adar II. I often wonder: is the principle of כשנכנס אדר מרבין בשמחה one that applies to Adar I, to Adar II, or to both Adars? I believe I found the answer in a passage I just recently encountered in the Sefat Emet. Why, he asks, is Adar a time for simḥah? His answer is that Elul, the month before Tishrei, which begins with Rosh Hashanah and is therefore the last month of the year, is set aside for teshuvah. But if that holds for the rabbinic calendar, it should hold as well for the biblical calendar, according to which Nisan is the first month – haḥodesh hazeh rosh ḥodashim hu lakhem – and the last month before Nisan is Adar. Hence, these two months, Elul and Adar, six months apart from each other, are both months dedicated to teshuvah. What is the difference between them? It is this: Elul is teshuvah mi-yirah, whereas Adar is teshuvah me-ahavah – and this kind of teshuvah is always an occasion of joy. So today is a double day of joy – the beginning of Adar, and the Bar Mitzvah of Bezalel Weinberg. Bezalel, we are all aware of your record as a superb student, as a young man chock full of talent. But you get no special credit for that, for such innate qualities are gifts of HaKadosh Barukh Hu – they are the cumulative consequences of the genes of a bright and competent mother and a brilliant father, of their parents – grandfathers who, each in his own way, have had major impact on all American Jewry – and their parents and grandparents before them, a line which includes some of the true gedolei Yisrael of their generation. But you add something precious of your own: you are also a gentle person, you possess a loving and warm heart; you are a young man of diverse qualities. Let me explain. “Mi zot ha-nishkafah ka-mo shahar, yafah ka-lavanah, barah ka-ḥammah, ayumah ke-nidgalot” – the Zohar comments: “Mi zot – razah de-trein alma’in mitḥabran ke-ḥada.” The Ḥiddushei ha-Rim says: “Mi” represents the hidden (nistar), “zot” the revea…