In this study I would like to examine the minor holiday of Purim Katan. Purim Katan means little Purim.[1]

In a leap year when, according to the Jewish calendar, there are two months of Adar, Adar Rishon (I Adar) and one in Adar Sheini (II Adar); we celebrate Purim Katan in the first Adar, Adar Rishon. The fact that Purim Katan is in Adar Rishon indicates that this year is a leap year, the idea of which is to reconcile the difference between the solar and lunar years.

“Purim Katan” is also called the “fourteenth of the first Adar” in the Gemara. Therefore, when we choose to use the term “Purim Katan”, we are emphasizing that it has an aspect in which it is smaller than Purim, yet it comes first.

In the case of Purim the following day is Shushan Purim, and in the case of Purim Katan it is Shushan Purim Katan.

Purim Kattan is a microcosm of the larger Purim. It comes exactly thirty days before the "big" Purim and serves as an official reminder that it is time to begin preparing ourselves for the upcoming holy day. In essence, we have thirty extra days to put ourselves in the festival spirit.

There is a significant connection between Purim and Purim Katan. As the Mishna [2] teaches:

Megillah 6b ‘There is no difference between the fourteenth of the first Adar and the fourteenth of the second Adar save in the matter of reading the Megillah[3] and gifts to the poor’.

In all other matters it would appear that both Purims are the same, with Purim Katan retaining the quality of being first! The only difference is that we do not perform any of the actions required on Purim. The implication is that during the first Adar, there should be some kind of remembrance of the miracle of Purim.

When is Purim Katan?

Total lunar eclipse Purim Katan, in 2011, begins at sundown, in the diaspora, on:

Erev Shabbat (Thursday evening), February 17 until Friday evening, February 18, 2011 - I Adar 14, 5771.

Shushan Purim, therefore, falls on Shabbat.

Curiously, the last Shushan Purim Katan (I Adar 15, 5768 - February 20, 2008) saw a full lunar eclipse.

The next occurrence of Purim Katan will be on Saturday, February 23, 2013 – I Adar 13, 5773.

Observances

While there are no mandatory observances for Purim Katan, we should still celebrate this festival and we should not mourn or fast. Rambam teaches that eulogies and fasting are forbidden on the 14th and 15th for everyone everywhere, both in Adar Rishon[4] and Sheni.[5]

Some authorities[6] suggest adding to our normal meals, on this day, in order to increase our joy.

Rabbi Eli Mansour teaches us about the effects of Purim Katan on our prrayers:

On these days we omit the Tahanunim[7] section of the prayer service, including the Viduyim.[8] We also omit the paragraph of “La’menase’ah” and “Tefila Le’David” which are incongruous with the festive nature of these days. Tahanunim is likewise omitted from Minha on the afternoon of the thirteenth of Adar Rishon. When the fifteenth of Adar Rishon falls on Shabbat, we do not recite “Sidkatecha” during Minha. (The fourteenth of Adar never falls on Shabbat, but the fifteenth can occur on Shabbat.)

The Avudraham[9] who quotes the minhag that women should not work during 14 Adar I. Without question, this minhag is based upon its status as Purim Katan. Prohibition of work is never associated with Megillat Ta'anit.[10] Any prohibition of work on this day would have to stem from its status as Purim Katan, a minor holiday.

The Code of Jewish Law cites an opinion that one should increase in festivity and joy, but rules that there is no obligation to do so; “Nevertheless, a person should increase somewhat in festivity... for ‘One who is of good heart is festive always’”.[11]

A Rare Occurrence

The metonic cycle is a 19 year cycle during which the moon returns to exactly the same place (at the same longitude and against the same constellation) in the sky with the same phase.

The current cycle began in 5758.

5771 is year 13 of the 19 year cycle.

The day of Purim Katan (the 14th day of Adar I) should be viewed as a relatively rare event, because in the 19-year metonic cycle of regular years and leap years we have 19 Purims (which occurs on the 14^th day of the second Adar), but only 7 Purim Katans (which occurs on the 14^th day of the first Adar), according to the Jewish calendar.

The day of Purim Katan (the 14th of Adar I) should be viewed as a precious guest.

Purim Katan is the only time we have a minor festival preceding the actual festival. This suggests that there is something special about a leap year which demands a Purim Katan. Since Purim Katan is a time to prepare for Purim, we learn that Purim is an extremely important festival.

Purim Katan contains an allusion to Mashiach, a descendent of King David, about whom it states:

1 Shmuel (Samuel) 17:14 And David was the smallest (katan): and the three eldest followed Saul.

Although we use the term small (katan) with regard to Purim Katan, therein lies their greatness, “this small one (alluding to Purim Katan and King David) will be great,” with the true and complete Redemption.

on Purim Katan we celebrate the miracle itself, on Purim Gadol we celebrate the renewal of the Sinai covenant.

"All the holidays will cease except Purim, as it says:

Esther 9:28 And its memory will not cease from their descendants.[12]

Simcha – Joy!

Ta'anith 29a at the onset of Adar, Joy (simcha) is increased.

There are two Adars this year of 5771, I Adar and II Adar.

The month of Adar is not special only because it hosts the holiday of Purim, but rather it has a joyous characteristic of its own. Our Hakhamim taught that when the month of Adar comes in simcha (joy) increases. It is not just Purim that is a happy day, but the entire two months of Adar I and Adar II in a leap year, that is full of simcha.

Now we should understand that a Jew must be happy the entire year, not just on Purim or during the month of Adar. The Torah brings punishment upon a Jew for not serving HaShem with simcha, as it is written

Devarim (Deuteronomy) 28:47 …that you did not serve HaShem thy G-d with simcha and a happy heart.

or the Palmist who exhorts

Tehillim (Psalms) 100:2 …serve HaShem with simcha.

Rashi[13] explains that when Adar comes in joy increases because it is the time of the miracles of (both) Purim and of Passover (Talmud Taanit 29a).

The Lubavitcher Rebbe says that since a leap year with two Adars has sixty days, and since sixty is how we nullify the forbidden [in kashrut laws] one can say that the sixty days of Adar allude to the nullification (to the point that it's actually nullified) of all undesirable things! The time is right to increase in simcha, in double measure, for sixty days.

The joy of Adar is what makes the month of Adar the "pregnant" month of the year (i.e., seven of the nineteen years in the cycle of the Jewish calender are "leap years," "pregnant" with an additional month of Adar). Tradition teaches that Adar is so full of joy that it is as if Adar were pregnant with happiness. Indeed, some years we need two Adars to contain all the joy of Adar.

When there are two Adars, Purim is celebrated in the second Adar, in order to link the redemption of Purim to the redemption of Pesach. Thus we see that the secret of Adar and Purim is "the end is wedged in the beginning."

Our Simcha is supposed to grow every day and carry us all the way to Pesach, which in turn carries us through the year and back to Purim again! The best way to accomplish this is to use Purim Katan. Purim Katan has no halachic requirements. Whatever we do to increase our joy on Purim Katan, we do because we want to, not because we have to. It is the heart-felt joy that comes from showing our love for HaShem, without a requirement, that can carry us, through multiple years, until the next Purim Katan.

While each festival has some joy attached to it, they also have mitzvot that are required. Because there are mitzvot attached, we do not have the ability to have joy beyond the festival because these mitzvot intentionally constrain us with requirements.

Purim Katan is different. There are no required mitzvot. The joy is therefore unbridled. There are no restraints to our joy.

The directive to rejoice and feast on Purim Katan is not explicitly written even in Shulchan Aruch because it is of so high a level that it can only be hinted at. That is why Hakham Moshe Iserles hints, in his gloss to the Shulchan Aruch, at the joy of feasting on Purim Katan.[14]

On Purim Katan there are no mitzvot performed. One can therefore feast, drink, and rejoice on every free moment of the day. Thus the idea of “He who is of a good heart rejoices continually” is seen most openly on Purim Katan.

Because Purim Katan falls on erev Shabbat when we are already beginning to expience the joy of Shabbat, suggests that 5771 is an especially auspicious time to maximise our joy by combining erev Shabbat with Purim Katan.

[1] The Hebrew (קטן) katan means both ‘small’ and ‘humble’.

[2] The Mishnah (lit. “repetition”), redacted circa 200 CE by Yehuda Ha-Nasi (“President Judah”), is the first written recording of the Oral Torah of the Jewish people, as championed by the Perushim (Pharisees), and as debated between 70-200 CE by the group of rabbinic sages known as the Tannaim.It is considered the first important work of Rabbinic Judaism and is a major source of Rabbinic Judaism’s religious texts: Rabbinic commentaries on the Mishnah over the three centuriesafter its composition were then redacted as the Gemara (Aramaic: “Tradition”).

[3] The Book of Esther, otherwise known as the Megillah, is a book of the Tanach (Hebrew Bible) and is the basis for the celebration of Purim. Its full text is read aloud twice during the celebration.

[5] Hilchot Megilah 2:13. The second Adar – Purim.

[6] See the Rama's (Hakham Moshe Iserles) conclusion of his notes to Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chayim (697:1) in which he quotes Mishlei (Proverbs) 15:15: "A good-hearted person is always celebrating."

[7] “Supplications” - Shulchan Aruch (OC 697:1)

[9] Abudraham was a rishon who lived at Seville, Spain, and who was known for his commentary on the Synagogue liturgy.

[10] A chronicle which enumerates thirty-five eventful days on which the Jewish nation either performed glorious deeds or witnessed joyful events. These days were celebrated as feast-days. Public mourning was forbidden on fourteen of them, and public fasting on all.

[13] Rashi is an acronym for, RAbbi SHlomo Itzhaki

Torah	Bamidbar (Numbers) 4:17 – 5:10	Numbering the Levites.
Haftarah	Zephaniah 3:7-15, 20	Judgments of the nations and the return of HaShem’s people.
Psalm	Tehillim (Psalms) 93	HaShem in Majesty.

Observances

A Rare Occurrence

Simcha – Joy!

Triennial Cycle Torah Portion