Being that this year is a leap year, containing two months of Adar, the 14th day of the first Adar (this year, Friday, February 23) is known as Purim Kattan, the ‘small’ Purim.
Until our present fixed calendar was established, the Sanhedrin (highest rabbinical court) would decide whether the year would be a leap year. They very often postponed this decision until the last minute to see if the plants had begun to sprout and there was enough time for it to grow in order to bring the Omer, as well as if the roads were dry enough for those who were travelling to Jerusalem for Passover would otherwise be unable to arrive in time for the holiday, etc. After Moshiach comes, the Sanhedrin will again decide each year whether to add a second Adar.
Likewise, there is also a Shushan Purim Kattan, a ‘small’ Shushan Purim, on the 15th day of the first Adar. The Jews of Shushan, the capital city of Persia, fought their enemies on the 13th and 14th of Adar and celebrated on the 15th, unlike the Jews who dwelled in other regions of the Babylonian Empire, who fought only on the 13th and celebrated on the 14th.
In a talk about Purim, The Rebbe explained the relevance of a Jewish holiday named for a city in the Diaspora. It is the task of every Jew to refine the material environment of the world, to transform the mundane into the holy. By naming the holiday Shushan Purim, we are transforming the Persian capital into something positive.
The lesson of Shushan Purim can be applied to the rest of the year. This task that we have been given, to elevate the physical into the spiritual realm, is a daily, hourly, constant assignment. Money, the truest symbol of materialism, is simply currency. But when money is given to charity, then it has been elevated to something holy.
Eating, a purely physical act, can be transformed into a spiritual act when one looks upon the act of consuming food as a means of refueling in order to have the energy to perform mitzvot.
We must continue with the task of elevating the physical to the spiritual until the ultimate fulfillment of that goal, the arrival of Moshiach.
