Do you know what that means? You may or may not but chances you’ve received e-mails with the letter in place of the traditional smiley emoticon☺.The reasons are vague but it has something to do with Microsoft’s code-reading from other systems or maybe not but anyhow for some reason the well-intentioned humorous sign-off often shows up as the letter J.

So get this; a new report says that there’s no reason to fix it since apparently people have come to associate the letter J with the smiley-face to the point that it has the same effect on them.

Effect on them? How does that work?

I was thinking about this last night when someone said to me “I hope Mishpacha isn’t going to do their traditional Purim spoof since given the horrific world events — the tragedies in Japan and closer to our home our own brothers and sisters Hy’d in Itamar- it isn’t the time and place.”

The Mishpacha Purim issue and the spoof section has become something of a tradition and it’s always fun to work with the creative and talented editors and writers and trying to parody the voices and tones of our columnists.

Give it up out of respect to the terrible events last week? Is that really our mandate?

I was reminded of a story that an old Jew shared with me. It was just before Purim in Bergen Belsen he said and there were few reasons to smile. Everyone it seemed was mourning one relative or another and hunger and illness seemed destined to be the two species of mishloach manos.

The Satmar Rebbe ztz’l Rav Yoel was in the camp and he gathered a few broken souls around him. He quoted the words of the Tikkunei Zohar that Purim is holier than Yom Kippur as evident by the words Yom KiPurim that the holiest of days is only like Purim. Many interpretations are offered for this idea. The Rebbe suggested another: just as when the sun sets on Erev Yom Kippur no one says “I’m not in the mood of fasting this year so I won’t or suggests that since teshuvah is simply too hard it will have to wait until a better time. “Yom Kippur arrives and you get yourself into it ready or not. Purim is no different. It comes and with it the call to increase in simchah. We have no choice.”

That was then. Today even with hearts heavy with grief we know that the mandate to the readers is to give them what they need on all fronts: sure there’s an in-depth piece written in tears by Andye Friedman about the Fogel family but there’s also the regular spoof section. Yidden need reasons to smile. We are blessed to have a part in giving it to them.

So ☺or J or whatever works.

Ah freilechen Purim.