Acquiring Good Habits
Now, when we understand how heavy is this obligation to gain for ourselves the optimum physical happiness, we must study how we do this. How do we acquire this habit of simcha?
The answer is it’s inside us. Just like the chemical reactions of the organs of the body are made-to-order for happiness, the neshama of a person too is created for happiness. Because it’s the will of Hashem that we should have the potential for never-ending happiness, He made therefore a well, a fountain, of happiness inside us. It’s a reservoir that is connected by a pipe to an endless source of happiness, to the world where the neshama came from. How deep is the well I cannot tell you because it's bottomless. But what I can tell you is that once you begin to unplug the well you’ll cause the waters to gush forth.
Now that's a very big yediah; people would be very much interested in knowing this information because everybody – at least that's what they claim – seeks happiness. And they would go big distances to find it. We see they do go; they imagine happiness is in some far off place, some expensive place, and they go there looking. But if they would know that happiness is stored up like an atomic energy pile within themselves and they are capable of generating as much happiness as they want – if they would know that information it would be one of the most important lessons that they could gain: that it’s within you to become happy! And therefore הָח¿מƒׂ ̆¿ּב יןƒּב¿רַמ רָ„ֲ‡ סַנ¿כƒּנ∆ּׁ ̆ƒמ means only that you have to get busy pumping it out from within.
Lowering the Bucket
You know, if you have a well in your front yard, a water-well, it won’t help you at all if you’re not going to approach the well and make some effort to draw forth the water. You have to find a bucket and get to work. Same thing with the happiness-well that’s inside of you – you have to lean over into the well and begin drawing forth buckets of happiness. How so? By means of thinking; by means of the mind.
Now, I’m not saying you can’t enjoy a nosh once in a while in Adar to help get into the mood; sometimes you need some ice-cream to help prime the pump. Nosh helps out a little bit – it’s encouragement to stimulate your happiness emotions – but the most important bucket you’ll need is your mind.
Once you learn how to think, what to think, so you’ll start exciting that source of pleasure, the source of happiness, within you and you'll be amazed that after a while it becomes a gusher, a fountain of joy just from yourself. You become a gusher that brings forth new attitudes and emotions of happiness – even chiddushim; chiddushim in happiness! – every day.
So let’s get down to business, to the business of the habit of happiness. The first thing you have to know is that the happiness of life is many things. The joy of life is not one thing; there are thousands and thousands of details of happiness. Life is a combination, a sum total of tens of thousands of phenomena, and each one is a bucket in itself.
And therefore it's necessary to take each phenomenon separately and study it on its own; the result of your study will be that when you encounter that phenomenon it causes you happiness.
The Sugya of Zyphers
So suppose you study the wind; let's say a man learns to enjoy the wind. You’ll find happiness whenever you go outside. It may seem silly but that's because you didn't study it. The wind is a subject that can make you endlessly grateful and very happy. There's a lot of fun in the wind if you’ll study it.
The Gemara tells in Mesichta Gittin (31b) that a chacham was walking and he saw two sages seated and talking so he said ו ̇יƒ ̃¿סָﬠ י‡ַמ¿ּב – What sugya are you talking about? So they said ֹ̇חוּרו¿ּב – “We’re talking about winds.” Two sages of the Talmud were seated and talking about winds, about the benefits and pleasures of wind.
Why don't we sit down sometimes and talk about winds? Nobody wants to listen? So talk to yourself. If the winds finally are discussed and studied properly so the next time there will be a zephyr or a breeze or a gust, whatever it is, it's going to cause us happiness!
Now it doesn't mean we'll go wild with simcha; after all, it's only one of many phenomena. But it will make you happy! And winds are blowing all the time and they don't cost much money either. So a person is walking in the street and a breeze is tickling him and it arouses in his mind all those pleasurable thoughts that he prepared in his thoughts. And that way winds become one contribution to a career of happiness.
Breathing In Happiness
Now suppose that person also learned how to enjoy breathing. Breathing is fun. I once told you about a simple experiment, didn’t I? Fill up your sink with water and dip your head; hold it there for thirty seconds and finally you take it out: “Ahh!” That first breath of air. Isn’t it delicious! And the truth is it's always delicious; only sometimes you need to be reminded.
So practice it. Sometimes you’re a little depressed, open the window and breathe deeply for a little while. It will change you. When you breathe air, it freshens you. That’s what it’s for; it’s made for our happiness.
Now, once you start practicing you’ll be amazed how much happiness you have in your heart just because of your breathing. When you walk outside and breathe the air, even cold air, it’s a happiness. It’s good, clean air, and the cold helps clean the air; it makes it free of germs. When you breathe it in, you’re so happy. It comes into your lungs and it invigorates you; it makes your blood become more red and you’re so happy. And so, יןƒּב¿רַמ רָ„ֲ‡ סַנ¿כƒּנ∆ּׁ ̆ƒמ הָח¿מƒׂ ̆¿ּב, means, “I’m so happy I’m breathing!”
Now, I understand that it doesn’t even enter your mind. Make a tally, see how many people think about that? I’m talking about frum Jews. The beheimos outside, I’m not talking about them. But the frum Jews, how many are thinking about enjoying the gift of air and thanking Hashem for that? I’m very sorry to say, not many and that’s a condemnation, an accusation against us.
Don’t think it’s an exaggeration. Don’t think I’m making a big fuss over nothing here. I’m telling you the A-B-C’s of being a Jew. You have to thank Hashem for air, for the fun of breathing.
The Sunny Disposition
Now suppose in addition to that he has the joy of sunlight too. Sunlight! It warms you up. It’s free energy. Con Ed won’t send you a bill for daytime light or for the heat. The sun gives you the ability to see. It gives you vitamins too. The sun is fun. When a person practices walking on the sunny side of the street, he’ll be walking on the sunny side of life.
Why should you wait until the day comes when you’re 119 years old and you’re lying in a home for old men looking through the window and you know that you have only one or two days left; you’re looking out on the street and thinking, “How beautiful is the light of day. I never realized that light was such a good thing.”
Light means I can see this fun world. Light means I have blue skies. It means I have trees with beautiful foliage. I have rose bunches galore as I walk down the street. Everything I have.
You walk out on Ocean Parkway, and it’s a beautiful street. It's a parkway; there are trees and bushes and after today’s rain they're exuding a fragrance too. And the combined fragrance of different kinds of shrubs and trees combined with the city odors – it's a pleasure the city odors – they combine to give a certain cocktail. Not the kind you drink; no. You draw it deep into your lungs and enjoy it. Learn to enjoy it! It takes some time but you can make it a habit of yours.
Water also makes us happy. You have all the good water you want to drink. Flatbush water, tap water, is a pleasure! And it’s almost free! Learn to enjoy it. I don’t care what you say; it’s fun! A glass of water when you’re thirsty is a taanug! No question, it’s a real pleasure!
More and More Pleasure
Sleep! Sleep is a happiness. While you’re sleeping, all the organs in the body are being refreshed and you wake up a new man. And a pillow too? Ooh ah! It’s a joy to sleep well, to sleep soundly. You young people don’t appreciate it. Someday you might have to look back and say, “The good old days when I slept so geshmak.” Sleeping is a pleasure and it was planned that way for the purpose of happiness. So make use of it! Enjoy your sleeping! Get up in the morning and say, “Ah! I slept a sweet sleep last night.” Thank Hashem for it!
Whatever you do, try to enjoy it. Even after you’re done, look back and enjoy what you already experienced. When you finish a meal, look back and enjoy what you have eaten. “Ah! That was a good piece of bread!” “Ooh, that fish was geshmak!” Whatever it was you ate try to re-experience the pleasure and thank Hashem for that experience.
Now, I really shouldn’t stop this talk. We should sit here and talk together all night long. And then we’ll continue all day long because there’s no end. Everything in the world was created to increase your happiness; all of nature is planned to stimulate simcha. Even looking at a tree causes simcha naturally. It’s only our stubbornness, our contrariness, that makes us unaware. And therefore it’s our job to learn to respond naturally to all of these stimuli. The secret is that happiness is not one thing; it’s ten thousand things.
Roofs and Plumbing in Adar
Happiness is having a roof over your head. A roof over your head! Ahh! What happiness that is! It takes some practice to appreciate a roof properly but you must do it. You walk into your apartment at night and you remind yourself, “Ahh, it’s warm inside. I’m so happy that I’m not sleeping somewhere on a park bench tonight. This is happiness!”
You have a bathroom too? Ahh, you’re overloaded with good times. When I was in Europe nobody had a bathroom. When you went to the toilet in the wintertime, in the middle of the night, you had to put on your boots. I stamped through the snow at nighttime with heavy boots to go to the bathroom. You think the bathroom had a seat? No! You crouched over a hole. In the summertime, when you came out, you had to wait about an hour before the odor would go out of your clothing. Trust me you should be happy with a bathroom. Be happy with running water. Hot water! Cold water! Or you can turn on both faucets and make a cocktail, just the right amount.
Bursting With Happiness
Now the more you learn how to be happy from all these things, little by little it grows upon your mind an attitude of optimism. You study all these phenomena one after the other and the sum total adds up to happiness in life. If you studied and practiced two things, so two things cause you happiness. If you learned fifty things, so fifty things will cause you happiness. The more subjects you...
