The more you study, the more phenomena you learn to enjoy, the more happiness you're going to get out of life. Like Dovid said: I find happiness in all the functions You created, in the deeds of Your Hands (Tehillim 92:5).
And as life progresses, we’re always adding on to our store of happiness as well as reviewing the old ones more deeply. Every day we’re marbin besimcha; like it says. And after a while life on all sides is bursting out with song. On all sides! And you become a happy personality. That’s a tremendous achievement, a very big mitzvah, to gain a happy personality.
Part III. Stimulating Happiness
The Shield
Everyone knows that in the beginning of the Shemoneh Esrei we say are praising Hashem and we say that He is our King, Who helps us and saves us and shields us. Now, Ozer means He helps us do things; from the word oz, Ozer means He gives us strength to do things. Moshia means He comes with us and He aids us in carrying out things. When we cry out to Him, He listens.
And what is Magen? Magen means ‘He goes ahead of us like a shield and He protects us,’ and that’s the word I want to talk about. What does that mean exactly? In what way is He our shield?
Hidden Miracles
Now in Mesichta Niddah (31a) the Gemara says as follows: Rabbi Elazar asks, “What does it mean this possuk, ‘Hashem does wonders all by Himself’” (Tehillim 72:18). Rabbi Elazar wants to know, ‘What is it saying ‘He does wonders by Himself’? What does it mean ‘by Himself’?
So Rabbi Elazar explains that miracles are being done to us all the time that only Hakadosh Baruch Himself is aware of. Even the person to whom the miracle is being done doesn’t recognize the miracle that he is enjoying.
You hear that? There are miracles without end happening to us that we’re not aware of. And therefore we're not enjoying them. If you don’t know that you’re being saved from trouble you can’t enjoy that miracle and you’re losing out on a big dose of happiness.
The Unoppressed Oppressed
Every day we say as follows: Hakadosh Baruch Hu does justice for those who are oppressed (Tehillim 146:7).
Now the question is, is that really so? Does Hashem do justice to all those who are oppressed? Don't we see people who are oppressed and justice is not done to them? So what does it mean? Just the plain teitch, what does it mean that Hashem saves those who are oppressed?
But the explanation is entirely different. What he’s saying is this: Every one of us is being oppressed. Each one of us is being bullied by tyrants and bad neighbors and loan sharks and mobsters. It's only because Hakadosh Baruch Hu steps in and stops it that we don’t know about it.
Saved From the Mob
You know, some people have gangsters waiting for them. They made a mistake; they needed money and they couldn't get it quick enough so they went to a loan shark, a gangster company, where the interest is 100% interest. And they can't pay back.
A man, an ex-yeshivah boy who went to the Mesivta by us, called me up at 12 o'clock one night. He says, “Rabbi Miller, what should I do?” He can't go home, he tells me. He made the mistake of borrowing big money and he can't pay back and now there's a gangster waiting for him at his house.
What could I do? He wanted money from me. I couldn't fork over to him a few thousand dollars at 12 o'clock at night. Even 12 o'clock in the afternoon I couldn't. So I left him hanging. He was somewhere in Manhattan in a telephone booth. He couldn't go home. The anguish this man was experiencing! I couldn’t help him.
There are a lot of people like that being bullied right now. There are gangsters who have their names and telephone numbers and are trying to pressure them for money. A lot of people are suffering from wicked men, wicked neighbors and wicked bosses and wicked politicians and mobsters and landlords and loan sharks.
It’s Him, Not You
Why aren't we? Don’t think it has anything to do with you. Much bigger and smarter people than you are suffering. The answer is because Hashem is Hakadosh Baruch Hu is doing justice for those who otherwise would have been oppressed. The possuk is talking about us! We are the ones whom He saved; we were spared. And it’s important to find happiness in that.
It means, look around you. If you hear of somebody who was oppressed – he was knocked over in the street by four bums for nothing and they trampled on him and broke his ribs and left him for dead – you have to remind yourself that it could have happened chalilah to you. All you need is the right juncture, to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. You're walking on a side street and four bums come and they push against you; and sometimes you make an ejaculation of annoyance and you’re done — they're on you.
It's Hakadosh Baruch Hu Who has seen to it beforehand that you don't walk on that street where they are. Or maybe He put the four bums in some back alley someplace else and they’re too drunk to come out to the front where you are. And that's why you're here tonight.
We have to understand and keep in mind always, every day, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is protecting us right now. And it’s an actual happiness for the thinking person when he becomes aware that miracles are being done for him. He’s begins to feel in his heart that he's a lucky fellow. And he is! And he becomes more and more happy just because of that; just because Hashem is Hakadosh Baruch Hu is doing justice for those who otherwise would have been oppressed. The possuk is talking about him!
Which Fallers?
Same thing when we say every day in Ashrei: Hashem supports all the fallers. Because we don’t understand that. Don't we see people who fall? Every day people fall. So who is it talking about? Which fallers?
The answer is it’s talking about all of us who are standing. We should be falling all the time; to stand erect is hard work. The fact is it's a strain on your heart to stand up straight. You know that when a man is standing and a bullet hits him in the brain, does he die standing up? Why does he fall down? Nobody dies standing because standing is an effort. You have to work hard; your brain has to cooperate with your muscles and your nerves to keep you standing. So the fact that you’re not falling down right now is the result of Hakadosh Baruch Hu’s Providence.
Or if you didn’t fall down at work; you made enough sales this month to keep your boss off your back. Or your stocks didn’t fall down like they could have. Or you didn’t fall into debt this month. You didn’t fall into a manhole that Con Edison is digging. You’re still standing? That’s only because Hashem is watching over you that you shouldn’t fall. You don’t know how many miracles He’s doing for you.
Straightened and Healed
And if you're not bent over, if your spine is not curved, if you can stand up straight and look people into the face instead of looking on the ground, it's because Hashem is straightening you out. And if you’re not right now in the cancer ward in Sloan Kettering or the ICU hooked up to oxygen, it’s not your own strength that was the cause. It’s because Hashem is healing you.
And therefore the fact that you are here and you are in good condition means that you have avoided very many things that have happened to other people; and that's going to cause you – if you think about it – endless joy!
The Joy of Awareness
Now, it’s true that it takes a little effort but it pays. It will pay you back many times over because it stimulates you to bring forth an emotion of happiness that would otherwise never gush forth. And the more you think into it the more and more you'll open up the fountain of simcha and it will start gushing; and forever you're going to be happy with the mere fact that these things didn't happen to you! You’ll actually be filled with joy.
So you might say what kind of joy is that? Things that didn’t happen?! Joy is from eating an ice cream cone. Joy is chocolate cake. Joy is if I would find $100 in the street.
But that’s nothing! That’s baby-talk, baby happiness. Let's say you find $100 in the street. If chas veshalom after that you get a pain in a certain place and you go to a doctor and he tells you chalilah bad news, the $100 will be swallowed up like nobody's business. It will cost $100 a day. Money means nothing compared to good health.
So Much Happiness
And so the biggest fun is the fun of being well. And the one who trained himself in the habit of happiness understands that. He’s walking down the avenue – could be he just lost his job and he doesn’t have a dime in his pocket and his wife just gave him a tongue-lashing — but he’s walking on the clouds! He’s a very happy man because his liver is functioning. Who knows how much trouble his liver would have caused him if Hashem was not supporting him always. And his heart is pumping and his kidneys are cleaning his blood. Who knows how many miracles he’s experienced!
So now you have a number of reasons why your heart should be singing in happiness all the time. You're not bent over. Your spine is straight. You don't have a gangster who is waiting in front of your house at night to collar you before you walk home. You go home tonight and there's nobody waiting outside for you. Your kidneys are functioning and there are no cancer cells running amuck in your body. Nothing is happening!
But let's remember that they are happening! Because if we look around we see things happening every day, all the time. People who are being taken in ambulances to the hospital; or in fancy limousines to the cemetery. And the purpose is to remind us that the same thing could be happening to us. If not for the kindness of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, there goes I. What happened to him could have just as well happened to me if not for Hashem my shield.
Commiserate and Appreciate
Now that's a valuable system of building up joy in one's heart. It may seem a little bit hardhearted that because of other people's misfortunes you are going to learn how to be happy, but you have to realize that's one of the purposes that Hakadosh Baruch Hu had in mind by showing us these misfortunes. He’s doing us benefits at all times but if we're not aware of them we're not enjoying them fully. But when there's suffering in the world then it's possible for us to wake up and to realize what we are possessing now.
And so whenever you see in the street, whenever you read in the news, whenever you hear from your neighbors, of something that causes people sorrow, you should utilize that for yourself and appreciate what Hakadosh Baruch Hu is doing for you. Of course when you hear about someone who got bad news and is in the hospital chas veshalom, you should pray for him and you should commiserate with him; but still it should add to your store of happiness that Hakadosh Baruch Hu has saved you from that.
Marbin Besimcha
And as a result you're going to come to the middah of simcha which is the ratzon Hashem. Recognizing the hidden miracles, recognizing that’s going to be the extra stimulant, the reminder, to continue lowering that bucket into the fountain of happiness that’s waiting to be unplugged. And it’s going to generate in us such results that it will cause us to be happy and healthy. It will cause our bodies to perform at the maximum performance and it will help us discharge our obligations of serving Hakadosh Baruch Hu.
And if we practice in Adar, during these two months, then we’ll gain the habit of happiness. And we’ll rejoice in the joy that we created for ourselves and we’ll be serving Hashem in happiness not only in Adar Alef and not only Adar Beis, but on Pesach and Shavuos and all summer and winter for many long years.
Let’s Get Practical
One Happiness a Day
There are thousands of happinesses that a person can enjoy in this world and it’s by means of appreciating them one at a time that we build up a skyscraper of happiness that can’t be moved. And therefore what better time to begin building than the upcoming two months of Adar.
For the next sixty days I will bli neder choose one detail of happiness every morning to practice up that day. I will study the happiness for a minute every morning and then as many times as possible during the day I will make it my business to enjoy that detail of life. The next day, a new detail. I will also keep track of the happinesses in a notebook so that I can review them every Shabbos.
This week's booklet is based on tapes: 79 - Happiness | 261 - Be Happy E-210 - The Habit of Happiness | E-262 - World of Models Listen: 718.289.0899 Press 1 for English and 2 for Thursday Night Lectures
