A Jew is happy to be a Jew. And he is even happier to be a ben Torah. Even today, we have the custom of making a remembrance of the Simchas Beis Hasho’evah that once took place in Beis Hamikdash. We dance and sing with great energy, celebrating the fact that we are Jews and we are b’nei Torah.
My father would always tell us when we were children, “A prince doesn’t play in the gutter.” The first thing we need to know is we are princes. We involve ourselves with great things, with diamonds – not with repugnant garbage. A ben yeshivah doesn’t interest himself with which make of automobiles is better, or talk about the news. Why? Because he is a prince.
Joy of the right type protects our spiritual property. We have tremendous wealth. We are involved with millions and billions. Every word of Torah and every mitzvah we do is eternity. Therefore we need to distance ourselves from all the nonsense around us.
Hashem created His world in such a way that after מלך עוזר ומושיע, we need מגן. That’s the nature of the world. If we don’t protect what we gained, we will lose it. The Creator of the world set the need for protection as a rule of nature, and there is nothing we can do to change that.
The מגן, the “shield” that protects the great treasures we gained in the Yamim Nora’im, is the festival of Sukkos. And the festival of Sukkos is zeman simchaseinu. This joy is the strongest protection for everything we acquired. When a Jew is happy with who he really is, and what he really has, he takes no interest in things that are not Torah and kedushah. He has no need for them. He is very happy with the tremendous riches that he was blessed with: Torah and mitzvos.
This is the best protection that could be!
