Delight in a Mitzva
The AriZal once told his talmid, Reb Chayim Vital, that the reason he merited Ruach HaKodesh and the revelation of Eliyahu HaNavi was his great joy in fulfilling mitzvos. In this the Rebbe saw a lesson for every individual – that through joy in fulfilling mitzvos, one can reach great heights.
The Torah warns that as a result of not serving HaShem with simcha, the Yidden will have to serve their enemies. The Alter Rebbe explains that these “enemies” are the mekatregim, the accusatory voices in the Beis-Din shel Maala that threaten a Yid in the areas of parnasa, health and children. Those voices are silenced when he davens with the exuberance and simcha that come from recognizing HaShem.
The Alter Rebbe would instruct people with troubles to daven with song and simcha, for doing so sweetens the dinim, the Heavenly verdicts that hang over a person, and eliminates all the adversaries in the Beis-Din shel Maala. The Mitteler Rebbe noted that this approach has been “tried and tested.”
The Mitteler Rebbe adds that even those people who are deeply immersed in meditation on Chassidus while they daven should say the words aloud, together with song, for this brings simcha. In addition, one ought to actually experience simcha shel mitzva, to the extent that when putting on tallis and tefillin or giving tzedaka, one should feel excitement in his heart that he is able to cause pleasure to his Creator. One should ignore those who mock him in this, and whose only sources of enjoyment are physical pleasures.
A chossid once complained to the Alter Rebbe that his mind was being assailed by foreign thoughts. The Alter Rebbe told him, “They gather in empty space!” (This means that such thoughts come when the mind is not filled with thoughts of Torah and mitzvos.) The Rebbe commented that the same is true of simcha: if a person does not have joy in fulfilling mitzvos, his happiness will be expressed in other things...
In the days of the Baal Shem Tov there lived a chossid in the village of Lubavitch who was nicknamed Reb Yisroel der Lebediker (“Yisroel the lively one”). Even at the age of ninety, he would still daven and learn Tanach and Mishnayos with the excitement and energy of a young man. He used to say: “A mitzva without kavana is like a body without a neshama. The kavana must be that the mitzva comes from the commander, HaShem, Who shleps us out of all sorts of mud. So if I, Yisrolik, who am nothing, have been given the zechus of fulfilling the command of HaShem, of course I should jump and dance out of absolute joy!”
True Simcha
The Rambam writes that when a person eats and drinks and rejoices on Yom-Tov, he should not be drawn into drinking and frivolity, and claim that by doing so he is fulfilling the mitzva of simcha more fully, for this is not simcha, just unbridled foolishness. We are commanded to have real simcha, which always involves serving HaShem – and this cannot be carried out when one is wild or drunk.
When the chassidim of Reb Naftali of Ropshitz davened, the tzaddik would walk up and down the beis midrash, scrutinizing each one. One morning, after davening, he commented, “Today, I saw Reb Tzvi the shammes dancing with great ecstasy. He can dance! And it is not in vain, for he will grow into a mighty tree under which many great men will find shelter. But quite in contrast to him, I saw another man dancing (and he named him). What a pity to wear out a good pair of shoes on dancing of that sort...!”
One night on Chol HaMoed, the students of the Tomchei Temimim Yeshiva in Dokshytz arrived at the sukka of Reb Yehoshua Lein to farbreng and rejoice in Simchas Beis HaShoeiva. The chossid told them, “What kind of simcha can one possibly have without studying beforehand the maamar that begins U’She’avtem (which explains the reason for the joy)?” The bochurim went off to bring a few copies of Likkutei Torah from their homes and then studied that maamar for over an hour. Only then did they rejoice, dancing till late at night.
The Joy of Reunion
At the beginning of the Alter Rebbe’s nesius, he discontinued the practice of his chassidim to arouse atzvus (sadness) within themselves over their wrongdoings. The chassidim thought they were also to do away with merirus (bitterness over aveiros) and were therefore constantly in a state of simcha. Later, the Alter Rebbe wrote in Tanya that there is a benefit to be gained from feelings of bitterness over aveiros, for in fact it serves as a necessary prerequisite for joy. The chassidim then understood that it was only melancholy that the Alter Rebbe had negated.
The Rebbe once said that in our times we no longer have the emotional strength to do teshuva with bitterness; rather, we must do teshuva with simcha. The Rebbe went further and explained that in fact, teshuva itself is a great reason for simcha – for there can be no greater joy than finding oneself and being reunited with our Father, like a wandering prince who finally comes home, after a long separation, to his father, the king.
Consider
Is the difference between worldly excitement and simcha shel mitzva in the object of the joy, or in the joy itself? Why is merirus not a contradiction to joy? Is the teshuva of joy less earnest than teshuva of merirus?
