Transcript
Good morning, Boker Tov, welcome back to Living with Emunah. As always, we begin with our attitude of gratitude, our special thanks to our generous sponsors of Living with Emunah for the year, Doctors Zevi and Bella Morgan, such special people, and a big thanks to them. This is not their first year sponsoring. It should be a tremendous Zechus, a tremendous merit for a beautiful family. They sponsored in memory of our dear friend Rabbi Dr. Brian Galbut, zichrono livracha, in memory of Bella's mother Dr. Ellen Shanzer. We're very, very grateful. Also this morning's particular Shiur is sponsored by our friend Lisa Kaufman, her husband and children for the Refuah Shleimah of יעקב דב נתנאל בן חנה שרה, she should have a complete, speedy, and painless Refuah Shleimah. Also by Avital and Ariel Mintz, לעילוי נשמת אברהם בן נג'את אביר, showed tremendous Emunah rebuilding his life in Israel after escaping Iran. His Neshamah should have an Aliyah as well. Thank you to our generous sponsors. All right, we are starting a new Limud, a new learning this week. Last week we concluded the section we had done, not the whole Sefer, we didn't learn the whole book, Hiaros of Rav Shlomo Wolbe, of Rav Wolbe the great Mashgiach, but the section he had on Emunah, and we're moving back over to B'yam Darkecha, this beautiful Sefer of Rav Itche Meyer Morgenstern, Rav Yitzchak Meir Morgenstern. We've learned parts of it before. I want to go back to it, not only because it's an extraordinary work, I had the privilege recently of being in Israel, something I hope none of us will ever take for granted again, the ability to book a ticket and get on a plane and land. We'll never complain about the ten or twelve-hour flight again. The Zechus, the privilege, the opportunity, if we have it, when we'll once again have it to go to Israel, something we should not, must not take for granted. So when I was there, we've been sharing so much Torah of Rav Itche Meyer that I went to go see him. I'd never met him. I'd never been in his Beis Medrash. It was an extraordinary experience. He's an extraordinary individual. I'm still processing it. In fact, to be in the presence of someone who is such a source of light and energy, I'm not even ready to explain it yet. But I wanted to get back to his Sefer because I feel even more connected to him having met with him, and to specifically study the section on Simcha, on joy, on happiness, because we are on the verge of two months in a row of happiness. משנכנס אדר מרבין בשמחה, when the month of Adar begins, we increase, we expand, we lean in, and we intensify our sense of joy. You could see it, another reason to come in person, those online it's getting cut off by the camera, but עבדו את ה' בשמחה. This is the motto of the Jewish people, it's the motto of our Shul, serve Hashem to be B'simcha, to be with, to be with joy, to be happy. So why is that so important? Why do I have to be happy? Who says I have to be happy? I have to do Mitzvos. Do Mitzvos. Wake up and say my Modeh Ani and tie my shoes in the right order, give my Tzedakah, do my Chesed, do my Davening, do my Mitzvos. Why do I have to be happy? Can't I do my Mitzvos with a frown? Can't I be sad? Can't I be introvert? Can't I be low-key? Can't I be a little down in the dumps? Why do I have to be happy? And this obligation or this culture, this pressure to be happy, isn't it artificial? If I in fact don't feel happy, there are things let's say going on in one's life, legitimately it's struggling, it's difficult to be happy. There are people who go through crisis and catastrophe, they go through hardship and loss, they go through circumstances which deplete them and rob them of a happiness. So why manufacture, why pretend, why walk around? What is this emphasis on Simcha? עבדו את ה' בשמחה, serve Hashem, be happy. Why be happy? Why not worry? Don't worry, be happy? The Jewish way is worry, don't be happy. But that's not okay. We're not supposed to worry and not be happy, we're supposed to not worry and be happy. So why? So if you have the handout in front of you, we'll translate everything we're learning, and if you don't want to follow, simply listen. But it's worth it. You can write down the translations or underline the parts that mean something to you to be able to come back to it in the future. I encourage you, we're not trying to take away his Parnassah, but we're going to keep learning sections of it, buy the book, B'yam Darkecha Simcha. למה השמחה כל כך חשובה? Why is Simcha so important? האם יש חיוב לשמוח מלבד מזמן ובענייני עבודת ה' יתברך? Am I only supposed to be happy when doing Mitzvos? Do I have to be B'simcha when I say my Davening and my Tehillim and I light my candles, but then I can go back to my anxiety and my misery and my worry? Or I'm supposed to walk around with a skip in my step and always be happy, and always be happy? Which is it? There's an amazing gentleman who doesn't live on Montoya Circle but Davens here, comes to our afternoon Kollel all the time. I call him the big Texan. He's from Dallas, Texas. He's six foot I don't know what. I just saw him. I walked through the Shul to come give this class and... I said, Big Texan, and he said, Tamid b'simcha. That's his thing. He's like six-foot-six, big. He's an amazing, amazing person and he walks around, Tamid b'simcha, the biggest smile. You can't not put a smile on your face. You cannot. So why does it matter? Why is it important? Why should we all strive to be a little bit more like the Big Texan? So let's start. Hachiyuv l'smoach. Hafursum b'Yisrael מה שכתוב בספרים הקדושים מצווה גדולה להיות בשמחה תמיד. Everybody knows Rabbi Nachman of Breslov others made famous, mitzvah gedolah, there's a great mitzvah, there's a great mitzvah to be besimcha, to be happy, to be joyous, to be full with light. When? Tamid. Always, consistently and constantly. Not just when you got the winning lottery ticket, not in the hospital room at the birth of the child, not for the camera at the pictures of the simcha of your child or your grandchild or your great-grandchild, everyone should be blessed to experience all of that and all that joy, but tamid, all the time, when you wake up in the morning till you fall asleep at night, every day, every year, to be besimcha, tamid, always be besimcha. And we call it a mitzvah gedolah. It's not stam a mitzvah, it's not just that it's a nice thing and a good thing to do, it's a mitzvah gedolah, mitzvah gedolah. And he wonders, Rav Itchmaier, צריך להתבונן אם השמחה היא מצוה מדוע אין נזכר בתורה. If it's in fact a mitzvah to be besimcha, if there is a commandment to be with joy, someone tell me, where does it appear? Name the chapter and verse where it says you have to be besimcha. Anyone? We have 613 mitzvos. Can anyone tell me which number mitzvah it is to be besimcha? You are all enormous scholars because it doesn't appear anywhere in the Torah and it doesn't appear anywhere on the list of mitzvos, which of course leads Rav Itchmaier to wonder, how can you say mitzvah gedolah, there's an enormous mitzvah? Light candles, give tzedakah, daven, keep Sukkos, keep Pesach, observe Purim, big mitzvah and on top of all those, mitzvah gedolah, a really big mitzvah, be besimcha. Such a big mitzvah, why doesn't it appear in the Torah? Such a big mitzvah, why didn't it make the list of the top 613? Where is it? So he says, the truth is we do allude to it. Anyone remember where we allude to it? Where do we see a notion, a responsibility being held accountable to be besimcha? Yes? We're supposed to give our whole heart to Shema, but it doesn't use the word simcha there. It says with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your meodecha, all of your might or all of your resources or all of your life, but it doesn't say besimcha. I could give my whole life, my whole heart and be miserable. There are plenty of people like that, plenty of Jewish parents who give their whole heart and soul to their children, farbissener, miserable, martyr, negative, woe is me, what I do for you, I've given my whole life to you. You could give your whole life to someone with misery. We're very good at that. We're good at that. So it doesn't say it there. Where does it say simcha? The tochacha. In the harsh rebuke, in the tochacha, look at footnote resh-lamed-bet, footnote 232, it says the following: אף שנזכר בתורה ענין שמחה כמו שכתוב תחת אשר לא עבדת את ה' אלהיך בשמחה ובטוב לבב. When Moshe, communicating from God, holding us accountable, and God says, you know why I am visiting this harsh plague, pandemic upon you? Because you failed to serve God besimcha uvetuv levav. You don't have a full heart and you don't have joy in your heart. מכל מקום זה נאמר על שמחה בעבודת ה'. That's only talking about simcha when doing mitzvos. Where does it say you have to be besimcha when someone's walking by you in the hallway? Tamid besimcha. Where does it say that? ששמח אשר זוכה לעבודת המלך הגדול. So you're right, when you're doing the avodah, when you're doing a mitzvah, you've got to be besimcha, I understand that. You have the privilege of serving the great King, be besimcha in that moment while you do it. But why doesn't it say it always? Notice it's in brackets. He's not getting into it, we're not getting into it. But shelf that question, it's a good one, come back to it another time. את התשובה לזה כתב רבינו חיים ויטאל Sha'arei Kedushah. We are going to sort of answer it. אין המדות מכלל תריג מצות אמנם הם הכנות עקריות על תריג מצות. You know what else according to many Rishonim is not a mitzvah in the Torah? To believe in God. Why not? I'll give you another example, a more basic example. Does anyone know chapter and verse, name it, or tell me of the 613 name the number, where does it say there's a mitzvah to breathe? To breathe. We have to preserve our lives. If you stop breathing or hold your breath, your life will end. Where does it say there's a mitzvah to breathe? Again, you are extraordinary scholars of Torah. You're all absolutely correct and through your silence, I know you were saying to me, Rabbi, it doesn't appear in the Torah. And you're right. It does not appear in the Torah, it does not appear in the list of Taryag. Why? Why isn't there a mitzvah to breathe? Because it's a prerequisite to life. It's a prerequisite to mitzvos. Before you get even into mitzvos, if you're not breathing you're not alive, if you're not alive there's nothing to observe or keep. So we're not going to tell you there's a mitzvah to do something which is an assumption, it's a prerequisite, it comes before the layer of being obligated. According to some, the same is true with belief in God. Anochi Hashem Elokecha is not a mitzvah to believe in God because how could you have a mitzvah to believe? There's no such thing as a mitzvah until you believe. It's only once you believe, it's only when you acknowledge there's a metzaveh, it's only once you submit that there's someone who can command, now you can count: what do I need to do? So to tell you the first mitzvah is to believe in the one who's going to give you that mitzvah, it's paradoxical, cyclical, it doesn't make sense. So Rav Chaim Vital says: Where does it say in the Torah you can't get angry or you have to be patient? Where does it say in the Torah you have to be generous, magnanimous? Where does it say in the Torah... middos, quality, human character, don't appear in the Torah. Rav Chaim Vital says you know why? Rav Chaim Vital says because they are prerequisites to mitzvos. Before you ever come to a mitzvah, the foundation is who we are and how we live. So we're not instructed explicitly because we shouldn't think: really I want to get angry, I'm being patient, so just like I sit in the sukkah and I can put a check next to sitting in the sukkah, I'll put a check next to I was patient when I really wanted to scream, yell, and tear the head off that person. No. Transforming ourselves into patient, kind, good people is a prerequisite to Torah. It comes before, it's foundational. So it's not given as a mitzvah as if it's some external action. It is part of the very core and foundation and character of who we are and who we're meant to be. And the same is true when it is besimcha. To be besimcha is not counted or listed as a mitzvah in the Torah because it's not like blowing shofar or hearing the Megillah. Oh, I smiled today, I'm good. Smile, check. I don't know if there's an app yet that reminds... we have apps to remind us to breathe, apps to remind us get up and go walk around. Is there an app that says smile? If there isn't, create it, you don't even have to give me royalties, we're good to go. יען כי אין כח בנפש השכלית לקיים את המצוות על ידי הגוף אלא באמצעות הנפש היסודית המחוברת אל הגוף והמידות מוטבעות בנפש היסודית. Mitzvos refer to the body. They tell us and regulate how we use our body: shake the lulav and esrog, sit in the sukkah, light the candles, hear the shofar. The mitzvos regulate how we are supposed to engage and use our body. But the qualities, the character traits, the middos that we have, they are all about our soul. Who we are in our core, in our identity, who we are in that which transcends the body. לפיכך עניין המידות הרעות קשה מן העבירות עצמן מאוד מאוד. Bad qualities, because they're so foundational and because they're so fundamental, they are worse than even averos. They're worse than averos. If you have a canvas you're going to paint on. I'm out of my league, Carolina, I don't paint, I'm going to give a mashal, I'm going to give an example, I'm out of my league. But let's say you have a bad paint, a corrupt paint, and you put it on the canvas. So it's bad, your paint was, I don't know what goes wrong with paint, it went wrong, it went bad, it was diluted or spoiled or it dries out or there's something bad with paint. So that's bad. But you know what's even worse than having a problem with the paint? What happens if the canvas itself is corrupt? There's a problem with the canvas, it's going to disintegrate or dissolve or disappear or tear or wear out or, I don't know what. Again, forgive me. So middos are the canvas of our life. Our quality, our character, who we are, the foundation, the core is the canvas of our life. Then the mitzvos are what we paint on top of it. So you're right, if there's a problem with the paint, it's a problem, but you know what's an even bigger problem than the paint? If there's a corruption or a compromise in the canvas itself. והבן זה מאוד כי להיותם עיקרים ויסודות לכל המצוות התלויות בנפש השכלית. We're already onto the next page. We are flying, my friends. So Rav Chaim Vital says, as bad as averos are, and we have to guard ourselves, protect ourselves, and be vigilant not to violate averos, but as bad as averos are, worse than averos are the core, the character, the foundation, the canvas of our lives. If we're stingy, if we're greedy, if we get angry, if we're impatient, if we're jealous and if we're envious, if we're arrogant and if we're egotistical, all of those are core viruses, they're core corruptions. who we are. The whole operating system doesn't work if there's a virus that is so fundamental. יותר צריך להיזהר ממידות הרעות יותר מקיום מצוות עשה ולא תעשה. So Chaim Vital says something extraordinary. Says something amazing, which really should inform and inspire our homes and our attitude towards how we raise our children and the curriculum in our schools. He says mitzvos are really, really important. Of course they are, they're the word of God. And aveiros, violating those mitzvos, violating a negative precept, really, really bad. Fundamental, comes from God. But you know what's even worse? Bad middos. Bad middos. So which do our children think we care about more? Which in our school do we spend more time studying, learning, evaluating, analyzing, dissecting, being tested on, being rewarded for? Our knowledge or our character, our middos? Or our middos? I quoted many years ago, there was a Harvard study that talked about if we want to communicate to our children what matters to us. What matters more? If you ask children what matters more to them—what, I'm sorry, if you ask children what do they think matters more to their parents: the grades they get in school or the character, their behavior of who they are? It was a crazy high number who said the grades. And the Harvard study, which I'm not an enormous student of studies, but I don't usually see them ending with some conclusion or recipe for how to live, this Harvard study ended with a strong suggestion. If we want to communicate to our children our true priority and what matters, then every night at dinner, don't ask your child, "What'd you get on the test?" or "Did you get the homework back?" Ask them, "Did you do something nice for someone else today? Tell me something nice you did for someone else today." Because if you grow up and in 16 years of going to school or being at home, 14, 15, 16 years, your parent daily or weekly said, "What'd you get on the test?" or "What'd you get on the homework?" or "Let's talk about your report card," but they never said, "Did you do something nice for someone today? Tell me what you did for someone else today." Or—Harvard study didn't talk about it, but by extension, do we say to our children, "Where'd you see Hashem in your life today? Was He on the playground at recess? When you were taking the test, did you know all the answers? Did you feel Hashem over your shoulder? Where did you feel Hashem in your life today?" What questions we ask, what we emphasize, the stories that we tell says everything about our priorities and everything about what we care about. So says Rav Chaim Vital—says Rav Chaim Vital something incredible: that middos—let me read that again, because this is not me: רב איצ'ה מאיר מורגנשטרן'ס בית מדרש in Geula, a Chassidishe Rebbe, quoting Rav Chaim Vital, great talmid of the Arizal: יותר צריך להיזהר ממידות רעות יותר מקיום מצוות עשה ולא תעשה. If the canvas is no good, if there's a virus in the operating system, none of the apps are going to work. None of the paint's going to stick. The rest is important and it matters, but it can't work unless the core is strong. כי בהיותו במידות טובות בנקל יקיים המצוות. But if we're strong and foundationally, fundamentally we're healthy, then we can perform and observe and keep and transform and repair the world around us. So, so important. He has a long footnote here; we're going to keep going. Arba yesodos hem—we're going to get to simcha in a moment, but that—why doesn't the Torah obligate the mitzvah of simcha? Because it doesn't need to. You know why? It goes with breathing. Just as important it is, if you don't breathe you're not alive, if you're not besimcha you're not alive. If you don't have a joy for life, if you're not tamid besimcha, baby, like the big Texan says—I'm going to have to bring him in here next week as a scholar, as a guest—if you're not tamid besimcha, then you're not alive and you're not breathing. We live off of simcha. It is the air that we breathe, it's the oxygen. Vearba yesodos hem—there are four foundations: אש מים רוח ועפר—fire, water, wind, and earth. ומיסוד העפר בא מידת העצבות בכל פרטיה. We talked about this in the past, I don't know how—we're up to number, I don't even know what, Emunah Shiur. In the past we've gone through the four elements and how they relate to four character traits and which—how we nourish those elements or protect ourselves from those elements and what those elements are all about. So we have four elements: fire, water, wind, and earth. And earth comes atzvus, sadness. והיפוכה היא השמחה התדירית בחלקו כי כל דעבדן מן שמיא לטב. And the opposite of earth, which brings us down and makes us sad, is simcha, which lifts us up and makes us joyous. And what's the source of simcha? What makes you happy? You know where happiness comes from? Happiness comes from— Happiness comes from feeling whole. This is exactly what he's going to get into right now. Happiness comes from feeling whole. So you'll say to me feel whole? Gotta wear a mask, I gotta be distant, I gotta test my kids 400 times just to show up in carpool that morning. Happy, whole, where how can I feel whole? People have lost loved ones in this room is a lot of pain. People who lost loved ones they should never have lost, lose a child chas v'shalom to lose loved ones that are irreplaceable. How can I feel whole when there's something missing? There's someone missing. There are people here struggling with health, struggling with financial deficits, struggling with relationships, struggling with life experiences that have hurt and created great pain. So how do you feel whole? Hashem, you want me to be happy make me whole. Let my bank account be whole, let my lab reports be whole, let my house be whole, let me feel whole. There's a person, a woman, extraordinary woman in our community, beautiful family of many children, three of whom have autism. An extraordinary couple. And I once asked how are you doing, which is the world's stupidest question ever, but I asked it because I hadn't yet read option B. And she said to me Rabbi, any day that ends with the same head count as the way the day began is a good day in my book. If the day ended with the same head count of members of my family as the way the day began, that's a good day in my book. That's why she's extraordinary and an enormous source of inspiration. We stub our toe or the Wi-Fi was out for five minutes, where is God? There's no God, why me? Woe is me. I can't believe Hashem. It's terrible. And she and there are many people like that. She says any day that ends with the same head count as the way the day began, it's a good day in my book. I'm whole. Same head count, I am whole. But there's people who don't have the same head count. So how do you feel whole? How do you feel whole? ובזה מבואר היטב מדוע שמחה מצוה גדולה כי שורש ויסוד לכל המצות כולם. Based on this insight by Rav Chaim Vital says Rav Itchamayer now we know why מצוה גדולה להיות בשמחה תמיד. Why is it a mitzvah gedola? Why is it a great and a big and an important and an emphasized mitzvah? It's a mitzvah gedola why? Because it is so foundational and so fundamental because it's the core of everything. Because if the foundation is weak the whole building will come down and crumble. And if foundation is strong you can build up and you can build upon it and you can go higher and higher. So which is the most important level of any building? The basement. The foundation. If the foundation is strong you can build high. If the foundation is weak you could be a skyscraper, but I don't want to go in it. I'm not going in there. So the same is true in our lives. What is the ground floor of our lives? What is the foundation of our lives, what is the basement of our lives, where does it begin? We build upon it mitzvos and Torah and we build upon it other midos but it begins with simcha. Begins with simcha. It's a mitzvah gedola to be capable, to be feeling, to be happy, to be joyful, to be positive. This is the foundation. והנה הגדרת מהותה של שמחה היא הרגשת שלמות. K'lashon HaMaharal. Rav Itchamayer quotes the Maharal of Prague Rabbi Yehuda Loew of Prague who says that the core of simcha is shleimus as we said is to feel whole, is to feel complete, is to feel together. והנה בעולם הזה אין שלמות. This world there is no shleimus. Show me somebody who's whole. Doesn't exist. Now there are different levels of pain and suffering. As I said, one person is not whole because nebach they only have the second to latest version of the iPhone, they don't have the latest version. And that's the biggest problem in their life. nebach lo aleinu, poor them. For some person, for one person that's their worst injury. I'm not whole, I'm incomplete I don't have the latest version. Another person has lost a loved one, they're takeh very very broken, they're incomplete. So בעולם הזה אין שלמות. Let's start with that let's know that in this world there's no one that is whole. What's missing? Every person is different. And not everybody's equal or even. We should know that to the person who's missing something less significant it can feel as painful as the person who's missing something bigger. Everyone in their own way and everyone on their own level. When I was in smicha, Dr. Levitz taught us pastoral counseling, which has been greatly expanded since then, beautiful. And he taught us I remember he gave us the following example. He said you're a rabbi and there's a knock on your door. And there's a woman who comes to meet with you and she tells you that her husband left her and she's got 20 kids and she's had... One arm amputated, she's got word the leg has to get amputated, and she has no money, and her kids have problems, and you sit and you counsel and you uplift and you give chizuk and you say everything you could say. And then she leaves and the next person comes in, the next person comes in is a man and he's worth five million dollars and he's wearing a custom-made suit and he has a Rolex on his wrist and he sits down and he says Rabbi, I'm a complete failure, I'm a nothing. I have a younger brother, he's on the Forbes 400, he's worth three billion dollars. And do you know his wardrobe, do you know his fleet of planes, do you know his yachts? He's a success, my parents talk about him all the time, he has anything he wants and nebach on a fixed income of five million dollars. I only have ten custom-made suits and I only get to fly business, I don't have a private plane, and my parents, I'm a failure, I'm a gornisht, I'm a nothing. So Levitz turned to us, a group of young smicha students, and said what do you say to him? So us fools, we fools, we said you know what you tell him, you say, do you know who just sat on that couch before you? Do you understand what it means to be struggling in life? Do you want to hear what it means to have hardship? That's your problem, that's what you're complaining at? Get out of my office, go feel gratitude, go say thank you, get out of here. He said you could do that but you'll be the worst rabbi, the worst therapist, the worst mental health professional of all time. Because everyone at their own level and with what we're missing, you know what happens when you tell someone that? All you make them do is feel guilty about feeling bad, you don't make them feel less bad. Whatever we're missing in life we feel bad about. And if we compare ourselves to others, then we just feel guilty about feeling bad but we don't actually feel less bad. So says Rav Itche Meir, בעולם הזה אין שלמות. There's no one who's whole or complete in this world. לא ברוחניות ובודאי לא בגשמיות. Spiritually there's no one whole or complete. We could all daven better, we could learn better, we could be smarter, we could be calmer, we could be more, more benoach. We could have more menuchas hanefesh. Beruchnius spiritually none of us are whole. And begashmius. Begashmius. I enjoy reading the Forbes 400. Came out last month. Fascinating. Nebach. The wealth has gone up so much in this country that to make it to the Forbes 400, if you have under two billion dollars you don't even qualify to make the list. So if you had 1.9 billion last year you were somewhere on the list, you were in the magazine, Forbes put you out, you claim you wish that they didn't but you're so excited everyone texts you what number you are. It's good for the shidduchim, it's good for everything. And nebach if you have 1.9 billion dollars, nebach on your head, you didn't even make the list this week, this year. Nebach. You're not shalem begashmius. You didn't even make the list. וזו באמת הסיבה שהרבה אנשים אינם מרגישים שמחה תמידית. And that's the reason. It's the incompleteness or the brokenness that by definition every human being in this finite world feels that for many people is preventing or precluding them from feeling besimcha. יש ממש נמצאים בעצבות. We're on the third page now. We are moving. So can you imagine? I promise you, I haven't met them, I don't know them, I'd like to be introduced to them if you do, but I promise you there are people who are worth between one and two billion dollars who when the Forbes 400 came out needed an extra therapy session. I promise you. Who were sad, who were broken, who were be'atzvus, who were depressed, who were despondent. Nebach, they didn't make it on the list. Only 1.8, 1.9 billion dollars. It's that sense of incompleteness, that sense of brokenness, that sense that I'm not whole is what leaves a person sad. והטעם בזה הוא כי הם מרגישים חוסר שלמות. Ume'ata yesh lehisbonen. Why am I sad? I see what my friend has, I wish I had it. I come back from the doctor or I don't feel well or there's something or someone missing in my life and I feel without them I'm incomplete, I'm not whole, how can I be happy? Ume'ata yesh lehisbonen. So now we need to think about. ברוך אתה ה' אלהינו מלך העולם שהכל נהיה בדברו. Amen. איך יוכל האדם שאין לו שלמות להגיע לשמחה שעניינו הרגשת שלמות? So if simcha is the result of feeling whole and we just said there's no human being alive who feels whole, everyone's missing something, spiritually, emotionally, mentally, physically, so how can you be besimcha? We've just set up the question, we didn't even get to the answer. Should we stop here or keep going? מצוה גדולה להיות בשמחה תמיד. It's a big mitzvah, it's a great mitzvah. עבדו את ה' בשמחה. Serve Hashem besimcha. תחת אשר לא עבדת את ה' אלהיך בשמחה. You are accountable, you're responsible because you allowed yourself to get sad. So we just said that being happy is foundational, fundamental, it's the basement, it's what holds everything else up, it's critically important, it is a great mitzvah. We also said that you cannot be besimcha if you feel broken or incomplete, and then we said that every human being feels broken or incomplete, so how can anyone be besimcha? That's the question. That's the question. That's the question. He says in the footnote, by the way, there are moments you feel whole. Like I said, you have the great news of a simcha, birth of a child, the child gets engaged, a Bar Mitzvah, Bas Mitzvah, you have besimcha, you have big moments. Shidduch, you got engaged, you got a new job, you got a promotion at work, you bought a new house, you bought a new car, there are moments, glimpses of simcha. And what do we do when that happens? We have a bracha: Shehecheyanu vekiyemanu vehigianu. Wow. I feel simcha in this moment. Such an aberration, so unusual, such an unfamiliar feeling. I'm so happy. I feel so whole right now for this moment and in this moment, for just a moment. I make a bracha Shehecheyanu. But then what happens? I come right back down. Simcha's over. The next day of work. So how can we be besimcha? Let's at least get started. Let's just get started. התשובה היא שאמנם האדם מצד עצמו כשהוא לבדו אין לו שלמות. The truth is you're right. Investigate, evaluate, think about your life in a vacuum, you cannot feel happy. All you have to do is sit, it doesn't take long. How are you? Well, this could be better, that could be better, that's not perfect, this could use improvement. This child, this, that, this, the other thing. If we think about ourselves on a vacuum, if all we do is focus on ourselves, we are incomplete and we're unhappy. אבל יש בעולם שלמות אמיתית. However, there is a way to be whole. There is a way to fill, to complement, to supplement, to complete. Achat veyichida. There is one person, there is one being that if we attach ourselves to Him, we become full, we become complete, we become whole, and that is Hashem Yisborach. God is and was and will be. God is omnipotent, omniscient, and infinite. God is the source of everything that exists. He is the very definition of whole, of unity, of unified, of oneness. And the more that we attach ourselves to Him, the more we submit and surrender to Him, the more we connect to Him, the more we attach ourselves to Him, the more we associate with Him, then we are capable of being whole and complete. והאדם יכול להרגיש שלמות ושמחה על ידי שיתחבר אליו יתברך וישמח בו. Say, "God, I don't know why I'm going through what I'm going through. I don't understand why You took who You took or what You took away from me. I don't understand why I am enduring this pain, this emptiness, this hole, this vacuum, this hardship, I don't understand it. But I do know that whatever's missing, You more than fill. I do know that whatever's missing or whatever pain I have, You are the salve, You are the medicine, You are the antidote, You make me whole." The Jew is supposed to turn to God every day and say, "Hashem, You complete me." Hashem, You complete me. It took it from us. "Hashem, You complete me. You make me whole." It's true that I'm missing this, I'm missing that, I'm missing the other thing, and I'm tempted to be sad and I'm tempted to be down and I'm tempted to be, but you know what, Hashem? When I stop and I think that You run the world, You're in charge, You're in control, You're infinite, You know better than I, You see much further and much farther, everything is for a reason and a purpose, that You are like a loving Father, not like, You are my loving Father in Heaven. And just like a parent from the perspective of the child, "Why'd You punish me? And why'd You put me in timeout? And why'd You deny me being able to go to that party or look at that technology or do that thing?" and the parent says, "I know it feels like pain to you, but someday you'll understand that everything I'm doing is for your good and for your pleasure." And all I ask, my little kinder, all I ask, my little child is, "I'm not asking you to be happy with what I'm telling you right now, but I'm asking you to know that it comes from love. And I'm asking you to know that if I'm doing this, it's because it's what I believe is best for you. So lean in and embrace what I'm making you do because it's for your best." And Hakadosh Baruch Hu, Hashem Yisborach, our Tate in Himmel says the same thing. He says, "I know from your perspective it feels painful. I've taken someone from you. I've taken something from you. You are enduring such pain, but one day you will see and one day you will understand how this was right for them and this is right for you. One day you will appreciate and one day you will be capable of being happy when it completes, when it complements, when it is whole." וזו עיקר מצות השמחה לשמוח בהשם יתברך. So the mitzvah of simcha is not to get high. on drugs, the mitzvah of simcha is not to get drunk on alcohol, the mitzvah of simcha is not to get drunk on Neiman Marcus or Nordstrom or Town Center Mall or Amazon.com. The mitzvah of simcha is not to use some artificial means to make us happy. I was sad, something's missing, but that new pair of shoes, that filled the hole in my heart. It'll never fill the hole in your heart. It will for a moment, maybe you make a shehecheyanu, hatov vehametiv, depends how expensive those pair of shoes are. Maybe a husband's making a gomel. But the shopping will never fill the hole in your heart. Nothing can fill the hole in our heart, nothing can fill the empty seat at our table, nothing can fill the prescription for the pain that we're going through, other than attaching ourselves to Hashem. That is the source of simcha. Let me end by giving the disclaimer I should have given at the beginning, I give it all the time. Clinical depression is not what we're talking about. I cannot emphasize how important this is. I'm not talking about somebody who clinically is depressed, I'm not talking about somebody who has gone through an episode or a loss that needs therapy, that needs support, that needs medical chemical intervention. There's no stigma, there should be no shame, everyone should get the help that they need. We're not talking about that. I'm not saying close all the therapy offices, just say more Tehillim, attach yourself to Hashem, everyone will feel simcha. We are not saying that at all. We're not saying that. A person who needs clinical help needs clinical help. End of sentence. I'm talking about the general attitude, the general atmosphere, the general hardships that people endure. If you want to feel simcha, this is the formula. Simcha comes from feeling whole. No one in this world is whole, everyone has some problem. How can anyone therefore feel simcha? Only by connecting to the person, to the being, to that which fills every hole. And that, what is that that fills every hole? Emuna. Faith. Hashem Yisborach. It is not the belief, but it is the knowledge. It's not a leap of faith, but it is the knowledge that everything is for a reason and everything is for good. That there's a Hashem and there is a design. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is in charge, He's in control, He has organized, He has designed the world and everything is for a reason. Everything is for a reason. So we'll start with this next week, because I know right now we're talking theoretically. Okay, well that's good news, I went to the Emuna shiur and I was sad on my way in, but now I heard a whole shiur, I should just be happy. That's the foundation, that's the ground floor, that's the basement. On my way home, I'm going to be happy. I just need a donut, it'll make me happy. Stop by, grab a donut, take one on your way out. You just need a donut. The hole in the donut is going to stay a hole in your heart. It's not going to make you happy if you feel incomplete and you feel unhappy. How do you go about attaching to Hashem? How do we do that? The easy part is to say what to do, the hard part is to actually do it. So stick with us next week, same time, same channel, same channel, and we are going to pick it up from here. Tonight, 9:00, go Behind the Bima, Coach Steinmetz and Ryan Turrell, the star player of the 50-game streak winning YU Macs. See you next week, stay happy, stay healthy, stay holy.
