Rebbetzin Leah Gans
Today we will talk about what true joy, Jewish joy, is. What is its essence? What brings it about?
Lesson OneThe Almighty created opposites in His world, for example, heaven and earth. When it rains, heaven and earth unite—that is joy.
Heaven represents the spiritual aspect, and earth represents the material. Their union is rain; the spiritual influences the physical.
In tractate Yevamot (62b), it is written: "Rabbi Tanchuma said in the name of Rabbi Chanilai: a man who has no wife lives without joy."
Man and woman are true opposites. But if theirs is a true Jewish marriage, if they strive to become a united couple, it is a source of joy.
Now we can see what "joy in a mitzvah" means. The human body is material. It seeks earthly pleasures. The human soul is entirely spiritual; it strives upward. When a person performs a mitzvah, rejoicing that the L-rd has given it, this connects the person to the Creator of the world, Who gave that mitzvah. The union of the spiritual and physical in one action—when it takes place properly—inevitably brings joy.
These are not merely beautiful words.
Each mitzvah, each prayer is truly a bond with the Almighty, one that grows stronger with every action, with every union of the physical and spiritual within a person.
In the Midrash "Shir HaShirim Rabbah," it is written: "'…on the day of his wedding, on the day of his heart's joy': the wedding day is the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, and 'the day of his heart's joy' is the words of Torah. Another explanation: the wedding day is the Tent of Meeting, and the day of joy is the Eternal House."
From this we understand that the wedding day, the day opposites unite, is the giving of the Torah. And the joy of the heart is the words of Torah, through which a person builds an Eternal House for themselves in the World to Come.
Another commentary (Ta'anit, 4:8) states that the "day of joy" is the day of the building of the Mishkan (and the Temple, may it be built speedily in our days). The essence of the service in the Mishkan is the uniting of the entire people of Israel with the Almighty.
Yet even now, when the First and Second Temples have been destroyed, the Shechinah dwells among the people of Israel in exile, and each person has their own opportunity to connect with the Almighty.
Prepared by Mrs. Zissi Skarzhinskaya
to be continued