Opinion & Comment
"Serve Hashem with Joy"

"He has not beheld iniquity in Yaakov nor has He seen perverseness in Yisroel" (Bamidbor 23:21).

The Satisfaction in a Temporal Acquisition; the Joy in an Eternal Acquisition

Bilaam expressed the praises of Yisroel in the words, "He has not beheld iniquity in Yaakov nor has He seen perverseness in Yisroel." The Ohr HaChaim Hakodosh explains that this verse praises Yisroel for not regarding the yoke of Torah, its study and its observance -- the omol -- as a difficult burden. These occupy a Jew's every moment, day and night, but he does not consider it onerous or difficult, as a millstone around his neck which he seeks to shake off. Rather, Jews regard the commandments as profitable, even as a pastime. "Like a person who stands to gain, or one who enjoys the recreation and pleasure in Torah out of a great desire and love for it."

We must relate to Torah, indeed, at least as if it were something profitable and worthwhile. When this is the case, one's joy in Torah is likewise boundless.

One's attitude towards mitzvos should be at least as towards a profitable venture, something worthwhile doing. When this prevails, then a person's joy can be limitless. The Alter of Kelm illuminated this concept with brilliance.

Let us contemplate, he used to say, how much pleasure a person derives in the worldly acquisitions he accumulates. He enjoys his possessions but this satisfaction is incomplete when it involves something temporary, something that is rented or borrowed and which will eventually be returned to its rightful owner. A person who is given a luxury suite to use for a week will remember all that time that his hours there are numbered and that soon he will have to give back the keys. He has no feeling of ownership and consequently, his pleasure in the use of it is limited and reserved.

We have not an inkling as to the reward that awaits us in the future. "No eye has beheld it, save for You, Hashem." It is immeasurable bliss but we lack the ability, the tools or vessels, as it were, to appreciate it while in this world. Suffice it for a servant of Hashem to know that he will require a vast amount of joy to experience it, and he will then see that all the vanities and so-called pleasures of this world are like a fleeting shadow compared to the true eternal bliss that will be his. If a person can find any pleasure and satisfaction in this world, how much greater will his pleasure be over the true value that will be his in the World to Come.

We do have some inkling of that great promised reward. We understand that it involves something eternal and infinite that has no relationship to the eighty or ninety years a person is allotted in this world.

The relationship between the pleasures of this world and the reward that awaits one in the World to Come must be commensurate to the joy one experiences in the acquisition of a spacious mansion that is completely his, as compared to receiving a small apartment for one or two weeks.

But is this how we relate to them?

Let us examine ourselves. Where do we stand and where do we find a greater source of joy and satisfaction?

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Not Only Didn't You Serve Him; You Compounded it by Rejoicing over That!

In the tochochoh in Devorim, we read, "And all of these curses will be visited upon you, and they shall pursue you and overtake you until they destroy you . . . And they shall be to you for a sign and for a wonder, and upon your seed forever. Because you would not serve Hashem your G- d with joyfulness and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things" (Devorim 28:46-47).

We infer then, that all of the harsh and bitter punishments predicted in the tochochoh result from not having served Hashem with joy. It is not that they didn't serve Him; they probably did. It is because they did so joylessly.

What does this mean? Are such terrible retributions commensurate to a mere lack of joy? Is observing the commandments without joy such a terrible sin?

One of the giants of chassidus, R' Simcha Bunim of Peshischa, explains that the meaning is different. They did not serve Hashem. But what compounded this was their pleasure in throwing off His yoke. They reveled in their disobedience and this is the reason for the great punishment, the great wrath.

In a similar vein, the Pri Megodim explained this in his commentary on the Torah, Teivas Gome, that the Torah comes to castigate Israel for not having been broken- hearted over their sins. They did not sin out of weakness, over which they might have had their regrets, but did so with brazen and joyous abandon.

By nature, succumbing to sin and sinking into the morass of turpitude should result in remorse, regret, sighing. One who is not abject from a lowly spiritual level but continues to live his life with equanimity, testifies that closeness to Hashem does not matter to him, on the one hand, and that he is not particularly perturbed or deterred by the punishment of Gehennom, on the other. In other words, it is not enough that he forsook the Torah and showed no remorse -- compounding his sin is the fact that he was complacent and happy in his "freedom," as if this were a natural state.

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And He Saw the Eigel and the Dancing

It is along these lines that Rabbenu Ovadia Sforno interprets Moshe Rabbenu's anger when he cast down the Luchos and shattered them, upon seeing the Jews engaged in worshiping the Golden Calf. Why did the sight affect him so drastically when he already knew that they had sinned?

Hashem told him, "Go, descend, for your people, whom you have brought up from the land of Egypt, have corrupted. They have swerved quickly from the path which I commanded them. They made themselves a molten calf and they bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and they said: These are your gods, Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt" (Shemos 32:7-8). These words, as much as they shocked Moshe Rabbenu, did not bring him to the point of breaking the Luchos. Why, then, did he do so when he approached the site where they were worshiping the Eigel and he saw it with his own eyes?

If we study the text, we can readily see that one aspect of cheit ha'egel was hidden from Moshe Rabbenu until he descended from Har Sinai. "And it was when he approached the camp and he saw the calf and the dances, Moshe became incensed and he cast from his hands the Tablets and he broke them at the foot of the mountain" (Shemos 32:19). He knew that they had worshiped the calf, for this was revealed to him while he was still up on the mountain. But he did not know about the revelry. This was the last straw, the act that sealed the fate of the Tablets.

The joy that accompanies sinning is, in and of itself, a terrible sin.

Instead of Not Having Served Hashem in Joy

R' Yisroel Salanter used to say: There is sinning and there is sinning. There is sinning with a sigh and sinning without a sigh, and they are two completely different entities. The severity of the second type is much greater than the first.

Regarding this, the Torah says: It was not enough that "you didn't serve Hashem your G-d," but that you actually did so with gay abandon! Out of joy!

From the Rambam we learn that the Torah also means what it says directly. The verse does come to chastise the nation for not having served their Creator out of joy. This is what he writes at the end of Hilchos Lulav:

"The joy that a person should experience in performing a mitzvah and in showing his love towards Hashem Who commanded it, is a great form of worship. And whoever withholds himself from feeling this joy deserves to be punished, as it is written, "Instead of your not having served Hashem your G-d in joy and out of the goodness of heart" (Rambam, Hilchos Lulav 8, 15).

The Maggid Mishneh notes in his commentary to the Rambam, "The main thing is that a person should not perform a mitzvah out of a heavy sense of obligation and as a burden, as if he were being coerced to do so."

HaRav Shmuel Auerbach, speaking at the yahrtzeit of Maran HaRav Shach, author of Avi Ezri, dwelled upon these words of the Rambam, explaining, "The Rambam says that this is the simple explanation of the text dealing with the punishments and suffering brought in the Tochochoh. Thus, [joy] is not a special achievement but rather [its lack is] an essential fault or sin for which they truly deserved the terrible retribution. The attitude of joy is a test for a person, and therefore the demand is far stronger.

A person who succumbs to weakness is at a different level; what can one say to him after his fall?

However, one who is involved in his gemora, a person who is fully immersed in holy, spiritual, elevated things, but does not live overwhelmed with awesome simchah that he has achieved this -- he is very blameworthy.

When a man is actually involved in the greatest source of joy in the universe, in eternal life -- there, precisely, is the test. He is still evaluated at that point and not just at the earlier level of having chosen to live a life of Torah and spirituality. He is evaluated as to what degree he is joyous in his activities, [which indicates] how thoroughly he is committed and has no mixed feelings.

In the course of his address, R' Shmuel told over what he had heard from the grandson of Maran the Chofetz Chaim, who once stayed for an extended period in the home of his illustrious grandfather. He was then privileged to study his conduct at that late stage in his grandfather's life. He was witness to the awesome, soul-searching phases of hisbodedus during which Maran used to make a reckoning of his deeds, a review of his life. In this cheshbon hanefesh, he would enumerate his merits and what he regarded himself to be answerable for when the time came to give a final accounting before the Eternal Court.

During these soul-searching talks, the Saba Kadisha used to voice a fear that what would tip the scales to his demerit would be the degree of joy with which he had served his Creator. The grandson heard him say to himself upon one occasion, "Yisroel Meir, to be sure you performed mitzvos, but where was the joy, the simchah shel mitzvah? Why was it not evident to everyone that you were the happiest person on earth?"

This was the self-castigation of the Chofetz Chaim, a reproof which he would conclude with words of encouragement and hope, as if a voice were speaking to him from Heaven:

"But, you still can!"

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