The Need for, and Mitzva of, Simcha

Hey good morning Rabbi Saltz. Perhaps we'll read a few lines together this morning in the Sefer Chinuch in Parshas Re'eh. In the Machon Yerushalayim edition, it's מצוה תפח, the mitzvah of Simcha BeRegalim. מצוה לשמוח ברגלים. So, the shoresh hamitzvah. So the Sefer Chinuch writes as follows: lefi sheha'adam and I think the next word is nikon, established. Meaning in terms of what basic human nature, right? Nachon yihye ha the pasuk in Yeshayahu, right? נכון יהיה הר בית השם, that the Beis HaMikdash will be firmly implanted, will be established. The reason nachon means correct is because it's something, truth is something which has roots and which is established. The base, you have the kiyor and then you have the kan. The kan is the base. לפי שהאדם ניכון, a person is established על ענין שצורך טבעו לשמוח לפרקים. Simcha is a basic human need, the Sefer Chinuch tells us. כמו שהוא צריך על המזון. Right? Extraordinary comparison. The same way a person can't live, function, survive without mazon, so too צורך טבעו לשמוח לפרקים. A person needs to rejoice from time to time.

כמו שהוא צריך על המזון על כל פנים ועל המנוחה ועל השינה.

The same way that there are times when a person needs to rest and there are times when a person needs to sleep.

ורצה הקל לזכותנו אנחנו עמו וצאן מרעיתו וציוונו לעשות השמחה לשמו לפניו בכל מעשינו.

So Hakadosh Baruch Hu bestowed a tremendous chesed upon us that something that we need to do anyway, something that's a basic, basic emotional human need, so Hakadosh Baruch Hu elevated it to the level of a mitzvah.

והנה קבע לנו זמנים בשנה למועדים כימים טובים לזכור בהם הנסים והטובות אשר גמלנו.

And the focus of the simcha is to remember the various miracles and the various kindnesses that Hakadosh Baruch Hu bestowed upon us. ואז בעתים ההם, at those times of the year, tzivanu, He commanded us, לכלכל החומר בדבר השמחה הצריכה אליו, to sustain the need that we have for the simcha.

וימצא לנו תרופה גדולה בהיות שובע השמחה לשמו ולזכרו. כי המחשבה הזאת תהיה לנו גדר שבל נצא מדרך הישר יותר מדי.

So what's accomplished by channeling the need for simcha to a mitzvah is that Hakadosh Baruch Hu provides parameters that we don't overdo it, that we don't go out of bounds, that we don't have the wrong focus, the wrong expression, the wrong outlet for that need for simcha. Then this is a remarkable final sentence. ואשר עמו ההתבוננות מבלי החפץ בקטרוג, he says, if you're interested in truth and and you can think clearly and reflect upon this yimtza ta'am bidvarai. You'll see that what I'm telling you is is very good. And lest you're a contrarian or you're very superficial, right? If you're either lacking the hisbonenus, says the Sefer Hachinuch, or you have a chefetz bekitrug, a contrarian, he says then then you'll you'll push back. But otherwise he says you'll see what what that what I'm telling you has ta'am bidvarai. Yitachen me'od and again this is moving beyond what the Chinuch here tells us. It's not it's not necessarily that this is is implied but moving beyond what the Sefer Hachinuch tells us we find by many mitzvos the following relationship. Let's say there's a special mitzva sippur yetzias Mitzrayim. והגדת לבנך ביום ההוא לאמר, Leil HaSeder. And then there's a mitzva of zecher liyetzias Mitzrayim every day and every night. Lichora the relationship, I think I think my father olav hashalom quoted a Netziv to to this effect. The relationship between those two is the following: the zecher liyetzias Mitzrayim on the one hand is nourished by, on the other hand reinforces the sippur. Once a year we we we devote a night to elaborately retelling, to delving into sippur yetzias Mitzrayim. And that's necessary but not sufficient. And then the zecher liyetzias Mitzrayim throughout the year is is reinforcing reinforcing the sippur. משל למה הדבר דומה. The first time you learn a sugya it can take hours to understand and then you can summarize everything you understood in a sentence. If you'll say that sentence without having learned through the sugya, so usually what we would be doing then is parroting words and and saying words that that don't mean anything. But that same sentence as a summation is a מעט המחזיק את המרובה. So we find that by by mitzvos. The night of of yetzias Mitzrayim we're ma'arich and then all year long we reinforce אני ה' אלוהיכם אשר הוצאתי אתכם מארץ מצרים. It yitachen that the Sefer Hachinuch, yitachen would agree that there's a similar relationship in terms of simcha. There's a need at times that that simcha should be the focus, that the that the days should be yemei simcha, which is what the Yomim Tovim are. But it doesn't mean that the rest of the year is bereft of simcha, just means that the rest of the year again is is analogous to zecher and and to simcha. How does one the the simcha that a person feels, should feel all year long. So how do we ensure that we have that context of the בל נצא מדרך היושר יותר מדי. How do we ensure that we have those mitzva parameters that the simcha is appropriate? If the context of the simcha is is the following then lichora we're on the right track. When a person experiences a simchas hachayim. A simchas hachayim that's just reflected and experienced in in a sense of that a person is is is happy to be alive and that simchas hachayim is is rooted in because life is a good thing.

וירא אלהים כי טוב. וירא אלהים את כל אשר עשה והנה טוב מאוד.

be expressed through a through an a willingness to to enjoy an appropriate joke and in different ways. But it's a simchas hachaim. It's it's not something superficial. To be sameiach bachaim, to be sameiach bachaim means to be sameiach with Hakadosh Baruch Hu's briah. You know when Chazal say איזהו עשיר השמח בחלקו, so we generally translate that to a point accurately as someone who's content with his chelek. But I don't know, but that's not really what it says, right? It could have been איזהו עשיר המרוצה בחלקו. That would mean that he's content. Ani merutzeh baze. I'm satisfied. I'm I'm content. No, Chazal say a person is supposed to be not just merutzeh bechelko, a person should be sameiach bechelko. כל מה דעביד רחמנא לטב עביד. The Ribono Shel Olam created the world, the Ribono Shel Olam created us, he created each and every one of us, that's good. And and a person should have a simchas hachaim. Okay, on a daily basis the simchas hachaim doesn't mean that we have a five hour seudah in in the afternoon. It doesn't mean that. The same way zeicher litzias mitzrayim on a daily basis doesn't mean that

מספרים ביציאת מצרים כל אותו הלילה עד שבאו תלמידיהם ואמרו להם.

But a person should have that sense of of a simchas hachaim and again and when that simchas hachaim is a simchas hachaim in the Ribono Shel Olam's world, it has that those same parameters and that same context that the Sefer Hachinuch identifies for us in mitzvah simcha baregel. Okay, so bli neder we'll we'll resume around 11:30 with with Avos im yirtzeh Hashem bli neder. Have a good productive morning rabosai, everyone should be well be safe be'ezras Hashem.