Self-Realization and Simchah

Thank you very much. Before we can discuss self-realization, we need to articulate a sense of self. We need to try to understand what constitutes our core self, who we are. This is a question which basically is of universal interest. General philosophy throughout the millennia to this very day, my impression is, deals with this topic. Our intent and focus is going to be the Torah's approach to this. There's a pasuk in Iyov. The pasuk says, עור ובשר תלבישני ובעצמות וגידים תשככני. You clothe me, you, capital Y, you clothe me with skin and flesh, you cover me with bones and sinews. Again, עור ובשר תלבישני ובעצמות וגידים תשככני. You clothe me with skin and flesh, you cover me with bones and sinews. So who's the me? It's not the skin, it's not the flesh, who's the me? The Arizal's famous talmid, the one who is the conduit for so much of the Arizal's Torah that has reached us, has a very famous fundamental work called Shaarei Kedusha. So he begins Shaarei Kedusha touching on this theme which is preoccupying us tonight, and he writes, I'll just share a few lines:

דע אל בעלי מדע כי גוף האדם איננו האדם עצמו מצד הגוף.

People of knowledge realize that the body of a person is not the person. כי זה נקרא בשר האדם, because the body of the person is referred to as his or her flesh, his or her body. Kemo she-kasuv, and he cites this pasuk from Iyov that we just looked at, עור ובשר תלבישני ובעצמות וגידים תשככני. Ve-od kesiv, Rav Chaim Vital quotes a pasuk from Sefer Shemot. The context is the Torah's talking, I think, about the shemen ha-mishcha. So the Torah says that the shemen ha-mishcha, which was used to anoint Aharon and his sons, it was used to anoint all the kelim, all the utensils of the Mishkan. So you're not allowed to, it's one of the lavin in the Torah, one is not allowed to take that shemen ha-mishcha and anoint someone for whom it's not intended. It's intended to anoint a melech, to anoint a Kohen Gadol, but other than that, it can't be used. So how does the Torah formulate, how does the Torah phrase that law? So the Torah says על בשר אדם לא ייסך. The Torah doesn't say על אדם לא ייסך. The Torah doesn't say don't, again, use this oil, don't apply this oil to any other person. It says no, don't apply this oil to the flesh of a person. The same point: the flesh, that's not me, that's my flesh, that's not me. Nimtza, says Rav Chaim Vital, ha-adam hu ha-pnimiyus. Apparently the self, the real person, is what's inside the body. אבל הגוף הוא עניין לבוש אחד, the body is a garment, it's clothing, שתתלבש בו הנפש השכלית שהיא האדם עצמו. And the person's nefesh, the person's soul, is clothed in the body, but that's the person. So when we talk about ourselves, we're talking about our nefashos, our souls. In a similar vein, you find there's a fascinating Rashi in Maseches Sanhedrin. The Gemara in Maseches Sanhedrin is dealing with the obligation of, Rachmana litzlan, you see someone drowning. So the Gemara says, how do you know, what's the source... One of those two pesukim is hashev teshivem l'achicha, which is the pasuk of hashavas aveida. The same way if you're walking up the staircase, you're coming up in an elevator, you see a wallet, so you have to pick the wallet up and you have to fulfill the mitzvah of hashavas aveida. So too, Rachmana litzlan, you see a person who's drowning, so it's a mitzvah of hashavas aveida. So Rashi sort of spells out what's implicit in the Gemara and says you have to return the person's body to him or to her. Hashavas gufo lo. So what are you returning? Again, when you find the wallet, so you're returning the wallet to the person, you're returning the wallet to the rightful owner. So to whom, what are you returning and to whom are you returning when you save a life? So Rashi says you're restoring their body to the person. Again, that same point, it's a little bit more subtle here, but that same point of the Ohr HaChayim HaKadosh. So the oneself is the nefesh. The self is spiritual, the self not physical, not a temporal, not something temporal. Very often we don't recognize this, we don't feel it, and the reason for that is that we all have the yetzer hara. Ever since the cheit of Adam HaRishon, we experience the yetzer hara internally. The yetzer hara is say that that force within us which is attracted to Olam Hazeh values and commodities. The yetzer hara is what's responsible for us being interested in creaturely comforts, being preoccupied with petty concerns, being overly focused on the physical. Since the cheit of Adam HaRishon, for Adam HaRishon sinned, so the yetzer hara was something external. It was sort of almost something that a person had to convince himself or herself to do. There was something contrarian about it. After the cheit of Adam HaRishon, so human nature changed and now we feel and we experience the yetzer hara internally. So as a result, we experience again these urges, these concerns as being instinctive urges, as being natural concerns. And that can easily and often does delude us into thinking that that's who we are, that my again, my interest in the creaturely comforts, my preoccupation with petty concerns, my being overly focused on the mundane, I can easily slip into the mistake of thinking that's me. And as a result, we naturally want to accommodate that impulse or those impulses of the yetzer hara. Sometimes the yetzer hara goes out of bounds halachically. There are obviously countless examples one could give, but just to give one or two just to illustrate, to concretize a little bit what we're talking about. Let's say you have a Kohen who's very drawn to studying medicine. But there's no way he can complete the course in anatomy and adhere to halachos of a Kohen avoiding being mitamei l'meis. Let's say you have someone who's not a Kohen, the individual's been told by the Rav that you have to take a Shomer Shabbos residency. That's what the Rav instructed the individual. And it just so happens that the field of interest in medicine doesn't offer Shomer Shabbos residency. So we often can experience this as a real conflict because we experience it as a conflict between ourselves and our religious commitment. That what I want, what self-realization for me entails, albeit I'm a kohen, is to go to medical school. Albeit that maybe I'm not a kohen, but I want to go into this, this subspecialty of medicine which doesn't have a Shomer Shabbos residency. So I feel that my self is being suppressed by my religious commitment, and it creates conflict within us. As real as that experience can be and as formidable as that challenge can be, if we take a step back, not only do we realize that what the right decision is is obvious, but we also realize that it's not really a conflict. The real self is the neshomah. For the neshomah, self-realization means to come as close as possible to Hakadosh Baruch Hu through his Torah u-mitzvos. That scenario, those scenarios that we described, and again illustrative of countless other scenarios, we can all come up with scenarios from our own private lives, doesn't really involve any conflict. The real self can never ever be suppressed by one's commitment to Torah u-mitzvos. The real self can never be suppressed by one's religious commitment. Now, the fact that the real person, the real you, the real me is the neshomah, the real person is his or her neshomah, that doesn't imply uniformity. The same way physically no two people are totally, totally identical, so the physical often mirrors and reflects the spiritual. Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world that it's hard for us to make the leap sometimes and think directly about spiritual matters, so Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world in such a way that the physical is a mirror, is symmetrical in many, many ways to the spiritual. So just as physically no two people are identical, no two people are alike, like parents can, even identical twins, the parents can eventually tell them apart, so too spiritually no two people are identical either. So the fact that the real person, the real you is your nefesh in no way precludes or even blurs individuality. I'd just like to give a couple of indications, reflections of that fact. My father was fond of citing a Rambam from the Peirush Hamishnayos at the end of Maseches Makkos. The end of Maseches Makkos is where the famous statement of רבי חנינא בן עקשיא appears.

אמר רבי חנינא בן עקשיא רצה הקדוש ברוך הוא לזכות את ישראל לפיכך הרבה להם תורה ומצוות.

Hakadosh Baruch Hu wanted to bestow merit upon the Jewish people. לפיכך הרבה להם תורה ומצוות. And that's why Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave us such a big Torah and so many mitzvos. So if your professor would walk in tomorrow and say, you know, I really love you and I really want to bestow the best on you, so instead of giving you 20 pages to read for the next class, I'm going to give you 200 pages to read for the next class, and instead of assigning a five-page term paper, I'm going to assign a 20-page term paper, I'm not sure that you would lead the vote for professor of the year. So what does it mean

רצה הקדוש ברוך הוא לזכות את ישראל לפיכך הרבה להם תורה ומצוות?

Lefichach he should have been mema'et Torah u-mitzvos. So this question within רבי חנינא בן עקשיא occasions many different beautiful insights and explanations, but the Rambam's is as follows. Rambam says it's an ikar, that's a fundamental principle that in addition to our obligation to fulfill all the mitzvos that are incumbent upon us, for a person to be zoche to olam haba, for a person to merit chiyei olam haba, at least once in his or her life, a person has to do something totally lishma. Totally for its own sake. I'm not doing it for any ulterior motive. I'm not doing it to get a reward. I'm not doing it to impress anyone. I'm not even doing it to impress Hakadosh Baruch Hu. I'm doing it because it's the right thing, Hakadosh Baruch Hu said it's the right thing. No cheshbonos, no personal calculations, no not even a tinge of selfish or self-centered motivation. Says the Rambam, because there are so many different types of mitzvos in the Torah, so everyone, everyone almost inevitably will find that mitzvah that he or she at least once in the course of his or her life will fulfill lishma.

רצה הקדוש ברוך הוא לזכות את ישראל, משל למה הדבר דומה,

right? So the mashal, the correct mashal to רב חנניה בן עקשיא says is not what I said before. The correct mashal is let's say if you have a catalog and the catalog only has five course offerings. Okay? There's a pretty good chance that there may not be any course in the course listing that excites you. But if instead of having five course listings there's 613 course listings, and such a variety and such a variety of topics and such a variety of disciplines, so then it's inevitable that if you'll open yourself up to it, you're going to find something in that course catalog which is going to excite you. You're going to find something in that course catalog that you're not just going to do because oh it satisfies a requirement. No, it's something I'm truly genuinely interested to do, I want to do this. So that's the mashal. The analog to that is רצה הקדוש ברוך הוא לזכות את ישראל. We're all different. We're all different. We all have different kochos hanefesh. We all have different strengths. The common denominator of which is that we all can and therefore have to fulfill all mitzvos that are incumbent upon us. But within that, there's also again there's individuality. We have different strengths, different skill sets, we naturally gravitate towards different mitzvos. Some people they get involved in the community so they organize bikkur cholim. Why do they organize bikkur cholim as opposed to volunteering for the chevra kadisha as opposed to organizing shiurim as opposed to maybe giving shiurim? It's just a natural natural netiyah. That's their natural inclination. Another person takeh does volunteer for the chevra kadisha, another person takeh does give shiurim in adult education, another person is גדול המעשה יותר מן העושה, maybe doesn't give the shiurim but maybe is the catalyst to arrange for shiurim to happen. רצה הקדוש ברוך הוא לזכות את ישראל, we're all different. There is individuality. Just the same way there's physical individuality, there's spiritual individuality. And the Torah caters to that. רצה הקדוש ברוך הוא לזכות את ישראל, everyone's going to find, again, we all commit ourselves and we all look to be as scrupulous as possible about every single mitzvah that's incumbent upon us. But within that, we're all going to gravitate, we're all going to have a mitzvah that that is our ticket together with all other mitzvos, but is that extra ticket that's also necessary for olam haba. A reflection again that even once we recognize that the real self is spiritual, we're still talking about individuality. Another expression of that: the Ramban, if you take a look Parshas Naso in Sefer Bamidbar has more pesukim than any other parsha in the Chumash. How so? Why is that? Because Parshas Naso describes the chanukas hamishkan, describes the consecration of the Mishkan, and it describes how on the first 12 days of the month of Nissan, each of the nesi'im of his respective shevet brought. They brought the identical Korbanos. They brought, this is the Keriyas HaTorah for Chanukah, we read. So they brought identical Korbanos. So really, all the Torah had to do was tell us on the first day Nachshon ben Amminadab of the Shevet Yehuda offered the following Korbanos, and then all the Torah had to say, and similarly on the following 11 days, the following Nesi'im brought the identical Korbanos. But the Torah doesn't do that. Instead, the Torah repeats פר אחד בן בקר etcetera. It goes through the whole list of Korbanos. So why? Such an arichus! Every word, every letter, every tag, every crown on top of the letters of the Chumash is so significant. So why does the Torah pass up this obvious chance to economize? So the Ramban has two remarkable pshatim. Each one is remarkable. In the order, I don't remember the order in which he lists them, the second of the two is the one that's more germane to us now, but maybe we'll mention both. First one is, the Ramban says that the Torah is teaching a lesson in Kavod HaBriyos. It's true that Nachshon ben Amminadab went on the first day, but the Torah wants to devote as much space to describing what every other Nasi did. Every other Nasi was also motivated, also came with pure kavanos. So to say ditto on days two through twelve for the next 11 Nesi'im would have been to shortchange their Kavod HaBriyos. So because of that the Torah devotes an extra, I don't know, 60, 70 psukim for Kavod HaBriyos of the other 11 Nesi'im. But then the Ramban has another pshat, fascinating pshat. Rav Soloveitchik used to quote this also in context of that Rambam in the Peirush HaMishnayos that we were just looking at. He says, externally they brought the identical Korbanos. Externally everything was the same. But every Nasi did it with his own personal kavana. The subjective component of the hakravas korbanos was not the same. If the Torah would have said this is what Nachshon brought in day one, and then the Torah would have said and ditto for the other 11 Nesi'im on days two through twelve, so we would have thought that everyone was a carbon copy of each other. And the Torah repeats by saying no, that each one bring a par, did each one bring a bull? Yes. But that doesn't mean that it was identical because each one did it with his own personal stamp. The subjective element, the subjective dimension of the mitzvah, which is an intrinsic part of it, was not the same, because everyone brings, again, his or her own again subjective dimension, component, experience to the objective performance of the mitzvah. Maybe one last illustration, concretization of what we're talking about in terms of individuality even once we recognize that the self is spiritual. Reb Aryeh Levin, the legendary tzaddik of Yerushalayim, so perhaps was best known for his devotion during the years of the British Mandate to all the prisoners of the mandate who were languishing in British jails. His mesirus nefesh for them was beyond beyond belief. How did his involvement, how did he become involved with that population to begin with? So the British, not for any noble reasons, for cynical reasons, thought that if they would have a chaplain for all the Jews that they have incarcerated that they would be less likely to make problems for them and they'd have a more docile prison population. And they asked him to recommend someone for that post of being chaplain for the Jewish prisoners. And Rav Kook recommended his Talmid Chaver, he recommended Rav Aryeh Levin. And Rav Kook told and and Rav Kook subsequently commented, I guess when asked, why he chose Rav Aryeh Levin for that task, said, because I could see that that involvement with Chesed was the Tikkun for his Neshama. That that involvement for Chesed was the way his individual Neshama was going to be perfected. So the story tells us incredible things about Rav Kook's vision. One wonders where Rav Kook bought his glasses and and would like to frequent the same same optometry store. But but it also speaks to this issue that that we're talking about in terms of the individuality of Nefashos, spiritual individuality that that we all have. One of the biggest challenges, maybe in a certain sense one can say the biggest challenge we all have at your age, the young population is a time when you're when you're really meeting this obligation and challenge head-on is to cultivate the self-knowledge to identify one's spiritual individuality. And and to identify one's particular constellation of Kochos Hanefesh and and to know how they're best used and how they're best applied within within Torah and Mitzvos. The Mishna in Avos, Mishna in Avos tells us איזהו גיבור הכובש את יצרו. Who's a mighty person who can conquer, can suppress as appropriate the Yetzer Hara? איזהו עשיר השמח בחלקו. Who's wealthy? A person who's content with what he what she has. איזהו מכובד המכבד את הבריות. Who's a person who's truly dignified and honorable? A person who honors others. What's the common denominator of each of those definitions of Kovesh es Yitzro, of Sameach Bechelko, Mechabed es Habriyos? I think that this observation also I first heard from my father is that we think of each of these terms as depending upon some kind of externalities. Eizehu Ashir depends upon how much money a person has in the bank. Eizehu Gibbor depends upon how much muscle I have in my body. Eizehu Mechubad depends upon whether or not people give me Kavod or they don't give me Kavod. And the Mishna says that's not true. The Mishna says all these things are inner-directed. All these things are independent of externalities. They're independent of whether or not my job is lucrative, my job isn't lucrative, whether or not I was born into a wealthy family, I wasn't born into a wealthy family. It's independent of how much muscle mass I have. It's independent of whether or not I'm on the receiving end of public recognition, public accolades, you know, they're all inner-directed. The true self is spiritual. So self-realization, self-attainment, self-realization is

אין הדבר תלוי אלא בי. אין הדבר תלוי אלא בי

means A, that imposes a sense of responsibility upon me, but B, it also says that I'm not dependent upon anyone else. I'm not dependent on anyone else to be a Gibbor. I'm not dependent on anyone else to be an Osher. I'm not dependent upon anyone else to be a Mechubad. I'm not dependent upon anyone else to be me. אין הדבר תלוי אלא בי. And I'd like to read you a few lines from the Rambam at the end of Hilchos Teshuvah where the Rambam is talking about the mitzvah of Ahavas Hashem. The goal for all of us to try to the goal that we all pursue.

כל העוסק בתורה כדי לקבל שכר או כדי שלא תגיע עליו פורענות.

A person who's preoccupied with Torah so that one can receive reward or that one can avert punishment,

הרי זה עוסק בה שלא לשמה. וכל העוסק בה לא ליראה,

not because I'm intimidated by rachmana litzlan the prospect of punishment, v'lo lekabbel sachar, nor am I responding to the incentive of reward,

אלא מפני אהבת אדון כל הארץ שציווה בה הרי זה עוסק בה לשמה.

If a person is motivated just by his love of the Master of the world, of Hakadosh Baruch Hu who commanded it, such a person is being oseik b'lishma. Now listen especially to this next halacha which is the concluding halacha of Hilchos Teshuvah and Sefer Hamadda of the Rambam, and there's a profound dialectic which is encapsulated in these words of the Rambam. Listen carefully. Davar yaduah u'varur. It's something which is well-known and clear. It's nothing, it's not something you can quibble about. This is something, it's an idea that's very compelling. Davar yaduah u'varur שאין אהבת הקדוש ברוך הוא נקשרת בלבו של אדם for love of Hakadosh Baruch Hu to be bound up in a person's mind, heart, that doesn't happen עד שישגה בה תמיד כראוי. A person has to be constantly immersed in his, her pursuit of Ahavas Hashem. Now listen to these next five words, again recognizing that obviously this is a very high goal, one that right now is out of our reach but it's what we pursue: ויעזוב כל שבעולם חוץ ממנו. That ultimately Ahavas Hashem is attained only when a person pushes aside everything else in the world, k'mo shetzivah v'amar, as Hakadosh Baruch Hu commands us in the Torah and says בכל לבבך ובכל נפשך. So there's a profound dialectic here. Self-realization means the self is the nefesh. Self-realization is to come as close to Hakadosh Baruch Hu as possible through His Torah and mitzvos. There's no greater self-realization than a person who is genuinely oheiv es Hashem. But says the Rambam, and here's the dialectic, hear this, hear this please. How is self-realization, again in the form of that kirvas Elokim, in the form of that Ahavas Hashem, how is that self-realization accomplished? How is it attained? Through self-sacrifice. What we initially experience as self-sacrifice. What's the self-sacrifice? Countless examples. Again, we gave the example of the Kohein who gives up on his dream of medical school. But the non-Kohein who gives up of the dream of a particular medical specialty because there's no Shomer Shabbos residency available there. But give, again we can all provide our own own personal examples, and we experience it at the time as self-sacrifice. We do. Our true self is not sufficiently developed for us to feel or experience it otherwise. It is experienced as self-sacrifice. It's experienced that I'm giving something up. I'm giving something up. If I'm tired and I haven't davened Maariv yet, and I push myself to daven Maariv, and it's more I push myself to try to daven Maariv with kavanah before going to sleep. So I experience that as self-sacrifice because what I think I really want to do is I think I really want to collapse into bed and go to sleep. So I experience it because I'm not yet on a high or a highest level that I could be that hopefully maybe someday we all will be on. So I experience that as self-sacrifice. What is it really? Not really self-sacrifice. What we experience as self-sacrifice, what we experience as mesiras nefesh for Torah and mitzvos, and again we're genuinely, we're not hallucinating, ba'asher anachnu sham, it is self-sacrifice. It is mesiras nefesh. It is challenging, and the challenge can be formidable. But in reality, yoshev bashamayim, from HaKadosh Baruch Hu's vantage point, it's what it really is is a self-investment. What it really is is self-development. What it really is is is self self-realization. It's it's really self-realization. And that's a profound, profound dialectic that we should be aware of, and the more we're aware of it, the more it helps sustain us for again what we do experience at the time as as self-sacrifice, as as mesiras nefesh. That there is a corollary to this lifestyle, this lifestyle which ensues when we recognize that the true self is the nefesh and all the implications of that for what self-realization really means. Maybe what we'll try to identify that corollary as follows: The Mishnah in the end of Berachos tells us חייב אדם לברך על הרע כשם שמברך על הטוב. That rachmana litzlan if a person receives bad tidings, person is informed rachmana litzlan of of the passing of an immediate relative, so the person has to make a bracha כשם שמברך על הטוב. The same way a person makes a bracha if he she is the recipient of good tidings. You bought a lottery ticket and you and you checked what the winning number is and lo and behold it's it's it's your number. So the Gemara says, excuse me, the Mishnah says k'sheim, just as. Just as. So the Gemara says what do you mean just as? You don't make the same bracha. Rachmana litzlan in the first scenario of ra, of what we experience as as bad, tragic news, so the bracha is ברוך אתה ה' אלוקינו מלך העולם דיין האמת. In the event of what we experience as good, welcome, wonderful news, so the bracha if it affects not only oneself but others as well is ברוך אתה ה' אלוקינו מלך העולם הטוב והמטיב. So what does it mean k'sheim? So the Gemara says no the equation is not in terms of that it's the same bracha but it's the same attitude. And specifically the two words that the Gemara says are l'kabulinhu b'simcha. You have to receive the news, the tidings, be it rachmana litzlan what we experience from our vantage point as ra, or what we experience from our vantage point as tova, you have to receive it with the same attitude. What does simcha mean? So we would translate joyously. But if you look at Rashi on that Gemara in Maseches Brachos, so Rashi translates that besimcha, Rashi gives a two word definition explanation, he says baleivav shaleim. Wholeheartedly. The Gemara doesn't mean that Rachmana litzlan a person receives tragic news, it doesn't mean that that person dances, it doesn't mean that a person breaks out into joyous song and dance, but what it does mean is that a person realizes that if Hakadosh Baruch Hu did it, as much as we experience it as something tragic and devastating, but we know that it's the right thing. And because of that, whether the person is the the recipient of good news, wonderful news, or Rachmana litzlan the recipient of bad tragic news, either way is a certain sense of equanimity, baleivav shaleim, wholeheartedness. There's a certain sense of equanimity with which a person receives that news. So Rashi is is giving us a very beautiful and profound definition of simcha. Rashi is telling us that again we generally translate simcha a little bit more symptomatically and more externally. A person is joyous, rapturous. And Rashi says no, simcha means this sense of serenity which a person can only have when a person knows that things are as they should be. When are we not besimcha? When we're frustrated, we're angry, we're torn, we're conflicted. What's the common denominator to all those situations? Frustrated, angry, conflicted. Things are not as they should be. I'm frustrated because I want this, I don't have this. I'm angry because this happened to me, I don't want that that happened to me. A person is besimcha when he, she feels that things are as they should be. For things to be as they should be, it's a partnership between Hakadosh Baruch Hu and us. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is in charge of what happens to us, and we're in charge of what we do. So we can be besimcha about what's out of our control, because that's in Hakadosh Baruch Hu's control, Hakol bidei shamayim. So we we receive good news, or Rachmana litzlan we receive bad news, a person can be besimcha. A person can have that sense of serenity. Again, it doesn't preclude the crying, it doesn't preclude the mourning, it doesn't it doesn't anesthetize one against the pain of of and the grief of the bad news, but alongside that there's a sense of serenity of baleivav shaleim that things are as they should be. But for a person to feel that way all the way, I also all the time, I also have to know that הכל בידי שמים חוץ מיראת שמים. I also have to know that what I'm doing is right. A person pursues self-realization in the sense that we spoke about, that we've been talking about, this עור ובשר תלבישני על בשר אדם, the real you, the real me, is the nefesh. Self-realization is that kirvas Elokim through his his Torah u'mitzvos. It's something which doesn't depend upon externalities. It's something which is which is inner-directed. This the dialectic of self-sacrifice is what ultimately yields self-realization. A person lives a life like that, a person's got to always be besimcha. Because a person's gonna have that sense, that that deep-seated sense of serenity, equanimity, that things are as they should be. A person goes to sleep at night having lived the day the way he, she should, a person goes to sleep with a sense of, a sense of of serenity. If you've ever seen pictures of Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, so in virtually every picture of him that that exists, he's smiling. He's smiling, he's always smiling. He was always happy. He was always happy. He wasn't frustrated by what was out of his control. כל מאן דעביד רחמנא לטב עביד. Kibbelo b'simcha. And he lived such a good, virtuous life accommodating his real self, what we experience as self-sacrifice as the path to ultimate self-realization, the life of tremendous simcha as well. So just to conclude with a bracha, with a tefillah, that we should all be able to live such a life and enjoy the simcha that follows.