Good morning Rabos, I hope everyone's well. We've been talking a little bit the past few days by way of trying to gain perspective and frame what we've been learning in Shaarei Teshuva of Rabbeinu Yonah about the balance in a person's life, which the complementary presence of yira and simcha in a person's life create. So a very classical expression of that is in the Kuzari. There's a famous passage in Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi in the Kuzari. It's in Maamar Sheni, Os Nun, paragraph nun. So I'm jumping around a little bit in what I'm reading. Hatorah Ha'elokit, so this is the Haver speaking to the king. Hatorah Ha'elokit, the divine Torah, lo he'evidatnu besigufim, didn't impose upon us asceticism, כי אם למדתנו את המידה הנכונה, it rather taught us the appropriate balance, וציוותה עלינו לתת לכל כוח מכוחות הנפש והגוף את החלק המגיע לו בצדק,
to allocate, to apportion to each faculty of the body and the soul its appropriate share, its appropriate portion, בלי שתבקר את הכוח האחד על פני האחרים without creating an imbalance by catering to one koach, to one faculty of the soul at the expense of the other. And then he writes as follows. Again, I'm skipping. Klalo shel davar, listen to this remarkable, remarkable statement from Yehuda HaLevi. Klalo shel davar, שלושה הם יסודות עבודת האלוק על פי תורתנו: there are three yesodos, there are three fundamental principles in avodas Hashem: hayirah veha'ahavah vehasimcha. A person has to have yiras Hashem, a person has to have ahavas Hashem, and a person has to have simcha in a life of avodas Hashem. התקרב אל אלוקיך בכל אחת מאלה. Come close to your God with each of these. Ve'achen, and the remarkable passage continues, ve'achen, indeed, bechniatcha bimei hata'anis, your submissiveness on fast days as ordained, bechniatcha through your submissiveness on these ordained fast days, לא תקרב אל האלוק יותר מאשר בשמחתך בשבתות ויום טובים.
You're not going to come closer to Hakadosh Baruch Hu through the hachna’ah, the submissiveness a person feels, should feel, on the ordained fast days is no more of an instrument of kirvas Elokim than simcha on Shabbos and Yom Tov, provided with the following clause: אם שמחתך זו באה מתוך מחשבה וכוונה. It can't be a superficial type of simcha, it has to be a simcha which emerges. Ki, every line here is just so remarkable. כי כשם שהתחנונים צריכים מחשבה וכוונה, the same way when one davens. So the words alone if not infused with, if not permeated by kavana, concentration and focus and intent, so what was it? The hollow, they're empty shells. כך גם השמחה בדבר אלוקא, an amazing equation, כך גם השמחה בדבר אלוקא, bidvar eloka presumably means Talmud Torah, ובמצוותו צריכה מחשבה וכוונה. למען תשמח במצווה עצמה, so that for the simcha to be a spiritual experience, למען תשמח במצווה עצמה מתוך אהבתך למצווה עליה ותכיר מה מאוד היטב לך בה.
With machshava, with prior reflection, so then the simchas hamitzvah that a person experiences is not something sort of superficial, you know, it's not, you know, what's not to be happy with with latkes and jelly donuts? No, I mean, how can you, how can you not, how can you not rejoice as long as the, as long as the recipe for the latkes was the right one and if you have your choice between the jelly and the custard donuts, you know, what's not to rejoice? So says, so says Rebbe Yehuda HaLevi: No, למען תשמח במצווה עצמה מתוך אהבתך למצווה עליה ותכיר מה מאוד היטב לך בה. וכאילו בא לביתו כקרוי אל שולחנו ומהנהו מן המון.
Imagine the following, let's say imagine as I don't know someone you I don't know that someone that you always idolized and and you always dream of of meeting and then you get the chance to to meet him. So because of of the meaningfulness of this, that's what what generates the the simcha. The simcha is not just sort of a superficial reaction to the you know to the trappings of the meeting, no it's because of what the meeting means to you represents. Imagine a person I don't know let's say if he wants to go into medicine and and he wants to go into a certain field and and he wants to he wants to study under the leading figure in one area of neurology or cardiology or whatever or whatever the case may be and then he gets that opportunity. He gets that opportunity. He gets the to be a resident and and to train under this this leading preeminent doctor. So it's the prior machshava of what this opportunity means which then generates the simcha that the person has. So the simcha is not going to be oh you know I think I look really good in those surgical scrubs and and it's not going to be it's not going to be a a a superficial simcha but it's going to be again because of the understanding of of what this opportunity means that's what's going to generate the simcha. מתוך אהבתך למען תשמח במצווה עצמה, rereading here for a moment, למען תשמח במצווה עצמה מתוך אהבתך למצווה עליה, so that you'll have Rebbe Yehuda HaLevi says the simcha will be again not about anything incidental superficial but about the mitzva. Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi says the simcha will be again not about anything incidental, superficial but about the mitzvah itself and v'takir and you'll recognize מה מאוד היטיב לך בה you'll recognize what an incredible benefaction this is what what an incredible blessing every mitzvah is וכאילו באת לביתו כאורח שולחן המנעמים as though you were invited to be a ben bayit as though you were invited to be a houseguest and to dine at his table and that will then result ויתן שבח על כך בפיך ובלבך. It captures very beautifully these lines in the Kuzari capture very beautifully the balance that we need to cultivate and maintain in our lives between again re-reading one of the previous sentences about שלשה הם יסודות עבודת האלוקים על פי תורתנו the three fundamental principles hayira v'ha'ahava v'hasimcha. Okay so we'll we'll stop here בלי נדר אם ירצה השם we'll resume around 12:45 with Pesachim. Okay everyone should have a very good productive morning. Be well be safe b'ezrat Hashem.