Judaism's Ten Best Ideas Simchah - Joy

(33) The LORD spoke to Moses, saying: (34) Say to the Israelite people: On the fifteenth day of this seventh month there shall be the Feast of Booths to the LORD, [to last] seven days. (35) The first day shall be a sacred occasion: you shall not work at your occupations; (36) seven days you shall bring offerings by fire to the LORD. On the eighth day you shall observe a sacred occasion and bring an offering by fire to the LORD; it is a solemn gathering: you shall not work at your occupations. (37) Those are the set times of the LORD that you shall celebrate as sacred occasions, bringing offerings by fire to the LORD—burnt offerings, meal offerings, sacrifices, and libations, on each day what is proper to it— (38) apart from the sabbaths of the LORD, and apart from your gifts and from all your votive offerings and from all your freewill offerings that you give to the LORD. (39) Mark, on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the yield of your land, you shall observe the festival of the LORD [to last] seven days: a complete rest on the first day, and a complete rest on the eighth day. (40) On the first day you shall take the product of hadar trees, branches of palm trees, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days. (41) You shall observe it as a festival of the LORD for seven days in the year; you shall observe it in the seventh month as a law for all time, throughout the ages. (42) You shall live in booths seven days; all citizens in Israel shall live in booths, (43) in order that future generations may know that I made the Israelite people live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I the LORD your God. (44) So Moses declared to the Israelites the set times of the LORD.

ושמחתם שבעת ימים, “you are to rejoice for seven consecutive days.” The reason for this is that each day is to be considered as a festival in its own right. The fact that the number of sacrifices offered during these days vary, is proof of this, compared with the offerings on the seven days of Passover.

והיית אך שמח ONLY BE REJOICED — According to its plain sense this is not the expression of a command but expresses an assurance: “thou will be rejoicing”. But according to the Halachic interpretation they (the Rabbis) derived from here that the night before the last day of the festival (that preceding the eighth day) is to be included in the obligation of rejoicing (Sukkah 48a; cf. Sifrei Devarim 142:4).

The Sages taught: A man is obligated to gladden his children and the members of his household on a Festival, as it is stated: “And you shall rejoice on your Festival, you, and your son, and your daughter, and your manservant, and your maidservant, and the Levite, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow that are within your gates” (Deuteronomy 16:14). With what should one make them rejoice? With wine. Rabbi Yehuda says: One should enable each member of his household to rejoice with an item that pleases them, men with what is fit for them and women with what is fit for them. Rabbi Yehuda elaborates: Men with what is fit for them, i.e., with wine. And as for the women, with what should one cause them to rejoice? Rav Yosef teaches: One should delight them with new clothes, in Babylonia with colored clothes and in Eretz Yisrael with the pressed linen clothes that are manufactured there. It was taught in a baraita that Rabbi Yehuda ben Beteira says: When the Temple is standing, rejoicing is only through the eating of sacrificial meat, as it is stated: “And you shall sacrifice peace-offerings and you shall eat there and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 27:7). And now that the Temple is not standing and one cannot eat sacrificial meat, he can fulfill the mitzva of rejoicing on a Festival only by drinking wine, as it is stated: “And wine that gladdens the heart of man” (Psalms 104:15).

§ Apropos the discussion with regard to the mitzva to have children, the Gemara cites statements about marriage in general. Rabbi Tanḥum said that Rabbi Ḥanilai said: Any man who does not have a wife is left without joy, without blessing, without goodness. He proceeds to quote verses to support each part of his statement. He is without joy, as it is written: “And you shall rejoice, you and your household” (Deuteronomy 14:26), which indicates that the a man is in a joyful state only when he is with his household, i.e., his wife. He is without blessing, as it is written: “To cause a blessing to rest in your house” (Ezekiel 44:30), which indicates that blessing comes through one’s house, i.e., one’s wife. He is without goodness, as it is written: “It is not good that man should be alone” (Genesis 2:18), i.e., without a wife.

Solomon, by implication, exhorts us to be joyful when performing G’d’s commandments and when seeing others perform them. This is why he speaks about עשות משפט, “the dispensing of justice,” in the infinitive. He does not speak about particular people dispensing justice but refers to the phenomenon which when observed inspires great joy.
Naturally, the joy which accompanies the performance of a commandment by an individual Jew is in a class by itself. Seeing that performance of the commandments is called עבודת ה', “serving the Lord,” we can understand what is written in Deut. 28,16 תחת אשר לא עבדת את ה' אלוקיך בשמחה, “on account of the fact that you did not perform the commandments of the Lord your G’d with joy, etc.” When David writes in Psalms 100,2 עבדו את ה' בשמחה, “serve the Lord with joy,” he does not refer to the offering of sacrificial animals but to the performance of each and every commandment which it is our duty to perform. Joy is the ingredient which makes service of the Lord something perfect. This concept helps us understand the unusual phrase in Numbers 4,46 לעבוד עבודת עבודה. Concerning this expression our sages in Erchin 11 ask what kind of service this is that the Torah speaks of there. The answer given in the Talmud is that the Torah speaks of offering songs and hymns. The Levites are commanded to offer songs and encourage expressions of joy to accompany the sacrificial offerings. All of this was to ensure that joy is the prevailing sentiment accompanying service of the Lord.
It is well known that the age of thirty is the age at which man is at the zenith of his physical power (Avot end of chapter 5). Beginning with the age of fifty our physical strength begins to decline. This is the reason that the years during which the Levites perform active service are between the ages of 30-50. How would he be able to offer song to G’d at a time when he feels that his physical strength is already beginning to ebb? This is also why we have been taught in Chulin 24 that although Levites who are afflicted with certain physical blemishes are not disqualified from performing their service, they are disqualified as soon as they are over fifty years of age. This is why the Torah writes in 8,25: “from fifty years of age he shall withdraw from the legion of work and no longer work.” This is also why the census of the Levites included the ones between the ages of 30-50 only.

The Holy One, blessed be He, said: In this world My creatures opposed Me, and therefore they were divided into seventy languages because of the evil inclination, but in the world-to-come they will all be of one accord, calling upon My name and serving Me, as it is said: For then will I turn to the peoples one pure language that they may call upon the name of the Lord, to serve Him with one consent (Zeph. 3:9). And He will remove the oppression of idolatrous nations from Israel, and they shall serve Him with gladness, as it is said: Serve the Lord with gladness (Ps. 100:2). However, the nations of the world will serve Him, as is appropriate for them, with trepidation. For example, when a son serves his father, he does so in gladness, saying to himself: If I should commit an error in my father’s presence, he will not be angry with me, for he loves me. Hence he serves him with gladness. However, when a stranger serves a master, he does so with trepidation, saying to himself: If I should commit an error in his presence, he will become angry with me. Therefore, he serves him with trepidation.

{“Serve God with joy, come into His presence with joyous song. Know that God, He is the Lord” (Psalms 100:2-3) .} This is also the meaning of “Serve God with joy”—i.e., channeling joy into servant/Metat/six weekdays, as discussed above. And this is: “Know that God, He is the Lord”—this signifies the simple unity, i.e., that all diverse forms are one. This is revealed when Shabbat joy is channeled into the six weekdays/servant, as discussed above.

JOY: The second [branch of love of G-d] is joy, it is a great, essential principal in serving G-d. This is what David exhorted us saying: "Serve G-d with joy, come before Him with song" (Tehilim 100:2), and "the righteous will rejoice, they will exult before God and delight with joy" (Tehilim 68:4). And our sages said: "the Divine presence rests on a person only through his rejoicing in a mitzva" (Shabbat 30b). On the aforementioned verse: "Serve G-d with joy", our sages said in a Midrash (Shocher Tov, Tehilim 100): "Rabbi Abahu says: 'when you stand to pray, your heart should rejoice, for you are praying to the Almighty of whom there is none like Him'".

"Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Let My people go that they may celebrate a festival for Me in the wilderness.” (Exodus 5:1) This can be explained according to what is written in the verse "I was asleep, But my heart was wakeful." (Song of Songs 5:2) This is the idea - every member of Israel should wake with great joy and powerful desire in the middle of the night to contemplate the following. If a king of flesh and blood wanted one to make him a crown, and they were able, and they knew that the king would take great pleasure and delight in this crown, and due to his joy the king would make them one of his intimate ministers, imagine with what alacrity they would arise, rejoicing and glad, to speedily make the crown. They would wipe the sleep from their eyes and neither rain, sleet, ice nor snow would stop them. All the more so this is true of the songs and praises from which a crown is made for the Kinng, king of kings, when they are a product of one's heartfelt will. The verse cries out "worship the LORD in gladness..." (Psalms 100:2) and it is explained in the holy Zohar 'even one who has sinned before their master and must return in repentance, confessing in brokenhearted bitterness, nevertheless must also fulfill "worship the Lord in gladness."' (Zohar 3:8a) The root of the matter is thus - when one prays the midnight fixing (tikkun chatzot) or when they confess, asking for pardon and forgiveness, they should do so with great weeping and bitterness of heart. In the same manner, when one says the songs and praises which were written by the sweet singer of Israel, their soul should ignite with tremendous joy that they merit to make a crown for the King, king of kings - just as King David said them in joy. It is also true that when one is occupied with Torah that they should be in a state of great joy. It is explained in the Reishit Chochmah (Sha'ar HaAhavah ch. 10) that one who desires to bring joy to their soul should seclude themselves for part of the day and contemplate the greatness of the letters of the four-lettered Name of God. A proof for this can be found in what David said "I have placed the Lord (four-lettered name before me continually...So my heart rejoices, my whole being exults..." (Psalms 16:8-9) This second part refers to the soul (neshama) because the neshama is an emanation from the four-lettered Name as it says "You are children of the Lord your God..." (Deuteronomy 14:1) Therefore when one contemplates the four-lettered name, the soul is illuminated and shines with a wondrous brilliance - this is joy. The power of this illumination has the strength to plant its sparks even with one's flesh, so that "...even my body rests secure," (Psalms 16:9) meaning that no rot will rule over it. These are his holy words, see there further. According to this our verse is explained 'Thus says the LORD (the four-lettered Name), the God of Israel, from whom the souls of Israel emanate, Let My people go that they may celebrate a festival for Me - this is as its says regarding Sukkot "You shall rejoice in your festival..." (Deuteronomy 16:14)