The topic is שמחה של מצוה, which means the joy one should have when he performs a מצוה. We all know a מצוה is, the literal translation of a מצוה is commandment, and that is a commandment of God that was given to the Jews, and there are 613 commandments, not all apply nowadays because certain circumstances are not there, but there are still many many commandments that we have. For instance, just to give an example, putting on תפילין every day is a commandment of God. Eating מצה on פסח, on Passover, is a commandment of God. Listening to the שופר on ראש השנה is a commandment of God. So when we say a מצוה, מצוה means a commandment, but there is another translation to the word מצוה, and that is connection, that when you do a מצוה, you connect to God. It comes from the word צוותא, which means connection in Hebrew. When you do a מצוה, when you do, perform a commandment of God, then you connect to God. But what I'm going to speak about is more about the שמחה, the joy, the happiness that you have to have when you do the מצוה. That means besides the fact that we are obligated to do the מצוות because God commanded us, and in this class we're not discussing how do you know that God commanded us to do the מצוות, people might ask that question, we're beyond that. If you have that question, you got to have a different class, just to show you that the מצוות that we have nowadays is commandment of God that was given to us at הר סיני, at Mount Sinai, and later on given to Moses, to משה רבינו, and this is the מצוות that we have. But that we are taking for granted, that everyone knows that that is true, and all these מצוות that we have are all given by God, these are commandments of God. But besides the fact that we have to do the מצוות, we have to be happy when we do it. There's a special ענין, a special concept of joy, that we have to feel happy that we're able to do the מצוות. And that's what I'm going to try to explain: What is the reason behind it, and what it means. Now, it's really based on a פסוק, a verse, in תהלים, in the Psalms, and we say this every day in our prayers, in the morning prayers, before we say ברוך שאמר, a certain section of the prayers. So we say, עבדו את ה׳ בשמחה, serve God with שמחה, with joy. That means it tells that that when you serve God, when you do a מצוה, you do a commandment of God, you are serving him. Do it with joy, so we got to do it with joy. The רמב״ם, Maimonides, says in the end of the laws of לולב, so there the רמב״ם writes that שמחה של מצוה עבודה גדולה היא, the joy of a מצוה is a very great service. It's very very important. It's very important to do a מצוה with שמחה, to do a מצוה with joy. As a matter of fact, if you go further, it says in חומש, it says in פרשת כי תבוא in חומש דברים where השם says, God says there, that if you do not follow my orders, do the commandments, there are all kinds of negative things that God says might happen to you, will happen to you. One of the פסוקים it says there, one of the verses says, תחת אשר לא עבדת את ה׳ אלקיך בשמחה ובטוב לבב. You know why all these things will happen? תחת means because you didn't serve God with joy and with a good heart, with a good feeling of joy. Now, I have to say the truth, the simple translation to this verse means that God will be upset if you don't serve him at a time when you were happy. That means if a person has problems and he doesn't serve God, you at least have some excuse, you know, I was sick, I was poor, I didn't have food, I was hungry. You have an excuse, not acceptable, but nevertheless you at least have an excuse. But if things went well for you, you were happy, things were going for you, and you still didn't serve me, that's when השם is, God is angry. But that's the simple translation. But in תניא, which is written by the אלטער רבי, the בעל התניא, the first ליובאוויטשער רבי, so there he writes in the name of the אריז״ל, רבי יצחק לוריא the אריז״ל who says that the meaning of this verse is that the punishment will come תחת because you didn't serve God with שמחה, with joy. In truth, this interpretation originates in the רמב״ם. He quotes it in the name of the אריז״ל because the האריז״ל stressed it a lot. But the רמב״ם, which is quite a few hundred years before the האריז״ל, in the same place where I quoted before where he says that it is very important, עבודה גדולה היא, it's a great service of God to do מצוות with joy, he brings this interpretation. He says, as the פסוק says, תחת אשר לא עבדת את השם אלוקיך בשמחה ובטוב לבב, because you didn't serve God with שמחה. So he also learns the meaning of this פסוק that God says it's so important that you could be punished, God forbid, for not serving Him with joy, which means even if you serve God, and you do the מצוות properly, but if you don't do it with שמחה, God is upset. And the question is, why? Isn't the most important thing that you do the מצוה? That's what we have to do. God says, I want you to the I want you to put on תפילין, I want you to eat מצה, I want you to דאווענען, and all the מצוות that we have to do. That's the most important thing. Why is it so important that we do it with שמחה, that we do it with joy? Actually, רב חיים ויטאל, who was one of the greatest, or maybe the greatest student of the האריז״ל, האריז״ל was a big מקובל, a great Kabbalist, probably the greatest Kabbalist in history of the world, and רב חיים ויטאל was his student, and all the teachings and writings of the האריז״ל that we have, the האריז״ל never wrote it. He just said it, and רב חיים ויטאל wrote it down. So everything we have from the האריז״ל רב חיים ויטאל. So רב חיים ויטאל writes that my teacher, my רבי, the האריז״ל, reached the highest spiritual levels one could imagine. And he says, you know why? Not because of the מצוות that he did, it's because of the שמחה של מצוה. Because he did the מצוה with such great joy, with such great שמחה, that made him reach the greatest spiritual levels, which means the greatest levels of feeling close to God, feeling close to the Creator, and all came because he did the מצוות with joy. Obviously, there must be something special in doing a מצוה with שמחה, serving God with שמחה. So we have the verse in the פסוק, the verse in תהלים, עבדו את השם בשמחה, you have to serve השם with שמחה. And we have all these places where it says clearly the importance of serving השם, which means doing the מצוות with שמחה, but what we have to understand is why is that שמחה aspect so important? So the רבי once explained it based on the expression of the רמב״ם, of Maimonides, in that part that I mentioned before. Because after the רמב״ם says these words, that שמחה של מצוה עבודה גדולה היא, to do a מצוה with שמחה, with joy, is a great service, a very important service of God, he says a few words. And the רבי says that the key to what he said to this idea is in these few words. And he says like this: It's שמחה ואהבת הקל אשר ציוונו ציוויסנו. It's the שמחה that God loves us and commanded us to do the מצוה. The שמחה has to come when you realize what it means that God commanded us to do a מצוה. The fact that God gave us commandments, told us things to do, wants us to do certain things, the mere fact that He told us to do it should bring in a person the greatest feeling of שמחה. In חסידות, in the Chassidic philosophy, it brings a משל, a משל is a parable, that you have a great person, let's say a king, it always uses an example of a king, and a king is the top, top person of the country, and then you have very simple, simple peasants, simple people. You can imagine how a simple person feels in comparison to the king. He feels himself nothing. He has no connection to the king. The king is all the way on top, he's nothing, and he doesn't doesn't mean anything. Imagine if the king would go down from his throne and come over to the simple person and tell the simple person, ask him, you know, do me a favor, I'd like you to do something for me. The mere fact that he asked him to do something for him, that would make the person feel so special. He'd be so happy. Imagine! The king himself asked me to do him a favor, whatever he asked me to do, makes no difference what. But he he communicated with me and lowered himself, so to speak, to come to me, and he asked me to do something for him. If he's only a normal person, this would bring out the greatest שמחה, the greatest joy in the feeling of the person. If he doesn't have the שמחה when this happens, that shows that this guy doesn't appreciate what a king is, and he doesn't know what this means. It's like saying somebody would hear that he won the lottery, he won $50 million, and he's not happy about it. So what does that mean? Or there's something wrong with him, or he doesn't know what money is, something is not normal. You can't be if you're only a normal person, and you hear something special like that, and you get something like that, the feeling you has to bring you out to be בשמחה, to be happy. So in this case, when you know know that God, who is the creator of the world, and God God is infinite, and all the great things that we know about God, and we know who we are, in שולחן ערוך, in the code of Jewish law, use an expression רוממות הקל which means the great loftiness of the creator of God, and the lowliness of a human being. So we are basically so far apart, and God, what he did was, he lowered himself to us, and he said, \"I want you to do something. I'm asking you to do something.\" So when you start thinking what that means, that automatically brings a person to be בשמחה. And if you're not בשמחה when you realize this, there's something wrong with you. So being בשמחה from this idea that השם commanded us, that God commanded us to do מצוות, that itself is an expression of the person's connection to God. In other words, besides what we said before, that the actual doing of the מצווה is a connection to God—the word מצווה, as I said before, means connection, you connect to God—but we're talking here even before you do the מצווה. The mere fact that you were commanded to do the מצווה by God, who is so great and he lowered himself to us, that itself should bring out in a person the greatest feeling of שמחה. So the feeling of שמחה when you do a מצווה expresses the feeling that you have in understanding what it means to do a מצווה, what it means that God commanded us to do a מצווה. And to a certain degree, this has in it more even than the connection you have when you actually do the מצווה. When you do the מצווה, there's a connection, but it doesn't mean that you really feel it. It's true, every time you do God's commandment, you are connecting to God, but it doesn't mean you can feel it. You could get up in the morning, put on תפילין, you don't feel any connection, you just do it because you you know, it's the right thing to do, out of habit, you're trained, or whatever the reason you have. So we know there is a connection there, but you don't feel it. The שמחה, if you're happy about it, that means that you feel what the מצווה means, what the connection to God means. So that connection is more an expression of your emotions, more than the מצווה itself. That's why it's so important to have the שמחה של מצווה. And this is why the רב חיים ויטאל writes that the אריז״ל reached all the spiritual levels through שמחה של מצווה. What does it mean he's reached spiritual levels? He got closer, and in his feeling, the recognition of the truth of God, in his feeling of connection to God, that is connected to שמחה של מצווה. It's not because of the מצווה itself. The מצווה doesn't necessarily mean that you'd feel that connection, but if you're happy about it, that means that you feel that connection. That's the idea of being happy. That's why it says עבדו את השם בשמחה, you should serve השם with joy, because השם wants us, God wants us that we should express our feeling of what it means that השם commanded us. And that's why it says that if you don't, God is upset. Why? That means that you don't really understand what's going on. If a person is not happy when he does a מצווה, it shows that he doesn't know what's flying, he doesn't know what מצווה means. Because if he he would, and he would think about it, there's no way he wouldn't be happy. So happiness of a מצווה means that. And I have to tell you that the רבי said, when he spoke this thing שמחת תורה, so the רבי then said that he was speaking about doing תשובה, doing repentance for people who are not פרום, and doing תשובה, and he said, \"You have to do תשובה with שמחה.\" Now, some people think when you do תשובה you feel regret, remorse, it's always like comes along with a sad feeling. You know, look who I was before, and I'm looking back, and I feel bad about it. So he says, \"No, you got to do it with שמחה. You got to do it with joy.\" Why? And this is the logic that the רבי explained, he said like this. If for every מצווה that you do, you have to be בשמחה, why? Because you start thinking, \"God is so high, so great, so far away, lowered himself to me, who am I? I'm so far, worse than a ant on the floor to me. Would I care what a ant does? And God cares, yes, and he moved to lowered himself to me, to a person, to a human being, told us what to do, wants us to do something. So it makes you, you have to do it with שמחה.\" The מצווה of תשובה was given to who? To not just a regular ייד, a regular Jew, to a Jew who did things wrong, to a Jew who's not doing the right thing, he's even lower than a regular Jew. And even to him, God lowered himself, says, \"You, I'm giving you a מצווה. I'm giving you a מצווה of doing תשובה.\" So you have to start thinking, \"To me? He came to me, who am I?\" So a regular person with a regular מצווה, you have to have שמחה, so when it comes to the מצווה of תשובה, you certainly to have to have שמחה. So this is the reason why it's so important to have שמחה של מצוה, to be to have שמחה when you do a מצוה. Which, by the way, if you do a מצוה with שמחה, practically speaking, it takes away the feeling of it being a burden. Like this, some people claim, certainly people who are just getting first into it, people who are used to it, you know, it's not a burden because that's how that's what life is. But if you're new into it, then it feels like a burden. Oh, you start learning שולחן ערוך, you start learning Code of Jewish Law, you start learning, \"Oh, there's not a minute of my life that I'm free, and I have to put on תפילין in the morning, and this I can't eat, and this I could eat, and this is so many this restrictions and so many obligations. It it's a terrible burden.\" You know when it's a burden? If you look at it as something that you have to do, נעבעך, as they say, yeah, you have to do it. But if you look at it that this is some some special something precious that God gave us, and every מצוה is precious, when you do something precious, it's not a burden. They give a parable. There's an interesting משל, a parable of once there was a man who was walking up a mountain with very, very heavy package. And he walked up, he was sweating, it was a hot day, and the sun was was shining and it was very hot. And someone walked and saw him, and he said, \"I see you're having a hard time walking. Do you want me to help you want to actually help you carry it?\" Said, \"Sure, if you'll only help me, I'd be glad.\" So, he took it, package and helped, and he walked up with him. A few weeks later, same thing happened again. He saw him walking with a heavy package, and it was very heavy, and he was sweating, and he said to him, \"Would you like me to help you?\" \"No, no, no, no, I don't want you to touch it. I'm not I'm carrying it myself.\" Said, \"What's the difference? How come last week you allowed me, and last week you felt so bad?\" He says, \"I'll tell you. Last week I was carrying rocks. Today, I'm carrying diamonds. If I'm carrying diamonds, it could be just as heavy, it's not heavy. It's something that I'm happy to do. I wanted I want to carry it. I want to make sure that I have it.\" If you look at a מצוה as a precious stone, as a diamond, and you're happy to do it, it's not a burden. It's not a burden at all. Physically, it might be sometimes hard. It's true, sometimes hard. A lot of things in life are hard. Good things are always hard, that doesn't matter. But you want to do it because you know every time you're doing it, you're have another diamond that you're carrying, so it's not a burden. But this all is connected to doing מצוות בשמחה. But we know it's more than that. It's not only the מצוות that we have to do with joy, we know that we should always be happy. Not only while we're doing a מצוה. We should always be happy. There's a פסוק, a verse in משלי, משלי is Proverbs, I guess, yeah, says there, שלמה המלך, King Solomon, says, טוב לב משתה תמיד. A person should always be in a partying mood, in a mood of a משתה, of a party. You should always be happy. You should always be in a happy-go-lucky guy. Why? When you're doing a מצוה, I understand, but why should you be happy always? There was even an expression, I don't know where the source really is, מצוה גדולה להיות בשמחה, there's a song, I don't know who sings that song, מצוה גדולה להיות בשמחה. It's a big מצוה to be בשמחה. We're not talking about doing a מצוה בשמחה, that's for sure. We spoke about that. But it's a מצוה to we should always be בשמחה, and we know in חסידות, it stresses very much the importance of always being בשמחה, of always being happy, always being in a good mood, and always being in a happy mood, always being, as we say in Yiddish, פריילעך. The previous רבי writes that in the beginning when the בעל שם טוב established the Chassidic movement, before they got the name חסידים, you know what people referred to them? How they referred to them? די פריילאכע. די פריילאכע, the happy ones. They saw that the חסידים were always in a happy mood, they're always happy. Other people were always so serious, and they're always the פריילאכע ones. So, חסידות stresses very much to be happy. We know somebody once came in to the רבי for יחידות, in a private audience, and he was like very, like in a sad mood. And the רבי said, \"In this room you can't be sad. You come in, you've got to be happy. There's a שמחה is important, it's very important.\" But why? Why is it so important to be happy? So the reason is because we said before, you've got to realize that when you do a מצוה, השם gave us a מצוה, for the fact that He gave us the מצוה, that should make us happy that we are able to fulfill, we're able to serve God, and we have to be happy, you know when we serve God? Every moment of our life. Not only when we do מצוות we serve God. Every moment of our life, we have a mission in this world. The חז״ל, the rabbis, the sages tell us לא ברא דבר אחד בעולמו לבטלה. השם didn't create anything in the world in vain. Everything in the world has a purpose. There's another saying of the sages, כל מה שברא הקדוש ברוך הוא בעולמו לא ברא אלא לכבודו. Everything השם created in the world is all for his honor. In other words, everything that's there, which means things, time, every moment is a mission that a Jew has in this world to serve God. And that means not only when you're doing a מצוה, when you're eating, and when you're sleeping, and when you're doing business, everything could be a service of God and should be a service of God. Why? Because if you eat, and you make a ברכה before you eat, and you make sure the food is כשר, and afterwards you say the grace after meals, and you're eating also with the intentions not because you just want to eat, you feel that if you eat you'll be healthy, and if you're healthy you'll be able to learn more תורה, and will be able to do more מצוות, if you make money, you could serve God by making doing business, making money. How do you serve God by making money? If I'm doing everything in a כשר way, that means in a proper way, according to the way the Code of Jewish Law says you're allowed to make money, not stealing, not cheating, etc., etc. And you have in mind, why do I want to make the money? I want to make the money because I want to give more צדקה, more charity. I want to make the money so I could buy a nicer pair of תפילין. I want to make money so I should be able to pay the high tuition of giving my children a Jewish education. So then, you are serving God. So every moment of our life, there is a mission that we have to fulfill of God. So the same idea that we said that you have to do a מצוה בשמחה, why? Because the מצוה means that God lowered himself to you and gave you something. The mere fact that he turned to me and gave me something to do, you can imagine how appreciative I should be, how happy I should be. So it's not only by a מצוה. It's every second of one's life you have to be happy that you have this mission in this world every second. And it's interesting that this פסוק, this verse that I mentioned, טוב לב משתה תמיד, which means a good heart, a heart should always be, like I said, in a party mood, should always be in a happy mood, is written in the Code of Jewish Law, in the first section which is called שולחן ערוך, Code of Jewish Law, אורח חיים, which are the laws of daily life. The last words, the end of that that part, the רמ״א, who is one of the authors of the שולחן ערוך, writes this פסוק. He quotes טוב לב משתה תמיד, that's how he finishes off, that you should always be happy. In the beginning of the שולחן ערוך, in the first line of the שולחן ערוך in the beginning, he brings another פסוק. He says שויתי השם לנגדי תמיד, that השם, God, is always in front of me. In both of these פסוקים, the word תמיד, here it says טוב לב משתה תמיד, תמיד means always, constantly, constantly be happy, and here it says שויתי השם לנגדי תמיד, constantly you should have השם in front of you, you should have God in front, always think of God. And there are two תמידs. So in the ספרים it says that this refers to, they used an expression, שני תמידים. The word תמיד also refers to the sacrifices that they used to bring in the Holy Temple, in the בית המקדש. They used to bring one קרבן תמיד in the morning and one קרבן תמיד in the afternoon, and together they're called the שני תמידים, the two תמידים. So they refer to these two words, that טוב לב משתה תמיד with the first one שויתי השם לנגדי תמיד as the two תמידים. And this is the beginning, this is the end. And we always know that the beginning and the end are wedged together, because the beginning is always sets the tone, when you start something you have the foundation, you start, and the end is always, you know, we call it the the total of everything, so they are connected. So here we see the connection: because שויתי השם לנגדי תמיד, because you always have to have God in front of you, always, not only when you do a מצוה, when you're eating, when you're sleeping, when you're talking to your friend, or whatever you do, you always have to have God in mind. Now that doesn't mean physically to sit every second to, you can't talk to your friend if you're thinking of God, but it has to be in your subconscious, you have to always have this feeling knowing that essentially that God is there and you're doing a mission of God, automatically you will always be happy. So if you have שויתי השם לנגדי תמיד, you'll always be happy. Now, one of the places where we find the concept of real שמחה של מצוה, the real שמחה of a מצוה, we find that by שמחת בית השואבה. We know that in the Temple, in the בית המקדש, during the holiday of סוכות, they would pour water on the altar, on the מזבח, only those few days of סוכות, no other time of the year. They used to pour wine, but this time it was water. Every night they would go to the well, spring, and they would draw the water. And every night they would celebrate, and it was called שמחת בית השואבה, the celebration of the drawing. It doesn't say the drawing of the water, but that's what it meant. When they drew the water, it was a מצוה, and they celebrated. But you know what it says? It says in the תלמוד, in the ירושלמי, that when it says this is the celebration of the draw doesn't mean only the drawing of the water. The drawing of רוח הקודש, of the Holy Spirit. You were able to draw prophecy, the spirit of prophecy from joining the celebration of שמחת בית השואבה. Now, שמחת בית השואבה was really a celebration of a מצוה, of a מצוה drawing, and it's based on the פסוק where it says, ושאבתם מים בששון, you should draw the water with joy. And from here, they would draw רוח הקודש. It says in ירושלמי, the same place it says that there was one prophet known as יונה, I don't know if you heard of him, the prophet יונה, where did he become a prophet? When did he get his prophecy? Because he celebrated in שמחת בית השואבה in a very strong fashion, and that's what made him into a נביא. What's the connection between becoming a נביא and celebrating a שמחת בית השואבה? The connection is very simple. The רמב״ם says, Maimonides says, that in order to become a נביא, to become a prophet, there is many conditions, but the first and foremost condition is you have to become a person that is completely separated from all mundane things, all physical things, and all you care and think about is God and connect to God in your mind. That's what a prophet is. Then, if he does that, you could join prophecy, you could become a prophet, etc., etc. So prophecy is connected comes because you are so close to God, you have the feeling of God. The happiness that you have when you do a מצוה, and the happiness that you're happy always because you're able to fulfill the mission of God is because you feel God! You feel שויתי ה׳ לנגדי תמיד, השם is always with you. Therefore, how do you get how did they get prophecy? Prophecy is from the שמחת בית השואבה. From the drawing of the שמחה, the celebration of the drawing of the water, but it's the שמחה of the מצוה! The special מצוה And this was a special מצוה that they did, since it was done only a few days a year, it was a special time of שמחה. And the שמחה is what brought It's not the מצוה itself that brought the נבואה, the prophecy, it was the שמחה that they had, the enjoyment that they had. And this actually connected to the drawing of the water also, to the concept of the water, because it says that חז״ל, the the sages tell us what was the reason God gave us this מצוה of pouring the water on the מזבח in סוכות? It says like this: If you learn בראשית, the beginning of the creation, and there it says that God separated the water. Part of the water went up, and part stayed down. So it says there that the water that stayed down complained to God. \"The water on top are going close to You! We're staying down here! אף אנן בעינן למהוי קדם מלכא.\" They said the water said, whatever that should mean, that we also would want to be close to God! Why are we left down here? And it says that השם, God, answered, \"You're right. And because of that, I'll compensate you because I left you down. One thing I'll do that every sacrifice that you bring on the מזבח will have some water in it.\" What mean water? Means salt. Salt comes from the sea, from the water. So every קרבן, על כל קרבנך תקריב מלח, every sacrifice had to have some salt. And then He also said to the water, \"Because you stayed down, I will give you a special מצוה, the מצוה of pouring the water, that's called ניסוך המים, pouring the water on the מזבח during the holiday of סוכות.\" And that's where the מצוה comes from. In other words, the מצוה of pouring the water on the altar during סוכות represents the fact that even though they're down here, nevertheless, they're still considered up there. When they complained, the water complained, \"We want to be up there,\" so השם said, \"Good, no problem. I'll do something that will make you up there, even though physically the water is down here.\" And that is the מצוה of the ניסוך המים, the pouring of the water, which, what I'm saying is, the שמחה that we said before, why should you be happy? Because we, as human beings down here, have the special thing that God lowered Himself to us and connected us to Him! The fact that He commanded us to do a מצוה. That is the concept of what happened to the water, that the water staying down here, being part of this physical world, nevertheless, God said by pouring the water on the מזבח, drawing the water and pouring, you will connect. So this is what happens when you have a when you have the שמחה. And that's why a person should always be בשמחה, should always be happy, because being happy represents the fact that you feel close to השם. And that's why you should be בשמחה by a מצוה. You should be בשמחה, not even by a מצוה, anytime, because you're always serving השם. So when the פסוק says, עבדו את השם בשמחה, a person should serve השם with joy, doesn't mean only, like I said in the beginning, that when you're doing a מצוה, you should do it בשמחה. You should always serve השם. Every moment of your life should serve השם, and it all brings you to שמחה because you know that you have this mission that you're fulfilling. Now, this explains also another There's a statement brought down in many of the ספרים that says שמחה פורצת גדר. That means שמחה breaks through boundaries. What does that mean? Now, in simple, it means that if a person has problems which, according to natural ways, according to nature, he's not able to overcome it, but if you'll be בשמחה, if you'll be happy, you will break through these boundaries. You will break through the boundaries, and things will change. Like, for instance, they tell a story that there were two partners that had a problem that they both rented their קרעטשמע, you know, their inns from the landlord, and they had to pay him the rent, and there was a year that things were not going so well, and they didn't have the money, they didn't know what to do. He was going to throw them out, and he was going to put them into prison, whatever. So, one was a חסיד, one was not a חסיד. So, one was a חסיד, he came to the רבי. Which רבי? To the אלטער רבי, the first רבי. And he came to the אלטער רבי, and he asked him, \"What should I do?\" So, he said to him, \"You have problems? You have צרות? כי בשמחה,\" it says a פסוק, \"כי בשמחה תצאו. With שמחה, you will go out of all the problems.\" That's what he said: \"כי בשמחה, with שמחה, תצאו, you will go.\" So, when he heard that, he decided to be בשמחה, and he became טאקע, he started בשמחה and feeling happy. And obviously, he understood why you should be happy. So, a חסיד that learned חסידות shouldn't be happy just because, you know, happy-go-lucky סתם, just like that, because he understood the truth of why a person should be happy. So, what happened? When he came to the פריץ, to the פריץ, it means the landlord, to discuss it with him, so he told the landlord, \"I'm coming to discuss.\" He said, \"You know what? First, I would like you to make some punch for me.\" Punch by the landlords in Russia must have been not just with Punch had had vodka in it, and and he told him, \"Put in a lot of vodka, this cuz I that that's what I would enjoy.\" So, he drank a lot, and he got drunk. And as he was drunk, he said, \"You know, I have a problem with you, no. Yeah, give me the papers.\" He signed them off that he doesn't have to pay anything, and he stayed there, and he did And this all came because he was בשמחה. שמחה broke through the boundaries. Why does שמחה break through the boundaries, the physical boundaries? It's all connected to what we said before. Because if you're בשמחה, because you feel the connection to השם, and you feel God is there, and and God is infinite, so all the natural boundaries don't mean anything. All the natural boundaries is because of us. We are part of nature, so we have these boundaries. But God Himself is beyond the boundaries. And if you connect yourself in a to God, to השם, the way in a way that you feel it, and you're בשמחה about it, if you're connected to Him, then all the boundaries fall off. In other words, if a person has a problem, he's sick, and the doctor says, \"Well, there's nothing we can do about it,\" the doctor is only talking from natural ways. God is not limited to nature. God is the creator of the nature. He made the nature, so He's limited to the nature? So, therefore, as far as God is concerned, the fact that this is happening, that's happening, doesn't mean that's why the person can't be cured because the doctors don't have naturally a way to cure him. God can do it anyway. But you got to bring it out that God should want to do it to you or should be because you have to be ready for it, you have to be a vessel to receive those blessings, so you have to feel close to God. And that comes through שמחה. If you're שמחה, it'll break through the boundaries. Because if you're if if you're going beyond the nature because you are feeling and you're you're close to God, you connect yourself to God. And that's why, by חסידים, שמחה, being happy, was always a fundamental concept, that you always have to be בשמחה. Certainly, if a person is not בשמחה, if a person, what we call, is בעצבות. עצבות means if a person is sad or depressed, that's the worst. They say in the name of some say in the name of the בעל שם טוב, some say it's in the name of רב נחמן ברסלבר, but it was definitely said by a צדיק. He said there are two things: one is not a מצוה, but could bring you to things which no מצוה could bring you to, and one thing is not an עבירה, not a sin, but it could bring you to be to do the worst things. And this is what he said: going to the מקוה, I have to tell you why he spoke about going to the מקוה for a man, which is not obligated according to הלכה, according to Jewish law, you don't have to, but he says it's not a מצוה. Nevertheless, he said that if you go, a ייד who goes to the מקוה, that cleanses him and it makes him want and able to do more מצות. And then to be sad, he said is not an עבירה. It doesn't say anywhere in חומש or in שולחן ערוך, in the code of Jewish law, אסור להיות בעצבות, you're forbidden to be sad, it doesn't say that. But if a person is not בשמחה, it could lead to the worst things because if you're sad and depressed, what will happen? You give up hope, and then you're not ready to do anything more. That's the worst thing. So you so חסידות always says that you have to always be בשמחה. But the main point is why you have to be בשמחה, because being בשמחה is an and why you should be בשמחה is because it's an expression of a person understanding that God is always with him, always next to him, and it's always on his mind. And that's one of the fundamental concepts in חסידות. If someone will ask, you're here learning חסידות, what is the point that חסידות teaches us? What is We have hundreds, literally thousands, of ספרים, of books on the concepts of חסידות. What is the one, the If someone will ask you, give me in a nutshell, what is the point of what חסידות tries to instill in a person? What is it? So the answer is one thing: to make a person realize that אין עוד מלבדו. The פסוק says, the verse says, nothing but God. We have to remember everything else is nothing compared to God, and the real, true, only being is the being of God. That's what חסידות says to instill us, instills us. It says when משיח will come, then everyone is going to know that. The פסוק says, ונגלה כבוד, and when משיח comes, ונגלה כבוד ה׳, the glory of ה׳ will be revealed, וראו כל בשר יחדו כי פי ה׳ דיבר. All flesh will see that ה׳ spoke. All flesh will see the truth of ה׳, because the real truth is the truth of ה׳, the truth of God. That's really what it is. We say that in הלל, a whole week in הלל on חנוכה, one of the verses in הלל is ואמת ה׳ לעולם, which means the truth of the world, what's the real truth of the world? ה׳, God! That's the real truth. When we say in in קריאת שמע, שמע ישראל ה׳ אלקינו ה׳ אחד, God is one, what does mean God is one? So some people think God is one means there is no other god, and all the other gods are false. That's not what it means. Not that there's no other god, there's no other being! Certainly there's no other god, that's no question. There's no other being! The only being, the true, only being, is God. We got to learn to understand how it is. That's what חסידות teaches us, but that's the one thing חסידות wants to teach us. And that's why learning חסידות is a preparation to the coming of משיח. Because when משיח will come, this will be revealed, and if you want to be ready for such a revelation, you got to learn about it, so when the time comes, you'll be ready for it. Like they say, if you want to prepare yourself for musical concert, you'll study music, you won't study art, and if you want to go to appreciate an art exhibition, you'll study art. If you want to appreciate when משיח will come, what he's going to teach us, like רש״י says, he'll teach us the truth and the פסוקים, the different verses say, you got to learn חסידות because חסידות is want to teach you, but that's what חסידות teaches us. And that's why חסידות stresses so much שמחה, because שמחה of a מצוה, and even שמחה not of a מצוה, of daily life, being happy, knowing because we have a mission in life, that is connected to the recognition of the fact that there is only one God like I explained before. And without חסידות, you don't have it. They Since I mentioned the שויתי ה׳ לנגדי תמיד, the פסוק where it says ה׳ is always in front of me, they say that once there was a person used to go to the רבי, used to learn חסידות, so another person who didn't learn, used to make fun of him, \"What did חסידות teach you? What does\" So he says to him once, \"You know what חסידות taught me? Now I could read people's thoughts. I'm a יודע מחשבות.\" \"חסידות teaches us to be a יודע מחשבות, that you could Wow, oh, is that what it teaches you? But I'd like to test it, to see.\" So he says to him, \"You know what? I'll try it out.\" So he says, \"Good.\" So the חסיד tells him, \"Sit down, concentrate for a few moments on something specific, and I'll be able to tell you what you thought.\" \"Oh, wow.\" So he sits down and starts thinking, thinking. Then he says, \"נו, what did I think?\" \"What did you think? You thought about God!\" So he says, \"No, I didn't.\" He says, \"That's exactly the point I wanted to make! If you'd have learned חסידות, and if tell somebody tells you take your a moment and think about something specific, what else would you think about? Think about the the sushi that you ate? What Certainly you're going to think about God! That's the difference!\" You're asking me, \"What is What did I gain by learning חסידות?\" Learning חסידות חסידות teaches us this idea constantly that there is nothing but God, and this is the whole מציאות. And this is why also חסידות teaches us the concept of שמחה, של מצוה. Besides the all the side benefits of being בשמחה, we all know if a person is בשמחה, then it'll makes easier life, especially they say someone is sick and if you're in a up mood, it's easier to heal you. These are all Actually, the רמב\"ם writes this in one of his books, medical books. He writes that you should always try to make that this that the patient should be the should be happy, and when you're happy, then it makes it easier for him to heal. That's true, that's all true. But that's not the real thing. The real thing why you should be happy, because since we have a mission from God, we have מצוות that we have to do, that's a commandment that we have to do, but even when there's no specific commandment, we have a mission in a in life, and if you realize that the mission was given by God and this connects us to God, that could be the biggest שמחה. It's worth more. Like I said, if you'll win fifty million dollars, you'll be happy? This is more than fifty million. This is an infinite infinite infinite treasure that that we have, and for that we have to be happy. And if we're happy, it says this happiness of a מצוה will bring us to the greatest joy, and the greatest joy is the coming of משיח. It says, ושמחת עולם על ראשם, there will be an eternal joy when משיח will come, will all be the greatest happiness. And by being happy now, then we'll really be happy, because then we'll recognize the truth. That's why it says, אז ימלא שחוק פינו. It says then, when משיח will come, we will smile constantly. Why will we smile? Because if we recognize every minute, much more than we do now, the truth, and we feel it, and we see it, imagine a person who טאקע actually won a lottery of fifty million dollars, he'll walk around every moment, will be smiling, will be so happy, because he has this treasure that he has. We have that treasure. You can't count it, you can't see it, but if we start learning חסידות and we understand that, we'll be happy and we'll have a happy life, and השם should give us all, we should only have the greatest שמחות, and we should be זוכה to the שמחה of the coming of משיח very, very soon, בקרוב ממש.