song that they made from these words which is מצוה גדולה להיות בשמחה, a great mitzvah to be b'simcha, to be happy. You know there is a pasuk that says עבדו את השם בשמחה, you should serve Hashem with joy. We also know there is a pasuk in Chumash that says תחת אשר לא עבדת את השם אלקיך בשמחה ובטוב לבב. I'll translate it. This is a pasuk in the tochacha, there is a portion in the Torah which deals with curses, God forbid. Hashem says, God says that if the people will not keep the mitzvot, then He will send them certain curses. And the pasuk continues and says what is the reason why will Hashem do it, and it says תחת אשר לא עבדת את השם אלקיך בשמחה ובטוב לבב, because you did not serve Hashem with joy and with a glad, a good heart. Now the simple pshat in this pasuk is that Hashem is saying that He will do this because you did not serve Him when you were happy. That means to say, it means that when things were going well, and you were happy, and you had no problems, and nevertheless you didn't serve Me, because when a person doesn't serve Hashem when things are not going so well, then at least he has an excuse. He is sick, he is poor, etc. etc., but when things are going well, and nevertheless you don't serve Hashem, that's when Hashem is upset. But that's the simple pshat of this pasuk. The Rambam at the end of Hilchot Lulav, he says that the pshat of the pasuk is also because you did not serve Hashem with simcha. A Yid, a Jew has to serve God with joy. It's also brought down in Tanya in the name of the Arizal, the holy Arizal, who was the master of Kabbalah, we might even call him the father of Kabbalah, and he also explains, interprets this pasuk that it means Hashem is upset why we don't serve Him with joy. Obviously, it is very very important to serve Hashem with simcha. As the Rambam says, Maimonides says at the end of Hilchot Lulav, he says that שמחה של מצוה עבודה גדולה היא. The simcha, the joy that we have when we do a mitzvah is a very, very great avodah, a very important service. He is not talking about the actual doing of the mitzvah. He is speaking about the simcha, the joy that we have when we do the mitzvah. That is a great avodah. In addition to the importance of doing the mitzvot, keeping the commandments, it's very, very important to do it b'simcha, to do it with joy. The HaAri zal, the same HaAri zal writes that what made him reach those very high, lofty, spiritual levels that he reached, it was his simcha shel mitzvah, because when he would perform a mitzvah, he would do it with great simcha. Now, he doesn't write it is because he performed the mitzvot in the highest level, which he did, we could imagine the HaAri zal definitely, when he did a mitzvah, he did it with the greatest הידור, with the best way possible. But that's not what made him reach his high spiritual level. It was the simcha shel mitzvah. It was the joy that he had at the time when he did the mitzvah. We find that one of the most important times of the year was the time of שמחת בית השואבה, the time when they would celebrate the drawing of the water. As everyone knows, on Sukkot, during the Yom Tov of Sukkot, in addition to the general mitzvah that they would have to pour wine over the מזבח, over the altar during the time when they brought the sacrifices, which was done the whole year, Sukkot they would pour water, special mitzvah. And the night before, they would draw the water. And they had a special celebration called שמחת בית השואבה, the simcha, the joy that came along with the drawing of the water, based on the פסוק ושאבתם מים בששון, you should draw the water with joy. So the simple reason why it's called שמחת בית השואבה, because it's the simcha, the joy in connection to the drawing of the water. But it's interesting, in Yerushalmi it says that the reason it was called שמחת בית השואבה, the simcha of the drawing, because שמשם שואבים רוח הקודש, because from that simcha they would draw the Holy Spirit. The spirit of prophecy came as a result of being happy at the time of שמחת בית השואבה. And the Gemara says, מי שלא ראה שמחת בית השואבה לא ראה שמחה מימיו. Whoever did not see the joy that took place at the time of שמחת בית השואבה just does not know what simcha, what joy is. But that simcha brought ruach hakodesh. We all know of the famous navi, the famous prophet called Yonah. On Yom Kippur, we all know the shul, they always outbid each other to get the aliyah called Maftir Yonah. There we have the story about Yonah. Yonah was a navi. So the Yerushalmi says, where did Yonah get his prophecy from? From Simchat Beit Hashoevah. From being extra happy at the time of Simchat Beit Hashoevah. So it's the simcha that brought him nevuah. Bichlal, we find in the Gemara it says that a prophet could not prophesy unless he was happy. והיה כנגן המנגן, the pasuk says, when he would sing, then ותנח עליו רוח השם, the spirit of Hashem would come upon the person, only at the time when the person was happy. It says a person is not allowed to start davenen, אין עומדין להתפלל אלא מתוך שמחה, you have to be b'simcha. It is very, very important to be b'simcha. And let me quote what it says in the end of the first section of the Shulchan Aruch. We all know the Shulchan Aruch is divided into four sections: Orach Chaim, first section deals with daily life, things that happen throughout the year, every day, every week, etcetera, etcetera. Then we have Yoreh Deah deals with kashrut, and Choshen Mishpat that deals with monetary questions, and Even HaEzer that deals with marriage and divorce. But the end, the last paragraph of Orach Chaim deals with the laws of Purim. And there it deals with the question whether on פורים קטן and שושן פורים קטן we have to do something for an extra celebration. We know that when there is a leap year, you have an extra month of Adar. And Purim is in the second month of Adar. In the first month of Adar, the 14th and the 15th are called פורים קטן, the small Purim, or שושן פורים קטן, the small שושן פורים. And there is a question, do we also have to do things to express our simcha? And the halacha actually is that we don't. But nevertheless, the Rema, who is the posek for כלל ישראל, writes that really we should do something to show our extra simcha, and he says why, he quotes a pasuk, an interesting pasuk: וטוב לב משתה תמיד. A good heart, or it's good for a heart to constantly party. משתה תמיד, a person should always be happy, always party. And therefore, whenever you're in doubt, should we add an extra celebration or should we not, the answer is you should. טוב לב משתה תמיד. And in sefarim it says that when we look at the beginning of Shulchan Aruch and the end of the Orach Chaim, Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim, we see a connection. The beginning of Shulchan Aruch starts with שויתי השם לנגדי תמיד. We always have Hashem in front of our eyes. A person should always have Hashem in front of his eyes. And the term used is תמיד. שויתי השם לנגדי, Hashem should always be in front of me, תמיד, always. The end of Shulchan Aruch speaks about טוב לב משתה תמיד. We also talk about Tamid, about something you should always do, and there it is that you should always be b'simcha. So the sefarim say that the two Tamid go together. They are referred to as the שני תמידים, two Tamids. It's actually an expression taken from the Beis HaMikdash. In the Beis HaMikdash, they used to bring a Korban Tamid. A korban, a sacrifice that they would bring every day, twice a day, once in the morning, once in the evening. And they were referred to as the שני תמידים, the two Tamids. Here we also have שני תמידים, two Tamids. שויתי השם לנגדי תמיד, Hashem is always in front of me, and טוב לב משתה תמיד. And what it tells us is that in order for a Yid to have שויתי השם לנגדי תמיד, to have Hashem in front of your eyes constantly, it could only come if you have טוב לב משתה תמיד, always be b'simcha. Now, it doesn't physically mean to always party chas v'shalom, and always drink, but what it means is you always have to be b'simcha. And when a person is b'simcha, then he's able to have Hashem in front of him. And it works the other way, too: if a person always has Hashem in front of him, then he is always able to be b'simcha. The two things go together. But the question is, why is it so important always to be b'simcha? And the main question is, how is it possible for a person always to be b'simcha?

Now, why it's important for a person always to be b'simcha, that's understood from a famous saying that's attributed to the Baal Shem Tov. So the Baal Shem Tov said that there are two things: one is not a real mitzvah, not an official mitzvah, but that could lead you to something that no other mitzvah could lead you to. And one thing is not a real aveirah, not an official sin, but that could lead you to the worst sins. Concerning to the first part of the statement, there are two גירסאות, but we'll go according to one way as is told to us what the Baal Shem Tov said. The mitzvah is the mitzvah of being b'simcha. It's not one of the 613 mitzvot. Doesn't say anywhere in חומש, חייב אדם להיות בשמחה, person has to be b'simcha. It's not one of the 613 mitzvot. Nevertheless, it could lead a person to the greatest mitzvot. And the aveirah he spoke about, the sin was atzvut, sadness, depression. There is no place in Shulchan Aruch where it says אסור לאדם להיות בעצבות, it's forbidden for a person to be sad. But nevertheless, he said, sadness could lead a person to the worst aveirot. And he explains, when a person is sad, when a person is b'atzvut, then basically what that means that he gives up hope. He's upset and he's depressed, he's, \"Okay, farfallen, that's it.\" You fall into what we call in Hebrew in ye'ush. And when you give up hope, then you know what the next step will be. Then the person will do everything his heart desires because he feels, \"There's no hope for me anyway,\" which is similar to a story in Gemara with Acher. Acher, who was originally a great scholar, a great tzaddik, he was one of the only few tzaddikim that ever we find in history that turned away from Yiddishkeit, and it says in sefarim the reason is to show that everyone always has to be on guard. You always are, have a yetzer hara, you have to fight the yetzer hara, but therefore we find certain tzaddikim, but he was one of those. And the last thing that happened was he heard a voice from Heaven say, \"שובו בנים שובבים חוץ מאחר.\" \"Let all My children,\" Hashem said, \"let all My children return except Acher. I don't want him.\" So when Acher heard that, he said, \"Oh, if that's the case and I know it's too late for me anyway,\" then he turned away completely. The Maharsha says he was wrong because he should have pushed himself in and Hashem would have accepted him. But the thing that took him, pushed him away completely was the fact that he gave up hope, because he thought that when he heard the voice from Heaven, it meant too late. And that's what depression brings a person to. On the other hand, when a person is b'simcha and you are not sad, then you always feel that you're still able to accomplish, and as far as you are, as far one, as one might think he is from the truth, you're always still able to jump on the bandwagon. And besides, generally speaking, when a person is b'simcha, that makes it easier for a person to do the right thing. If a person is happy with what he does, he doesn't feel it as a burden, then he is able to fulfill it much easier, and then we are more guaranteed that he will do it. There's a famous mashal given in sefarim, in mussar sefarim I believe, where it says that there was once a person walking up a mountain, hot day, in middle of Tammuz. Miami, it doesn't have to be in the middle of Tammuz, could be anytime, but it was a very hot day, the sun was shining, and he was carrying a very, very heavy load. And he was walking up the mountain, sweating, קוים קוים האט ער געגאנגען, he just walked so slow he couldn't walk. And a friend of his walked by and saw him walking and sweating. He asked him, \"Can I help you a little bit?\" He said, \"Sure, please!\" So he took it, helped him, and carried it a little bit, and he gave it back to him, he helped him out. Finally, finally he reached the top. Few weeks later, the same scene repeated itself. He saw him walking with the same load, but this time when he asked him, \"Can I help you?\" he said, \"No, no, I'm not letting you take my load. I'll take it myself.\" \"Isn't it heavy?\" \"Sure it's heavy, but it doesn't matter, I'll take it.\" And he asked him, \"What's the difference? Why last time, I, we saw that you were so upset about having to carry it, and or asked you to help, you were glad to give it to me, and this time you don't want to let me hold it for you?\" And he said to him, \"You know, the difference is last time I was carrying rocks, and this time I'm carrying a load of diamonds.\" So when you feel that it's rocks and you're upset about it, then it's a burden. But if you're happy in what you do, you're happy in carrying it, then it's not a burden, as heavy as it might be. As hot Hard as it might be, you know the expression in Yiddish is שווער צו זיין א ייד, but as hard as it is, but if you know that you're carrying diamonds, you know that it's something important, something good, and you're happy about it, then it's not hard. So, it is very, very important for a person to always be b'simcha and serve Hashem b'simcha. The question is only, how can a person reach the level of always being b'simcha, of always being happy? After all, certain times a person is in a better mood, certain times a person is not in such a good mood, certain times better things happen in a person's life, sometimes worse things happen in a person's life. How is it possible for a person always to be b'simcha? And we say, טוב לב משתה תמיד, you always should be b'simcha. And the answer to this could be found, we would imagine that would be found in some מוסר ספר or in some book of Chasidus, it's actually found in the Rambam. The Rambam who wrote a sefer, a book of הלכות, of laws. But from time to time the Rambam puts in a few words, and those few words are very deep and very important.

The Rambam writes three words, actually three words, and these three words explain how a person is able to be b'simcha. I mentioned before the Rambam says that שמחה של מצוה עבודה גדולה היא. To be happy when you do a mitzvah is a great עבודה. Then he says why, or how. He says because it is שמחת האל שצונו. Here are the three words. It's the simcha, the joy of God that He commanded us. And these three words are the key for a person to be b'simcha. When a person sits down and starts thinking what it means that God commanded him to do the mitzvot, we're not even talking about the actual doing the mitzvot, let's just look at the fact that Hashem commanded us to do mitzvot, just the command itself, what that is supposed to mean to a Yid. We could imagine how far we are from Hashem. Hashem is the Creator and we are the creation. The two furthest points that we could imagine that exist in the whole of existence is the distance between the Creator and the creation. As far as north is from south and west is from east, they're still, we call it בערך, they're still in comparison. They're just whatever, 15,000 miles away, or as far as we'll go in the high galaxies, they're still limited. The difference, the distance between the Creator and the creation is infinite, בלי גבול, unlimited. So, we as human beings are in no way connected, as it would seem, to Hashem who is the Creator. As far as the little ant on the floor is from us as human beings, much further we are from Hashem. And what Hashem did was He lowered Himself from His high lofty level, and He came down, lowered Himself to us, human beings, and He asked us to do certain things for Him. Without going into the details of what these mitzvot are, the fact that He lowered Himself to command us to do something, to ask us, ask us to do something, that itself brings about a connection between us and Hashem. And that itself is enough reason for us to be b'simcha, to be very, very happy. Let's just imagine if the President of the United States would walk over to any one of us and ask us to do something for him, we would be the happiest people. Imagine, the President of the United States asked me to do something for him! That would bring out a feeling of closeness, and that would make me into some מציאות, and I would feel very, very happy and excited. Or if you want to take more an example of something that's more spiritual, if a great tzadik, and to us it would mean let's say the Rebbe, would walk over to me and ask me, you know, \"Do me a favor. Do something,\" a small thing, not even an important thing. Let's use an example, take this letter and drop it into the mailbox for me, just that. For weeks and weeks, I would walk around like on the seventh cloud. Imagine, the Rebbe himself asked me, who am I? I'm a nothing. And the Rebbe asked me to do something. Okay. So, just like we imagined, we can understand how we would feel if this great person so to speak, lowered himself to us and asked us to do something, how Oh, the generator went off. Getting back to the point and it takes time to get back to the right the subject. This is what the Rambam means with his three words, שמחת האל שצונו we דאוון, when we learn, when we give tzedakah, keep Shabbos, other mitzvot. And there are times when we do mitzvot unofficially, not formally. Even when a person eats, he is also involved in serving Hashem, because the pasuk says, בכל דרכיך דעהו, in all your ways, you should know him. Pirkei Avot, it says, כל מעשיך יהיו לשם שמים, all your actions should be for the sake of God. Now, we're not talking about mitzvot, those are not called מעשיך. מעשיך means your actions. Those are מעשה שמים, those are heavenly actions. בכל דרכיך דעהו, all your ways, you should know him, doesn't mean mitzvot, because mitzvot are called דרכי השם, the ways of God. דרכיך means your ways, meaning when a person eats and a person sleeps, and a person goes to business, all these times, you should also know Hashem. Which means simply that when a person eats, they have to eat with the intentions of being healthy, because that gives a Yid more koach, more strength to be able to do more mitzvot, and to serve Hashem. When a person goes to work to make money so he should be able to give tzedakah, to give his children a good Jewish education, to be able to buy a nice pair of tefillin. So, even though it seems superficially that what the person is doing is his own thing for his physical needs, but in truth, it's not. It's all avodat Hashem, it's all service of Hashem. And that's the idea in שויתי השם לנגדי תמיד, you always have to have Hashem in front of you. Cuz some people think that there is a separation between what we call in the United States, between church and state, between Yiddishkeit and secularism. Between the time when you go to shul or you go to yeshiva, you do a mitzvah and a time when you do your own things. There is no separation. שויתי השם לנגדי תמיד, Hashem always has to be in front of one's eyes. That means whatever a person do does is all for the sake of Hashem. And therefore, טוב לב משתה תמיד. And therefore, a person should always be b'simcha, because every moment of one's life, he has to realize that twenty-one will leave us on the twenty that are in the boat and therefore טוב לב משתה תמיד, you always have to be b'simcha, because שויתי השם לנגדי תמיד, Hashem is always with us.

Then there's another reason why a person should a Yid should always be happy. Now, we're talking to all the eigene mentshen, as we say, all the Yidden. The mere fact that I am a Yid is enough for me to jump from joy. They tell a story from Rav Levi Yitzchak of Berdichev, famous Rav Levi Yitzchak of Berdichev, Once came to shul, and he davened for the amud, he was the chazan for the amud, he led the prayers. And the custom is in many, many places that the chazan for the amud starts from berachot, all the way from Birchos Hashachar, from the blessings that you say in the beginning. Not like we have by us in Lubavitch where the chazan starts from Hodu, maybe somebody this morning was surprised to see that we started straight from Hodu, but many places they start from brachos. And Rabbi' Levi Yitzchak Berditchever went over to the amud, and he said all the brachos. He skipped one bracha. The ברכה, שלא עשני גוי, that He didn't make me a gentile, he didn't say. And everyone wondered why, why did he skip the bracha? So after davenen, someone went over to Rabbi' Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, and he said, \"רבי, why did you skip the bracha this morning?\" And he says, \"I'll tell you. When I woke up this morning, and I opened my eyes, and I realized I'm a Yid, I just couldn't hold myself back, and I made the bracha on the spot: ברוך אתה ה' אלקינו מלך העולם שלא עשני גוי. I thanked Hashem' for making me a Jew and not making me a gentile. So I said the bracha already. When I came to the amud in shul, I couldn't repeat it, because you can't say the bracha twice.\" The simcha, the actual fact, the mere fact that I'm a Yid, that's enough for a person to be b'simcha. What it means to be a Yid, we all know. It's not just that you belong not just that you belong to a certain nation, or you belong to a certain nationality, or you live in a certain country, that's not not what a Yid is. A Yid is we have a חלק אלוקא ממעל ממש, every Yid has part of Hashem' within him. That's what it says in Tanya, taken from different pesukim, and it's a pasuk in Chumash. In Chumash, it says, כי חלק ה' עמו. His nation is part of Him. So we have within us part of God. And that's something that only a Yid has. A non-Jew doesn't have that neshama, that holy soul, that נפש האלוקית, that godly soul that a Yid has. So when we think about ourselves as So when we think of ourselves as Yidden, that's enough to make us b'simcha. And this is the reason why it's very, very important to be b'simcha, because if a person is not b'simcha, that means the person doesn't realize the great treasure that he has. Like a person who has this million dollars, or ten million dollars, or a billion dollars, and is not happy about it, that just shows, not only that at that moment he's lacking simcha, that just shows he's lacking b'klal the whole understanding of what's happening here. If we are not b'simcha, that means we're lacking we lack the understanding of what we have: the treasure of the neshama that we have, the treasure of the mitzvot that Hashem' gave us, and what we are able to gain by doing mitzvot, and what it means Hashem' lowered Himself to give us the mitzvot. And therefore, it's very, very important for a person to be b'simcha. The gain that we get from being b'simcha, as I said in the beginning, is obvious. If we do mitzvot b'simcha and we are happy, so then it's much easier for us to do it. It's not a burden. We realize they are diamonds, and then it's easier for us to carry it. It's not a burden. And b'klal, in life, it's easier for a person if he's b'simcha. And we're not going to get into the psychological part of it, cause this is not a shiur in psychology, which anyway I'm not a psychologist, so I wouldn't know. Even though the truth is that from Torah you could know that too, because we know it says, הפוך בה והפוך בה דכולא בה. Look into the Torah, and you'll find everything. The greatest ideas of psychology will be found in Torah. But anyway, we're not getting here into the psychological part of it, but into the spiritual part of it, the Torah part of it, that when a person is b'simcha That shows how important the simcha is. The yetzer hara is coming everywhere and is trying to stop it. So when a person is b'simcha, then our service of Hashem is much different. I don't want to get into the negative side, but maybe just for a minute or two. Till now we were speaking about the importance of being b'simcha, the importance of understanding what Hashem gave us and what we have, and the reason for being b'simcha. But let's look at the negative side. How terrible it is if a person is sad, is b'atzvut. The worst thing by the Baal Shem Tov was atzvut, was to be sad. Like I said before, it could bring a person to the worst aveirot. Why is it that when an army goes to war, at least the way it used to be, they used to go with a march, a song? Because that's the only way you're going to win. When two people are wrestling, there's a mashal in Tanya and other sefarim, that when two people are wrestling, if one is in a good mood and one is happy, he will win even if he is not the stronger one, even if he is the weaker one. We have a fight with the yetzer hara constantly, and if we are not b'simcha, then the yetzer hara could overcome us, chas veshalom. The evil inclination that always tries to push us to do the wrong thing spiritually, so if we are not b'simcha, if we are b'atzvut, if someone is sad, then you will not overcome the yetzer hara. And as we said before, if a person is sad, then he falls into yeush, falls into depression and gives up. And therefore it is very, very important not to be b'atzvut, but to be b'simcha. This was a foundation, a fundamental idea in the foundation of the Chassidic philosophy. In the time of the Baal Shem Tov, before it became a formal, official movement, and they still had a group called צדיקים נסתרים, the hidden tzadikim, and the Baal Shem Tov himself was still a צדיק נסתר, hidden tzadik, his followers were not called chasidim. They were called, believe it or not, di freiliche, the happy ones. You read the Sefer Hazichronot, the Lubavitcher Rebbe's memoirs, the previous Rebbe's memoirs, and he describes the beginning of chasidut, the background of before the chasidut the Chassidic movement came out into the open, so he explains that what other people used to call the followers of the Baal Shem Tov di freiliche, because by chasidim and by Yidden generally, simcha plays a very important role. There's an expression that says, שמחה פורצת גדר. Simcha, joy, breaks through all barriers. Things that cannot be accomplished, it says, even through tefillah, through davenen and asking Hashem, but if you have simcha, and obviously it's connected to mitzvot, it's not just, you know, just simcha, just as we say in Yiddish, גלאט אין דער וועלט אריין, but simcha connected to mitzvot, that could accomplish sometimes even more than tefillah itself. That's why by chasidim sometimes you have a custom of after davenen, when you finish your tefillah, you say a l'chaim. That makes you b'simcha. And when you're b'simcha, your tefillah will accomplish, the davenen, the prayer will accomplish even more. It says when Mashiach will come, אז ימלא שחוק פינו. That's when our laughter, our simcha will be complete. Because after all, now, as much as we are able to be b'simcha, there is still one thing that we are lacking, and that hinders our simcha. Mashiach isn't here yet. We're still in galut. And as long as we're in galut, we cannot really be b'simcha. So when Mashiach will come, then it says, אז ימלא שחוק פינו, then we will have the real simcha. Then we will really understand the שויתי השם לנגדי תמיד, what it means that Hashem is in front of us, and we will really understand what it means to be a Yid, and really understand what it means to have a mitzvah, and then we will really be b'simcha. And we hope and pray that this is going to happen very, very soon, sooner than the expression by Yidden always was במהרה בימינו, which means very soon in our days, but sooner than that! And how much sooner can it be? Well, everyone look at your hats. It says, Mashiach now! We still have a few minutes for some questions and answers. Questions you might have, the answers I don't know if I'll be able to give you, but I'll try. means singing, you mean a different thing. It says, uh, huh? עבדו את ה' ביראה. Ah, that means with fear. And then, there is another thing, it says, וגילו ברעדה. Okay, let's discuss that for a moment. I'll explain it. Question is, I quoted the pasuk where it says עבדו את ה' b'simcha, you should serve Hashem with joy. Here we go again. finally with securing life boats and life rafts. We wish to thank our guests for their cooperation during this very important. Like that. I know, I know. Oh, the mic is on, now we know it's over. I quoted the pasuk before where it says, עבדו את ה' b'simcha, you should serve Hashem with joy. But then there's another pasuk that says, עבדו את ה' ביראה, you should serve Hashem with fear. Then there is another pasuk where it says, וגילו ברעדה, you should be happy, ברעדה means with trembling.

Now, fear seems to contradict simcha. And you do have to have fear. We know you have to have יראת השם, fear of Hashem, Yirat Shamayim, to have fear of the Heaven, of Hashem. רעדה, which means trembling, is the opposite of simcha. The truth is the the pasuk I just quoted answers the question, וגילו ברעדה. Gilu, Gila also means simcha. There are many words for simcha: simcha, and Sasson, and Rina, and Gila. By the way, these are names of people, and a person has such a name, that's a good sign. So it says, וגילו ברעדה, you should be happy with trembling. First glance, it's a contradiction in itself. If it's trembling, it's not joy. But the truth is based on what I said before, this is explained. When we have Yirat Shamayim, when we fear Hashem, and doing this we fulfill a mitzvah, because it's one of the 613 mitzvot. There's a pasuk, it says, את ה' אלקיך תירא, you shall fear Hashem. There's a mitzvah to love Hashem, ואהבת את ה' אלקיך, you shall love Hashem, and there's a mitzvah to fear Hashem, to have fear from Hashem. Any mitzvah a person fulfills has to be done b'simcha. Even the mitzvah of fear. If we realize that by having this fear of Hashem brings us closer to Hashem, because we're doing what Hashem wants, it means we realize the greatness of Hashem, so that itself is a reason to be b'simcha. And that's why it says וגילו ברעדה. While you have the רעדה, while you have this trembling and the fear, at the same time, you have to be b'simcha. The Zohar, I'll quote the expression of the Zohar. The Zohar says you have to have חדוה תקיעא בלבאי מסטרא דא ובכיה תקיעא בלבאי מסטרא דא. You should have happiness on one side, and then this yirah, there it speaks about crying for aveirot, you have to have on the other side at the same time. But if you realize that the reason we're able to be afraid of Hashem, have this fear, is because Hashem wants us to do it, then that itself is a cause for simcha. Now, go even a step further. When a person does teshuvah, and a person repents, returns to Hashem because of something wrong that he did, now the general מדה, general feeling a person has at the time he does teshuvah, is a feeling of מרירות, of bitterness, you feel very bad. One of the parts of teshuvah is חרטה על העבר, to regret the past. And imagine a person starts remembering the terrible things he did, how bad you feel. Nevertheless, it says in sefarim that you have to do תשובה בשמחה, you have to do teshuvah with joy. Now, how do the two things fit? The reason is very simple: if you realize that by doing teshuvah You're doing a mitzvah, and you're connecting to Hashem, then that itself is a reason for joy. So at one point, on the one side you takeh feel that after all I'm thinking about my past and I'm thinking about the terrible things I did, and it brings a person to feel bad, but at the same time, when you realize that this all is a mitzvah and doing this I connect to Hashem, so this itself should bring a person to simcha. That's right, the truth. This should bring a person to a greater simcha than by doing a regular mitzvah. And I'll tell you why. I explained before that a mitzvah means Hashem went down his off his throne, all the way the highest levels, and came down to a low, simple human being, and commanded him to do something, and that's the reason for simcha. As low as a human being is, a person who sins is even lower. Imagine Hashem lowered himself to a person who sins and gave him a special mitzvah. The mitzvah of teshuvah in its simple sense is only for a person who did aveirot. A person who never sins doesn't have the mitzvah of teshuvah. That means that Hashem gave a special mitzvah to a person who is even lower than an ordinary human being, because he's a person that sins. So that should bring out of in the person even a deeper feeling of simcha, because look, Hashem lowered himself even to me, who I don't definitely don't deserve it. And it's no contradiction to the fact that you have to have merirut, the feeling of regret, you have to have the yirah, the fear, but at the same time, this could be b'simcha. And that's why it says וגילו ברעדה. You should be happy at a time when you have the reidah, when you have the trembling, which is the yirah of Hashem. You still have a few more minutes? Yes. Yes. Is teshuvah only for the ones that sin, or also for the ones that didn't sin? Usually, I'm not so careful with every word I say, but in this case, I specially stressed teshuvah in its simple sense. There are two levels of teshuvah. The simple meaning of teshuvah is for an aveirah. A person does something wrong, he has to do teshuvah. There are halachot of how a person, laws how a person does teshuvah. Or not only for one specific action wrongdoing that a person did, but you have what we call nowadays a baal teshuvah, a person who changed his whole life. That's the simple meaning of teshuvah. But then the Baal Shem Tov says that there is a higher level of teshuvah, and that is for everybody. The word teshuvah means to return. There's a pasuk that says והרוח תשוב אל האלקים אשר נתנה. The spirit will return to Hashem who gave it. That means the neshamah, the godly soul that came down into this world into the human body, definitely is not in the same spiritual level as it was before it came down. And Hashem gave us a mission that we have to work on bringing the neshamah back. We can imagine what took place before the neshamah came down to this world. Before the neshamah came down to this world, the neshamah, which is a spiritual being, doesn't know of any materialistic things. The neshamah only knows of godliness, of Hashem, of Torah, of tefillah, of davenen, learning, that's all. When they come to the neshamah and they say to the neshamah, \"Listen here, you're coming down to some olam hazeh, to some physical world,\" and the neshamah says, \"What's that?\" They start explaining, \"This is a place where you eat.\" \"Eat? Eat what?\" \"Food.\" \"What's food?\" The neshamah doesn't know what's going on. \"You have to drink, you have to sleep, you have to all kinds of physical things, there are tangible things, there's gashmiyut.\" Doesn't know. But the neshamah has emunah, and believes that there is a world. But when the neshamah comes down to this world, it's the reverse. We know that there is a physical world. We see it with our physical eyes. We have emunah, we know there is a spiritual world, there is godliness, all these different things. So the neshamah down here is in a much different situation than it was up there. And what we have to work on is to bring the neshamah back to that level. That's the inner meaning of teshuvah. והרוח תשוב, it has to go back. I'd like to mention a vort of R'' Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev. He always used to try to find zechut, the merits, in whatever the Yidden did. So he once turned around to Hashem and he says, \"Listen here Hashem, I don't understand why you complain against your children, and you feel they're not doing enough. If you would take all the spiritual matters and the Gan Eden, the paradise, and the Gehinnom, and everything else, and you'd put it in front of our eyes, and all the physical desires of this world you'd put into a book, that we have to study about. Then you could complain why we don't keep the mitzvot as we as we should. What you did was the reverse: you took the Gan Eden and the Gehinnom and all the spiritual things, that you put into the books, and all the physical desires you put in front of our eyes, and you're still complaining? Be thankful that we are the way we are. That's the situation down here, and our job is, our mission is to bring the neshamah back to the feeling the way it was before. That's the real meaning, the deeper meaning of teshuvah. Now that type of teshuvah obviously could be done b'simchah. The simple way of teshuvah, that's harder because after all you regret your behavior, you realize how bad you were, so to speak. There, it brings out merirut, bitterness, and nevertheless, we know that being that it's a mitzvah it has to be done b'simchah, and it could be done b'simchah, and if it's done b'simchah, then it is much stronger and better, has a much better effect on the person, and it accomplishes much more. And the Eibershter should help that we should takeh be b'simchah, and we ask the Eibershter to give us everything that we need, that we should even from our physical point of view be able to be b'simchah, because if God forbid someone is sick or someone is poor, then it's a big nisayon, it's a test. You still have to be b'simchah, but it's a test. We ask Hashem, please don't test us, give us אלע גוטע זאכן as hinted in הגפן: hatzlacha, gezunt, parnasa, nachat, and then we will show you that we'll serve you b'simcha. People do. Anyway, as you saw on the brochure, the topic today is simcha: the importance of joy, the importance of always being happy. And I believe the reason this was the first topic chosen is because it fits to the whole the whole direction of this cruise, as it's connected to singing and dancing, חזנות. It's all to bring out simcha, to make a person feel more b'simcha, more happy. Now what we have to discuss is: why is it so important for a person always to be happy, and what is the meaning of simcha, what could bring a person to be happy? Now we know that