D'var Torah

Tishrei 5766

Pursuing Joy: You Will Rejoice!

In an early rabbinic collection, the Pskita de Rav Kahana, we are reminded that on Sukkot, three times the Torah mandates joy:

And you shall rejoice in your feast (Deuteronomy 16:14)
And you shall be altogether joyful (Deuteronomy 16:15)
And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days (Leviticus 23:40)

Nowhere does one find a command to rejoice on Passover. It is to early in the growing season to know whether we have had a year of plenty or of famine. We do not yet know of the success of field crops. Hallel only read only on the first night and first day of Passover. There is only a half Hallel on the other days of the festival. How can we rejoice because Egyptians died?

Only once on Shavuot are we commended to be joyful. Why not two commands?
The field crops have been harvested but not the fruit of trees. There is no command to rejoice on Rosh Hashanah. On a joy of judgment about our lives, we are more anxious about our lives than about our possessions. The overwhelming emotion is that of awe and reverence mixed with not a little bit of anxiety.

On Sukkot we are joyful. Having received pardon on Yom Kippur, the crops of the field have been brought in, and the fruit trees have been harvested. There is more than ample reason for rejoicing.

Twice the book of Psalms tells us to serve God: once with yirah, awe, and once with simcha, joy. Every weekday we read Psalm 100: Serve God with simcha, with the joy that comes from the performance of the commandments, the mitzvoth, with simcha shel mitzvah. Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav (1770-1811) taught, mitzvah gedolah l’hiot b'simcha tamid, it is a great mitzvah to always be joyful. As Jews, we have a skewed view of Judaism when we see it as being only a relationship of fear and trembling, as opposed to the joy of serving God, to be ever on the alert for ways in which to rejoice in our heritage and our tradition.

Join us Saturday night, October 22, Motzei Shabbat Hol ha-Moed Sukkot, when we will share in the joy of a communal havdalah just outside of the sukkah in the parking lot. Join us for the light, the joy, the singing and in the rejoicing that surrounds our celebration of Shabbat, in its arrival and in its departure. Our tailgate havdalah this past summer was a delight and a joy; our celebration in October promises to be equally joyous.

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