# Torah 10 - " For You Shall Go Out In Joy" (Isaiah,55:12)

> מקור: https://rabenu.app/books/kitvey-en/10/torah-10/

a) The fact that the world is far away from the Holy One and fails to come close to Him is only because they don't have calmness of mind and do not collect their thoughts. The main thing is to endeavour to calm the mind and consider well what the purpose is of all the physical cravings and all the other worldly pursuits, whether the cravings that enter the body or whether the cravings that are outside the body (i.e. mental desires) such as honour and so on. Then a person will certainly return to G-d.

b) The main way to calm the mind is through joy, for, by joy, a person will be able to control his mind as he desires and calm his mind to think about his eternal purpose; joy is the world of liberty. So when a person connects joy to his mind, his mind is at liberty and not in exile, then he will be able to calm his mind, as explained.

c) But, because of depression and sadness the brain and mind are in exile and then it is hard for a person to collect his thoughts and return to G-d. It turns out that sadness is a very great obstacle to the service of G-d whereas, through joy, a person becomes liberated and escapes exile, as it says "For you shall go out in joy" (Isaiah 55:12). And the opposite is also true, by exile the mind is not calm, as the Sages said (Megilla 12B) about the People of Amon and Mo'av that their minds are calm because they never went out to exile, as it says, "Mo'av has been at ease… neither has he gone into exile"(Jeremiah 48:11). Therefore his good reasoning remained etc.

d) It is explained later in Torah 48 and this is the wording; "Know that as soon as a person wants to enter the service of G-d and wants to be a kosher Jew, immediately it becomes a very serious sin for him to be sad, Heaven forbid, for sadness is the Other Side and the Holy One hates depression and sadness a great deal, Heaven preserve us. (Editor's note: See Tikkunei Zohar at the beginning of page 59 where it says that one needs to protect oneself from saddening things, {meaning when one makes a pilgrimage on the Festivals} for this is Lilit, darkness and sadness etc. for it is a serious blemish. About this the verse says "Anyone who has in him a blemish is forbidden to bring a sacrifice" (Lev.21:18) and whoever is sad is called someone with a blemish, Heaven save us.)

e) A person has to strengthen himself to become happy by any means possible, to strive to search for and find in himself some good point in order to come to joy, as explained about the verse, (Psalms,146:2) "I will sing praises to my G-d with the little that remains in me" (see Torah 282). At least a person has to be happy in that he merited to be from the seed of Israel and wasn't made a gentile. This is certainly a wondrous joy and beyond measure; being born a Jew has no flaw because it is the act of G-d Himself. In all other actions in the world the Evil One can mix into them sadness and depression, but as to this joy, that I was not created a gentile, in this there is no element of depression since it is the action of the Holy One Himself. For, regardless, however a Jew is, the very fact that he merited to be from the seed of Israel and not created a gentile is reason for great joy without end. It is fitting for a Jew to always take joy in this, all the days of his life no matter what befalls him. He should be accustomed to say joyfully with his mouth and in his heart, "Blessed is our G-d Who created us for His honour and separated us from those who go astray, and Who gave us the Torah of Truth etc. and Who sanctified us with His commandments and brought us close to His service and in Whose great and Holy Name we are called etc.

f) Also, quite often a person has to make himself happy by words of nonsense and words of joking. Because of the many troubles that a person suffers, each person with his body, soul and property, it is usually impossible for him to make himself happy other than by words of nonsense, making himself like a madman in order to be happy. (Copier’s note: See Ketuvot,11A: One person used to behave like a madman in order to make a bride and groom happy, as Rashi explains. In Eruvin, 54B it says "Because of one's love of G-d, a person is always mad about it"; Rashi explains: ‘Due to this love you should make yourself mad and foolish’ etc.) All the vitality in the body and soul are dependent on this. Also in the World Above a great Unification is made by the person connecting the joy to his brain and mind, for then the brain is liberated and he will have calmness of mind. This is an aspect of 'clarity of mind' (Shabbat,77) which is a great thing. May G-d always merit us to this. Amen, so may it be.

 (Editor's note: See Ta'anit, 22- Eliyahu told Rav B'roka about two brothers who were destined to inherit the World to Come. So the latter asked them: What are your deeds to deserve it? They said to him that they are jovial and they get other people out of their sadness by making them (happy.)