We are commanded in the Torah to rejoice on the festivals, as it says “Ve’samachta be’chagecha” (Devarim 16:14).
The Sefer HaChinuch (siman 488) tries to clarify exactly what it means to rejoice. He connects this mitzvah with the mitzvah of bringing a korban Shelamim in the Beit HaMikdash and uses a Gemara in Chagiga (6b) as proof that this mitzvah is incumbent on both men and women. Bringing the continuation of this Gemara (Chagiga 8a), the Sefer HaChinuch says that this mitzvah also involves eating meat, drinking wine, wearing new clothes, giving fruit and sweets to the children and the women, and when the Beit HaMikdash existed, also to play various musical instruments in the Beit HaMikdash, specifically mentioning Simchat Beit Hasho’eva on Sukkot. He brings another Gemara (Pesachim 109a) that the meaning of rejoicing in the times of the Beit HaMikdash was to eat the meat of the korban Shelamim, but now that the Beit HaMikdash no longer exists, the meaning of rejoicing is for the men to drink wine and for the women to dress in nice clothes. The Sefer HaChinuch ends by saying that the Torah warns us to also include the poor, the converts and the weak.
This mitzvah applies to all the festivals equally – Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot. However, unlike Pesach, which is called “the time of our freedom” and Shavuot, which is called “the time of receiving our Torah,” Sukkot is not defined by a specific “historical event,” but rather by the more generic “time of our rejoicing,” seeming to indicate that Sukkot is not celebrated to “remember a specific occurrence” (although Chazal do state specific occurrences in the Torah – Am Yisrael camping in Sukkot when leaving Egypt and the Clouds of Glory in the midbar).
From this it would appear that Sukkot has an added edge when it comes to rejoicing, as is hinted at in the special mention by the Sefer HaChinuch regarding Simchat Beit Hasho’eva and Sukkot.
We all know the verse “Serve Hashem in joy” (Tehillim 100:2), which seems to indicate that there is a positive commandment to serve G-d in joy. However, if you search Sefer HaChinuch, which lists and discusses all 613 mitzvot, for this specific mitzvah, you will not find it. There is no standalone mitzvah that specifically addresses serving G-d in joy (with the exception of the mitzvah above specifically regarding the festivals).
This question is addressed by the Mefarshim and the consensus is that the reason that there is no separate mitzvah to serve G-d in joy, is because in fact all the mitzvot embody this requirement – it is a prerequisite for all of the mitzvot in the Torah and is learned from the negative, from the pasuk in the curses in parshat Ki Tavo “Because you did not serve Hashem your G-d in joy” (Devarim 28:47). We are receiving the curses because we did not serve G-d in joy.
In other words, joy is the default, it is the state of mind which is the starting point in our service of G-d, or at least it should be!
If this is the case, why do we need a specific mitzvah to have joy on the festivals? If joy is assumed and applicable to all the mitzvot, such a mitzvah would appear superfluous, since it is already implied in all the mitzvot, including the festivals.
The answer to the conundrum lies in the space between the theory and the reality. In theory, G-d created us with a default specification, that we are required to serve Him in joy. However, the reality is not so simple. To achieve true joy, the joy that G-d requires from us in our service of Him, is not so easy to apply and the reason for that is – because we have a yetzer hara.
The yetzer hara, an angel, is in charge of the fifth level in Heaven called maon, which is the storehouse of joy. Why specifically this angel in charge of a treasury that seems to epitomize the opposite of his nature? Perhaps because this specific angel had the original objection against creating man in the first place. Perhaps G-d put him in charge of making sure that man would meet the expectations G-d had when He created man. If G-d designed man by default to serve Him in joy, then it becomes clear why G-d is so uncompromising in this respect and appointed an angel who is equally uncompromising and without sentiment when it comes to evaluating and enforcing our service of G-d in joy.
In order to evaluate whether our service of G-d is in true joy or in artificial joy, this angel constantly tests us (we sometimes use the expression tempts us), by placing us in circumstances where we have to make a choice between permissible joy and forbidden joy.
True joy is celebrating G-d’s creation in all its unaltered-by-man glory and variety within the confines of the Torah.
Parshat HaShavua Trivia Question: Which famous Rabbi did a juggling act in the Beit HaMikdash on Simchat Beit Hasho’eva?
Answer to Last Week’s Trivia Question: Why do we read about the forbidden relationships in the Mincha Torah reading on Yom Kippur? Tosefot (Megillah 31a) says that since on Yom Kippur the women come to shul all dressed up in fancy clothes in honor of the chag, there is a chance that we may be distracted by forbidden thoughts. We therefore read this sobering parsha to help us focus on the true essence of the day.
