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In Parashat R’ei, the Torah commands us in regard to the holiday of Sukkot: “You shall be happy on your festival, you and your son and daughter, your male and female servants, and the Levite and convert, and the orphan and widow in your courtyards” (Devarim 16:13-14). The matter of joy comes up also in the section on bringing the bikkurim (first fruits): “You shall be happy with all the good” that Hashem gave you (ibid. 26:11). The verb form of “v’samachta” (you shall be happy) fits with either a commandment or a promise. Which is it? Toward the end of the rebuke, national calamity is explained as follows: “In return for your not serving Hashem with happiness and a good heart from an abundance of everything” (ibid. 28:47). This indicates that there is a command to be happy with the blessing. Let us try to understand this imperative. Rashi/Chazal learn from here that the mention of simcha next to bikkurim teaches that the full mitzva, with the bikkurim recitation, is done only during the season of joy, between Shavuot and Sukkot, when farmers harvest their produce. (Between Sukkot and Chanuka one can bring bikkurim without the recitation.) Ibn Ezra stresses a different connection within the pasuk. Those who do not have their own fields to harvest, the Levite and the convert, must be included in the happiness, by sharing one’s produce. Concern for the weak in society is a foundation of service of Hashem. The Meshech Chochma characteristically took matters in additional directions. Even when Bnei Yisrael are in times of distress or exile, they must serve Hashem with joy, in two ways: 1. Our happiness should not focus on the “abundance of everything” but on the fact that what we have is what Hashem decided to give us. The joy is for the privilege of being connected to the Creator. “You shall be happy with all the good that Hashem your G-d gave to you.” The fact that He gave does not only identify what we are thankful for, but that is the heart of our thankfulness. 2. The “meirov kol,” which we translated as an abundance of everything, is not only when we are blessed with what we would call an abundance of good, but even when we are in a difficult exile. We still are privileged to have been gifted a great intellectual and spiritual treasure, as available in every generation through the words of Torah. We will conclude with a call to our spiritual leaders to facilitate a situation in which our whole nation, those who consider themselves Torah observant and those who still do not, internalizes that service of Hashem must go hand in hand with joy (see Radak to Tehillim 100:2). When an approach turns service of Hashem into a “burden,” it is liable to make people fail the test of not serving Hashem “in joy and a good heart.” Included in such approaches is when rulings are unnecessarily stringent, as our commitment should remain “the pleasantness of the yoke of mitzvot.” We will continue encouraging an approach of love of religion and respect of religion, which will unite us for service of Hashem with joy and thereby bring us closer to the full redemption.
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Rabbi Moshe Erenreich

Among the heads of the "Eretz Chemda" kollel.
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