Bereishis 5786 – A World of Pleasure

Part I. A Good World

The Missing Yetzer

When the Gemara in Sukkah (52a) wants to describe for us the yetzer hara, the ways and means in which he makes men into failures, it tells us that we find in the kisvei hakodesh that the yetzer hara was given seven different names. And it enumerates all of them there, the Gemara quotes different pessukim.

But there’s a question here. Because at the very beginning of the Torah we find that Hakadosh Baruch Hu Himself gave the yetzer hara a name, and it’s not mentioned among these seven.

In our sedra, when Hakadosh Baruch Hu saw that Kayin was crestfallen because his younger brother’s korban had been accepted more than his own, so Hakadosh Baruch Hu told Kayin “Be careful now, because לַפֶּתַח חַטָּאת רוֹבֵץ – at the doorway there’s chatas lying in wait (Bereishis 4:7). Hakadosh Baruch Hu is talking about the yetzer hara here; He’s warning Kayin that crouching in ambush at every turn is “Chatas”, the evil inclination.

And so it’s a kasheh. We see that Hakadosh Baruch Hu Himself gave a name to the yetzer; the very first name it was given in history. Why isn’t that name enumerated in the list that the Gemara in Sukkah gives us? It should be first on the list.

A Cheit is Not a Sin

And the answer is that the word chatas has to be understood; we translate it as ‘sin’ but that’s not accurate. Of course it’s a sin, but that’s not it. If you’re familiar with the kisvei hakodesh you know that ches tes alef means ‘lacking’, ‘missing’. Like it states in sefer Shoftim when he describes the seven hundred stone-slingers of the Shevet Binyamin, it says קֹלֵעַ בָּאֶבֶן אֶל הַשַּׂעֲרָה – they aimed at the target, וְלֹא יַחֲטִא – and they never missed (Shoftim 20:16). They would sling a stone at a hair-target—a target as thin as a hair—and they wouldn’t miss. יַחֲטִא means to miss.

Or when Batsheva the mother of Shlomo came to Dovid and reminded him that he had promised to make her son Shlomo king, and now Adoniyah, one of the other sons, is trying to usurp the throne; so she said  “וְהָיִיתִי אֲנִי וּבְנִי שְׁלֹמֹה חַטָּאִים  – My son Shlomo and I will be the chata’im” (Malachim 1: 1:21). It doesn’t mean they’ll be ‘sinners’. Batsheva was telling Dovid, “You promised us that Shlomo will be king, and we’ll be losing out on what you promised us.”

And so, when we say that cheit means to do something wrong, actually it’s more than that. The original meaning of cheit is when a man misses out—not so much doing something wrong, but to not do something right.

And that’s what Hakadosh Baruch Hu was saying when He told Kayin that chatas is waiting to pounce.

Hashem was telling him, “Look. Here’s a golden opportunity for achievement that you shouldn’t miss out on.  Your brother has triumphed over you; he, the younger brother, won out and now you are so downcast.  It’s a golden opportunity for achievement! If you’ll be mischazek, if you’ll reinforce yourself and you’ll go shake hands with him and say, ‘Hevel, I have to hand it to you. You won. Congratulations!’, that will be your success.”

Ah!  That would have made Kayin better than Hevel.  He would have utilized the golden opportunity—he would have fulfilled his purpose in this world; to accomplish. But to miss out on the opportunity of accomplishing something, that’s the real cheit. That’s called missing the target of life.

The Underachieving Trucker

I’ll use one of my old meshalim that you already heard from me. Let’s say you sent your worker to Los Angeles on a mission to pick up goods there and bring it back. So he took your big truck and he drove all the way there and finally he came back to Brooklyn.

You wait and wait. A few weeks pass by and finally he shows up.

“Boss, I’m back.”

“Shalom aleichem! Good to see you. How’d it go?”

“You’ll have to congratulate me,” he says. “I had a very successful trip. I didn’t get one traffic ticket! No accidents, no breakdowns. A perfect trip.”

So you say, “Great! Let’s see the merchandise.”

“Ooops! I forgot to pick it up.”

Every Jew on Shlichus

And so, Hakadosh Baruch Hu sent you to this world. It’s a successful trip. You didn’t kill anybody. You didn’t even hit anybody. You didn’t even speak lashon hara on anybody.

“Oh no,” Hakadosh Baruch Hu says, “I sent you to this world merely that you shouldn’t get any tickets or accidents, that you shouldn’t do any sins? Not to do sins, you could have remained in the other world. I sent you to achieve! To do mitzvos, to learn Torah, to become wiser, to gain Torah ideology, to gain Awareness of Me, to learn da’as and emunah. To do ma’asim tovim in this world. That’s why I sent you—to accomplish! Otherwise you lost out.”

The First Cheit

Now, the list of achievements that we are in this world to accomplish is long. Torah, mitzvos, maasim tovim; it’s a big job. But one of the most neglected achievements is Torah attitudes—acquiring attitudes of the mind.

It’s a very big subject—it’s a lifetime of achieving—but for now we’ll talk about one of the biggest chato’im, one of the most important attitudes that people fail to achieve. And it’s right away in the beginning of the Torah: וַיַּרְא אֱלֹקִים אֶת כָּל אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה וְהִנֵּה טוֹב מְאֹד – And Hashem saw all that He had made and ‘behold, it is very good’ (ibid. 1:31).  What is He talking about?  Olam Haba?  No!  It’s talking about what it says there in the Chumash; the sky and the clouds and the wind and the water. It’s talking about the soil, about plants, animals, fish, birds, and apples and plums, and everything. That’s tov me’od. Not tov; not just good.  It’s very good.

Now, why did Hakadosh Baruch Hu have to say that? If He made it, of course it’s good! He knew what He was doing.

The answer is, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu said those words for a purpose—He is telling us information that we should never forget.  He said it because He wants us to say the same words; that all our lives, we should say tov me’od.  “Ribono Shel Olam, we congratulate You!  You did a good job!  Tov me’od!”

An Epidemic of Blindness

Now, if people don’t think about it, it’s not my fault. But if you look everywhere, you’ll see that it’s repeated again and again that טוֹב ה’ לַכֹּל – Hashem is good to everybody (Tehillim 145:9). Only what? It’s a pity that most people don’t see it at all.

The Chovos Halevovos says that. He says “טוֹב ה’ לַכֹּל וְרוּבָּם כְּעִיוְרִים – ‘Hashem is good to everyone’ but most people are blind from recognizing this.” And he wasn’t talking about Reform Jews, liberals; he was talking about Jews in his days, all frum Jews.

And today, certainly it’s true. Most frum Jews are blind to this great truth that it’s a good world! And it’s an open possuk: ‘Everthing is very good’. You can’t argue with a possuk—that’s how we’re expected to see the world. And if we don’t, it means we are not accomplishing this fundamental function of why we came here.

The Beggar Wants a Raise

Now I have to explain something to you, why this is so that we’re blinded to the great reality.

Let’s say you’re a yeshiva bachur and you daven Mincha in the yeshiva; as you walk out of the beis hamedrash there’s a poor man standing there with a cup. He’s collecting tzedaka. And so you drop in a quarter. Every day he comes to collect and every day you give him a quarter.

After a while—let’s say you’ve been giving him quarters every day for a year’s time—so he starts complaining.  “Only a quarter?” He grumbles under his breath, “Only a quarter?!  What about a raise?”

So we see that even though the person is getting a benefit from you, if he keeps on getting the same benefit he gets tired of it. And he thinks it’s nothing.  He won’t spend time congratulating himself that he gets a quarter.  No!  He’s spending time criticizing you for not giving more than a quarter.

Bored With Happiness

So Hakadosh Baruch Hu is giving us all the good things; and we’re tired of it! We don’t notice it anymore. People ask, “What are You giving us already?” A yeshiva man, he takes walks with me sometimes. So he asks me, “Why should I thank Hashem? What’s there to thank for?”

Now, I look at him. He’s a healthy man. No crutches. He looks well fed too. He has a house where he lives. Probably a bed and a pillow too. Why should he thank Hashem?!

The answer is that he’s bored of that. He doesn’t think about it and so he wants excitement in the world.  He wants thrills, entertainment. What he has, he doesn’t appreciate and so he gets bored of it.

 “Oh,” Hakadosh Baruch Hu says, “That’s chatas.  You’re missing out.”

Missing Out on Love

Now what are you missing out on? Well, number one is you’re missing out on the fun of life. You’re missing out on a tremendous amount of happiness! Why should life be a bowl of sour grapes when it could be a big happy bowl of cherries? You’re missing out on good times!

And even more important is, you’re missing out on your service of Hashem. Because when you are happy with life, you’re happy with Hashem and you love Him.  All the madreigos of avodah go one on top of the other but the top of the ladder is ahavas Hashem, to love Hashem. And when you see the things that He gives you for pleasure, for happiness, for joy, then your love has no limits.  If you’re a capable, thinking, person then happiness in Olam Hazeh is the ticket to Olam Haba.

And therefore, in order that you should get the benefit of Hakadosh Baruch Hu’s gifts, you must understand how great these gifts are; you have to study them—you have to investigate and appreciate the pleasures of this world.

Are you happy with your legs? Your legs are a Cadillac, providing you with twenty four hour, ever-ready transportation. They’re available at all times, on a second’s notice, to take you wherever you want to go. And when you arrive at your destination, you don’t have to look for a parking space. Your feet tuck conveniently under you if you want to sit, and they will lock into place should you desire to remain standing. If your legs don’t make you happy, you’re blinded by habit. And so, we have to open our minds and throw off the trammels of habit that blind us and don’t allow us to see the truth: that most of our lives are spent in happiness!

Torah Spectacles

And so, we have to learn how to put on a pair of glasses—Torah glasses.  You know, when you look at the world through gloomy glasses, you’ll have a gloomy world all your life.  But when you look at the world through rosy glasses, you see a rosy world, a beautiful world.  So the life that you’re going to have depends on how you look at the world.

And Hakadosh Baruch Hu starts out from the very beginning and He gives you a pair of eyeglasses right at the beginning. He says, “וְהִנֵּה טוֹב מְאֹד – It’s a very good world!” It means, “I want you to get busy looking for the goodness of this world and you’ll start understanding what I meant that it’s tov me’od.”

Part II. A Good Shabbos

Healing the Blind

Now, because this subject is of the utmost importance for every Jew and because it’s one of the opportunities that we miss out on most, that’s why Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave us the Shabbos. Once a week we have an especial opportunity לְהָסִיר מֵסַּךְ הַסִּכְלוּת – to remove the curtain of ignorance from our eyes (Chovos Halevavos Shaar Avodas Hashem 3:9).

After all, what is the point of Shabbos?

 “Well,” you’ll tell me, “Shabbos comes to celebrate that Hashem made the world out of nothing. בְּרִיאַת עוֹלָם יֵשׁ מֵאַיִן.”

Certainly! That’s the first principle that Shabbos teaches us. בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלוֹקִים! And so, if you spend time on Shabbos thinking about that, it’s certainly an achievement. Very few people do that by the way. Although they say the words ‘זֵכֶר לְמַעֲשֵׂה בְּרֵאשִׁית’, but they don’t think what they’re saying.  And that’s chatas; they’re missing out.

Shabbos Bereishis

So next Shabbos, you’ll make it your business each seudah, you’re sitting down and the whole family is talking, but you’re thinking, “I have to fulfill my function of Shabbos זֵכֶר לְמַעֲשֵׂה בְּרֵאשִׁית.”

So while they’re talking—they don’t know what’s going on in your head—you’re thinking; you’ll think that once upon a time everything was ayin, nothing.  Then Hakadosh Baruch Hu said “Yehi,” and all came into existence.  “Hashem made the world out of nothing!  יֵשׁ מֵאַיִן!” Ah!  You fulfilled one of the great purposes of Shabbos!

But that’s not the whole lesson yet. It’s still chatas; you’re still missing out on the point.  Because yes, He made the world but the question is what kind of world? וַיַּרְא אֱלֹקִים אֶת כָּל אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה וְהִנֵּה טוֹב מְאֹד. It’s a very good world!

And so Shabbos, as it reminds us of ma’aseh bereishis, it’s coming to remind us of a second principle—that the whole creation is olam chessed yibaneh, it’s made for the purpose of causing happiness.

The Alter of Slabodka, zichrono l’vrachah, said that this principle is even more important than the first principle. Because the second principle tells us much more—not only Hashem made the world out of nothing, but He made it for the purpose of chessed, of making us happy.

It’s a Fun World

Now, you frum Jews, maybe don’t care about happiness in this world. But Hashem does! He wants you to be happy in this world. That’s why the world was made for ta’anug! I don’t care what you say, how much you’ll protest—this world was made for enjoyment! This world!

Like the Mesillas Yesharim tells us in the beginning of that great work. He starts there by saying that it is of utmost importance to know what is the purpose of our creation, why we are in this world. And his answer is הָאָדָם לֹא נִבְרָא אֶלָּא לְהִתְעַנֵּג עַל ה׳ – that man was created only to enjoy happiness in Hashem.

Now, that means in the World to Come, but he explains that in order to get to that happiness you must pass through this world first. And so my great rebbi, zichrono levrachah, said you have to make a period after the word l’hisaneg. הָאָדָם לֹא נִבְרָא אֶלָּא לְהִתְעַנֵּג, period. I remember, I heard that sixty-five years ago from my rebbi in Slabodka. “A man was created,” he said, “only to have happiness, period.”

And that’s because Hashem understands we can make most progress in this world if we live a life of happiness—happiness is the most important way of serving Hashem. Only that he adds עַל ה׳ – to have happiness from Hashem, because that’s the greatest form of happiness. In order to make the best of the pleasure, it should be עַל ה׳, to gain a knowledge of Hashem from your pleasure and to love Him.

Created for Oneg

And so, make no mistake about it, the world was made for pleasure! There are no two ways about it. And if anyone tells you something else, you can contradict him by the open declaration of the Mesillas Yesharim. And you can back it up by plenty of other Torah statements too. We are created only for the purpose of being happy with the greatest form of happiness that Hashem can provide.

Now, because that’s such a fundamental principle of Shabbos, that’s why we’re told in this week’s sedrah that וַיְבָרֶךְ אֱלֹקִים אֶת יוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי, that Shabbos was made a day of brachah by Hakadosh Baruch Hu (Bereishis 2:3). Because it pays for us to understand: what brachah does it mean? What is the biggest brachah, the greatest blessing that a person can get from something?

And if we’ll be truthful with ourselves we’ll say that the answer is happiness. Happiness! Everybody wants it. Of course, we always keep in mind Olam Haba—we’re preparing for that happiness too; they’re tied together—but it’s the happiness right now that is the blessing we’re talking about. That’s what it means that Hakadosh Baruch Hu blessed the Shabbos.

And so that’s our subject today:  How to make use of Shabbos the way Hakadosh Baruch Hu wanted, it should be a bracha; that it should give us happiness in this world—mamesh happiness. Because that’s the point of Shabbos!  To remind us that the world was made for happiness, for ta’anug! The world was made for enjoyment, and Shabbos is the special day set aside for this purpose.

Eliyahu Hanavi Delayed

In Mesichta Eiruvin (43b) the Gemara makes a statement about Eliyahu Hanavi. Everyone is waiting for Eliyahu Hanavi. It’s an open possuk: הִנֵּה אָנֹכִי שׁוֹלֵחַ לָכֶם אֵליָה הַנָּבִיא לִפְנֵי בֹּא יוֹם ה׳ הַגָּדוֹל וְהַנּוֹרָא. Before the geulah Eliyahu Hanavi has to appear and therefore we’re waiting for him.

And yet, even though we’re mitzapim l’yeshuah, we’re hoping and waiting, but the Gemara makes a statement. It says that on erev Shabbos you should forget about it.  Don’t hope.  He won’t come. כְּבָר מוּבְטָח לָהֶם לְיִשְׂרָאֵל – It’s promised to Yisroel, שֶׁאֵין אֵלִיָּהוּ בָּא לֹא בְּעַרְבֵי שַׁבָּתוֹת – that Eliyahu Hanavi will not come erev Shabbos. That’s one day that you shouldn’t expect.  He won’t come.

And why?  The Gemara says מִפְּנֵי הַטוֹרַח – because it will disturb us if he comes. We need the time to prepare ta’anugim for Shabbos and it’ll interfere with our preparations if we have to greet him.

Delayed for a Better Chulent

Now that seems such a puny small explanation that it’s astonishing to hear. You mean to say that the preparations for Shabbos are more important than Moshiach?

It’s not talking about keeping Shabbos—we’ll keep Shabbos anyhow.  And we’ll have something to eat too.  But in order not to detract from the full enjoyment of the Shabbos, from all the maadanim that we can add by proper preparation, Eliyahu Hanavi is not able to come on that day and disturb our efforts.

It’s a remarkable statement and it pays to think about that. We can’t just wave it away. The Chachomim are telling us that oneg Shabbos is such a great ideal, that it cannot yield even for Eliyahu Hanavi—so it becomes of the vastest importance to understand the meaning of oneg Shabbos. Because if you don’t understand it, you won’t utilize the Shabbos for it.

The Terrible Cheit

Here’s a man, he’s so indoctrinated with the idea that this world is nothing—so as he sits down and he eats the cholent and the chicken, he says, “It’s nothing.  This world is nothing; lo klum.”

“Ooh,” Hakadosh Baruch Hu says, “That’s kulo chatas.  You’re missing out.” Because included in וַיְבָרֶךְ אֱלוֹקִים אֶת יוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי, that He gave a brachah to the seventh day by making it a day of oneg, is that we should gain an attitude that this is a good world.  Not a good world—a very good world!

“I am giving you a day of brachah,” Hashem says, “and you should utilize it as a way of putting on mishkofayim—mishkofayim are eyeglasses[1]  that give you hashkafah—to look at the world through this great lesson that it’s tov me’od; it’s going to change everything in your life. Not only your Shabbos will be different. Sunday will be different and Monday will be different. The whole week will be different!”

And if you don’t utilize Shabbos, that’s לַפֶּתַח חַטָּאת רוֹבֵץ – at the entranceway to a new week, you’re missing out on a most important opportunity. Because a happy Shabbos is the pesach, the doorway to a happy week.

Practice Makes Prefect

Only that you have to practice up. When you sit down on Shabbos at the seudah, it’s time to get to work. You’re sitting at the seudah and on the table is challah and fish and all delectable dishes—that’s the work you have to do on Shabbos.  That’s your melachah on Shabbos. Get busy working now, seeing how good everything is.

So you start with your piece of bread. Put the piece of challah in your mouth and begin to chew. That’s the easy part; but you have to think too. “Ah, a piece of bread! It’s so good, so sweet.” I always tell you the same thing. Bread has starch in it. And in your saliva, you have an enzyme called ptyalin that causes the starch to turn into sugar. So the longer you chew the bread, the sweeter it becomes. And the sweeter it becomes in your mind too. And so, the Shabbos Yid, when he eats his piece of bread he enjoys it to no end. How good the challah is!

Shabbos Work

Now when is the best time to do this?  Of course, the best thing is if you do that all week long, but Shabbos is the time when it’s being demanded of us! Shabbos is the time!  That’s why they give you better bread on Shabbos—in order to emphasize the oneg.  Bread with an exclamation point!  Challah!

And the fish too. Fish of course is a taanug. That’s why all Jews eat fish on Shabbos. It’s part of the happiness of Shabbos which teaches the chessed of Hashem. And so it’s very important while you’re eating fish on Shabbos you’re thinking “Olam chessed yibaneh! How I’m enjoying this! The fish is delicious.”

Same thing, the soup. And when it comes to the chicken you start all over again. You’re enjoying and you’re thinking of olam chessed yibaneh.  When it comes to dessert, of course.

And don’t be ashamed!  Don’t say, “I’m a parush.  I’m not interested in ta’avos of Olam Hazeh.” No!  It’s avodas Hashem if you enjoy it the right way—with thought. “I thank You Hashem for all the chessed You’re doing with the world. And I’m sampling it now so that I should appreciate Your chessed even more.” And the more you sample and the more you think, the more you’re going to appreciate it.

The Exceptional Shabbos

And it’s not merely for those details, those samples alone. Because when you acquire a Shabbos mind, a mind of happiness, so you’ll take that with you all week long. לַפֶּתַח , at the beginning, greatness is rovetz. When a person utilizes the Shabbos with a little thought, he begins to see that the world is a good place. He enjoys the food. He enjoys his family. He enjoys wearing nice, freshly laundered clothing. He enjoys a little rest. He enjoys the weather. He’s training himself by years and years of oneg Shabbos to see that Hashem is giving him a world of happiness.

Now, I’m not saying that if a person doesn’t think these thoughts, that he’s not fulfilling his duty as a Jew.  Even if a person is a megusham, an ignorant person, and he sits down and eats without thinking, something seeps in in the subconscious mind.  It’s not wasted.  Besides, it’s a mitzvah and a mitzvah even without understanding the purpose of the mitzvah is also something.  But still, there’s no comparison to the achievement by a man who thinks a little bit and he understands why he’s enjoying the Shabbos.

And therefore, to a big extent he’s a failure. It’s chatas.  He hasn’t lived properly. Because when you utilize the Shabbos for what it’s intended, to try to gain this Torah attitude of וַיַּרְא אֱלֹקִים אֶת כָּל אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה וְהִנֵּה טוֹב מְאֹד, it changes you. Week after week, each Shabbos you’re becoming more and more exceptional. And Hakadosh Baruch Hu is waiting for people who will be exceptional.

Part III. A Good Life

The Cheit of Taanugim

Now once a person begins to utilize the Shabbos in order to gain an attitude that this world is a very good world, he begins to see that he doesn’t have to run after pleasures; he won’t need candies and movie theatres and pastries. Because once he’s trained by means of thoughtful oneg Shabbos, he’ll learn that everything is a taanug. He won’t need ice cream to be a happy person.

Because here’s a man—he says, “Rav Miller said the world was made for enjoyment, so why shouldn’t we go all the way? Let’s go!”

The answer is this.  Let’s say it’s good to eat a tasty piece of challah and enjoy the chessed Hashem. So he’ll eat two challos, three challos at a time? You’ll commit suicide if you eat three challos every day. And more importantly, it’ll be ruchniyus suicide too, because if a person lets go, he becomes a slave. And to become a slave to taanugim, that’s not life anymore.

Life is for the purpose of being a free man, to choose between good and not good, and once you become enslaved, you’re losing out on life; that’s also cheit. And therefore even though Shabbos teaches us to enjoy the world, but we learn to enjoy it the right way.

Happy With Simplicity

That’s what it means פַּת בְּמֶלַח תֹּאכַל – You can eat bread and salt, וּמַיִם בַּמְּשׂוּרָה תִּשְׁתֶּה – and you don’t have much water either; just a cupful of water, וְעַל הָאָרֶץ תִּישַׁן – and you sleep on the ground; no dormitory beds, וּבַתּוֹרָה אַתָּה עָמֵל – and you’re working in Torah too, אַשְׁרֶיךָ וְטוֹב לָךְ אַשְׁרֶיךָ בָּעוֹלָם הַזֶּה וְטוֹב לָךְ לָעוֹלָם הַבָּא – you’ll be happy in this world and it’ll be good for you in the Next World (Avos 6:4).

You hear that?  אַשְׁרֶיךָ בָּעוֹלָם הַזֶּה!  You’ll be happy in this world?! What’s that about? Mimeila, טוֹב לָךְ לָעוֹלָם הַבָּא, I understand; but אַשְׁרֶיךָ בָּעוֹלָם הַזֶּה?

Yes.  That’s what they’re telling you. Once you learn the secret of Shabbos, the secret of happiness, it’ll be אַשְׁרֶיךָ בָּעוֹלָם הַזֶּה! You’ll become a happy person with all of the simple pleasures of life. He eats bread and he’s happy because he practiced on Shabbos with the challah. He dips it in salt and he’s even more happy.

How good salt is!  Salt is a ta’anug. Did you ever think about being happy with salt? It never even entered your mind. Because wherever you go, you’ll never hear these words.  Only in this little place, we talk about being happy with salt.

And so, next time you take salt, just to be yotzei—after all, a Jewish table is like a mizbeach and when a Jew eats it’s like a korban l’Hashem, an offering. So he dips it in salt and he thinks he’s doing a favor to Hakadosh Baruch Hu!  “Look how frum I am!”

“Oh! But what about enjoying it and thanking Me for the salt?” Hashem says.

So the Chovos Halevovos says, רוּבָּם כְּעוּרִים – they’re blind.  That’s chatas!  You’re not living with a purpose!  “Why did I give you the salt?  Just to swallow it down and not think about it? It’s for the purpose of appreciating what I gave to you.”

Water Fun

And then the water. Maybe on Shabbos you practiced up with a little wine for kiddush, maybe a little juice by the seudah, but now it’s a regular Wednesday and you’re ready to enjoy a cup of water. It’s such a happiness when a person can drink water.  Ay, ay, ay!  It’s such a simcha!  It’s mayim mesukim! It’s so sweet.  That water is better than anything in the world!

When I came to Slabodka, you couldn’t drink the water because there was always a concern of typhus from the well there.  So you had to cook the water. People gave up; they didn’t bother drinking.  In the yeshiva, there was no water to drink.  All day long, not a drop of water to drink.  There was a barrel of water when you came in to wash your hands, but chas v’shalom to drink that water.  It was a sakanah; they never washed out that barrel in fifty years. So all day long, not a drop of water!  When you came home to your shtanzeh, you wanted a drink, you had to ask the baalebuste to cook up some water for you. So sometimes they did it.

When I came back to America, I learned to appreciate it—open up the faucet, a mayim chayim!  What a blessing it is!  Water!  And you can drink it without cooking too!  And so, I learned a little seichel when I came back to America.

Expensive Bottled Water

And so, you take the glass in your hand and look at it and say, “טוֹב מְאֹד!” You don’t mean it, but say it anyhow.  After saying it a few times, little by little, הַחִיצוֹנִיּוּת מְעוֹרֶרֶת אֶת הַפְּנִימִיּוֹת – he begins to appreciate the glass of water.

Each time he drinks water—by the way, it’s good to drink a lot of water—he gets into the habit of drinking water, holds the glass in his hand and looks at it, “Ah!  How beautiful it is! If I had to buy water in the drug store, I should have to pay a hundred dollars for a little bottle!”  You can’t get along without it.

Some years ago, Macy’s was selling water for two dollars a bottle. They took water from the sink and put it into Macy’s bottles. So I was thinking, “It’s a wonderful thing!  It reminds us that it’s worth money. Two dollars a bottle? It’s worth a thousand dollars!” A person in the Sahara desert, he’s looking for a little bit of water before he drops dead, and then you have this (the Rov was holding the bottle of water from Macy’s). “How much is it?” he says. You can ask him for a thousand dollars.  He’ll give a thousand dollars!  Happily!

And therefore, we have to know, every time that we drink water, we’re being saved from extinction!  Hakadosh Baruch Hu is saving our lives.  It’s happiness; for a thinking man it’s a real happiness!

The Happy Porush

And so the happy porush eats a piece of bread and he thanks Hashem as if he’s eating the most luscious of all forms of appetizing food. He eats with appreciation. He takes his piece of bread and dips it in the salt, and he chews with relish and thinks “what great happiness this is!”. Then he drinks a cup of water and smacks his lips! “Ah!,” he says. “It’s so good.” Bread, water, a little salt and some thought, and you’re a happy man!

And that’s the trick, how to work on happiness. Because you can’t just tell a man, “Be happy.” That’s like saying nothing at all to him. You’re not helping him a bit; happiness takes training. It’s a science. I won’t be able to say it all tonight because I’m going to draw this to a close in a couple of minutes but briefly: the joy of life is not one thing—it’s the combination of many things, many happy details.

Drunk on Cocktails

I’ll give you an example. Let’s say breathing. You draw it deep into your lungs and learn to enjoy it. Air is a special mixture, a cocktail. If it was all oxygen, you’d be intoxicated; you would reel, and you’d fall down dizzily.  If it was all nitrogen, then you couldn’t live a minute.  It’s 20% oxygen, 80% nitrogen.  Ah!  That’s exactly a good proportion for you, for happiness.

Breathing is fun! I once told you about a simple experiment, didn’t I? It’s an experiment anybody can carry out at home. Take a bucket full of water and put your head into it and remain there for thirty seconds. And then think how good it would be just to have one breath. Don’t breathe under the water.  Then you pull your head out and take one deep breath. Ahh!  Isn’t that delicious?

The truth is, it’s always delicious, but a person who has been breathing all his life never once stopped to enjoy it. We take so many breaths, that they become unimportant to us and we become obtuse; we are spoiled because of habit and ingratitude and we become blind to the fun of breathing.

So you say, “Well everybody else is blind, so I’ll also remain blind.”

No. That’s why you came here.  To learn that Hashem doesn’t want you to be blind. He wants you to train on Shabbos—that’s the day set aside for it—and to take it with you during the week.  On Shabbos you open up your eyes and get a pair of Shabbos eyeglasses and through the eyeglasses you look at the world and you see the truth of Hashem’s briyah.  וַיְבָרֶךְ אֱלֹקִים אֶת יוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי – He blessed the Shabbos in order you should see how good it is to have air in the world! Ahhhh! Breathe deeply.  Most people never fill their lungs; just the top.  They’re lazy.  If you fill your lungs, breathe deeply so the bottom of your chest is bulging out.  Ah!

And the same is with thinking.  Most people think shallowly.  The bottom of the brain is never used.  So think deeply!  Then you’ll start enjoying the happiness of this world. You don’t need ice cream.  You don’t have to go to Manhattan on motzaei Shabbos for movies.  Right here, wherever you are, breathe deeply and thank Hakadosh Baruch Hu for this cocktail!  Baruch Hashem it’s tov me’od.

From Bread to Bannisters

And so, if bread and water make you happy, so two things cause you happiness. If salt and breathing make you happy so it’s four. If you’ll be happy with a cool breeze and the sunlight, that’s already six. And your eyes! Ooh! It’s a pleasure to use the two cameras you have here. And they take color pictures all the time. To have eyes is a very big simchah. It’s a ta’anug, a delight. It’s an ecstasy as I look around with my two cameras. Ahahaha! That’s life.

Even when you’re walking down the stairs and you’re holding onto the banister, so you’re thinking, “How lucky I am to have a banister.” Imagine such a thing! A person who is happy with a banister! They’ll say he’s meshuga. It’s true—he’s meshuga with happiness.

And so if you learn fifty things, fifty things will cause you happiness. If you’re wise enough to study a thousand things, then a thousand things will cause you happiness. The more subjects you study, the more phenomena you study, the more happiness you’re going to get out of life. That’s the recipe for happiness in this world because to live with joy means you’re living with the sum total of tens of thousands of phenomena. And it’s necessary to take each phenomenon separately and study it and enjoy each time you encounter it.

A Serious Shabbos

What you’re hearing now is not leitzanus.  It’s most serious.  And we’re nitba—we’re going to be judged for that.  Hakadosh Baruch Hu says, “It’s chatas!  You’re missing out in life!” The purpose of life is to see chessed Hashem mal’ah ha’aretz.  עוֹלַם חֶסֶד יִבָּנֶה!  He made the briyah, the whole creation, for one purpose: מְכַלְכֵּל חַיִּים בְּחֶסֶד.

And that’s why it’s of the utmost necessity to understand that Shabbos is the fertile ground upon which a happy life grows. Shabbos is the day of brachah for that purpose, so that we should utilize it to learn how to be happy in this world. And when you’re happy in the world, that’s how you come to the great madreigah of love of Hashem, the madreigah that best prepares you for the World to Come.

Happiness Forever

That’s what the Gemara says: כָּל הַמְּעַנֵג אֶת הַשַּׁבָּת – If you cause ta’anug, pleasure on Shabbos, נוֹתְנִין לוֹ נַחֲלָה בְּלִי מְצָרִים – so in the Next World they’re going to give you an estate that has no boundaries. It’s talking about physical pleasure on Shabbos—eating, drinking, resting, other things—and for that you’ll get such a reward without limit.

Now what that means exactly I can’t tell you because I don’t know myself—but it’s something tremendous.  We can picture, l’mashal, you’ll be sitting in your stratosphere airplane and travelling through the skies and visiting hundreds of worlds, huge worlds, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu has given to you as a gift.  That’s part of your estate now.

It’s still a mashal but the mashal is for something that’s grand, beyond our ability to understand. And it’s set aside for a person who enjoys the food on Shabbos or he rested on Shabbos; the physical pleasure of Shabbos. Because that’s the number one brachah of Shabbos—it’s the day that is intended to teach you a lesson of the great happiness that awaits you in this life! And if you’ll study it properly and remember always the One Who is giving you that happiness, that’s how you’ll merit a happy life, not only in this world, but you’ll achieve also the tremendous and infinite happiness of Olam Haba.

Have a Wonderful Shabbos

This week’s booklet is based on tapes:

673 – Oneg Shabbos | E-38 – Blessings of Shabbos | E-53 – The Gan Eden of This World | E-101 – Oneg Shabbos II | E-160 – Repenting in Happiness

 

Let’s Get Practical

Accomplishing on Shabbos

We didn’t come to this world just to coast along and avoid sin, we came to accomplish. Hashem created the world for Chessed, and he created us to enjoy that Chessed and appreciate it. This Shabbos, as I partake in the delicious Shabbos food, I will bli neder take some time to enjoy the pleasure of the food and feel gratitude to Hashem for all that he gives me. Shabbos will train me for the rest of the week so that each day, at least twice a day I will feel pleasure in Hashem’s world and feel grateful towards Him.

 

Q:

When do you know how to enjoy this world and when do you know to be a porush from this world?

A:

And the answer is whatever is good for your health you should use and enjoy it. If you like to eat bread and butter, and it’s good for you, eat it with simchah. Why not? If you like to eat chicken, and it’s good for you, then eat it with simchah. Don’t say, “I don’t like to eat.” No. You have to eat with appetite. The saliva will flow and it helps you to digest. Your stomach juices flow; it helps you digest. Appetite helps you digest. Enjoy the food but at the same time ואכלת ושבעת וברכת את ה’ אלוקיך. Thank Him. Any enjoyment you get from food or anything else, thank Hashem, thank Hashem, thank Hashem.

However, sometimes when people become enslaved to certain things—here’s a man and he’s enslaved to cigarettes; he enjoys cigarettes but he’s a slave to it now. No; don’t be a slave to anything except to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. A slave to cigarettes? No. Anybody who becomes a slave to anything, Hashem says, “You are competing with My service.”

A person can become a slave even to things that are superfluous to eat; always he wants to nosh things. Don’t be a slave to noshing; it’s not healthy.

Anything that is good and healthy however, you have a right to eat and you should enjoy it and thank Hakadosh Baruch Hu for it.

April 13, 2000