The solution to every problem - Joy

As we conclude the Holiday of Succos with every increasing joy, the world is in the best place yet and more goodness to come. With it, all cranky plans dissolve.

Succos, the Feast of Tabernacles, is called the Time of Our Rejoicing.

It’s counterintuitive. We move outside into a Succa, a half built, tilting, structure. A ‘roof’ made of loosely tossed branches easily penetrated by rain. And, it can be too hot or too cold, on the same day. Add in mosquitoes or wasps, or both. And, overflowing with guests, something is always spilling and breaking. The whole thing is liable to be blown down with just the right gust of wind, that’s if someone doesn’t knock over the wall first.

And, yet it is the Time of Our Rejoicing.

Because this is when the service of G-d Al-mighty with Joy begins.

When things are not going the way we want. When things seem unstable, teetering on falling apart, maybe the roof is caving in and the rain is in your soup, that’s when it’s time to really get Joyful. When we really are honest with our fragility, then we can be humble and truly happy.

It doesn’t take much to feel like dancing when the house is in perfect shape, the mortgage is paid, the retirement account is well stocked and economic prospects are rosy.

When things are going well, is it the relationship with G-d Al-mighty that drives that joy? Is it the Joy of being alive that propels that joy?

Or, is it the sense of “I’ve got it made!”?

In the midst of his predictions of the unpleasantness that unfolds from forgetting G-d Al-mighty, Moses, Our Teacher, opens our eyes to see that the collapse is on account of the fact that we did not serve G-d Al-mighty with Joy because we were distracted by the abundance. (Deut. 28:47 תַּ֗חַת אֲשֶׁ֤ר לֹא־עָבַ֙דְתָּ֙ אֶת־ה׳ אֱלֹ׳ בְּשִׂמְחָ֖ה וּבְט֣וּב לֵבָ֑ב מֵרֹ֖ב כֹּֽל) Once we got past the original euphoria of “I’ve got it made!” we become disenchanted with what sufficed a short while ago, noticing the imperfections, noticing the aging, the more that could be or ‘should’ be. We become disaffected with G-d Al-mighty Himself. And then, the abundance, and the stability, fade.

This is the story of individuals, families and nations. And, men as a whole.

The solution is to move from “I’ve got it made!” to “G-d Al-mighty’s got it made!!” In fact, He is in the midst of making it right now!

That’s real Joy.

So when we move into the Succa, we are acknowledging that all our brick and mortar, and bridges and highways, and military equipment of any country and all countries, is all really flimsy, of no power at all.

The only glue that holds us together is Joy. That Joy that comes with knowing that there is nothing besides G-d Al-mighty and that does not change no matter how good the physical appears to be or is predicted to be and no matter how bad the physical appears to be or is predicted to be.

The Joy of being with G-d Al-mighty, right here, right now.

With Joy we are immune to fear. All the machinations and conspiracies in the world are nothing to be afraid of. Act, we must, but with Joy, not with fear.

Succos is our time to charge up our expansion of Joy for the entire year.

So gather your family and start dancing. Gather your neighbors and start dancing.

Some will grumble pointing to this or that close by or far away, from the past or the future that makes joy “unrealistic.”

But, it is exactly that mistaken thought that took men off track in every generation, as their thinking muffled their joy and weighed them down with worry and fear and led to them to act out of fear against G-d Al-mighty, their fellow men and themselves.

What a terrible idea it would be to mute our joy because someone else who is unhappy has some negative outlook or plan.

So the answer is not logic, and not explanation and not convicing. It can only be done with the service of G-d Al-mighty, the service of stretching ourselves out of contraction into the expansion of Joy. As King David inspires us, עִבְד֣וּ אֶת־ה׳ בְּשִׂמְחָ֑ה , “Serve the L-rd G-d Al-mighty with Joy.!” (Psalm 100:2)

And sometimes, we have to take Joyous action before our minds are there. A Chossid of the Tzemach Tzedek, the third Lubavitcher Rebbe, once complained that he was down. The Tzemach Tzedek did not tell him to think differently, count his blessings or be happy. Rather the Tzemach Tzedek told him to make “some small movement of Joy” and illustrated it with raising his right hand into the air and swinging it down vigorously. That affects us, it unbottles our Joy and takes into a life of Joyous Action.

This is the Joy of Jews and non-Jews, the Joy of men, the Joy that takes the world to the best place its been yet.

Happy Succos. Happy Shmini Atzeres and Happy Simchas Torah.