BH
In Likutey Moharan lesson 24 Rebbe Nachman emphasizes the transformative power of simcha (joy). He teaches that joy is essential to forward progress in life, as illustrated by the verse, “For with joy you will leave.” Whenever you feel stuck and want to move ahead, joy is the key. However, it is a two-step process. First, you need to cultivate an attitude of joy. Once you’ve built that foundation, you can then use that joy to perform mitzvot (commandments) with simcha.
Rebbe Nachman explains that performing a mitzvah without joy can feel burdensome or empty. But when you do a mitzvah with joy, it elevates the act and brings a profound sense of fulfillment. That’s why he emphasizes the need to fight for joy and seek it out in any kosher way possible. He offers several strategies for cultivating joy:
- Miley Deshtuta (Silliness and Jokes): Humor can bring you joy, even if it’s silly. Laughter, even from the simplest jokes, is healthy and good.
- Clapping, Singing, and Dancing: Physical movement can create momentum and bring joy. These acts of celebration lift your spirits and change your mood.
- Azamra (Finding Your Good Points): The verse “Azamra lelokai be’odi,” means “I will sing to Hashem with the good points that I find within me.” Even when life is overwhelming, it’s crucial to focus on your good points and be grateful for them.
- Giving Thanks: Gratitude is closely tied to joy. By thanking Hashem for all the good in your life, you strengthen your sense of simcha.
- Looking to the Ultimate Future: Even in difficult moments, Rebbe Nachman teaches us to focus on the eventual and final outcome, where everything will be set right. Knowing that in the end, everything will work out should alleviate worry and bring happiness.
Rebbe Nachman also teaches that activating joy allows you to face and overcome challenges, particularly those involving sadness and depression. By choosing joy, you can extract the holiness trapped within negativity and impurity. Once you’ve done that, you can then use this joy to perform mitzvot at an elevated level. Performing a mitzvah with simcha is transformative; it takes the mitzvah to higher spiritual realms and connects it to the Keter.
In Kabbalistic terms, the Keter is the interface between Hashem and His creation. It serves as a barrier, protecting us from being overwhelmed by Hashem’s Infinite Light. If we were exposed to the full force of this light, we would be nullified by it. Thus, the Keter acts as a necessary boundary, preventing us from merging too closely with the infinite. When you perform a mitzvah with joy, your mind races forward, eager to grasp divine wisdom. The mind is divided into three components: chokhmah (wisdom), binah (understanding), and da’at (knowledge). Each stage of thought plays a role in understanding the Divine. However, the Keter acts as a boundary that prevents the mind from going too far. The Keter pushes back, causing a collision of sorts, where wisdom, understanding, and knowledge intermingle. This creates what Rebbe Nachman calls the “nine chambers,” which are formed by the mind’s collision with the Keter (3×3=9). These chambers hold the vessels that allow you to perceive the Infinite Light in a limited way.
This process is particularly relevant when you experience setbacks in life. These setbacks, frustrating as they may seem, are actually a form of Divine guidance. Just as the Keter pushes back your mind to create vessels for spiritual light, setbacks in life push you back to create vessels for growth and understanding.
Many people feel stuck and frustrated, unsure of what to do or where to turn. In these moments, clarity is needed, and that clarity often comes in surprising ways. It could be a casual conversation with a bus driver, a brief moment with a loved one, or advice from a rabbi. The light of clarity shines through these moments, and it all begins with simcha. Joy is the catalyst that allows your mind to reach the Keter, creating the vessels through which light can shine.
This dynamic is often felt after intense spiritual experiences. For example, many people return from Uman Rosh Hashanah on a spiritual high, only to feel a sudden crash afterwards. This setback is necessary for absorbing the intense spiritual light received during Rosh Hashanah. Rebbe Nachman teaches that these vessels cannot be fully grasped or understood, but they are created through the setbacks you experience. The crash after a high is not a failure but an essential part of the spiritual process.
Rebbe Nachman emphasizes that setbacks are not meant to push you away from spiritual growth. Instead, they are integral to the process. When you experience obstacles or difficulties, it’s not a sign of failure but a sign that vessels are being created for future light. These setbacks happen in all areas of life—whether it’s in your daily struggles, confusion, or moments of panic. But it’s through these setbacks that the vessels for spiritual light are formed.
By embracing simcha, we can elevate our mitzvot and connect to the Infinite Light, even when we don’t fully understand how it all works. The setbacks we face are not roadblocks, but rather the necessary steps toward growth, light, and ultimate clarity.
With that introduction laid out, we can now look at how it applies to Rosh Hashanah and the Nine Days of Repentance leading up to Yom Kippur. The first two days of Rosh Hashanah are filled with intense simcha (joy). Rebbe Nachman quotes a verse from Nechemiah: “Ichlu madanim ushtu mamtakim ki chedvat Hashem hi mauzachem”—”Eat delicacies and drink sweet drinks, for the joy of Hashem is your strength.” This verse, according to the sages, specifically refers to Rosh Hashanah. Even though it’s the Day of Judgment, we approach it with joy, encouraged by the sounds of the shofar and the fact that it falls on Rosh Chodesh Tishrei, a day when Hashem, so to speak, seeks atonement for having diminished the moon. We offer a Chatat LeHashem (a sin offering for Hashem) on Rosh Hashanah, which creates an opening for a compassionate judgment and the hope for a good year ahead.
This joy is one of the reasons people travel to be with tzaddikim for Rosh Hashanah. Rebbe Nachman explains that being with a tzaddik during this time is like being with the best defense attorneys, who will judge everyone favorably, especially those who come to them. Thus, the act of traveling to tzaddikim generates a powerful sense of simcha. This joy is also connected to the custom of Tashlich on the first day of Rosh Hashanah, where we symbolically cast our sins into a body of water. Beyond this symbolism, the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch explains that coronations of kings, such as King David and King Shaul, took place by bodies of water. Water represents life and growth, and just as water brings sustenance, the crowning of a king is meant to bring prosperity and joy. On Rosh Hashanah, as we crown Hashem our King, we experience great joy despite the solemnity of the day.
Although there is crying on Rosh Hashanah, Rebbe Nachman teaches that these tears are born out of joy. We cry because we feel unworthy of the compassion and kindness that Hashem shows us, giving us another chance even though we know we’ve made mistakes. This feeling of being undeserving leads to an emotional release, where joy and brokenness mix, creating bechiyah (crying out of joy). Also, Rebbe Nachman stresses that those who are with him on Rosh Hashanah should be especially happy, as he proclaimed that anyone who merits being by him on Rosh Hashanah has every reason to be extremely joyful.
The two days of Rosh Hashanah represent two types of joy. The first day is called dina kashya (harsh judgment), as it is the first day of the new year and is closest to the previous year. On this day, we come before Hashem with all the baggage of the past year, confronting the severity of judgment. The joy we experience on the first day is a form of activation, to later on use simcha to extract the holiness trapped in impurity, through methods like jokes, music, dancing, and giving thanks etc.. Once this holiness has been freed, we move into the second day of Rosh Hashanah, which is called dina rafya (less severe judgment). On the second day, we shift focus to performing mitzvot with joy, now that the extraction of holiness has been completed on the first day. This shift is why many people feel more connected and spiritually uplifted on the second day compared to the first.
The two days of Rosh Hashanah are part of the larger structure of the Ten Days of Repentance. Reb Noson, in Likutey Tefilot, expresses a deep insight about these days: while we are meant to repent, he acknowledges that sometimes we don’t even manage to repent properly, and may even worsen our spiritual standing. Yet, these nine days leading up to Yom Kippur are about building vessels through setbacks. After the intense light of Rosh Hashanah, it’s common to feel setbacks or struggles, symbolized by the fast of Tzom Gedaliah immediately following Rosh Hashanah. This shift from the spiritual high of crowning Hashem to mourning the assassination of a righteous leader illustrates the concept of Keter—the extreme light followed by a bounce back, creating a spiritual void that allows for further growth.
The avodah (spiritual work) of the first Nine Days of Repentance is to keep going despite setbacks. These setbacks are not signs that Hashem has rejected us, but rather an essential part of preparing ourselves to receive the Infinite Light that will shine on Yom Kippur. Instead of interpreting setbacks as failures, we should understand them as opportunities to create vessels that will eventually hold the spiritual light we are striving to attain.
With all that groundwork laid, we now reach Yom Kippur, the day when the Kohen Gadol entered the Holy of Holies—the highest level of holiness within the Beit HaMikdash, and indeed, the entire Holy Land. The Mishnah lists ten levels of holiness in Eretz Yisrael, and the pinnacle is the Holy of Holies, where the Kohen Gadol would enter once a year with the incense offering, known as the ketoret. Rebbe Nachman teaches in Lesson 24 that ketoret is a special segula (spiritual remedy) for joy. This is why it’s important to never skip the recitation of the ketoret during Shacharit or Mincha, because it has the power to activate simcha (joy). The incense offering, as stated in the verse, “Ketoret yesamach lev”—”The incense brings joy to the heart,” has this intrinsic connection to joy.
According to the Midrash and Zohar, the incense offering in the Holy of Holies would take the form of a cloud, resembling a tree spreading its branches downwards, a visual representation of joy. The cloud rising to the roof of the Holy of Holies, spreading out and then descending, was a sign of Hashem’s presence and a reminder that there was nothing to fear. This imagery reinforced that Hashem’s protective presence was with the Jewish people, and the offering was an essential part of the atonement for all of Israel on Yom Kippur.
Rebbe Nachman explains that this act of the Kohen Gadol entering the Holy of Holies symbolizes passing through the Keter and merging with the Infinite Light. When he emerged from this sacred space, the Kohen Gadol returned with tremendous spiritual gifts for the Jewish people. The fact that the Kohen Gadol entered and exited several times on Yom Kippur underscores the importance of bringing back this Infinite Light to the nation, made possible by the people’s efforts during the preceding Nine Days of Repentance. These days, focused on building vessels, prepare us to receive this Infinite Light.
The Mishnah in Yoma notes that if the Kohen Gadol survived the experience of Yom Kippur, he would celebrate with his friends, neighbors, and family, turning the day into a Yom Tov. This celebration came from a place of simcha, as he had successfully activated the joy that Yom Kippur brings.
Another key element of Yom Kippur are the five inuyim (afflictions). These include refraining from eating, drinking, marital relations, wearing leather shoes, and bathing or anointing. While these acts are often seen as forms of deprivation, Reb Noson explains that the five inuyim are designed to humble a person, creating vessels to receive joy. By refraining from these physical comforts, a person becomes a vessel for simcha. The five inuyim correspond to the five voices of joy, and surprisingly, their purpose is to activate joy, which comes into full force after Yom Kippur.
After Yom Kippur, the Jewish people are filled with simcha as they prepare for Sukkot. There’s an atmosphere of excitement—buying the lulav, etrog, hadasim, and aravot, building the sukkah, decorating it, preparing festive meals, and giving tzedakah to those in need. This period between Yom Kippur and Sukkot is filled with joy as we move toward the holiday of zman simchateinu, the time of our joy. The mitzvah of Sukkot is to be happy and rejoice, as the verse states, “V’samachta bechagecha”—”You shall rejoice in your festival.”
In essence, the entire High Holiday period, from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur and into Sukkot, revolves around simcha. We start the new year by tapping into a higher level of joy and clarity, which continues through Sukkot and culminates in Simchat Torah. Hashem intentionally designed the beginning of the new year with these 21 days, up to Simchat Torah, to be centered on joy. This joy becomes the key to navigate the entire year. If we can fully internalize and build simcha through this process, it will serve as a foundation to handle all the challenges and fluctuations that the year may bring.
The ultimate goal is to carry the joy of the High Holidays into the rest of the year. When you experience both highs and lows, you will have the power of simcha in your pocket, a tool to draw upon in every situation. May everyone be blessed to activate this high level of the Keter, where the Infinite Light shines brightest on Yom Kippur, and may that light fill us with even greater simcha through the clarity we develop.
This class is based on Likutey Moharan lesson 24. For more on this lesson: https://linktr.ee/breslovtherapy_lesson_24
For a video presentation of this article: https://youtu.be/sMQBpodTXdE
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Meir Elkabas
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These three stages correspond to the nine cities of refuge (Arei Miklat). Moshe Rabbeinu set aside the first three cities in the diaspora, in the lands of Sichon and Og. Moshe, who represents the joy of performing mitzvot, was uniquely qualified to establish these cities because of his ability to extract holiness from even impure places. Moshe’s joy in doing mitzvot is reflected in the phrase “Yismach Moshe b’matnat chelko” (“Moshe rejoices in the portion of his gift”), which is recited every Shabbat morning. His level of simcha (joy) allowed him to sanctify the first three cities, providing refuge for those who committed unintentional sins (*shogeg*) in the diaspora.