Chayei Sarah - the proper joy in serving Hashem

00:00 In 5746, Shabbos Parshas Chayei Sarah fell on Shabbos Mevarchim for the month of Kislev. It was a difficult time in several respects, both in general matters and, especially, in Eretz Yisroel. There were harsh decrees then: the government wanted to hand over entire parts of Eretz Yisroel to the Arabs, and there were other very harsh matters and decrees. Then came Shabbos Parshas Chayei Sarah, Shabbos Mevarchim. At the farbrengen, the Rebbe stressed in the first sicha that it was Shabbos Mevarchim for Kislev, and therefore a time of joy. Kislev is also the month of Chanukah, when we saw the great miracles Hashem performed: “the mighty into the hands of the weak, the many into the hands of the few”—all the great miracles that happened on Chanukah. This makes the entire month of Kislev a joyful month. In particular, over the generations, new Yomim Tovim were added to it—great Yomim Tovim, Chassidic Yomim Tovim—especially 19 Kislev, the Rosh Hashanah of Chassidus. And there are several more Chassidic Yomim Tovim during Kislev. So Kislev is a joyful month. The Rebbe then urged the chassidim emphatically to devote themselves to joy. The Rebbe also spoke about how Chassidus revealed the importance of joy. Incidentally, joy is written about

02:08 in the Torah, and yet we see that until the Baal Shem Tov was revealed, the service of Hashem was more in a mode of awe, and even fear; joy was not emphasized as much. When the Baal Shem Tov came, he revealed the importance of joy. You can see it plainly: when you look at a chossid, what is the first thing you notice about him? How do you know he is a chossid? You see a manner of joy about him. You see a manner of joy, a happy face, a radiant face, and you know he is a chossid. The Rebbe then urged the chassidim emphatically to serve Hashem with joy. He spoke about the situation and delivered a very forceful, lengthy sicha about the situation in Eretz Yisroel. At the time it was a matter of danger to life, rachmana litzlan, as people wanted to hand over large parts of Eretz Yisroel. The Rebbe connected this with the fact that it was late Cheshvan; that day was 25 Cheshvan. He cited Megillas Taanis, which says that 25 Cheshvan was a Yom Tov because of the “capture of Shomron.” In other words, it had been dangerous for Jews to live there, in the Shomron area. Then a group of Jews came, put up a wall, and built a city around the wall. Many Jews gathered and built towns

03:47 nearby, and thanks to this, Jews were able to live in safety and peace for many years. That is why they established 25 Cheshvan as a Yom Tov. Based on this, the Rebbe spoke about Jews standing firm, not being intimidated by the nations of the world, standing proudly and strongly, with a wall, and strengthening themselves in Torah and mitzvos without being deterred by anything. From there, the Rebbe went on to speak about the present situation: instead of Jews standing firm, rachmana litzlan, the situation nowadays is that they bow before the nations of the world and do not want to acknowledge what is right in front of them. They think that if they hand over parts of Eretz Yisroel, they can bring peace. This is despite knowing that there is no peace, and that the Arab does not want peace at all. He only wants, rachmana litzlan, to uproot Jews, and he wants—yes, what we all know. The Rebbe spoke about this with great force and said: What must be done? What must be done? When people talk to them about peace, they do not understand it. What must be done? Those running things and making the decisions must instead stand proudly and firmly, because that is the only language the nations of the world and the Arabs understand.

05:10 And that is the only way to achieve genuine peace and quiet. You can see it for yourself: just keep giving and receive nothing from them in return except a piece of paper—and that piece of paper has no force and no significance whatsoever. The Rebbe said then that some had said things were already reaching the point of “[unclear]” [?]. You know, there was once a situation in which they were actually on the verge of giving up parts of Eretz Yisroel. The Rebbe said they had been in such a situation before, and there had been open miracles. The miracle was that the Arabs did not agree to accept it. Jews wanted to give it up, but the Arabs wanted more, wanted still more, and so it did not happen. The Arabs did not take it, did not want to accept it, and that was the greatest miracle. So how do we bring about the miracle now? To bring about the miracle, the avodah is through joy—to put ourselves in a state of joy. The Rebbe then called on the chassidim for great joy. Even if you do not feel joy and you think there is no reason here to rejoice, you must still be joyful, at least outwardly—that is what the Rebbe said. Even if you do not feel joy inside, put yourself in a state of joy, at least outwardly. Even a minus is something. Let the joy be expressed aloud and openly.

06:31 Indeed, the Rebbe urged joy emphatically: through great joy, they would break through the concealment, break the decree, and there would be a miracle. And that is just what happened: at a certain point, the whole matter was canceled, and there was an open miracle. Another week later, the following Shabbos, they saw that an open miracle had indeed occurred. The whole matter that had come up then, when they wanted, heaven forbid, to hand back the largest part of Eretz Yisroel, was completely canceled. They were frightened off, and nothing came of it. Then people saw how emphatically the Rebbe had urged joy and called on the chassidim to put themselves in a state of joy, of great joy. And through joy, “joy breaks through barriers”; all the concealments would be broken. So today we will speak about joy. In the weekly parsha, Parshas Chayei Sarah, there is a remarkable idea in Chassidus based on the parsha that helps us understand what true joy in serving Hashem should be. It is based on a passage in the Zohar on our parsha, explained in a maamar by the Rebbe Rashab, Rabbi Sholom DovBer, from 5679; in Chassidus it is called [unclear]. There are also maamarim by the Rebbe, who discussed it several times over the years, based on that maamar.

07:59 The Rebbe discussed it at length in 5712, in 5741, and in other years, explaining joy according to Chassidus: how true joy should be expressed, and what it really is. We begin with this interesting passage in the Zohar on the parsha. The Zohar dwells on the first verse of the parsha: “And Sarah’s life was one hundred years and twenty years and seven years—the years of Sarah’s life.” What do we see here in the Torah? It says, “And Sarah’s life was.” Why does this wording appear specifically with Sarah? We do not find it with the other Matriarchs. And there is something else to understand here: the Torah does not say “And Sarah’s life was” just once. After listing her years—“one hundred years and twenty years and seven years”—it concludes again, “the years of Sarah’s life.” The Torah repeats the wording. There are explanations of this in Rashi and the Midrashim, but the Zohar says something very interesting. The Zohar says this: when Hakadosh Boruch Hu created the world, and created Adam and Chava, Chava wanted to bring joy into the world. Chava wanted to bring joy into the world. And how did she bring joy? She took a cluster of grapes, for it is brought down that according to the Zohar, and according to several opinions—also in the Gemara, I think—the Tree of Knowledge was a grapevine. In other words, there was a cluster of

09:31 grapes, and Chava squeezed it: she took a cluster of grapes, squeezed it, made wine from it, and gave it to Adam to drink. That was the sin of the Tree of Knowledge. She had very good intentions—to bring joy—but that joy ended in the sin of the Tree of Knowledge, which brought death into the world. That is what happened specifically with Chava: the serpent became attached to it. Instead of bringing pure joy, she brought a kind of joy to which the primordial serpent attached itself, and through her death came into the world—the exact opposite of everything she had intended. Then Noach came, ten generations later, and wanted to rectify Chava’s sin. So what was the first thing Noach did when he left the ark? The Torah tells us in Parshas Noach: “And Noach began and planted a vineyard.” He planted a vineyard, and the vineyard produced grapes. He wanted to rectify what Chava had spoiled through wine, and wanted to do so by “planting a vineyard.” But what happened to Noach, the Zohar asks? He became drunk. He turned to wine, and great devastation resulted, as the Torah recounts in Parshas Noach when it describes the consequences. Bitter consequences came from Noach’s act. After that

11:04 Sarah came into the world ten generations later. And what is said about Sarah? “She descended and ascended.” Sarah brought true joy. She went down to Egypt; when Sarah was with Pharaoh, king of Egypt—“the woman was taken to Pharaoh’s house”—not only did the kelipah, the impurity of the primordial serpent, not cling to her, as it had to Eve or to Noach, but on the contrary: when she returned, “Avram went up from Egypt,” “laden with silver and gold.” She came away with all the sparks of holiness. She emerged in complete purity, and even took with her possessions, silver and gold, and all the things the Torah tells us about. “She descended and ascended.” And the Zohar continues: “And therefore it is written of her that life was hers.” That is why she, specifically, had true life. This is what the Torah says: “And the life of Sarah was... the years of Sarah’s life.” Sarah had true vitality. She had true joy. She brought true joy into the world, true vitality—“life was hers.” Her life was true life, a life of holiness that lives on to this day, until Moshiach Tzidkeinu. So what do we see here from the Zohar? What happened here? What [unclear]? What is the story? What did Eve want, and where did she go wrong? What did Noach want to correct, and where did he go wrong? And how did Sarah set right the true meaning of joy?

12:37 Chassidus explains this whole matter at length. What is it about? When Hakadosh Boruch Hu created Adam, the Torah says: “And He placed him in the Garden of Eden to work it and guard it.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu created Adam and immediately gave him a task. Adam, in the Garden of Eden, immediately received a task from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And this is every person’s task in the world: “to work it and guard it.” He must serve Hashem. As the Midrash says: “‘To work it’ refers to the 248 positive commandments, and ‘to guard it’ refers to the 365 prohibitions.” Adam had work to do. What was his work? Through fulfilling the mitzvos he was to fulfill in the Garden of Eden, he would draw down the Divine Presence into the world, as the Midrashim explain, and so on. That was Adam’s task. Then Eve came along. Eve understood that for this work to draw down G-dliness, to bring G-dliness into the world and reveal it there, the work alone was not enough. Work in itself—work done without meaning, without vitality, without joy and enthusiasm—would not bring G-dliness, blessing and bounty into the world in the right way. For G-dliness to be drawn down in a true way, and especially G-dliness from the loftiest levels, there absolutely must

14:11 be joy. This is what the verse says: “Serve Hashem with joy.” We might not see it openly and clearly, but serving Hashem must specifically be done with joy. When the service is joyful, then, as we know, joy breaks through every boundary. Joy reaches the loftiest levels. The work itself—fulfilling mitzvos, doing good deeds—every action and every mitzvah truly draws something down, but that is a limited drawing down. Every mitzvah and every action has its own limits. What does this work accomplish? When a person does an act of kindness, that is truly Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s kindness in the world. When a person acts with gevurah, that is truly Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s gevurah. When a person shows compassion, that is truly the attribute of tiferes. Every mitzvah and every action a person performs corresponds to a particular attribute, sefirah, or level of G-dliness. But when there is joy in the service—joy is connected with pleasure, and pleasure reaches the loftiest levels and is subject to no limitation. Chassidus explains that the source of pleasure and the source of joy are in the infinite, boundless aspect of G-dliness. And to reach the boundless aspect of G-dliness—joy breaks through boundaries. That is why the service must be done with joy. This is the power of joy. That is why the well-known verse in Parshas Ki Savo says: “Because you did not serve Hashem your G-d with joy.” As is known, the Rambam’s interpretation and the Arizal’s interpretation are that there was “you served,”

15:45 but “you did not serve with joy.” He serves Hakadosh Boruch Hu, but without joy. Joy is missing from his service of Hashem. And then, may Hashem spare us, the Torah goes on to say what it says about this. How can that be? After all, he serves Hakadosh Boruch Hu. But he serves Hakadosh Boruch Hu without joy, and that is a limited, constricted service. When there is joy in the service, it brings about revelation without limits, without measure or restriction. That is one aspect of it. And in this way we make the world an illuminated world, a G-dly world. Eve understood this, and she wanted to bring joy into the world. But what was her mistake? Her mistake was thinking that joy had to come only through what a person feels for himself. What was the sin of the Tree of Knowledge? In the sin of the Tree of Knowledge, we see that the focus throughout was on seeking personal enjoyment, personal feeling. “And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable for gaining wisdom”—all these things are written there in the verses. She saw that it had an appealing taste, that it was sweet and good. In other words, they were looking for a feeling: I want to feel joy, but in a way that tastes good to me and feels good to me. I want things to be good for me, to have all the good things, and then

17:19 I will be happy. And this is the mistake we see people make: they think joy means having things. If a person has money, he is happy. He will have a good livelihood, good health, all the good things; he will become wealthy, have everything he wants, satisfy all his desires, and then he will feel good about himself. He will be a happy person. But we see that it does not work that way. Reality shows that a person who is absorbed in himself, thinks about himself and wants to satisfy himself is not content. On the contrary, it is not enough for him. I need more. “He who has one hundred wants two hundred.” He envies what someone else has. He thinks he deserves it: That is mine, and I’m a good person. I deserve more. And when he does not get what he wants, he is dissatisfied. He becomes irritable; he gets angry. And we see this with the serpent. This is the nature of the serpent’s sin: it can think... For the serpent is always sad. The serpent has a nature, a disposition toward sadness. So it is written in the holy books. The serpent is always sad. But why is it sad? It has everything it wants. It has dust. Hakadosh Boruch Hu told it: “And dust you shall eat all the days of your life.”

18:44 It has all the dust of the earth. And even if it had more than it could gather for itself, as it says in the books—even if it had more, even if it had the entire globe—it would still have nothing left. In other words, it lives on, but what it has is never enough. It wants more; it wants still more. That was the issue with Eve’s sin, Eve’s failing. Eve wanted to bring joy into the service of Hashem. Her mistake was thinking that joy was connected with self-awareness. That is the sin of the Tree of Knowledge: she wanted to feel her own self. It is explained in the books and in the Rebbe’s teachings that the entire sin of the Tree of Knowledge was the sin of self-awareness. Before the sin of the Tree of Knowledge, a person did not feel his own self. “And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and they were not ashamed.” What does “they were not ashamed” mean? There was no self-awareness. They did not feel themselves at all, and therefore they felt no shame. They did not need clothes; they were in a state in which the very concept of “I” did not exist for them. There was no “I.” And when there is no “I,” there is no shame, nothing to be ashamed of, because they were wholly absorbed in G-dliness. How did the serpent come and introduce impurity into them? The serpent, Eve [unclear], the sense of self, as discussed in Chassidus. The feeling of

19:59 “I,” my pleasure. I want the joy that I have, that I receive. And that spoiled the whole thing. From this came death into the world. When there is a sense of self, there is no vitality. It is the opposite of life. Life is bittul, self-nullification. Vitality comes when we devote ourselves to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. “And you who cleave to Hashem your G-d are all alive today.” Through cleaving to Him, we come to G-dliness, as the Alter Rebbe explains in Tanya. So the only way to receive G-dliness is to attain bittul. This is what happened with the sin of the Tree of Knowledge. Ten generations later, Noach came. Noach’s mistake arose from his desire to correct Eve’s sin. Noach saw that self-awareness, this feeling of one’s own self, distances a person from G-dliness, and that this was not the right kind of joy. Noach said: Let us set joy right, so that it will be expressed through bittul. How did he want to do that? By drinking wine, gradually becoming intoxicated. For Noach, this was not a matter of joy; he thought joy meant going beyond one’s limitations, losing oneself. He was thinking of bittul—but what kind of bittul? A bittul brought about by clouding the mind. There is the phrase “Let him drink and forget his poverty,” as the verse in Tanach says: to forget oneself, forget everything, go beyond limitations, lose

21:31 himself completely, to make himself as though he were nothing. And then what happens? He is nullified. And if he is nullified, all is well. But that was Noach’s mistake. That is not the right kind of joy. Confusion of the mind is not what Hakadosh Boruch Hu intends. It is not the joy Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants, the way to make the world a dwelling place for Him and reveal G-dliness in the world. Drunkenness and confusion are not the way. Sarah came and revealed the true idea: how joy must go together with self-nullification. What is true joy? It is what the verse in Yeshayahu says: “The humble will increase their joy in Hashem.” The humility of the humble brings true joy. How is humility connected to joy? At first glance, as Chassidus asks, a humble person is someone who thinks little of himself, who sees himself as lowly: I am nothing; who am I, and what am I? In his own eyes he is completely broken and feels utterly low. How, then, can the verse say, “The humble will increase their joy in Hashem”? How can true joy in Hakadosh Boruch Hu belong specifically to the humble? Humility and joy—on the surface, they seem to be two different things. Humility seems to mean lowliness, restraint, being closed in on oneself: a withdrawn, embittered person who thinks little of himself.

23:06 Joy, on the other hand, comes precisely from expansiveness, openness, and cheerfulness, when a person feels uplifted. But that is the mistake. The mistake lies in how we understand both humility and joy. Humility does not mean thinking little of yourself. There is a great difference between humility and lowliness, as the Alter Rebbe explains in the maamar “The Humble Will Increase Their Joy in Hashem,” Torah Or 160b, and elsewhere in Chassidus. There is humility, and there is lowliness. Lowliness means that a person thinks he is nothing. Humility means that a person recognizes his strengths. Take Moshe, who was exceedingly humble: Moshe Rabbeinu did not fool himself. He did not say, “I am nothing,” or pretend that he was nothing. On the contrary, Moshe Rabbeinu recognized his strengths. He knew he was the finest of humanity; he knew Hakadosh Boruch Hu had given him the greatest abilities; he knew his soul came from a loftier source; and he knew that he was the one who had given the Torah to the Jewish people. Moshe Rabbeinu knew all his strengths. Yet he was “exceedingly humble, more than any person on the face of the earth.” For Moshe Rabbeinu reflected and said to himself: So what if I have strengths? They are a gift from Above. If another person had received these strengths, he would have accomplished far more than I have. He truly believed that if another person had received the gift Hakadosh Boruch Hu had given him, with all its powers, faculties, and talents,

24:34 that person would have accomplished far more than he had. So, first: What I have is not my own. Everything I have, I receive from Above. Second, if someone else had received what I have, he would have done more than I have. And there is a third point brought in the maamarim of Chassidus: Moshe Rabbeinu saw what would happen during the exile. “More than any person on the face of the earth”—as the Rebbe Rashab explains there, he saw what would happen toward the end of the exile: there would be people “on the face of the earth,” sunk deep into the earthliness of the world. There would be doubled and redoubled darkness, very difficult trials, and bitter times. Yet Jews would stand firm in their faith, their trust, and their joy in Hakadosh Boruch Hu. He could not understand how they would withstand it. This made Moshe Rabbeinu humble, and he said: If I were in their position, who knows how I would hold up? All of this makes clear that humility means recognizing your own strengths and nevertheless seeing yourself as small. For when a person has that kind of humility, he is always joyful. The true foundation of joy is that a person is always content, feels rich, and is happy with his lot. He does not stand there demanding: I need this; I deserve something. Nothing is owed to me. Yes, I do things, I accomplish things, I have abilities, I am a good person, I learn Torah—but none of that comes from me alone. Thank You, Hakadosh Boruch Hu. For what I am able to do—thank You, Hakadosh Boruch Hu. For what Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives

25:51 me—thank You, Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And so he is always happy with his lot, always content, and always filled with great joy and deliverance. That joy is no contradiction; it is joy that comes with true self-nullification. Because he is completely nullified and obedient, with utter self-nullification, and stands devoted to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, there is, naturally, the greatest joy in that. What is the joy? The joy is in what Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives me, in my gratitude to Hakadosh Boruch Hu for everything I have. Always happy with my lot, always content. “How fortunate we are, how good is our portion, how pleasant is our lot, and how beautiful is our inheritance.” I have Hakadosh Boruch Hu for everything. “Hashem is my shepherd; I shall lack nothing.” And this joy is bound up with the greatest self-nullification. Sarah our mother revealed this joy. With Sarah there was kabbolas ol malchus Shamayim, accepting the yoke of Heaven: serving Hakadosh Boruch Hu and devoting herself to Him. Sarah represents malchus, sovereignty: Sarah, serarah—queenship. And in our service, the idea of a queen is kabbolas ol malchus Shamayim. Accepting the yoke of Heaven is the greatest self-nullification and devotion to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and that is where the greatest joy is found. It is not a self-centered joy. It is the joy a Jew feels, in all his devotion to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, from the joy of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The vitality of Hakadosh Boruch Hu is my vitality. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is pleased—I am pleased. The joy of Hakadosh Boruch Hu is reflected in me, together with profound kabbolas ol and self-nullification. And so

27:16 the master’s pleasure, as we have seen, is the servant’s pleasure. When the master is pleased, the servant needs nothing more. These are not two separate joys. It is primarily the master’s joy, reflected in the Jew through his devotion to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Sarah revealed this. How? Sarah our mother named her only son Yitzchak. Tzechok—laughter: there should be living laughter, pleasure, and joy. That is what Sarah revealed. And this is what the Torah tells us: Sarah our mother “descended and ascended.” She could descend into the world, into Egypt, into depravity, into the deepest darkness of exile, into times of destruction and exile, be there, engage with the world, and make it a dwelling place for Him—“she descended and ascended.” She could hold firm, and not only avoid falling into the filth and coarseness of exile, but, on the contrary, elevate the world and make it a dwelling place for Him. “And therefore hers were life.” Vitality—that is true vitality. Sarah our mother, the life of Sarah: “Hers were life.” A Jew can serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu with joy and a glad heart, but with true joy. And this joy does not come from [unclear]. The joy [unclear]. It is not a joy that leads to pity [unclear]. It is true joy, joy connected

28:37 with self-nullification. And this joy enables a Jew to stand firm and proud through the most difficult moments of exile, to make the world a dwelling place for Him and prepare for the complete Geulah. This is what we learn from our parsha, from the lesson of Sarah our mother: a Jew should serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu with joy and a glad heart. And this joy is a vessel for every blessing. When a Jew works on himself to be joyful, that joy—“joy breaks through all barriers”—becomes a vessel for every blessing. And when a Jew holds on to joy despite everything, even when it is hard to be joyful because of all the difficulties we face now, but he works on himself—and, as the Rambam says, serves Hakadosh Boruch Hu with joy and a glad heart—through this we will merit “Then our mouths will be filled with laughter,” the true joy that will come soon in our days, amen: the joy of the true and complete Geulah. As the familiar verse continues after “Then our mouths will be filled with laughter”: “Then they will say among the nations, ‘Hashem has done great things for these people.’ Hashem has done great things for us; we were joyful.” There is an interpretation of this attributed to one of Rabbi Elimelech’s students, one of the tzaddikim, Rabbi Shimon of Yaroslav. The Rebbe once cited his interpretation of the verse at a farbrengen. What does it mean? “Then they will say among the nations, ‘Hashem has done great things for these people.’ Hashem has done great things for us”

30:02 “We were joyful.” What is being said here? What does the verse mean? It’s a beautiful explanation. The Rebbe shared it at that farbrengen. “Then they will say among the nations”: The time of Moshiach, the Geulah, will come, and all the nations of the world will see it—all the non-Jews, all the Jews, all the nations of the world, all the world’s leaders. Everyone will see with their own eyes the greatest miracles and wonders that Hashem performs for the Jews. And they will say, “Hashem has done great things for these people.” Why did Hashem do such great things? What did the Jews do to merit them? Why did they merit such great revelations and such great kindnesses? The answer is: Do you know why “Hashem has done great things for us”? Why Hashem gave the Jews so much? Because “we were joyful.” Even in the hardest moments of exile, the Jews were joyful. And this joy that Sarah our mother taught us, joy together with bittul, is genuine joy that prepares us for the complete Geulah. And indeed, “Then our mouths will be filled with laughter” will be fulfilled—the joy of this world at the true and complete Geulah through Moshiach Tzidkeinu.