A Vort On Parshas Ki Savo: How Simcha Changes Everything

00:16 In this week's parsha, Hashem tells us all about simcha, the importance that a Jew should always be happy. B'simcha. B'simcha that Hashem gave us such a beautiful, special, uh, chance to serve Him and to be close to Him. So it says when a Yid has a farm and he has special fruits that grow in Eretz Yisrael, Hashem says, "Bring a present to the Kohanim in the Beis HaMikdash." It's called Bikkurim, and when you do this, do it b'simcha, b'samachta. You should be happy when you do this. And then at the end of the parsha, we have some, uh, very sad part where the Torah describes the terrible things that are gonna happen to the Jewish people in Galus, and they're gonna suffer so much. It's a very, very difficult parsha to read. And then Hashem says something very, very unusual. He says, "You know why all these things are gonna happen to you? Not because you did big averas, not because you do terrible things. 'Cause you served Hashem, but not with simcha. If you don't have simcha," Hashem says, "terrible things can happen to you." And the Alter Rebbe asked the question, "What? Hashem is gonna punish us with such terrible things like we saw in history, right? The terrible that happened to the Jewish people. So many Jews suffered so much. We were kicked out of Eretz Yisrael, spread all over the world, and the goyim were, were, were hurting us and making our li- our lives difficult, and it was so bit-

01:57 so difficult, so hard. And all of that is because we didn't serve Hashem with simcha. We served Hashem. We did the mitzvahs, but it wasn't with joy. How could it be that Hashem would punish us so harshly just because we're not b'simcha?" Says the Alter Rebbe, "You know why?" Every one of us makes averas. You know, we're, we're not perfect, right? We make mistakes. We're human. We make averas. When you do averas, you deserve some punishment. Not a punishment to hurt you, just to, you know, to hurt you because you were bad. It's more to clean us, to make us more clean. You know, every avera creates like a, like a stain, like, like a spot on your neshamah. And not a good spot, a bad spot. And when you... And when, when Hashem punishes you, it's like rubbing off that, that bad spot that's on your neshamah, okay? But when a person is b'simcha, you know what Hashem does? He says, "I'm not gonna p- I'm not gonna rub off your spots. Your spots will be rubbed off by themselves. You know why? Because if you are b'simcha, and you serve me with simcha, then I overlook. I don't look at your averas, because you make me b'simcha." When Hashem sees a Jew is b'simcha, Hashem is b'simcha. When Hashem is b'simcha, He gives us everything we want. You know the Arizal said... You know the Arizal, as he told you in the stories in Klimovitch, you can listen to some of the stories

03:30 of the Arizal. He had Ruach Hakodesh. He could see a person and see everything that happened to him in his entire life. He could tell the person, "I know what happened to you 10 years ago, 15 years ago, when the day you were born." He could see everything. He says, "You know how he achieved this? Because his, every mitzvah he did, he did with simcha." When you have simcha, Ruach Hakodesh comes to you. The Rebbe Maharash, do you know the Rebbe Maharash was always b'simcha, and he suffered so much. The Rebbe Maharash was very sick all his life since he was a child. He had a lot of pain. He was in a terrible pain all the time, and you always saw him with a smile. And you know, this is the m- true mitzvah of being b'simcha. Not when it's easy. When it's easy, it's easy to be b'simcha. When things are not so good in your life, and to be b'simcha then, you know what Hashem does? He makes sure that things get better for you. Because when you are b'simcha, you cause Hashem to be b'simcha. When Hashem is b'simcha, then Hashem says, "You know what? I'm gonna give you everything you want, all the berachahs you need." There was once a story with the Rebbe Maharash. There was a Chassid that used to come to Lubavitch, to the Rebbe Maharash. He had a lot of problems. His family was very sick. He didn't have any money. He was very poor. He

04:56 himself had a lot of problems in his life. His health, he wasn't so healthy. He had a lot of tzoros. He was always happy. So once the Rebbe Tzemach Tzedek saw him through the window, and he called over his son, the Rebbe Maharash, and said to him, "Look outside the window. You see that Chassid? Look at him. He has so much tzoros in his life." You guys know what tzoros are? Tzoros are troubles. He has so many terrible things going on in his life, and he's always b'simcha. He deserves that Hashem should make things good for him. And the Rebbe Maharash told later the story to his son, the Rebbe Rashab. You know what he told him? "I remember that a few years later, I see this Chassid came back to Lubavitch for Yom Tov. This time, I saw that he came in a wagon, a fancy wagon, a beautiful wagon, and 10 Chassidim came with him. Apparently, he became very rich, and every time he came to Lubavitch, he paid for 10 more Chassidim to come with him." His life changed completely. His wife and children became healthy, and he made m- he, he became wealthy, became rich. His life changed. Exactly what the Tzemach Tzedek said. A Yid who is b'simcha, even when things are not so easy, what Hashem does, you cause simcha in Shomayim. And with the simcha in Shomayim, they don't look at your averas, they don't look at what you did wrong. On the contrary, they give you berachahs

06:24 and give you everything you need. That's what Hashem is saying in the parsha. The reason troubles come to you, because you did averas. But if you were b'simcha, then the averas wouldn't cause all those troubles, because I would overlook the averas. The averas wouldn't matter. The simcha can drive away all the averas and all the troubles from your life. So being b'simcha at all times, even if you're a little bit unhappy because you didn't get this, you didn't get that, and you're unhappy because, uh, your mommy told you to go to bed and you didn't want to go to bed, okay? So you're unhappy. Be b'simcha. Y- You can, you can do a mitzvah. Now listen to your mommy. Being always b'simcha is a very special thing. The Rambam says it's the most important way of serving Hashem, is with simcha. Have a great Shabbos.