“And it will be if you forget the Almighty,your G-d.”(Devarim 8:19)
In the Midrash the word “vehayah” refers to joy. What joy could there possibly be in forgetting H”S?
The Kotzker Rebbe said that this verse could be understood by dividing the words differently.”If you forget to be in a state of joy,” that is, you forget the ‘vehayah’ which refers to joy, and this will cause you to forget G-d.(Harebbe,Maikotzk,p 96)
If someone lacks joy, he will find it difficult to appreciate H”S and the goodness he bestows on him. Joy is one of the 48 tools for acquiring Torah. Lack of joy leads to many faults and difficulties.
To be always joyful means that we never forget who we are, why we are here, and that H”S is always with us. It means that we appreciate life and what comes with it. When a person sees life as an incredible place of opportunity he will always be busy looking for it, he will have no time to fall into melancholy and sadness.
This doesn’t mean that we are not allowed to feel sad for a certain situation going on in your life or for the pain of others, that is separate. What it means as my teacher Shimona Tsukernik @shimonasocial always says “you can be sad but you can never not be happy.”
some excerpts from “Growth Through Torah” by Rabbi Zelig Pliskin
www.livealittlehigher.com
