It’s easy to be happy when you are happy. It’s easy to put a smile on your face when everything is going your way, when there are no issues, when no one is angry at you, or you’re not angry at anyone else. Every line seems to move quickly. There is no traffic on the roads. No one yelled at you randomly. Happy.
What if nothing is going your way. When every line is long. When every bill is weighing you down. When it’s hot and muggy and rainy and cold. When there’s tension in your family between you and your husband or wife, and you and your children. There is tension at work amongst co-workers. Your business is barely making it. What do you do then, be happy? That’s it, just be happy, right? Easy, right?
Not so right.
Being happy when you are not is next to impossible. How do you muster up the spirit, how do you bring your energy to a place that’s positive when every part of your being doesn’t want to go there?
Maybe one answer is Sukkot. It is, of course, “The Time of our Happiness.” In fact, for a language that doesn’t have a lot of synonyms, the Hebrew language has a lot of words that mean some kind of happiness. The Malbim explains that most of the words are more a reaction to something, spontaneous joy. But Simcha, in “z’man simchateinu” is a different kind of joy. The Gaon of Vilna explains that it is a feeling of happiness that comes from within.
The text read on this festival from the Bible is the book of Ecclesiastes. Many believe that it is a pessimistic text, I find it realistic. He writes: relish life with the ones you love each and every day of your precarious life. Each day is God's gift. It's all you get in exchange for the hard work of staying alive. Make the most of each one! (9:9)
Sukkot helps you get there by getting you to notice what life is truly about and how grateful one needs to be for everything: First, we go into a sukkah – a temporary dwelling to show that the only thing that matters are the people in the Sukkah – your family and friends – the physical stuff doesn’t really matter, it’s the fact that there are people who care about you and that you care about them.
Secondly, we shake the lulav to remind us of the incredible miracle of nature. How everything works precisely how it is supposed to. How the cycle and relationship between nature and humanity and everything that lives on earth works in concert to allow the world to continue as it is. The sun, the plants, humanity: we can’t help but reflect on the miracle of how it all fits together.
The interaction and connection between nature and friendship, what is outside and all around you, and what is inside of your heart, can’t help but give you a feeling that there is something greater than all of us that binds it all together. You can’t help but feel glad that it all exists – and that we, you and I, exist at all.
Life is full of challenges, times when we will be tested to see if we can keep that joy inside of us. It is difficult to do when there are so many reasons to bring out the anger. And so easy for that anger to come to the forefront.
But why? Whether you are angry or not, the miracle of your existence is still there.
Whether you are bothered by someone or not, there are still people who love you.
Whether life seems to be unfair, or if you feel like it’s going smoothly, it is still joyous because you are a life, you are that nature, you are that friend, you are here.
And if it is still difficult to get to that place of inner happiness, try to live by Nahman of Bratzlav’s words:
Finding true joy is the hardest of all spiritual tasks. If the only way to make your self happy is by doing something silly, do it. If despite your desire to be happy you feel down, draw strength from happier times gone by. Eventually, joy will return. If you don’t feel happy, pretend to be. Even if you are downright depressed, put on a smile. Act happy. Genuine joy will follow. Get into the habit of singing a tune. It will give you new life and fill you with joy. Get into the habit of dancing. It will displace depression and dispel hardship. Always remember: Joy is not merely incidental to your spiritual quest. It is vital.
Rabbi Jonathan Aaron
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