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When it comes to happiness, there are a few different levels. One of the verses in our weekly portion (Emor) offers a good entry point for discussing happiness from the Torah point of view. It says, “Be happy before the Lord your G-d for seven days” (Lev. 23:40). The verse is stated regarding the festival of Succot. From it, the Rambam learns that we should be happier on Succot than on the other holidays of the year. He says (Hilchot Lulav 8:12), “Even though it is a commandment to be happy on all of the holidays, Succot in the holy Temple was a day of extra happiness…how would they celebrate? The day before the festival, they would prepare an upstairs area for the women, while the men would be downstairs in order to prevent mixing the genders, and they would commence the rejoicing from the end of the first day of the festival. And so they would continue every day of the festivalŔ
Here, there are a number of questions;
1) The verse from the Torah tells us to be happy for seven days, which includes the very first day of the festival. However, the Rambam says that the rejoicing commenced only on the evening of the second day. If so, why did the preparations have to take place before the holiday?
2) How do we know that our Torah verse means that on Succot we should be “extra happy?” Earlier (Hilchot Lulav 7:13), the Rambam learns from the same verse that it commands something else; that we must fulfill the mitzvah of lulav every day of the festival in the Temple (outside of the Temple, the commandment of lulav applies only to the first day of the festival). If so, the verse should be ‘unavailable’ for other interpretations, so how can the Rambam use it to teach that we should be “extra happy?”
Further on (halacha 14), the Rambam continues, “It is a mitzvah to
maximize our joy in performance of this mitzvah. It wasn’t the ignorant and uneducated who fulfilled this mitzvah, nor just anyone who desired. Rather, it was the sages of the generation and the heads of yeshivot and the Sanhedrin, as well as the Chasidim and elders, and public servants; it was they who danced and clapped and sang and rejoiced in the Temple during the festival of Succot. But, the rest of the nation and men and women all came to watch and to hear.” The Rambam’s source is a Mishna in tractate Succot (page 51A) that states; “Chasidim and public servants danced among themŔ
Here again, we have a question;
1) If as the Rambam stated, this is a mitzvah commanded by the Torah, why would there be different categories among those who fulfill the mitzvah. A positive mitzvah from the Torah generally includes all of the Jewish people, so why should some of the Jews be more obligated than the others?
The Rambam continues: “The happiness that we experience during the performance of a mitzvah, accompanied by love of G-d Who commanded us is a huge service of G-d…and whoever who humbles himself and allows his body to rejoice…is the one who is considered honorable, serving G-d out of love” (Halacha 15). Here, our question is the following; if the Rambam wanted to give us a directive in serving G-d with happiness, why did he wait until the laws of Lulav? He could have inserted this halacha in the laws of Jewish festivals in general, since 1), they appear previously in his work, and 2) they are more general in nature, applying to all of the Jewish festivals rather than Succot alone?
Accordingly, we are forced to conclude that the happiness that we experience in performing a mitzvah in general, has a connection to the “extra joy” that we experience during the festival of Succot…
A subtle shift of emphasis allows us to understand all of the above questions. The Rambam did not intend that the happiness associated with Succot should be considered as an additional mitzvah. He intended that the “extra happiness” is part of the same mitzvah of joy that we are commanded on all of the festivals. However, since the Torah chooses to emphasize happiness here, by adding the verse, “Be happy before the Lord your G-d for seven daysŔ (Lev. 23:40, as above), we understand that the joy associated with Succot is even greater and more intense than that of the festivals in general. It is not a separate commandment of happiness, but rather an added emphasis within the same commandment. We can see this within the Rambam’s language; “it is a mitzvah to maximize this joy,” implying that it is not a separate happiness and mitzvah but rather the same joy of the festivals in general, that must be maximized during Succot.
With this understanding, we can answer our questions above:
1) From the Mishna, we understand that the joy and dancing commenced at the end of the first day of Succot, so why did the Jews perform all the preparations, according to the Rambam, before the festival? The answer: since this great joy was not a separate mitzvah, but rather an added emphasis on the basic mitzvah of joy during the festival, there was no justification to work during the festival. All of the work that went into preparing the occasion had to take place before the festival, in order to avoid working during the holiday. (If there had been a separate mitzvah to be joyful during Succot, it would have been permissible to do the preparations during Succot).
2) Since the “extra measure of happiness” associated with Succot is not a mitzvah in its own right, but rather an expansion of the basic mitzvah of joy during the festival, it does not require its own derivative verse. The verse is used, as mentioned, for another interpretation; (that in the Temple the lulav was shaken every day of the festival). Nevertheless, the Rambam quoted the verse here regarding joy as an asmachta – a way of bringing support for his thesis - not as a formal interpretation of the verse.
3) Precisely because the additional happiness of Succot is not a specific mitzvah, there was room for variation in the amount of additional joy that different people would experience. Since this is joy in the performance of a commandment, those who were the most learned and advanced in the service of G-d were those who experienced the greatest maximization of joy. Therefore, it wasn’t the “ignorant and uneducated” who partook in the dancing and merriment, but the heads of yeshivot and the rabbis, etc, while the others looked on. It was the rabbis, roshei yeshiva, Chassidim, etc, who were most advanced in serving G-d, and therefore the happiest during the festival.
4) The progression of the three categories of simcha (happiness) in the Rambam now makes sense. The Rambam began with the laws of joy during the Jewish festivals. He then described the expanded joy that was experienced during the festival of Succot. It is not an independent mitzvah but rather an expansion of the basic mitzvah of joy on the festival. Therefore, it corresponds to the basic phenomena of joy in mitzvoth in general; “The joy that man experiences in performing a mitzvah and the love of G-d Who commanded them.” Just as one may experience more joy during Succot, so may he maximize the experience of joy during mitzvoth in general.
There is an additional dimension that applies to the happiness of the rest of the year that goes beyond what we feel during Succot. During Succot, we start with the basis of joy of the Jewish festivals in general, and we maximize that joy in order to fulfill the happiness that the Rambam discusses in Hilchot Lulav. However, we don’t have that basis when trying to be happy while performing the mitzvoth the entire year around. It is necessary to meditate upon our situation and constantly remind ourselves that the mitzvoth are commanded by G-d in order to maximize our happiness. Therefore, the Rambam emphasizes that this happiness of mitzvoth during the rest of the year is “a great avoda” – a huge service of G-d, over and beyond even what we manage to achieve during the festivals.
Here, we have something to learn. We might think that it is sufficient to serve G-d joyously during the festival, without making any attempt to be happy while serving G-d during the rest of the year. In response, the Rambam tells us that the true simcha shel mitzvah – happiness in fulfillment of the mitzvoth – begins only after the Succot. The festival and the simchat beit hashoeva only give us a glimpse into what the happiness of mitzvoth should be; after that, we have to do the work ourselves. After the general foundation of happiness during the festivals and the specific happiness of Succot, we have to work to develop true happiness in mitzvoth the whole year round.
From Likutei Sichot of the Lubavitcher Rebbe ztz’l, vol. 17, pp. 267-275 Rabbi David Sterne, Jerusalem Connection in the old city of Jerusalem