Query: What’s the difference between serving Hashem b’simcha and being samayach b’chelko?
As we said in Samayach B’Chelko, …the essential ingredient of our happiness is not what happens to us but rather what happens within us.
It’s all about whom and what we are, and we write our own ticket. And if we write it in indelible ink, then our sense of joy will be such that even when we suffer pain in any of its manifestations, be it physical, emotional, spiritual, financial, etc., we will not lose sight of the essential goodness of our lives.
Being samayach b’chelko speaks in terms of our happiness, our sense of joy, and the essential goodness of our lives. We are center stage in the spotlight of Life’s travails, and we play our parts according to how we have internalized the lines we have written for ourselves. It’s all about us and how we relate to what Hashem has bestowed on us. And, at its root, it is essentially passive.
Being b’simcha in our Avodas Hashem, however, has a different focus. It’s an active concept and it’s about doing as opposed to having or receiving. And when the doing doesn't get done, the Torah reminds us that the consequences are dire, as in churban and golus....because you did not serve Hashem, your G-d, amid gladness and goodness of heart, when everything was abundant.
Serious stuff, this serving Hashem b'simcha business.
Serious stuff, this serving Hashem b'simcha business.
We mentioned in EmunahSpeak: "Nishmas", that the Chovos Halevovos teaches us that the function of the mitzvos is to express gratitude to Hashem. And that this mitzvah-driven expression of gratitude is, in turn, merely a subset of our whole purpose of being in this world. One might be tempted to say that in the view of the Chovos Halevovos, the performance of mitzvos is (a futile attempt at) payback time for all that Hashem has bestowed upon us, and concerning which we have been bidden to be samayach b’chelko.
In a sense, we could say that being samayach b’chelko is a prerequisite for serving Hashem b’simcha, for how is it possible that that which we are doing for Hashem (mitzvos) can reflect the smile of our kavanah if that which He constantly does for us elicits nothing more on our part but the emptiness of indifference?
Serving Hashem b’simcha, means actively harnessing our happiness, our sense of joy, and the essential goodness of our lives that we spoke about above, in relation to being samayach b’chelko, and making it the leitmotif of our mitzvah observance.
