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Crown Him with Joy
Simchah and the Teshuvah ExperienceRabbi Hadar Margolin
Crown Him with Joy
During the yamim noraim we tremble before Him. Our hearts are filled with...joy? Yes, simchah, joy, is the vital ingredient that complements, enriches, and completes the awe and fear that characterize this awesome time. In this book Rabbi Hadar Margolin, a noted Jerusalem educator, shows us how to utilize the power of joy to create a close and loving relationship with Hashem. Use this easy-to-read book to learn new ways to deal with personal challenges, and gain a deeper understanding of what teshuvah really is.
Book Excerpt from Crown Him with Joy
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Crown Him With Joy:
A new perspective on the holy days of Rosh Hashana & Yom Kippur: learn how the power of joy enriches & completes our teshuva experience, & allows us to come close to G-d.
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SIMCHAH...ON THE YAMIM NORA'IM?
It is with some hesitation that I venture to write about joy on the High Holy Days, the Yamim Nora'im.
These days have traditionally been filled with feelings of awe, from which they derive their name, "the Days of Awe," in the most literal sense. As the Rambam writes in his commentary on the Mishnayos: "These are days of service and submission and fear and awe of Hashem, and trepidation before Him, and fleeing away from and toward Him, and repentance and beseeching and pleading for atonement and forgiveness" (Rosh HaShanah, ch. 4). They are the Days of Judgment, in which every human soul passes before Hashem like sheep and is granted a decree of life - or death.
This feeling of fear overflows into the preparatory month of Elul. Rav Yisrael Salanter describes it thus: "Every man is seized with terror at the holy, summoning voice of Elul. This fear reaps fruit in bringing him closer to Hashem, each man according to his own measure" (Ohr Yisrael, letter fourteen).
In older times, a common expression declared that in Elul, "even the fish in the rivers tremble with fear." This was no careless exaggeration, but a true expression of the awe-filled atmosphere that reigned in the Jewish street.
On the surface, fear and joy appear to be a contradiction in terms. Yet both are necessary in the service of Hashem, and there is room for both in our hearts.
The Torah commands us to serve Hashem with awe and love. The Zohar states: "The Torah and mitzvos without yirah and ahavah, fear and love, will not ascend heavenward, and will not leave their place and stand before Hashem" (Tikkun 10). This special blend exists only in the service of Hashem.
Rav Yitzchak Hutner put it beautifully: "Yirah mit simchah geflachten in einum - chutz bah Yidden nisht do bei keinem. Fun yirah der tziter, fun simchah di flam, tzuzamen bashafen dem Yiddishe ta'am." Translated, "Yirah and simchah, mixed together as one - does not exist except among the Jews. The trembling of yirah and the enthusiasm of simchah, together, create the taste of Yiddishkeit" (Sefer HaZikaron l'baal Pachad Yitzchak, p. 102).
Even in the Days of Awe, then, we must bring ahavah and simchah, love and joy, into our service. In these chapters we will learn to add this element of simchah, in order to fill out the picture and bring another dimension to the awe we experience on Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur.
These words are targeted for anyone who has experienced the awe of these days-for the joy will then find its proper place in this context. Anyone who has not experienced this kind of awe may make the mistake of believing that these are days of joy only, and, Heaven forbid, approach them lightly and not with the seriousness they deserve. This is the reason for my hesitation, and the reason I found it necessary to first quote the "fearsome" aspects of this period of time from the Rambam, above.
The Zohar, as partially cited in the Vilna Gaon's commentary on Mishlei (21:17), appears to say that awe must serve as a basis for joy, so that one must begin with "Serve Hashem in awe" and build upon that to the level of "Serve Hashem in joy."
With Hashem's help, we will approach His service with all the attributes that the Torah has commanded we use: awe together with love, joy together with fear. With the proper blend of these qualities the Yamim Nora'im will be complete!
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