Shabbat Ki Tavo 20 Elul 5768, 20 September, 2008

Shabbat Shalom: Parshat Ki Tavo                
Deut. 26:1-29:8           
By Shlomo Riskin

Efrat, Israel -- “All these curses shall befall you, pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed… because you did not serve the Lord your G-d in joy and happiness.” (Deut 28:45, 47) 

Since when is Judaism so concerned that we be happy? Yes, we are commanded to rejoice on our Festivals, but in general we are commanded to be holy, not necessarily happy (Kedoshim tih’yu).  A number of years ago, a popular inscription on “T” shirts was “Don’t worry, be happy.” I always thought that the best illustration for this signature phrase would be Elsie the Contented Cow, chewing her cud with a beatific smile on her face, totally oblivious to whatever was going on around her. If my memory serves me, King David sweet psalmist of Israel, declared: “Happy is the person who is constantly fearful.” Perhaps we ought change the “T” Shirt inscription to say, “Worry, be happy.” 

And if indeed the desired goal is to be happy, what does one say to the teen-ager who argues that marijuana is much better than any food or carbonated soft drink because it gives him a perpetual “high” of happiness without causing much damage to his brain cells. Would Judaism justify his argument? 

Maimonides, in his unique way of formulating Jewish law, provides the significance of Jewish happiness (simha) from a Biblical and Talmudic perspective. In his Laws of the Festivals (Chapter 6, Law 20), he writes as follows:

“When an individual eats and drinks and rejoices on the Festival, he should not become overly involved in wine and playful laughter and levity… that is not happiness (simha), but is debauchery and foolishness. We were commanded… concerning happiness, which contains the service of the Creator of all things, as it is written, ‘all these curses shall befall you because you did not serve the Lord your G-d in joy and happiness.’ ” 

Maimonides goes on to declare (Laws of Lulav, Chapter 8, Law 15),  

“The happiness which should cause an individual to be happy in the performance of a commandment and in loving G-d is a great (difficult) act of service.” 

Rav Nahman of Bretzlav teaches, “It is a great commandment to be happy” (mitzvah gedolah lihyot b’simhah). I believe that Maimonides would alter one word from Rav Nahman’s formulation, substituting the word ‘avodah’ for the word ‘mitzvah,’ which would result in the following formulation: Avodah gedolah lihyot be’Simhah.  (“It is a difficult [Divine] service to be happy.”)

But what exactly would Maimonides mean if this was his formulation? Let us examine the nature of wine which the Torah considered to be both a source of joy, “Wine gladdens the heart of the human being”  (Psalms 104:5), as well as a primary expression of sanctity, Kedushah, since they ordain a blessing over wine, Kiddush, as the proper way to inaugurate each Sabbath and Festival day. 

Why wine? Perhaps because it produces a feeling of joy, a kind of “high” happiness, but primarily because it is so difficult to produce. Not only must the grapevines be planted, tended to and nurtured, but then the grapes must be harvested, separated from the stems, pressed, and then carefully and precisely fermented to exquisite perfection in order to produce wine. It is because of the difficult work involved in elevating the grape into the higher status of wine that – unlike most other fruits – our Sages command a different blessing over the wine than over the grape; the latter is the merely generic borei p’ri ha’etz (to the Creator of the fruit of the tree), whereas the former is borei p’ri hagafen (to the Creator of the fruit of the vine). And it is precisely because of the exertion, precision, ingenuity and expertise involved in wine production that wine became the consummate expression not only of happiness but also of sanctity.  

My revered teacher Rav J.B. Soloveitchik has often taught that sanctity can only come with human input, human service, human commitment. Bread requires three Biblical blessings and one Rabbinical blessing to be recited after it is consumed – unlike fruits, vegetable  or meat – because bread cannot be produced without eleven back-breaking and scientifically engineered processes which creates the “staff of life” from the lowly grain of wheat. Mt. Sinai was only sanctified with temporal sanctity – only for as long as the Divine Presence emanated forth the Ten Words, was the mountain holy; once the Divine Presence left, the holiness left, and therefore we are not even sure which mountain it is. Mt. Moriah (the Temple Mount), on the other hand, was sanctified with eternal sanctity, and remains the holiest spot on earth even today. Why is Mt. Moriah on a higher level than Mt. Sinai, the place from which the Bible was Divinely revealed? Once again, because although G-d gave us the Torah on Mt. Sinai, Abraham was ready to sacrifice his beloved son to G-d on Mt. Moriah. Mt. Moriah expressed human commitment unto the death of our entire future, and therefore only Mt. Moriah is blessed with eternal sanctity. 

The grape is worked, pressed trod upon and squeezed out, fermented and perfected, after which it can be held aloft and used in a ritual of hallowed happiness. True holiness and true joy can only come after hard and dedicated work in the service of the Divine. It requires difficult work to serve G-d in happiness. 

One memorable Simchat Torah, when I was still a student at Yeshiva University, we were invited to the home of Rav Poleyoff for kiddush. Rav Poleyoff was a venerable Rosh Yeshiva, aged and almost totally blind, who knew many Tractates of the Talmud and their early commentaries by heart, word for word. We arrived after having attended at least six previous kiddushim, a bit shaky on our legs and fuzzy in our minds. The Rosh Yeshiva “sensed” our state of sobriety or the lack thereof, and told us – as his ‘dvar Torah” (Torah thought) – the difference between drinking of hallowed happiness and drinking of destructive drunkenness. “If you feel happy, even high, at your accomplishment which fills you with pride and joy, and you wish to express that happiness with wine, that drinking will be sacred; but if you feel empty inside, disappointed in yourself and uncertain as to your abilities and worth, and you are looking to the wine to give you the “happy high,” then that drinking can only lead to drunkenness.” 

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