Serving Hashem With Joy

Recently, one of my teachers told me about Rebbe Nachman’s teaching in Likutei Morahan, Torah 9, where he stresses the importance of being sincere and truthful. We should really mean what we say. Hashem wants our heart. He wants our thoughts to be pure, sincere and consistent with our words. Mechanical recitations of prayers or casual superficial speech are of limited value.

I recently listened to a short video by Rabbi Arush entitled Serving Hashem with Joy in which he stressed the importance of doing the mitzvot with happiness. This invokes the Divine will to enable a person to do more and more good deeds. If you give something to someone and he appreciates it, you want to give him more.

Rabbi Arush explains that happiness is the source of all blessing. Happiness is emuna. When a person is happy, Hashem is with him.

Reflecting on these teachings I decided to work on my concentration in prayer and to enhance the joy experienced when I perform mitzvoh. Here are a few ideas I’m trying.

Hashem experiences joy when you serve Him with joy

The Rambam says in the laws of Lulav that the joy a person has doing mitzvot causes tremendous love and gratification in Heaven. This is a great motivator. When we think of all the kindness that Hashem is constantly doing for us it will make us want to reciprocate and give Him joy.

Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berdichev taught that our whole purpose in this world is to give Hashem nachas. Rabbi Arush writes in Garden of Knowledge that with strong emuna a person’s main goal will be to gratify Hashem.

Activate a circuit breaker

Sometimes when we recite structured prayers, we may get distracted or zone out. It’s good to have some words that are circuit breakers to help arrest a downward spiral. This will enable us to refocus and make a comeback. One such word could be Hallelujah, which we say frequently in our prayers.

Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch taught that this comes from the root word that means to illuminate. In other words, we should shine a spotlight on every good thing that happens in our lives and realize it came from Hashem. When I say this word, I put my hand on my heart and think about a member of my family. I then focus on the fact that this person who I love was made a part of my life by our beloved Father in Heaven.

Take advantage of Second Chances

When we say a blessing we may sometimes say it in a rushed and mechanical fashion. As soon as we realize this we can immediately supplement the blessing with our own words. For example, let’s say you’ve recited a blessing thanking Hashem for food you have eaten and you realize you said it in a superficial manner. You can then say something like “Hashem, thank you so much for the delicious food and for my healthy digestive system.” If you do this with sincerity and emotion, this can redeem and elevate the words of blessing that you hurriedly mumbled.

A big prerequisite for serving with joy

Finally a suggestion that may seem somewhat prosaic: get enough sleep. After many years of stubbornly trying to skimp on my sleep, I’ve realized that enough sleep is a must in order to pray with devotion, and to perform mitzvot with joy. When we are tired we tend to be anxious and stressed out. This gives the evil inclination a big home-field advantage. It then becomes much more difficult to serve Hashem with joy and concentration.

Maximize your mitzvah impact

In the emuna CD, Judaism With Joy, Rabbi Lazer Brody transmits a teaching from the Chida. If one mitzvah is worth a dollar, the joy of the mitzvah is worth a thousand dollars – one thousand times the spiritual reward of the mitzvah itself!

If we look at the Hebrew word b’simcha, (with happiness), we see that it has the same letters as the word machshava, (thought). May we develop and apply personal strategies to focus our minds and think joyfully. This will surely enhance our ability to serve Hashem with love, happiness, devotion and intent.