Does God Expect Us to Be Happy While Israel's at WAR? - Rabbi Botton

there is a level of of contradiction that we are forced to live with why are we forced to live with contradiction because we have no choice but to live we must live we must we must Embrace Life and live every moment and when there are problems in a person's life when there are there problems in the world when we're suffering struggling so on the one hand these these are things that are paralyzing crippling and hard to to endure and to have a will to to carry on to to continue on but at the same time life doesn't have a pause button and we have to continue to live on so you have to deal with hardship but at the same time you have to continue kind of take you know taking things in as much stride as we can and moving forward we always go through the ups and downs of the day-to-day life good days bad days fights making up you know that that's part of life but the con contrast the stark contrast between the beginning of a month of withes and the idea of being being full of happiness and joy uh you know the beautiful sun shining the spring Spring Air it's it's so rejuvenating so inspiring that we have a beautiful future ahead of us and we have to be B and the month of is the month where we emphasize you know you have to be happy and it's it's it's the theme of the whole month yet amongst the difficulties that we're going through right now terrorist attacks you know the the which is hatred for between human beings all around the world and the anti-Semitism the hatred towards Jews the the the unbelievable things that that we have to deal with in every country we are you know insults violent attacks murder here in our own Homeland we are it's as if we're the weak minority on sometimes how it feels you know the threat of being attacked all the time everywhere you walk when I walk down the street sometimes you know you're thinking about what if there's going to be a car car ramming life itself is the is a gift so precious that we are supposed to be on some level jumping for joy that we're alive your life is difficult well even if it's difficult and even if it comes with hardship and even if you're suffering it doesn't negate the fact that Hashem gave you the greatest gift that you can imagine and more than you can imagine to actually be part of his world and to be alive to be thinking to be breathing to be living to be moving that is itself a gift if someone is limping he's going to curse the fact that he could walk because he's limping he can walk so what if he's limping okay it's hard you know a crippled person it's I'm not God forbid we should all be healthy and strong and M should come there should be no people that are sick suffering in hospitals with cancer no people crippled no people limping we'll all be God willing perfect soon but in the time times that we live in now where there are unfortunately sad stories tragic stories how can we be happy because the life itself is something to be happy about whether it's a hard life or a good life it's still a gift from Hashem and since ultimately it's a gift from God who loves us and cares for us we have to say thank you for it and how do we say thank you for it for being happy Hashem sees us and sees what we're feeling sees how we're responding and reacting to his gift and if we and if we spite our life if we hate the life we've been given so we're saying to Hashem thank you but no thank you and that's not a way to react to Hashem for this gift of life it's hard we could speak about it I'm not sure who if we can all live these things but but we but we can try to at least knowing is half the battle knowing tells me at least I know what the reality is the reality is that the life I have is good why because that's what life is life is good it's a Priceless precious gift and every moment of it is a moment you want you won't don't ever want to give away what it comes with is already a secondary discussion because God God wants to give us the perfect good so therefore we have to earn it and okay y y y That's a secondary discussion and that doesn't negate the initial Foundation of all that this is a tremendous blessing and gift life is a blessing and therefore we have to be we have to be happy it's hard we're going through pain well we can have two emotions in our heart at the same time we can be happy and sad at the same time it's discussed in the Zohar one Rabbi was giving a discourse a Torah discourse about the destruction of the bet mikdash and the the discourse itself the beauty of the of the Torah discourse made people happy but the content and the subject was very sad because was is about this destruction of the BET mikdash and so they experienced the feeling of happiness and sadness at the same time happiness with the beautiful insight and understanding that is unbelievable the the pleasure and experience of understanding hashem's truth understanding Hashem himself unbelievable there's nothing that can make you more happy than that but when it comes in a package of discussing and the idea of of God's gor God's strictness God's punishment and and how we suffered so that of course hurts that's sad but they both can coexist and that's what we learn about being in ad and all year long yes you could cry yes it could hurt but yes you have to also be happy and yes you have to also smile inside because that's how you live life that's how you Embrace every moment of life and life is a blessing okay I want to ramble on and on about it but what I do want to do is show you a bit of an insight and and and and really bring this whole idea home and support it more with the idea of what SIM really is so the truth is I'm fortunate I live with Sim every day I live with with joy every day I'm unb it's unbelievable gift I have a gift that Hashem gave me a daughter named Esther Sim so I live with Sim all day long and believe me sometimes it's painful I'm not going to lie I'm not going to lie our conversations are beautiful and deep and sweet and sour sometimes and hard sometimes but at the same time I have that Sim all day every day this is my sim till MH comes so we live with Sim but we live with difficulty that's the whole point so what is the word Sim so there's a p that says that we must serve God Bim with joy the bet in this word is a prefix but it doesn't matter it's part of the actual word and we can include it in the lesson as far as gatria and deeper deeper meanings go means in Hebrew the letters can spell out the word thought so the word in the to serve god with joy and happiness also means serve god with thought so when we put together happiness and thought together that means our happiness and our joy isn't isn't isn't empty-headed it isn't a Dumb Dumber experience it isn't going to a comedy movie because our life is not a comedy movie our life is is real and so the joy that we're looking to attain has to come with for thought and has to come with using our brains and has to come with true and real understanding Insight Enlightenment ignorance is bliss but it's a lie thought reality Enlightenment knowing knowing the truth that brings true joy and even if it's a hard story knowing God's truth and God's plan for us and the world and how we're going to ultimately get to the revelation of all the good he wants to give us is also Sim it's Sim right now it's Joy right now that I can understand that everything Hashem does for me is for the good I can believe it and understand it it's that's instant Joy it's not it's not the revelation of all of that Joy but it's a part of it it's it's a it's a taste of it because I can have it in my mind through Mak so the key to reaching the joy and happiness in these difficult times is the mindset is the faith and the mindset put together that brings Hashem with us the difference between the word in in Hebrew we're going to change to Hebrew in a minute the difference between being lost and and exiled the difference between being in galut and G being redeemed is one letter alif and alif is Hashem alif is the chief of the world when you bring the alif which is the first letter of the word imuna so when you bring the AL which is faith in God who is in charge when you bring him into your world and into your life then you're not in Exile anymore you're not far away you're with Hashem and if you're with Hashem then life could not be any better that's even serve because hem is here with us with our struggles and with our achievements and with our happiness and ultimately all of this is just a Prelude to the ultimate Revelation and living with Hashem in the BET mikdash and the perfect world that is going to when we reach that point we will see how everything was just the idea of making making the world that that we're going to be in later so the process is hard but the process is part of the destination we said the journey and and the destination are one when it comes to real life and Torah so the journey that's hard will bring us to a true blessing and a and a true good if the if the journey wasn't part of the destination then then the destination would be fake so in order to have the real true Sim and the real happiness with Hashem that has to come through this journey that we're on right now