Only with Simcha Do We Win

"You shall blot out the memory of Amalek" - Through joy, we are saved from all sins!

"Through joy, one merits all healings! Through joy, one merits all salvations! Joy (Simcha) is composed of the letters that spell 'blot out' (Samcha) - (stars of light, gladness, and joy) - for through joy, we blot out Amalek! We blot out our transgressions! Through joy, we emerge from all the sins in the world. One must be very careful to always be in a state of joy, because the moment there is a drop of sadness due to a sin or worry about parnassah (livelihood), a person is liable to fall into an even greater sin! Because of the sadness and the worry, he will fall into even greater transgressions."

"There are people whose greatest pleasure is sadness; their whole lives are submerged in sadness. If you try to cheer them up even a little, you simply annoy them! They have never tasted the flavor of joy in their lives. 'The rule is that one must overcome oneself with all one's strength to be only joyful always, because it is the nature of man to pull himself toward melancholy and sadness due to the afflictions and occurrences of time, and every person is full of suffering; therefore, one must force oneself with great strength to be in a state of joy always' (Likutey Moharan, 24, Part II)."

"A person enters into sadness to forget all the suffering he is going through"

"Sadness brings a person into a kind of melancholy; it puts his thoughts to sleep and paralyzes his senses. Sadness is a sedative! Sadness is a sedative that provides 'quiet' and 'calm,' but it is only an illusion! On the contrary! Sadness only intensifies the suffering and magnifies it. Therefore, the main work of a person is the war against sadness, and this requires self-sacrifice! Never let sadness take control!"

"Rebbe Natan says that to fight despair, one needs self-sacrifice. Joy does not come just like that; joy is the hardest of all things! The greatest obstacles are regarding joy! Everything the Satan fights against is only joy! That is what he fights! The entire war is that you should not be joyful! It is the work of the Satan that you should not be in a state of joy, that you should not dance, and that you should not rejoice. Everyone experiences insults and humiliations; everyone goes through adventures in body and soul. There are a million reasons to be sad! It is the nature of man to be sad! But with joy, everything can be arranged; if a person dances and sings to Hashem, then all the abundance comes to him."

"There is no reason to be sad. Everyone has tremendous intellect; everyone can reach all things in the world, one only needs to emerge from all the sadness. With joy, one merits turning the descent into an ascent, sweetening all the judgments, and achieving all salvations."

"It requires self-sacrifice to reach joy!"

"Rebbe Natan says: The main accusation and provocation of Haman-Amalek is against joy. Haman cannot stand the joy of the Jewish people; they dance, rejoice, and sing on holidays and on Shabbat, etc. Shabbat arrives? Shabbat is joy and dancing. For six days you received food, thank Hashem you are not sick, start dancing and rejoicing! Your wife is healthy, start dancing and rejoicing! You have children? Start dancing and rejoicing! You don't have children yet? In the merit of joy and dancing, you will be blessed with children! You don't have a shidduch (marriage match) yet? In the merit of joy, you will have a shidduch! Shabbat arrives, one must sit with the children, rejoice with them, and sing with them with enthusiasm and desire. Do not say: 'I am miserable, I am desperate, it is hard for me to rejoice.' What is 'it is hard for me to rejoice'? It is hard for everyone to rejoice!! It requires self-sacrifice to reach joy! Through joy, a person subdues all the kelipot (shells), is purified from all impurities, and through joy, one can heal all the illnesses in the world. A person sees that he has failed, that the body has overcome him, that Amalek has overcome him and wants to cast him into sadness and melancholy; even so, he must not fall in his mind. He must immediately look for friends, dance with them, rejoice with them, say Tehillim (Psalms), and look for all kinds of advice on how to be joyful."

A person is full of good points, and the Evil Inclination fights to make him forget this

"A person must know that sins do not belong to his soul; the soul is always a tzaddik, always pure, always holy. All that a person falls into sins is because he is not joyful enough, and therefore one must not fall in his mind from anything in the world, from any sin in the world. If there is some problem, if you have failed in some sin, do teshuvah (repentance)... start rejoicing, singing, playing music, saying Tehillim; the main thing is not to fall into sadness! Because this is the war between the soul and Amalek! This is the war between you and the Evil Inclination that wants to cast you into sadness. It is not that you have become wicked, Heaven forbid, but this is 'the war,' a battle between the Divine soul and Amalek. And one must continue the battle with joy, songs, and good points. 'And therefore, by not letting himself be cast down and by reviving himself by searching, seeking, and finding in himself some good points..., through this, melodies are created, and then he can pray, sing, and thank Hashem' (Likutey Moharan, 282)."

"Because Amalek wants to make a person forget his good points. The war of Amalek is against everyone, to tell him: 'You are no longer worth anything, things aren't working out for you, you have no good in you.' But the tzaddikim teach us the opposite! You are full of good points! You are full of good! Because if you failed, then now rejoice even more! See what kind of Evil Inclination you received and how many difficulties you have; see what a great Evil Inclination you are dealing with every day! And in this difficult state, you are still overcoming and doing mitzvot!? You are still fasting on Yom Kippur!? You are still keeping Shabbat!? You are still putting on tefillin!? Which is the crown of the King, wrapping yourself in tzitzit? Which is the garment of the King. So it is fitting that you rejoice more and more..."

One must use descents to bring others to teshuvah - this happened to me too!

"A person has gone through descents; he can bring the whole world to teshuvah. He can tell people: 'This also happened to me, this also happened to me.' To tell people: 'Do teshuvah - it is hard for you, you don't know how? Look, I was there, in the same place you were; behold, I did teshuvah, you do it too.' All the descents that a person has gone through are so that he can be a guide. He was inside the kelipot and he emerged, so that he can show people how to emerge from the kelipot. All the descents that a person has gone through, wherever he has been, he was only a messenger; he is just like a diver who is lowered into the depths of the sea to bring people out and save them."

"The 'Noam Elimelech' says there is a kelipah that does not let the Geulah (Redemption) come, does not let the Geulah be revealed. And one must know how to break this kelipah, how to crack it. Every person is in a certain kelipah, a kelipah of desires, a kelipah of sadness, a kelipah of 'constriction of the mind.' If one wants to subdue the kelipah, one must be in a state of joy! Because it is impossible to subdue the kelipah except through joy! And when a person strengthens himself and overcomes to be in a state of joy, then all the sadness and all the exiles and all the troubles fall and are nullified. Our Rebbe innovated a completely new innovation - know that there is no despair in the world at all! There is no such thing as despair! Even in the most difficult state! Even in the greatest crisis! If a person holds on for five minutes, rejoices, dances, and sings, then everything turns for the best! One must always come home with a smile, always come home with joy. At home, they don't need to know that you are now in trouble or in a crisis. If you cannot smile or rejoice, sit outside on the steps, make smiles, make gestures of joy, practice, and then enter the house with a joyful face, with a shining face."

"If a person holds on and rejoices, he can merit all the miracles in the world. The entire work of a person is to always rejoice with self-sacrifice, to say all the time 'Everything is for the best.' This is his test! If he says 'This too is for the best' about everything, he will emerge from all the suffering in the world! He will have miracles and wonders."

"A person must rejoice, sing, and thank Hashem always, before a trouble arrives, Heaven forbid!"

"Do not wait for a trouble to occur and then be released from the trouble, and then when you are released from the trouble, you must thank! Sing! Bring a thanksgiving offering! Rather, always rejoice! Always sing to Hashem! Always acknowledge the greatness of Hashem! 'Let every soul praise Hashem' (Kol HaNeshamah Tehalel Yah) - every breath shall praise Hashem. You are breathing, start rejoicing! For every breath, one must sing! Do not wait for troubles! Because if you rejoice in every situation and sing to Hashem and thank Hashem, then troubles will not even arrive."

"The main work is not to be in sadness even for one second. Because there is no reason to be sad! One must believe that every Jew is capable of reaching all good in the physical and spiritual realms, all success in the world! There is a matter to rejoice in the fact that He did not make me a gentile, that He made me a Jew! Thank Hashem, I merited to keep Shabbat, I merited to put on tefillin, rejoice that you merited to pray! It is like you found a diamond worth millions! One must always bring joy upon oneself! Joy without end! If you don't know what to rejoice about? You must rejoice that Hashem created us as Divine beings; this is the greatest joy. 'Let Israel rejoice in their Maker, let the children of Zion be glad in their King.' We will rejoice with Hashem, that Hashem created us for His honor. 'Blessed is our God who created us for His honor and separated us from those who go astray.'"

"The moment we rejoice, that we learn, that we pray, the moment that the whole world sees, that all the nations see that the weapon of the Jew is joy, Torah, and prayer, everyone will be nullified. The moment Hashem sees us in true joy! That we are rejoicing with Him! Then He will nullify all the decrees! All the troubles! So what is left for you? Start rejoicing in Hashem! Rejoice with Hashem! Only with Hashem! Only with Hashem can you rejoice! He is alive and existing! Hashem is eternal! Hashem loves you! Hashem created you! Hashem believes in you! Hashem believes in your teshuvah! He will never leave you! He will give you everything."