"Through Joy, We Blot Out Amalek" – Words of the Gaon and Tzaddik Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a for Parshas 'Ki Teitzei'

"Remember what Amalek did to you... you shall blot out the memory of Amalek."

"Through joy, one is saved from all sins. The word 'Simcha' (Joy - שמחה) shares the letters of 'Samach' (to blot out/erase), for through joy, we blot out Amalek; we blot out transgressions. Through joy, one escapes all the transgressions in the world. It is known that a person must be very careful to always be joyful, because the moment there is a drop of sadness—whether due to a sin, or worry about parnassah (livelihood), etc.—a person is liable to fall into an even greater sin due to that sadness."

"There are people whose greatest pleasure is sadness; their whole life is immersed in sadness. If you try to gladden them even a little, you simply annoy them... They have never tasted the flavor of joy in their lives. 'And the rule is that one must overcome with great strength to be only joyful always, for human nature is to be drawn toward melancholy and sadness due to the injuries and accidents of time, and every person is full of suffering. Therefore, one must force oneself with great power to be joyful always' (Likutey Moharan II:24)."

"A person enters into sadness to forget all the suffering they are going through. Sadness puts them into a kind of melancholy, numbs their thinking, and paralyzes their senses. Sadness is a sedative drug that gives 'quiet' and 'tranquility,' but it is only an illusion. On the contrary—sadness only intensifies the suffering and magnifies it. Therefore, a person's main work is the war against sadness, and for this, one needs mesirus nefesh (self-sacrifice)—never to let sadness take control."

"Reb Nosson says that to fight despair requires mesirus nefesh (self-sacrifice). Joy does not come just like that; joy is the hardest of all things. The greatest obstacles are against joy. All the Satan fights against is only joy. This is what he fights: that you should not be happy. This is the work of the Satan—that you should not be joyful, that you should not dance, and that you should not rejoice?

"Everyone goes through insults and humiliations, adventures [trials] of body and soul. There are many reasons to be sad, and it is human nature 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 possesses tremendous intellect; everyone can achieve all the things in the world. A person just needs to exit all the sadnesses. With joy, one merits to turn the descent into an ascent, to the sweetening of all judgments, and to all salvations."

"The main accusation and provocation of Haman-Amalek is against joy. He could not bear the joy of the People of Israel—that they dance, rejoice, and sing on holidays and Shabbos, etc. What is Shabbos? Shabbos is joy and dancing. For six days you received food; Baruch Hashem you are not sick—start dancing and rejoicing! Your wife is healthy—start dancing and rejoicing! Do you have children? Start dancing and rejoicing! You don't have children yet? In the merit of joy and dancing, you will have children. You don't have a shidduch (marriage match) yet? In the merit of joy, you will have a shidduch."

"When Shabbos arrives, one must sit with the children, rejoice with them, and sing with them with enthusiasm and desire. Do not say, 'I am pitiful, I am in despair, it is hard for me to be happy.' What does 'it is hard for me to be happy' mean? It is hard for everyone to be happy; one needs mesirus nefesh (self-sacrifice) to attain joy."

"Through joy, a person subdues all the Kelipos (impure husks) and is purified from all impurities. Through joy, it is possible to heal all the sicknesses in the world. If a person sees that he stumbled, that the body overcame him, that Amalek overcame him and wants to cast him into sadness and melancholy—nevertheless, he is forbidden to fall in his mind. He must immediately look for friends, dance with them, rejoice with them, recite Tehillim, and seek all kinds of advice on how to be happy."

"A person must know that transgressions do not belong to his soul. The soul is always righteous, always pure, always holy. Whenever a person falls into sins, it is because he is not joyful enough. Therefore, he is forbidden to fall in his mind due to anything in the world, due to any sin in the world. If you stumbled in some transgression, do teshuvah (repentance)... start rejoicing, singing, playing music, reciting Tehillim. The main thing is not to fall into sadness."

"For this is the war between the soul and Amalek—the Yetzer Hara (Evil Inclination)—who wants to cast you into sadness. It is not that you have become wicked, Heaven forbid, but rather this is 'The War'; it is a battle between the Godly soul and Amalek. And one must continue the battle onward, with joy, songs, and good points."

" 'And therefore, by not allowing himself to fall, and by reviving himself by searching, seeking, and finding within himself some good points... through this, melodies are made, and then he can pray, sing, and give thanks to Hashem' (Likutey Moharan I:282). For Amalek wants to make a person forget his good points. Amalek's war is against everyone, to tell him: 'You are no longer worth anything; you have no good.' But the Tzaddikim teach us the opposite: You are full of good points! You are full of good!"

"For if you stumbled, then now rejoice even more. Look at what kind of Yetzer Hara you received! Look at what kind of Yetzer Hara you are contending with every day! And in this difficult situation, you still overcome and perform mitzvos? You still fast on Yom Kippur? You still keep Shabbos? You still put on Tefillin—which is the King's crown? You wrap yourself in Tzitzis—which is the King's garment? Then it is fitting that you rejoice more and more..."

"If a person has gone through descents, he can bring the whole world back in teshuvah. He can tell people, 'I went through this too; this happened to me too.' He can tell people: 'Do teshuvah—is it hard for you? Do you not know how? Look, I was there, in the same place you were. Behold, I did teshuvah; you do it too.' All the descents a person went through were so that he could be a guide. He was inside the Kelipos and he got out, in order to show people how to get out of the Kelipos."

"Regarding all the descents a person went through, wherever he went through them, he was only a messenger. He is just like a diver whom they lower into the depths of the sea to bring people out and save them. The 'Noam Elimelech' says there is a Kelipa (husk) that does not allow the Geulah (Redemption) to come, that does not allow the Geulah to be revealed. And one needs to know how to break this Kelipa, how to crack it open. Every person is found within a certain Kelipa—a Kelipa of desires, a Kelipa of sadness, a Kelipa of 'blocked intellect'. If one wants to subdue the Kelipa, one must be joyful, because it is impossible to subdue the Kelipa except through joy. And when a person strengthens himself and overcomes to be in joy, then all the sadness, all the exiles, and all the troubles fall away and are nullified."

Courtesy of the 'Tzama Nafshi' leaflet - 052-763-9126