Rosh HaShanah - 025 Changing Our Mind | Part 3 of 3

Developing Our Minds

When a child is born and is still immature, he only knows of his emotions, and he isn’t yet developed in his mind. As he gets older, he knows what it means to feel jealous of a toy that his friend has, and he has all kinds of emotions as well that he experiences. But his mind, for the most part, remains largely undeveloped.

When a child makes the transition from child to adult, he grows out of his childish antics, but as an adult, he is merely onto bigger and better things than when he as a child. He’s not a little kid anymore, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that he has developed his actual mind. Although his emotions have undergone changes since being a child, he might still have the same mind that he had when he was a child, because he has never actually developed the true power of his mind.

Of course, there is no adult who does not have seichel (intellect). All adults have some seichel to a certain extent. But that doesn’t mean that there is no work left to be done with the seichel. The mind must be further developed, even as we are adults; there are only a few people who have a highly developed mind. Most people need to continuously work on improving their seichel (mind, or intellect). Our seichel (mind\intellect) must become further developed as we get older and we mature.

A Developed Mind Deepens Our Emotions As Well

When it comes to improving in our Avodas Hashem, we are more familiar with the concept of developing our heart - and we usually don’t identify that much with developing our mind.

We understand, for example, that we need to cultivate our emotions of love, happiness, of closeness to Hashem. That part we know of quite well. But when it comes to working with our mind and developing it, we often think of this as “to know hashkafah” (Jewish ideology), or to hear mussar, and we tend to be skeptical towards the concept of developing the mind, as if we have never heard of such a thing.

But there is really an avodah to develop our seichel\mind [just as much as there an avodah to access our heart].  The truth is that we cannot even develop our heart’s emotions unless we develop our mind.

To illustrate, when a person wants to get himself to feel the holiness of Shabbos, what does he do? He might try learning various sefarim to awaken himself about Shabbos, such as sefer “Nesivos Shalom” on Shabbos Kodesh, and other sefarim; but what is he like after Shabbos ends? The feelings of elation go away. Any person who is a bit spiritually attuned surely wants to feel the holiness of Shabbos, which is wonderful, of course; but, for some reason, the feelings of inspiration don’t stay with him.

Are Our Feelings Just Emotions - Or Are They A Kind of Wisdom?

We make the blessing, “Asher yotzar es ha’adam b’chochmah” - Hashem created us all with chochmah, wisdom, and since there is wisdom in all of Creation, we must learn the chochmah, the wisdom, that is behind everything.

For example, is the emotion of happiness just an emotion that we experience, or is there really a chochmah to it? Most people would respond that happiness is just a “feeling” of happiness, and that it has nothing to do with chochmah. But it is really rooted in chochmah, for the rule is that everything was created by Hashem with chochmah. So a person cannot have real happiness unless he knows the chochmah behind happiness!

Another example: When a person wants to feel the joy or holiness of Shabbos, does he have the chochmah behind this as well, or does he only have the feelings of elation? If he has the chochmah behind feeling the holiness of Shabbos, he will have the root; but if not, it is as if he has a branch without the root.

Why Enthusiasm Cannot Build Us

There are many people who have enthusiasm, but it’s superficial; they have ups and downs in their inspiration, and their inspiration never lasts. Others are deeper than this and they have real inspiration in their spirituality, but even still, they aren’t able to hold onto their inspiration for that long.[1] Why? It is because they are not seeing inspiration as a chochmah to them. It is merely a feeling, and feelings do not last.[2]

If a person wants happiness and there is no chochmah to it, his happiness will only be temporary. But if there is chochmah to his happiness, one’s emotions become properly built, and then they will last. When chochmah is the basis of our emotions, there is a firm foundation to our soul, and then our emotions will be lasting.

If a person bases his Avodas Hashem on just trial and error, it doesn’t work. A person cannot live based on trial and error; he must properly build his soul and learn the chochmah of his inner workings in order to be able to properly save Hashem in a stable way.

Chazal say that “an ignoramus cannot be pious person”. Why can’t he be righteous? Why doesn’t he just ask his Rav and his Rav will tell him what to do? Okay, so he’ll stay an ignoramus, but won’t he still know what to do and how to act piously? So why can’t an ignoramus be a pious person? It is because Chazal are telling us the fundamental issue that an ignoramus has. The Mesillas Yesharim tells us what chassidus[3] (piety) is and what it isn’t, and he writes that if someone has no chochmah, if he can’t reflect deeply into matters, then he will never reach chassidus.

Many times, people become idealistic and enthusiastic about learning Torah, so they decide that they will dedicate themselves to learning Torah in-depth. They go to a certain beis midrash to learn Torah there, but they are met with disappointment from that they feel there. They feel, “This is such a cold  place!” They don’t feel like they are connecting to the place that they come to. Then they come to a place in which they feel warm and enthusiastic towards, because the people there are jumpy and enthusiastic in their spirituality, which draws them in.

Either place, though, is an incorrect place to be in for this person. A place where people are jumpy and overly excited in their spiritual elation is not a place that can solidly build one’s Avodas Hashem. Enthusiasm is temporary; it never lasts. Even if a person tries to keep the extreme enthusiasm to last and he can hold onto it, it is still a childish perspective towards Avodas Hashem. This is because enthusiasm cannot build you.

I met someone who told me that he got a lot of chizuk (inspiration) from a new sefer that came out last week. I asked him, “What did you see in the sefer?” He said to me, “No, it’s not from anything I saw in the sefer. It’s just that I was so inspired that I was learning from a new sefer. Ah! A new sefer!!”

I said to him, “According to your way of your thinking, you should buy a new sefer every week!”

Enthusiasm is not what builds us. Chochmah is the power that helps us build our emotions properly. Our heart is warm with feelings, and it warms up too much when we lack intellect[4], thus our heart alone cannot be the basis of our Avodas Hashem. We build ourselves when we use our power of Chochmah, which builds us in an orderly way.

Knowing Our Soul

The power to build ourselves properly is only accomplished through Chochmah. Let’s explain this more.

We have a soul. Is the soul a simple thing, or is it complicated? We know that it’s not simple. The Vilna Gaon lists 70 forces of the soul[5], and those are just the roots. There is even more to the soul, a lot more than 70 forces in the soul. If a person does not have chochmah, can he use any of the 70 forces of his soul? Can he use even 30 of them, or even 20 of them? He may have yearnings, and joy and elation – all kinds of feelings – but all of these feelings stem from the heart, which he does not know, because he doesn’t know the chochmah about the heart.

How can a person serve Hashem with his heart, when he doesn’t even know what his “heart” even is? A person might try to serve Hashem his whole life and bear in mind the statement of Chazal that “Hashem wants the heart”, but he doesn’t recognize what his heart is.

You can’t recognize what the heart is if you don’t have a properly developed seichel\intellect. Only the seichel\intellect gives you the power of subtle analysis to try to understand the avodah of your heart.

Of course, every person has feelings, yearnings, elation and joy in his Avodas Hashem; maybe he even jumps sometimes. But in order to build one’s Avodas Hashem through the heart, there must be a power to analyze the soul and understand it. Without understanding our soul, we can’t serve Hashem properly. All of the great people who ever served Hashem properly were people who understood how to work with their souls; they understood the depth of the soul.

In order to understand the soul, we need to develop the power of “subtle understanding”. This power only comes to us if we learn Torah with iyun (in-depth).

Enthusiasm Vs. Stability

What is the difference between a real “oived Hashem” (a person who truly serves Hashem), and someone who is not a real oived Hashem?

One person will hear a mussar shmuess from a speaker and feels inspired, but the next day, he’s back to routine. Maybe the speaker got everyone to be inspired, but the inspiration is gone soon after. There is another kind of speaker who comes that isn’t that inspiring and doesn’t cause that much excitement, but the people who listen to him well deeply absorb the thoughts he is conveying, and they are affected forever, even though they don’t look that excited. The first kind of speaker gave excitement to everyone, but the excitement didn’t last. The second kind of speaker didn’t give the most exciting shiur, but the words he said were of higher quality, thus, he is the true Oived Hashem.

Enthusiasm just doesn’t last. Here is another example. A person has a baby, and he’s full of excitement and joy. After some time, his excitement goes away. If he gets so excited when he’s feeding his baby and keeps stuffing the baby’s mouth with food out of his excitement, his child can choke on the food, Heaven forbid! A person cannot raise a child with enthusiasm. Nothing can be built through enthusiasm.

Learning Torah In-Depth

Only the chochmah of knowing our soul’s abilities is what builds us; the power to recognize ourselves. How do we recognize ourselves? Through seichel yashar (a straight mind), which is developed through gaining the ability of subtle intellect (which we gain when learning the Torah in-depth).

Thus, an ignoramus who doesn’t learn Torah does not have seichel yashar. If we ask him if he has seichel yashar, he will respond, “Yes, of course I have seichel yoshor.” But Chazal say that Daas Torah is always the opposite of Daas of ignoramuses. Why? It is because real daas is only gained by one who learns Torah in-depth. A person doesn’t have a properly developed mind if he doesn’t have deep understanding of Torah.

Baruch Hashem, everyone sitting here learns Torah, each according to his own ability; some at day, at night, in middle of the day. This is all wonderful. Let’s say a person makes a cheshbon hanefesh (soul-accounting) and he realizes that he is able to learn for 2 hours a day, and he works for 8 hours a day. He knows that just as he has 8 hours a day to work, so does he need 2 hours a day to learn. With this perspective, there’s no difference to how he is approaching his learning. They are both forms of “work” to him…

Of course, Baruch Hashem he is using his other time to learn Torah. But he is approaching his learning in the same way he views work!  The intention here is not chas v’shalom to make fun of anyone who learns Torah. But the point is: A person can still be very far from learning Torah, even though he makes time to learn every day (besides for the fact that he’s only learning it for 2 hours a day; that’s another problem).

For example, a person is learning Daf HaYomi, and he learns it whether it’s hard or easy; he has to make sure that he “completes the daf.” But is this a way to really connect to the holy Torah?

When a person studies any other subject, such as math, and he doesn’t know what it says in the book, will he know it? There’s no such thing. If you study something, you have to know what you are reading, or else you will not know the information at all.

Of course, learning Torah even when one doesn’t understand what he’s saying still has spiritual effects on him, because the Torah is called Torah ohr, a Torah of light; it contains spiritual light. There’s no doubt about that. But this is not real Torah learning! A daf Gemara is a “daf Gemara” – one cannot just read it and not understand it.

Let us emphasize at this point that the aim here is not to be negative towards ourselves. The point is to realize how we can grow in our learning.

The Maharal Diskin said that a person should know how to learn 40 pages of Gemara every day, and also be able to learn 1 page of Gemara over 40 days. How does one spend 40 days on 1 page of Gemara? How much time can one spend on it already…? However, only a person who never learns Torah in-depth has such a question. When one learns Torah in-depth, he never has such a question, because he actually wishes he could spend even more than 40 days on 1 page of Gemara! There is so much more to know in even 1 page of Gemara!

Developing Your Power of Iyun\In-Depth Understanding

Learning Torah is not just about coming to the beis midrash, hearing a shiur, and always coming on time. Learning the Torah is very, very deep.

When a person wants to connect himself to Torah, the superficial part of the issue is how we find time to learn Torah. One needs Heavenly assistance indeed to find time to learn more Torah. But there is more to learning Torah than finding time to learn it. The question one has to ask himself is: “How much quality is there to my learning? Am I clearly understanding what I learn?”

I’ll tell you a story. I know someone who works for most of the day, and he has an hour or two a day in which he learns. I told him that when he closes his sefer, he should think about what he just learned throughout the day. After a week, he told me, “I just noticed something. Until now I realized that I was never really reading the Gemara!!” He began to pay attention to what he was reading in the Gemara; he began to notice details, and he began to notice things in his learning that never even realized was written there.

If a person takes the same page of Gemara and keeps analyzing it, “What does it say here?”, and he keeps reviewing Rashi again – not just to remember it, but simply for the sake of analyzing it so that one can have his first reading of it! – he will begin to really learn the Torah in-depth.[6]

There are two mental powers we have: chochmah (Wisdom) and binah (Understanding). Chochmah is what we hear from our teachers, and binah is the power to understand on your own using the information of the chochmah. When one combines chochmah and binah, he gains Daas, the power to “produce” – he can produce chiddushim from what he learns and infers.[7]

When a person just goes to a Daf HaYomi shiur, he is gaining chochmah, but he is not accessing any binah. As for da’as, he will have no connection whatsoever to da’as! He won’t be able to produce any new thoughts. Sometimes he quickly thinks of an answer to the question that the maggid shiur said, but he never thought deeply about it; it doesn’t build his mind.

Iyun In Both Learning Torah and In Avodas Hashem

In our brain, we have our seichel, the intellect. In order to utilize our seichel, we need to learn the Torah in-depth. If a person only learns the Gemara superficially, it is wonderful that he is learning, but he will never get to the depth of Avodas Hashem in this way.

There must be subtle understanding in both our Torah learning and our Avodas Hashem, which each require the power of iyun, to have in-depth analysis.

There are people who think very superficially and think that people who are “Oivdei Hashem” are people who don’t enjoy learning Gemara, so all they do is listen to and learn the mussar of their Mashgiach, or these people will only learn Agadta matters in the Gemara, because Agadta pulls the heart.

This is all a misconception, because Avodas Hashem and Agadta also require iyun, and iyun can only be acquired through learning Gemara. Of course, there are some people who turn to Avodas Hashem and to learning Agadta because they have a hard time with learning Gemara. But the truth is that just as Torah requires iyun, so does Avodas Hashem and using our heart to serve Him require the power of iyun. One must acquire deep and subtle understanding of matters in Avodas Hashem just as he has to understand Gemara.

How To Think In Learning Throughout The Day

The Torah contains a subtle kind of understanding, and this is only gained by learning it in-depth. The power to learn in-depth must be accessed constantly.

For example, a person is learning Gemara (let’s say we are speaking of someone who only learns for an hour a day). What happens when he closes the Gemara? Does he think about what he learned? Or does he wait for the next day to open up his Gemara and then he gets back into it? Just because a person closed the Gemara doesn’t mean he has to close the sugya he’s learning. One can continue to think into the Gemara even after he closes the Gemara.

This is the question of all questions one has to ask himself if he wants to utilize his seichel and learn the Torah in-depth. Our main power is the power to mentally reflect, not the power to read. Chazal say that there when one learns Torah, first there is “ligmar” and then there is “lisbar” - first you need to read it and learn it, but then you need to think about it. When are you supposed to mainly think about your learning? It is when the sefer is not in front of you to read. That is when you can really think into it.

Recently a Torah-tape organization opened up, so that people can be able to listen to shiurim even when they are traveling. There was a great person who heard about this and reacted, “It is a shame that people won’t think anymore.”

The truth is that it’s hard to think about your learning when you are going for 11 hours straight when you’re traveling. It’s a high level. But if someone is only taking a 4 or 5 hour trip let’s say, to a wedding, why does he need a Torah tape in order to learn? Why can’t he think by himself into what he’s learning? It’s easier to think when it’s dark.

When a person has to be in a car for so many hours, it’s an opportunity for him to develop his power of thought! Instead, a person uses this time to gain more and more knowledge, but he’s missing the opportunity of being able to think. Of course, it is wonderful that he is using his time to learn Torah, but he’s losing his opportunity to think into his learning! He’s losing his power to have deep reflection on his own.

Avodas Hashem is built on the power to have deep concentration. It uses our power of thought. Enthusiasm is not the basis of Avodas Hashem; that is just imagination. Avodas Hashem is based on developing our mind, through using our power to think deeply, and this in turn builds our heart. But the basis of Avodas Hashem is to use our power of thought! In order to develop the power of thought, one needs to have areas of Torah which he can think about when he’s not in front of a sefer.[8]

If someone is learning Torah and he never has chiddushim, it shows that something is missing from his learning. If someone doesn’t have chiddushim, it is an indicator that he isn’t thinking enough into his learning. If someone thinks well, he will have chiddushim as a direct result.

When learning Halacha, if someone learns Shulchan Aruch and then he learns the Mishnah Berurah (and maybe he first sees the words of the Magen Avraham a little, and a little of the words of the Taz and the Machtzis HaShekel), and he thinks into the words, he will have chiddushim. But it doesn’t begin with the words of the Magen Avraham, the Taz, and the Machatzis HaShekel. It starts from learning the Gemara, then Rashi and Tosafos, and then the words of the Rishonim and Acharonim.

Understandably, this takes a lot of time. But of what other purpose are we supposed to do with our time? What is the purpose of all the time we have in life? This is what we are supposed to do with all our time!

Why Avodas Hashem Is Misunderstood

I hope that the words here are clearly understood.

People are searching for what they call “Avodas Hashem”, and for more and more “Avodas Hashem.” But we must know the words of the Ramchal, who writes in the beginning of Mesillas Yesharim that Avodas Hashem is far from both wise people and from unwise people.  It is far from the wise because they don’t learn about Avodas Hashem, since they view Avodas Hashem as just enthusiasm, and they prefer wisdom over enthusiasm. And those who are unwise are also far from Avodas Hashem because they don’t know that Avodas Hashem is a chochmah. If you tell such a person that Avodas Hashem is a chochmah, he will likely respond, “This sounds like a cold attitude towards Yiddishkeit…”  But the truth is that Avodas Hashem is a chochmah! It is not enthusiasm! Enthusiasm can perhaps help a person get started in his Avodas Hashem, but it cannot be everything.

Thus, the Mesillas Yesharim wrote that Avodas Hashem is far from most people, because most people do not know the chochmah of Avodas Hashem. There are in fact only a few people who know the chochmah of Avodas Hashem.

It’s very difficult to speak like this in any place; let me explain why.

Imagine a beis midrash where people are learning Maseches Bava Kamma, and someone comes to there to say a shiur about a subtle point that has to do with Maseches Yevamos. It’s highly unlikely that anyone will understand, because since they are learning Bava Kamma and not Yevamos, it is hard for them to grasp a concept in Yevamos. They’re not immersed in Yevamos then. So too, when people want to hear a mussar shmuess before Rosh HaShanah – what does that mean? Does a mussar shmuess before Rosh HaShanah automatically purify a person like a mikveh? There is no such thing. It’s like the convert who came to Shamai and Hilel and asked him to teach him the entire Torah on one foot. There’s no such thing.

So why do people want to hear a “mussar shmuess” before Rosh HaShanah? It’s because people erroneously think that Avodas Hashem is about “becoming enthusiastic”, and they think that Rosh HaShanah and Aseres Ymei Teshuvah is about “becoming enthusiastic”, so they want to hear a speaker.

The purpose of hearing speakers during Elul is not about enthusiasm!  What will happen on the 11^th of Tishrei when the enthusiasm wanes? Bring in another speaker?

There is a great lack of understanding about what Avodas Hashem is. We must come out of the superficial perspective that Avodas Hashem is all about enthusiasm. Of course, there is definitely some purpose to enthusiasm; it is not a bad thing. But Avodas Hashem is not defined as “enthusiasm.” Avodas Hashem is: to understand our soul. The external part of this is enthusiasm, but the essence of Avodas Hashem is to know how to use our soul.

How To Get Real “Chiyus” (Vitality)

People want to feel alive. Often a person will express, “I felt chiyus (vitality) from something.” When people felt enthused by something, they feel alive, and if they didn’t get a feeling of enthusiasm from something, they don’t feel alive. But this is an incorrect attitude. Chiyus means to be connected to something because you recognize it well.

Now we can understand what we began to speak about earlier (in Part 1), that we can change on Rosh HaShanah - in both our mind and heart.  In order to change ourselves, it’s not about gaining more knowledge. It is about utilizing the power of thought, and that is what builds our heart. Without utilizing the potential of our intellect, we won’t be able to do any avodah that comes from our heart.

This is the normal routine that we need: First a person needs to learn a sugya of Gemara in-depth. Then he should learn a mussar sefer (such as Mesilas Yesharim or Shaarei Teshuvah, or other classics). In addition to this, we need to learn mussar passionately, as Reb Yisrael Salanter wrote, that one should learn mussar in a voice that awakens his emotions. But the emotional aspect is just a part of our avodah – it must not be made into everything.

When it comes Shabbos and a person wants to feel the holiness of Shabbos, he might look for a nice vort, and he might have some feeling of elation from this, but it won’t last. It won’t give him the actual feeling of chiyus of Shabbos itself.

The basis of all true and inner Avodas Hashem is: through learning Torah in-depth.  This point must be understood very well. If one really wants to enter Avodas Hashem, he must always think about what he learned that day, and throughout the day.

How To Learn In-Depth

For example, a person learns Gemara, and he comes across a question of the Gemara. Does he immediately jump to the answer, or does he try to think of the answer? Or, let’s say he’s reading Tosafos, and he reads a question. Does he quickly go the answer, or does he first try to think of the answer it? If one always learns in “Question, Answer, Question, Answer” style, without ever pausing to think of the answer, this will never develop his mind. He is simply gaining knowledge, but he will never build his mind.

So before you see the answer to a question of the Gemara or Rashi or Tosafos or the Ramban, first think on your own of what the answer might be. Hashem gave you a brain! Use it to think. Even if you don’t come up with the answer, you are still gaining tremendously, because you are using your brain. One who does this constantly will be able to arrive at the answers.

In addition to this exercise, try the following. Start a Tosafos and see a question, and don’t look at the answer. You go home and before you go to sleep and you’re lying on your pillow, think into the question. When one gets up in the morning and he goes to work, he can take the question of Tosafos with him when he goes to work the next morning, on the train or on the bus, and he keeps thinking into the question of Tosafos. If one question of Tosafos isn’t enough for you, take with you two or three questions with you that you can think about.

The point is: get yourself used to thinking into what you learn. When you get used to this, you will start arriving at the answers on your own!

It’s not so hard to guess the answer of Tosafos or the Rishonim. But there’s a very big difference between someone who sees the question and then jumps to the answer, to someone who thought about the question and that’s how he got to the answer. It’s a whole different answer, even though it’s the same words. It utilizes the power of the intellect and makes your intellect become alive.

An ‘alive’ person is someone who is utilizing his potential. The Torah is called “Toras Chaim”, a life-giving Torah, because thinking into it gives a person chiyus. This is not acquired by ‘knowing’ Torah. It is acquired through refining our understanding of our learning.

We can give more examples, but my hope here is that the point of all this is clear.

(The enjoyment that one can feel while he is learning is a result of happiness in learning, and happiness in learning can only come as a result of understanding your learning. However, if one learned and understood Tosafos but he doesn’t feel a happiness, he’s not getting chiyus from his learning, and that shows that his learning wasn’t a part of him. If it would be a part of him, it would make him happy. So if he doesn’t feel happiness when he finishes a Tosafos, it shows that he didn’t reflect deeply into it enough.)

If someone after this shiur goes and accepts upon himself that he will learn Gemara in-depth with enthusiasm, then he did not understand any of the words here. A certain way of life was described here, a way to build ourselves – to utilize our intellect through learning Torah in-depth, which leads to recognizing our soul and working with it, and from that, we will come to have real and lasting chiyus.

(Learning Torah in-depth will not make you automatically understand your soul and become perfect. Rather, it will help you gain the power of subtle understanding, and then you will have the tools to understanding your soul and knowing how to work with it.)

The Joy of Simchas Torah

On Simchas Torah, there is simcha over the completion of the Torah. But does everyone have the same happiness? If a person only has enthusiasm in his learning, but he doesn’t use his brain much to think in-depth as he learns, he is not truly connected to his learning.

Compare this to someone who spent a year learning Torah in-depth, and now it comes Simchas Torah. Is his happiness a feeling of enthusiasm? It’s much more profound; he is enjoying now the fruits of his efforts, a year well spent on learning Torah.

When someone knows how to dance and jump up and down by Hakafos, he can do the same each thing each year; it doesn’t show that anything in his learning changed since a year ago. If he was so enthused from the Torah, why doesn’t he continue to learn Torah as soon as they close the Aron? Why does he keep jumping…? If someone keeps jumping, it shows that his entire learning comes from enthusiasm, and not because he is so connected to his learning...

But a person who dances on Simchas Torah after a full year’s worth of learning in-depth has a much more profound kind of happiness. He doesn’t have to feel enthused, because he has a more inner kind of happiness. He’s connected to his learning - so he’s automatically happy towards his learning.

People want simcha (joy) and chiyus (vitality) in their Avodas Hashem. But often this is a desire for superficial chiyus. It is not being truthful.

Compare this to the difference between a baby versus someone getting married; or someone dancing on Simchas Torah who learned Torah during the year, versus someone who didn’t learn Torah during the year.  The difference between them is vast.

In Conclusion

May we merit from Hashem to understand that Avodas Hashem become properly built, and that our feelings of enthusiasm, joy, and our other feelings are only built through the power of utilizing our intellect. Using our intellect is what gives us the power of subtle understanding, which helps us understand and develop profound feelings that last – as opposed to feelings that are temporary feelings of elation and excitement.[9]

This is the true simcha we can have in our Avodas Hashem.