Joy
Serve the Lord with Gladness
VaYikra [The Lord Called]
109) “Serve the Lord with gladness.” Any work that a person wishes to do for the Creator should be done with gladness, willingly, so that his work will be whole.
Higher Joy
Tetzaveh [Command]
94) “Serve the Lord with gladness,” since man’s joy draws another joy, the higher one.
A Whole Place, a Place of Joy
VaYechi [Jacob Lived]
116) “And the spirit of Jacob their father revived.” This means that in the beginning, his spirit was dead. He also did not intend to continue and receive another spirit, since the upper spirit is not present in an empty place. Divinity is present only in a whole place, and not in a deficient place, or a flawed place, or a place of sadness, but in a proper place—a place of joy. For this reason, all those years when Joseph was separated from his father and Jacob was sad, Divinity was not on him.
117) “Serve the Lord with gladness; come before Him with singing.” There is no service of the Creator unless out of joy. Divinity is not present in sadness, as it is written, “‘And now bring me a player.’ And it came to pass that when the player played.” It writes “Play” three times, to evoke the spirit from the source of wholeness, ZA, which includes three lines, which is the complete spirit. The threefold “play” corresponds to his three lines.
The Reason for the Joy of the Heart
VaEra [And I Appeared]
139) “Go then, eat your bread in happiness” means that when a person goes in the ways of the Creator, the Creator brings him closer and gives him peace and tranquility. Then the bread and wine that you eat and drink are with joy of the heart because the Creator is pleased with his deeds.
The Reward of One Who Delights the Creator
Pinhas
2) Anyone who engages in Torah in this world is rewarded with several gates being opened to him, several lights to that world. Hence, when he passes away from this world, the Torah walks before him and goes to all the gate-keepers, declares and says, “Open the gates and let the gentile righteous in, set up a chair for so and so, the King’s servant,” for there is no joy to the Creator except in one who engages in the Torah.
The King Has Brought Me to His Chambers
Aharei Mot [After the Death]
50) “The king has brought me to his chambers.” If the King brings me to His chambers, “We will rejoice in you and be glad,” Me and all My hosts. All the hosts, when the Assembly of Israel is glad and blessed, everyone is glad. At that time there is no Din [judgment] in the world. This is why it is written, “Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice.”