Why Can’t I Be Serious?

Halachically there is no Simcha on Chanuka (because we don’t celebrate the victory at war) but the Rebbe so much wants to find a way a bringing Simcha to Chanuka.

The Rebbe writes to someone about Simcha but insists that it be for Hashem and not for the Rebbe Simcha SHel Mitzvah vs Simcha BiTaharasah

Class One Seventh Sicha Magbis for Oholei Yosef Yitzchok Lubavitch. Tzedaka in secret. Bracha from נוהג כצאן יוסף After all the Tzaros even משיח בן יוסף has life. Class Two, Eighth Sicha This Sicha continues discussing Tzedaka for Oholei Yosef Yitzchok Lubavitch, arguing that it is the ארץ צבי outside Eretz Yisroel and the more…

Class Four. Page 129-130. Simcha even for the imperfect because Hashem doesn’t throw anyone away. Example: Sicha of Purim 5751 ובכן אבוא אל המלך אשר לא כדת. Class Five. Page 130. Four categories of שמחה: A) עבדו את השם בשמחה. This Joy is (only) an aspect in the עבודה life of every Jew. B) מועדים…

The Teshuva and Davening nowadays must be done only with joy because 1) We’re too low to afford any kind of sadness 2) We’ve completed all aspects of sad Avoda. The question is still, how is the Tachlis of Totah Teshuva and Maasim Tovim. He explains that the point of Torah is to know Atzmus…

Class One. Simcha is explored in this class: Joy allows for complete Avodas Hashem; It involves great humility. It needs to be constrained so that it not result in something unholy. < strong>Class Two. The issue of Murgash (external and demonstrative passion) that was described as undesirable in the last class, is the Avoda of:…

Class One. Chayey Sara, Chava Noach and Sara shared the Avoda of bringing Bittul into Murgash [as opposed to Adam and Avrohom whose task was in the realm of the Bilti Murgash]. Noach tried a bittul of Chochma (wine, pinimyus Bina is Chochma) and failed; Sara tried a Bittul of malchus and succeeded because she…

A powerful talk on the avoda of simcha (joy). Packed full of stories and lots of warm Yiddish atmosphere. The talk is in English but includes Yiddish phrases and words (98% translated so everyone can understand). This recording was made at a Malave Malka (post-Shabbos gathering) in 2007. If you miss a point or the…

This talk was given as a video conference for a group in the UK in 2007. Note: The sound in this audio file was amplified April 24 11AM. If it was too quiet for you in the past you may want to try downloading it again.