Happiness

Most people think that happiness results from being in a good situation. Happiness comes from the pleasure and sense of fulfillment when all is good and one feels successful. It is the result of a sense of completeness, that when all is complete joy results. The flip side is that people think that if things are not perfect there is no room for happiness. "How can I be happy if I am lacking this or that or if I am having some difficulties?" All of the problems and difficulties that people face come and throw dirt on their souls and blocks the light of happiness. But, if you think about it, who doesn't have challenges? You cannot find a single person who doesn't have suffering, painful situations, and challenges. Perfection is very distant for most people. This is world of toil, not a world of perfection. Any person in this world has certainly not achieved perfection, otherwise, what is he doing in this world, he belongs in the World of Souls. Perfection is only in the World to Come, this world is the place to fix the broken existence that is corrupted with the sins of the Ancients and the sins of those alive today. The bottom line is that if people believe that happiness comes from perfection, then happiness is impossible. Even if a person might occasionally feel a sense of accomplishment, and be happy about it, that is only for a fleeting moment, because the next challenge is lurking around the corner. Challenges are the rectification of the world and come to a person so that he should rectify the world and raise it up. The fact is that this is a mistaken assumption. Happiness is not a result of perfection, rather, it is the power that drives us to perfection and actualizes it. We are not disputing that people feel happy when they are successful, our point is that this is a very truncated view of happiness. Happiness is not a result, it is a power that pushes and leads to rectification. When there are difficulties and challenges, it is the feeling of happiness that will infuse a person with the inner power to complete all the deficiencies and to fix all the problems. Without happiness a person will be weak, pushed down by life, depressed and crushed from the problems that surround him. Happiness is the light of the soul, the outpouring from above that offers a person the strength to overcome all difficulties. A person needs to tell himself, "I will not await until everything is perfect until I am happy and in the meantime all my challenges to depress me, and my deficiencies to oppress me. No! I will be filled with joy, with boldness and efforts." That will chase away all the challenges and minimizes the difficulties, and give the person the power to fix them. כי בשמחה תצאו, it is only with joy that we can leave exile; the communal as well as personal exiles.