FROM THE RECENTLY PUBLISHED ‘REBBE NACHMAN’S SOUL’, ADAPTED FROM HIS AUDIO SHIUR ON SICHOS HARAN 43

A Smile

In one of the blessings that Yaakov Avinu gave to his sons, the tribes of Israel, he said “וּלְבֶן שִׁנַּיִם מֵחָלָב,” that the milk of Eretz Yisrael whitens a person’s teeth. It is so pure that it will make a person’s teeth white. The Gemara says (Masekhes Kesuvot 111) there’s a different translation for this, too. Leven, or libun, means white. Libun shinayim means that when a person shows the white of his teeth to another person, which means he shows him a smile, it is much more pleasant to that person then if he feeds him milk or food products. It is much more gratifying and satisfying for a person to see his friend smile than giving him anything else. A smile costs nothing, and yet you can bring happiness to another person with a smile more than giving him anything material.

Here the Gemara teaches us how important is for a person to show a smiling face, because this can help to improve and elevate the morale of his friend, and it will be appreciated more than any type of gift he can give him. This is a lesson for a person to know the value of a smile.

We find this topic discussed very often in the books written by the goyim lehavdil. But know that the original source is the Torah. The Gemara speaks about the importance of a smile; with a smile you can bring happiness to a person, especially one who is depressed. Show him a smile, you’re doing him a bigger favor than any type of monetary gift you could give him. Plus, the mitzvah of bringing simchah to a Jew is one of the greatest mitzvot that exists in the Torah.

Your Name

Rabbeinu zal says that a person experiencing a depressed state of mind, marah shechorah and atzvus, can actually forget his own name after he dies. What does this mean? After death, when a person is first brought to trial, the angels immediately ask him, “What is your name?”

He becomes so flustered, overwrought and terrified that he forgets his name (Masekhes Chibut HaKever, ch 2). Why does he forget it? Because he is dead. Dead means atzvus, sadness. The fact that he is sad makes him forget his name. Therefore, a person without simchah is considered as if he has forgotten his name. Rabbeinu zal said this lightheartedly, but there is a lot of depth to it.

Bringing Life to People

Rabbeinu zal repeatedly stresses the importance of simchah. One who is on the verge of death can be brought back to life through simchah. If you see a person who is so completely dejected that he feels unable to continue living because of the bitterness of his suffering, you can bring him new life by making him happy. Some people are filled with so much suffering, Rachmana litzlan, so many worries that it is difficult for them to ever really feel happy. When you come to them with words of encouragement from the Torah, from tzaddikim, you are bringing them back to life. What could be more valuable than this?

Who gets Gan Eden?

Rabbeinu zal quotes the Gemara in which Rabbi Beroka Choza’a once met Eliyahu HaNavi in the marketplace. This Rabbi asked Eliyahu HaNavi if he could point to anyone among the throngs of people who was definitely going to Gan Eden. There were a lot of good individuals present, but Eliyahu HaNavi said that he could point to only two people who were definitely going to Gan Eden. These two looked no different from anyone else. When the Rabbi asked them what they did they replied, “We are very ordinary people.” “Are you great scholars in Torah?” he asked. They replied, “We are no better than anyone else.” Perhaps they were less. So, he asked them to describe their actions. They said, “It is our custom that whenever we see people who are sad, we start telling them jokes and doing comical things to make them smile.We bring them simchah and raise their spirits, and they are changed people” (Ta’anis 22a). Making a sad person happy is like reviving the dead. Therefore, the Gemara says that these two badchanim, these jokers, were zokheh to eternal life in Gan Eden.

The Mitzvah of Simchah

Rabbeinu zal stresses the importance of the mitzvah of bringing simchah to others, no matter what method you use. You can do it by simply smiling and making that smile contagious, by giving words of encouragement, by showing the person that his suffering is not as bad as he thinks, and convincing him that times will improve. You can also tell jokes as long as they are clean and pure (Siach Sarfey Kodesh 2:13). Above all, a person should feel simchah based on the bitachon and emunah that everything that happens to him is for his good. Once a person knows that everything is from HaShem he can believe that the future will definitely be very good, because when a person suffers now there will certainly be a happier future in store for him. A person who is able to convey this to others and bring them to simchah is performing a mitzvah of bringing new life to a Jew, the reward for which is eternal life.