We've been talking about chapter 100 of Tehilim, Mizmor L’Todah, which we say every single day. And we said from the Sfat Emet that this chapter has a hint of Elul in it, which is the Lo spelled both לא and לו . The opening of the chapter is, מזמור לתודה הריעו לה׳ כל הארץ The entire world should come and rejoice in front of God עבדו את ה׳ בשמחה Serve God with happiness באו לפניו לרננה C ome in front of Him with rejoicing. In this chapter, David Hamelech is teaching us the importance of serving Hashem with happiness. Rav Yehezkiel Levenshtein says people don't realize this concept. They think that the main thing is the service of Hashem. They don't realize that our attitude is equally important. (brought down from sefer Or Yehezkiel, Darcheh Avodah page 381). So it's not enough to serve Hashem, but עבדו את ה׳ בשמחה to serve Him with happiness. But what's the secret for this? How do we serve Hashem with happiness? The pasuk continues, דעו You should know ) as we mentioned yesterday, this is a command. You have to know this), כי ה הוא אלקים That Hashem is our God הוא עשנו ולא / לו אנחנו He made us and not ourselves, or He made us, we belong to Him ( which we said yesterday means He’s constantly pumping energy into creation and supervising us) עמו וצאן מרעתו We are His nation, and His sheep that He shepherds. This is an important point, There are three fundamental attitudes of Emunah that we work on on Rosh Hashanah: 1-Hashem is King, 2-Hashem remembers us, 3- God gave us the Torah from the Shamayim. That Hashem remembers us means He watches over us. He hasn't forgotten about us. That's the concept that God is our Shepherd. This is an important concept to believe in, and it relates to reward and punishment, and it’s one of the reasons why we're going to be happy. I would like to share with you two parables from the Chafetz Chaim. 1-There was a poor man that lived in an old rickety hut, with no running water, a mud floor, a leaky roof, and windows that didn't keep the wind out. You can imagine what it felt like living there. Obviously, there was not that much privacy either. People could hear what was going on. One day, his neighbor heard singing, dancing and rejoicing going on in the house. He could not imagine what could be so exciting for this poor family, so he knocked on the door and asked, “ What’s going on here? What is all the happiness about? I didn't hear of any engagement, or any babies born. What's going on?” The poor man answered, “ I won the lottery. I won the mega million.” He was dancing. “ I have the winning ticket.” And the neighbor foolishly said, “ But how could you rejoice? You're living in this hut. You're living in this, this decrepit shack.” To which the poor man responded, “ But I am a millionaire now. I have the winning ticket. I haven't cashed it in yet, but I'm a millionaire now. ” The Chafetz Chaim says we all have to feel like that. עבדו את ה׳ בשמחה If we really believed in God's reward and punishment, we would be so thrilled with every individual mitzvah that we do. 2- The Chafetz Chaim himself was staying in someone's home during his refugee period, during World War I, when the whole world was in turmoil. The host’s daughter, a little girl of about three years, lost her rag doll and she was crying. The mother searched and searched but as much as she tried, she couldn’t find it. The young lady was miserable that they didn’t find it. The Chafetz Chaim said, imagine if, 20 years later, the mother found the rag doll and returned it to her. She's married with children already. Is it even going to make a difference? Of course not. It's silliness, it's nonsense. The Chafetz Chaim says so too, so many things that bring us down in this world are just silly rag dolls. And if we realized that, we would serve Hashem with happiness, as the pasuk says, because we’d realize that what's really important in life is not the things that quite often bring us down. So how do we have the proper focus to ensure that what's supposed to be small remains small? I once heard a beautiful mashal from Rabbi Ades , but I will save it for tomorrow. Have a wonderful day.