You shall fulfill My laws and you shall keep My statutes to follow them (Vayikra 18:4)
– and you shall keep My statues: matters which are a decree from the King, which the Evil Inclination states, ‘why should you keep these?’ And the nations of the world speak against them: for example, eating pork, wearing Shaatnez, purification through the water of the Red Heifer. (RASHI)

Almost all Jews in America have some type of a celebration for Pesach (by either eating Matzah or having a seder, but they do something). A very small percentage of American Jews, though, celebrate Shavuos. Why? One reason cited is because Pesach has to do with freedom – we are now free to do what we want. Shavuos, on the other hand, has to do with limiting ourselves. We received the Torah and were now obligated to follow hundreds of commandments. Why do we need so many commandments? This week’s Divrei Simcha will be a continuation of the previous 2 Divrei Simcha in which we discussed how living a life following the Torah is the most pleasurable thing you can do.

To begin this week, I would like to discuss Walt Disney World. My family and I have visited Walt Disney World numerous times during the past few years and I noticed something. Although Disney advertises itself as “the happiest place on earth”, I have found many people to be unhappy. Families save lots of money to go on this dream vacation and all they do is argue inside the park. I finally learned a trick to avoid this happening to my family: we limit the park. Magic Kingdom, the most popular park at Walt Disney World, has over 40 different attractions, not including all of the shows, parades, and character visits one can visit. I once read the average number of attractions a family visits in one day at the Magic Kingdom is somewhere around 10. So for many families, there is a lot of bickering over which attractions to visit in the limited time they have there. My family is able to avoid a lot of this bickering by cutting the park into chunks. When we visit Disney, my wife and I decide which area or areas of the park we will visit. We tell our children, “although Space Mountain is a great ride, we are not going to go onto it this time. We are going to Frontierland and Adventureland.” We do not get complaints when we avoid all of the cool rides of Tomorrowland because we all know they are not included in this trip.

Why are there so many commandments that limit our lives? The answer is the same as Disney: if we want a pleasurable life, we need to be limited. Without the limits, we have so many places our desires want us to run, that it is impossible to be happy. We are always going to be rushing from one place to the next without thinking nor enjoying anything because we have so much to do in our limited time. Judaism therefore gives us limits so we can focus only on a little area at a time.

Through limitations, we are truly free. For example, on Shabbos, we are limited in the activities we can perform, but these limits are the true joy of Shabbos. During the weekdays, we need to take care of many things, but on Shabbos everything stops so we can focus on what is important. Due to the restrictions placed upon us, our minds automatically do not think the same way on Shabbos. They are able to focus on what we want them to focus on. We can take control of what we think and what we feel. This will bring us great pleasure, but it is only possible because of the restrictions placed upon us by the Torah.

Good Shabbos & Chag Kasher V’Sameach!
-yes
please send any comments or questions to: [email protected]
to see previous Divrei Simcha on the Parsha, please go to www.divreisimcha.com OR www.chesedclub.com > Torah Study