Rabash/Assorted notes

It is known that joy

is not an entity but

an offshoot and a result

of something.

If one has some pleasure,

that pleasure yields excitement

which is called “joy.”

Accordingly,

we understand that one who has no pleasure in his life

is unable to have joy

because he lacks the cause and the reason that

will engender this offshoot called “joy.”

The reason is that

because of the smallness of their minds,

they can enjoy anything

They do not evaluate or calculate,

and find delight and pleasure

in every little thing,

which gives them a reason to be happy.

But when a person grows up

he becomes limited in receiving pleasure

according to the measure of his maturity,

since his maturity prevents him from being excited about everything.

This is the meaning of

“Adding knowledge,

adding pain,”

for one who is knowledgeable

is spoiled

and not every food you give him

can delight him.

so that man will see

that of all the pleasures

in this world

nothing gives him pleasure or can delight him

in a way that he can be happy with it

since these pleasures 

Hence, when he looks at someone

whose pleasure is nothing more

than enjoying eating and drinking and respect and so forth,

Therefore, this gives a person the ability

to emerge from the lusts of this world

and begin to derive pleasure

only from things that are more important than corporeality,

so he can derive  delight and pleasure

from spiritual things

and enjoy only this,

and only such pleasures will bring him joy.

It follows that one who sees

he has no joy the way other people have

it is because

he is at

a higher degree

Therefore, he should know that the Creator

is giving him a chance

to begin to engage in Torah and work

and this will bring him

the real joy called

“the joy of Mitzva”