Soul Trait Studio: Nisan 5783

Practice guide for the Soul Trait Studio mussar practice for Nisan 5783 (03/26/23) focusing on the soul trait of "simcha" | joy.

Photo by Giu Vicente on Unsplash

Each month I host an open session called Soul Trait Studio, a mussar practice session focused on the soul trait of the month. As of 5783, the Monthly Session guides are now stored here on devotaj.substack.com. The current month is available to all and previous months are available to subscribers at the monthly, yearly, or beloved levels.

Come when you can. All registrants for the month will receive the video the following day. The Soul Trait Studio for Nisan 5783 is March 26, 2023 from 3-4:30pm ET on Zoom, registration required - no charge but your time.

I consider your time to be the exchange for this offering, which is why I don’t charge money to register. While it is always an option to attend on your own time, via the recording I send out the next day, these sessions remain free of monetary charge because of those who do commit to attending in real time.

Learn More

• Intro to Mussar and the Devotaj Sacred Arts Approach

• Devotaj Sacred Arts: Mussar Practice eBook with guides to each soul trait of the year

• Register for this and upcoming sessions: devotaj.com/soultraitstudio

Monthly Practice

Note: we rarely get through all of this during the 90 minute session, so consider the entirety of it to be an invitation for your personal practice this month. This guide will remain available to all until the end of the month. Previous monthly guides are available to subscribers at the monthly, yearly, or beloved levels.

• Opening

• Introduction to Soul Trait of the Month

• Cheshbon HaNefesh

• Text Study

• Incantations

• Embodied Practice

• Mitzvah

• Journal Prompts

• Closing Chant

Opening

LaY'hudim Haytah orah v'simcha v'sason vikar.
Ken tih'yeh lanu.

ליהודים היתה אורה, ושמחה, וששון, ויקר.
כן תהיה לנו.

~ Noam Katz (tune)

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Translation:The Jews had light and joy and gladness and honor. So be it with us. (Esther 8:16.) Source: Ritual Well

Prayer before Mussar Practice/Study

Soul Trait of the Month

The Journey:

• Last month:  Adar | Moon of Revealing | Zehirut (זהירות) Illuminated Awareness | Leitzanit (ליצנית) Sacred Fool

• Now: Nisan | Moon of Speaking | Simcha (שמחה) Joy | Na’arah (נערה) Maiden

• Next Month:  Iyyar | Moon of Healing | Savlanut (סבלנות) Patience | Meyaledet (מילדת) Midwife

More on Simcha:

• Mussar Practice eBook with guides to each soul trait of the year (Devotaj.com)

• Simcha: Week 3 Mussar with Me (Devotaj Mussar with Me archives)

• Making Mensches: A Periodic Table (JewishCamp.org)

• Simcha - Joy: Find Pleasure in Life (Sefaria)

• Every Day Holy Day by Alan Morinis

Cheshbon HaNefesh:

What does simcha (שמחה) joy mean to you right now.

Joy is the inner feeling that emerges from an openhearted connection with an other or others in which the barriers of separation are dissolved. (Alan Morinis)

What does it mean to act with simcha she’be chesed?
What does it meant to behave with chesed she’be simcha?

Text Study

Partnered text study. One per breakout room.

Explore what the text teaches you about simcha AND what other soul traits it helps you recognize as being keys to unlocking simcha.

Text 1: 

“So I commended joy,” that is the joy of a mitzva. “And of joy: What does it accomplish?” that is joy that is not the joy of a mitzva. The praise of joy mentioned here is to teach you that the Divine Presence rests upon an individual neither from an atmosphere of sadness, nor from an atmosphere of laziness, nor from an atmosphere of laughter, nor from an atmosphere of frivolity, nor from an atmosphere of idle conversation, nor from an atmosphere of idle chatter, but rather from an atmosphere imbued with the joy of a mitzva.

״וְשִׁבַּחְתִּי אֲנִי אֶת הַשִּׂמְחָה״ — שִׂמְחָה שֶׁל מִצְוָה. ״וּלְשִׂמְחָה מַה זֹּה עוֹשָׂה״ — זוֹ שִׂמְחָה שֶׁאֵינָהּ שֶׁל מִצְוָה. לְלַמֶּדְךָ שֶׁאֵין שְׁכִינָה שׁוֹרָה לֹא מִתּוֹךְ עַצְבוּת וְלֹא מִתּוֹךְ עַצְלוּת וְלֹא מִתּוֹךְ שְׂחוֹק וְלֹא מִתּוֹךְ קַלּוּת רֹאשׁ וְלֹא מִתּוֹךְ שִׂיחָה וְלֹא מִתּוֹךְ דְּבָרִים בְּטֵלִים, אֶלָּא מִתּוֹךְ דְּבַר שִׂמְחָה שֶׁל מִצְוָה.

Talmud, Shabbat 30.b:5, adapted from Sefaria translation

Text 2: 

Perhaps because joy is so central to Jewish spiritual practice as well the ideals held out for a human being to aspire to, there are many words in Hebrew for happy states of consciousness:

• simcha (שמחה)

• sasson (ששון)

• chedva (חדווה)

• gila (גילה)

• reena (רינה)

Each of these shows up in the liturgy, and each has its own particular flavor or usage. The Vilna Gaon explains simcha to be pure and unadulterated joy. He describes sasson (ששון), on the other hand, to be the feeling that comes when one’s happiness is tinged with a certain degree of disappointment, frustration and even sorrow. Sasson is often translated as“gladness.” The Malbim associates simcha with an enduring joy and gila (גילה) with a new, intense, and sudden spurt of uplifting feeling. Rina (רינה) refers to joyful song, and chedva (חדווה) for the joy that comes when you make effort and succeed in overcoming instinctual emotional responses, and so on.

Simcha / Joy © by Alan Morinis, handout from Mussar in Action

Resources:

Simcha שִׂמְחָה (f.n.)

1. joy, gladness, merriment, mirth.

2. joyful occasion, festivity.

3. [From שׂמח. cp. Ugar. shmḫt (= joy, gladness), from shmḫ (= to be glad, rejoice), hence the exact equivalent of Heb. שִׂמֽחָה.]

Source: מקור: Klein Dictionary (via Sefaria.org)

Other words for types of joy or happiness:

• Osher (Hebrew: אושר), a deeper, lasting happiness

• Orah (Hebrew: אורה), either "light" or "happiness"

• Ditza (Hebrew: דיצה), a sublime joy

• Tzahala (Hebrew: צהלה), either "happiness" or "dancing"

Happiness in Judaism, Wikipedia (adapted)

Text 3a:

Happiness is entirely predicated on getting what “I” want, making “me” happy. In other words, the pursuit of happiness reinforces our sense of being separate from other people as we pursue our own personal satisfactions.

Joy is the inner feeling that emerges from an openhearted connection with an other or others in which the barriers of separation are dissolved. Happiness may not be an attainable goal because our wants are insatiable and their satisfaction transitory but because we really can connect to other people, joy is entirely within our reach.

Simcha / Joy © by Alan Morinis, handout from Mussar in Action

Text 3b:

Because in trying to articulate what, perhaps, joy is, it has occurred to me that among other things—the trees and the mushrooms have shown me this—joy is the mostly invisible, the underground union between us, you and me, which is, among other things, the great fact of our life and the lives of everyone and thing we love going away.

If we sink a spoon into that fact, into the duff between us, we will find it teeming. It will look like all the books ever written. It will look like all the nerves in a body. We might call it sorrow, but we might call it a union, one that, once we notice it, once we bring it into the light, might become flower and food. Might be joy.”

Ross Gay, Inciting Joy: Essays

Text 4

לַכֹּ֖ל זְמָ֑ן וְעֵ֥ת לְכָל־חֵ֖פֶץ תַּ֥חַת הַשָּׁמָֽיִם׃ ...עֵ֤ת לִבְכּוֹת֙ וְעֵ֣ת לִשְׂח֔וֹק עֵ֥ת סְפ֖וֹד וְעֵ֥ת רְקֽוֹד׃

A season is set for everything, a time for every experience under heaven... A time for weeping and a time for laughing, A time for wailing and a time for dancing;

…

יָדַ֕עְתִּי כִּ֛י אֵ֥ין ט֖וֹב בָּ֑ם כִּ֣י אִם־לִשְׂמ֔וֹחַ וְלַעֲשׂ֥וֹת ט֖וֹב בְּחַיָּֽיו׃

Thus I realized that the only worthwhile thing there is for them is to enjoy themselves and do what is good in their lifetime;

וְגַ֤ם כׇּל־הָאָדָם֙ שֶׁיֹּאכַ֣ל וְשָׁתָ֔ה וְרָאָ֥ה ט֖וֹב בְּכׇל־עֲמָל֑וֹ מַתַּ֥ת אֱלֹהִ֖ים הִֽיא׃

also, that whenever a man does eat and drink and get enjoyment out of all his wealth, it is a gift of God.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-4, 3:12-13

The realization that "there is a time for all things" as Ecclesiastes states may help us live our lives more attuned to the emotional possibilities inherent in different moments. Just as moments of sadness or stress cause us to mourn or complain, we must make space for laughing and dancing when there is cause to celebrate. How do you ensure that you make space for celebration in your life? What do you do to recognize these moments of joy?

Dara Steinberg (via Sefaria)

Incantations*:

• I cultivate joy. I am still and at ease. I give myself permission to experience beauty, love, and all pleasures that truly please. (inspired by Adrieene Maree Brown)

• I tap into the underground union between I and we. Joy alight, ingite, and be free. (Inspired by Ross Gay)

• I sob so I may smile. I weep so I may release. Let this be a time for joy and a time for peace.

*The term from inherited forms of mussar is “affirmations”. Feel free to think of them this way, if it’s more aligned and/or nourishing for you.

Embodied Practice

Commit to dancing 5 minutes a day. Dance to the music of now. Dance to the music of your youth. Dance to your “guilty pleasures.” Just dance.
(inspired by Kohenet Bekah Starr)

Mitzvah* 

• Welcome everyone you meet with a smile and a kind word, before they greet you. (based a teaching by Alan Morinis)

*I use the translation mitzvah as “sacred connective action.” In other forms of mussar this part of the practice is often called kabbalot, committed practices to help you take the practice in the world around you.

Journaling Prompts:

• WHAT does Simcha (שמחה) Joy mean to you?

  • What does it mean to act with simcha she’be chesed?

  • What does it meant to behave with chesed she’be simcha?

• HOW do you differentiate between joy and happiness?

• WHEN are you most aware of joy?

• WHERE in your body does joy reside?

Closing Chant

LaY'hudim Haytah orah v'simcha v'sason vikar.
Ken tih'yeh lanu.

ליהודים היתה אורה, ושמחה, וששון, ויקר.
כן תהיה לנו.

~ Noam Katz (tune)

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Translation:The Jews had light and joy and gladness and honor. So be it with us. (Esther 8:16.) Source: Ritual Well

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