The Rebbe celebrated joy, highlighting its importance in being victorious and calling it “the novelty of Chassidus.” But to one sad chossid, the Rebbe had a very different message.
Reb Yosef Sheinberger, the secretary of the Eidah Hachareidis in Yerushalayim and a prolific author, was once in yechidus.
“What is the novelty of Chassidus?” he asked the Rebbe.
“Simcha shel mitzva,” was the Rebbe’s response.
“When a soldier marches out to battle,” the Rebbe once wrote, “he sings a joyous song. The singing itself enables and hastens the victory.”
In another letter, directed to a miserable chossid, the Rebbe wrote: “What do you have to do with gloom? I am surprised that a member of Anash has the time for it. Is it not evident that in our time every moment is precious, and cannot be wasted on such trivial matters?”
(Talelei Teshuvah, Page 642; Igros Kodesh Vol. 14, Letters 5197 and 5287)
From The Weekly Farbrengen by Merkaz Anash
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