Serving God with Joy – The Key to Faith and True Happiness

In the Torah portion Ki Tavo (Deuteronomy 28:47), after listing ninety-eight curses for those who do not fulfill the Torah’s commandments, the verse concludes: "Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and a good heart, when you had an abundance of everything."

At first glance, this is puzzling. Is it possible that all these severe curses might come upon Israel merely because they did not serve God with joy? The verse implies that even if one fulfills the Torah entirely, but without joy, the curses may still befall them.

Another question arises about the phrase "when you had an abundance of everything". God seems to be saying: “Why didn’t you serve Me with joy when you had everything?” Do we truly have everything? Most people feel there is always something missing in their lives.

The Baal Shem Tov’s Insight

The Baal Shem Tov teaches that a person who does not serve God with joy suffers from a deep lack of faith. Imagine if the great Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, had asked us to help him prepare his important book for printing, cook for him, arrange his library, or even host him for Shabbat. We would be overjoyed, doing everything eagerly, even if it required great effort — because of the honor and greatness of the one who asked.

If we would feel that way for a human being of flesh and blood, how much more so for the King of Kings, the Almighty, whose wisdom, greatness, and power are infinite, who grants us life at every moment, and whose kindness has sustained us from birth until now. When He asks us to put on tefillin, give charity, study Torah, or fulfill any mitzvah, and we fail to do so with immense joy, it is only because we do not truly recognize His greatness or the vast reward He promises us.

“But We Don’t Have Everything” – Or Do We?

Why does God say: “You had an abundance of everything”? The answer lies in the concept of trust in God.

God tells His beloved people: “You have Me. I am your Father and your Mother. Trust in My great and awesome Name, and I will grant you the desires of your heart,” as it says: “Delight in the Lord, and He will give you the requests of your heart” (Psalms 37:4).

Imagine a wealthy man who carries only a credit card and no cash. Even without coins in his pocket, he is truly rich, because his bank holds vast funds, and with one swipe he can obtain whatever he wants.

The same is true for a Jew. He has the richest Father, the greatest Healer, the wisest matchmaker, the ultimate problem-solver. With a simple heartfelt prayer, he can receive anything — his “credit card” is his trust in God.

Rambam on the Joy of Mitzvot

God says: “How can you not serve Me with joy?” because if you truly reflected on My greatness, on My constant kindness to you, and on the reward awaiting you for even the smallest mitzvah, you would serve Me with boundless happiness.

The Rambam (Laws of Lulav 8:15) writes: “The joy a person experiences in performing a mitzvah and in loving God who commanded it is a great form of service. Anyone who withholds himself from this joy is worthy of punishment, as it is said: ‘Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness of heart.’”

True joy comes from pure faith. Sadness, by contrast, stems from a deficiency in faith — either not recognizing God’s greatness, His love, forgetting that He knows better than we do what is truly good for us, or feeling abandoned and alone in the world.

Trust Removes Sadness

When someone believes they are alone and have no one to help them, despair and bitterness set in. When their honor is offended, they blame others instead of seeing God’s loving hand in every event — just as King David said when insulted: “The Lord said to him, ‘Curse.’”

If instead they would lift their eyes to Heaven and rely on Him to solve every problem, they would fulfill the verse: "Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him, and He will act" (Psalms 37:5).