The Secret Of Simcha - סוד השמחה

The goal: To cause the chanichim to understand that Simcha doesn't come from the things we buy, and get. It comes from things that we do for ourselves and others.

#3

“Life of blessing” / Brurya Rabinovitch

This song that Dasi wrote, reflected her positive way of thinking in life. Dasi lived in our world only 19-years. The terrible cancer killed her body, but not her soul. All her life, until her last breath, she was happy and she made other people happy too. She always gave off a good feeling and gave love to others. She did it with a big smile, with a story, a joke or a short show.

Others gave her love in return, and from that by herself, she learned the secret of Netina, of giving.

Even on her last night, on Rosh-Hashana, a few hours before she passed away, she called us, her family, and told us: “Look, look, I have a surprise! I can move my hand. I will feel better soon. I feel that this year I will be healthy. I will beat the cancer”. We told her: “Great! That's wonderful! Even though we knew she has pain. We kissed her, and she fell to her last sleep”.

She left us here with big sadness about her death, but with big happiness about the big commandment to be in simcha.

The connection between simcha and sadness was very familiar to Dasi. She knew how to take every situation, bad or good, hard or easy, and make it full of simcha, and strength for her to continue fighting the cancer, even in moments that everything was worse.

Dasi had a goal she signed every letter and conversation saying: Health and Simcha.

She said that simcha is much more important then health. What do you have in life, if you are a healthy, but sad person? But a happy person, even if he is sick keeps hoping and smiling, has rich life.

Dasi was like this: Happy for herself and for others, believing and hoping. She gave people strength to go for it!  . Her strength came from her faith and her simcha.

Her faith to Hashem was stronger then ever, because her of cancer. She always said: “Since I got this cancer, I can speak with Hashem alone. I can cry to him, I'm praying to him, and he understands and hugs me. Sometimes, he hugs very hard, but always it comes from His love to me…. I'm happy that Hashem gave me this cancer, because of that I learned in a short time, things that would take me a long time to learn, even years. I learned how to look with a perspective on life. To listen to people, to understand them, to learn the strengths I have inside me. How many years or how much time would it take me learn all this???”

Dasi always had big thoughts and dreams. She organized, she was the leader, and she did things in the community. Since she was a young girl, she baby-sat, taught children, and opened daycamps and volunteered before the Holidays.  You would always see her running from one place to another, with children running behind her.

Since she was in 8^th-grade she did the Youth Minyan for the children, during the Tfilla on Shabbat morning. When the parents went to pray, she took care of the kids. They sang Shabbat songs, she told them stories, asked questions, and put on shows about the Parasha, at the end, they did a Kiddush. She did it for 4-5 years until she got ill. And also then, she did it.

One Shabbat, when Dasi sat in her bed, someone knocked on the door. It was a girl, and she said: “We came to visit Dasi, from the Youth Minyan”. I told her, “You can't visit Dasi today. She doesn't feel good today. But you can stand near the window, and sing to her. They stood near the window, and sang to her the song she taught them: Ani maamin beviat hamashiach”.

Dasi stood up, went to the window, smiled to the kids and said,” Sing stronger and Hashem will hear you. And send the Mashiach soon!” 

#4

Written by- OFRA KOREN AND SHIRA KATZ.