How to Achieve True Joy: The Purim Secret of Giving That Transforms the Heart

Is there anyone who does not want to be happy? How does a person reach genuine joy? Is it possible, and what does it depend on? This question has troubled humanity since time immemorial. It takes on different forms but always returns to the same basic point: every human being longs for joy and happiness.

An entire global industry generates billions trying to provide people with “happiness substitutes” and “joy substitutes.” They call it entertainment, a word whose root in Aramaic means dispersion. It disperses worries or distracts the mind, creating temporary relief from the pressure of life. But afterward, the sense of emptiness often returns even more strongly. How does one rejoice for real?

We did not come to write about the happiness found in a life of Torah, nor about the idea that only a purpose driven life brings satisfaction and joy. Actually, no. We have a surprise: a remarkable formula that indeed works best against the backdrop of Torah and mitzvot, but can bring benefit in any situation, wherever a person may be along the way.

What Does the Rambam Call “Great and Glorious Joy”?

At the end of the laws of Megillah, the Rambam writes: “It is better for a person to increase gifts to the poor than to increase his feast or his sending of portions to friends, for there is no greater and more glorious joy than gladdening the hearts of the poor, the orphans, the widows, and the converts. One who gladdens the hearts of these unfortunate people is likened to the Divine Presence, as it is said: ‘To revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the crushed.’”

The Rambam is not in the habit of ranking mitzvot or assigning them grades. Yet here he reveals that beyond the mitzvah itself, one can gain an additional effect through gifts to the poor: the experience of gladdening the hearts of the downtrodden, which is defined as great and glorious joy. Along the way, you also gain true Purim joy.

Why is this so deeply joyful? Because a person who does this actualizes the divine image within themselves and becomes similar to the Divine Presence. Just as God’s way is “to revive the spirit of the lowly and the heart of the crushed,” so too a human being who benefits the downtrodden cleaves to God’s attributes and resembles the Shechinah.

And not only those dressed in rags are poor. There are people poor in money and people poor in understanding. There are those who lack everything, and those to whom everything is lacking. That is the meaning of “evyon,” from a root meaning one who longs for everything. Gladdening the unfortunate is the secret of joy. Anyone who has not experienced it is invited to try. It is guaranteed to work.

A Living Example From Bnei Brak

Until about ten years ago, there lived in Bnei Brak a great Torah scholar, both in revealed and hidden Torah, a lofty and righteous man, Rabbi Yisrael Eliyahu Weintraub of blessed memory. He was frail, ill, and suffering, yet many studied with him the inner dimensions of Torah, and many more sought his blessings and counsel.

He lived with ascetic simplicity and genuine humility and fled from publicity. Every year on Purim, he would spend most of the day sitting on a street corner, collecting Purim donations and distributing them to those in need. Since he himself was not wealthy, he sought to gladden the unfortunate by gathering money for them.

I heard from his foremost student that once people spoke in his presence about how his blessings were fulfilled. He dismissed it. Then someone asked, “And what about Purim?” For on Purim, it was undeniable that Rabbi Yisrael Eliyahu’s blessings were fulfilled, and the line seeking his blessing grew longer each year. The righteous rabbi replied, “Purim is something else. On Purim, it is like the Shechinah.”

Perhaps this was extraordinary humility. But the essence of his answer is that anyone can succeed in blessing others while engaged in gladdening the poor and the unfortunate, if it is done wholeheartedly and with deep feeling.

Gifts to the Poor and the Erasure of Amalek

In the portion of Beshalach, regarding the war with Amalek, it is written: “For a hand is on the throne of God; the Lord will wage war against Amalek from generation to generation.” Our sages explained that God’s Name is incomplete and His throne is incomplete until Amalek is erased.

This means that God’s kingship and His guidance are not fully revealed as long as Amalek exists. The Midrash explains that the world stands on kindness. Kindness is one of the legs of the throne. Amalek’s worldview is anti kindness and anti solidarity.

In the previous generation, this was tragically embodied by the Nazi Amalek, whose ideology denied the legitimacy of anyone deemed unproductive, even among their own people. As it says, “He struck the weak among you.” Amalek attacks the throne by undermining kindness.

Therefore, clinging to the trait of kindness is the antithesis of Amalek. To gladden the hearts of the unfortunate, to place them at the center, to give wholeheartedly and with a radiant countenance.

A Call for Our Time

We cannot avoid addressing current reality. Recent years have raised internal hatred within our people to alarming levels. Division distances the Divine Presence from Israel. That is why Esther told Mordechai, “Go, gather all the Jews.” This was not only an emergency assembly, but a call for unity and cohesion.

We need this call today as well. Kindness and giving among us, without distinctions of group or sector, are powerful tools for increasing love and brotherhood.