Musar sobre Isaías 61:10

This statement resolves a major problem that arises from Deut. 28,63: "And as G–d once delighted in making you prosperous and many, so will He now delight in causing you to perish and in wiping you out." Our sages wonder: How can one describe G–d as actually enjoying our misery? Do we not have repeated statements describing G–d's pain and discomfiture whenever the Jewish people undergo afflictions (Megillah 10b)? Rabbi Eliezer answers that it is not G–d Himself who delights in our misfortunes, but rather He causes others to. This answer is supported by the grammatical meaning of the word "Yassis," used by the Torah. If the Torah were to describe G–d's personal delight, it would have written “Yassos” instead. Rabbi Eliezer's answer is difficult, seeing the Torah states explicitly כן ישיש עליך ה' אלוקיך, which clearly means that He Himself derives pleasure from what is happening! Why then the strange combination of ישיש with עליך? We also find the wording שוש אשיש, meaning: "I will personally rejoice" (Isaiah 61,10). Hence we cannot explain the expression ישיש as meaning something other than deriving personal joy. We also have Deut. 30,9, in which after describing the penitence of the Jewish people, the Torah says of G–d: "He will once again delight in your well-being, etc," and the expression used is “La-ssus”. We must conclude that the construction Yassis, therefore can have two meanings. On occasion it is a Hiphil, transitive, and would mean making others rejoice, whereas on other occasions it is used intransitively and means to derive personal joy.

And then he prospers in all his ways and in clarity of perception and the Holy One Blessed be He sends a spirit of Holiness within him and his heart rejoices and is filled with love of the Holy One, Blessed be He, and his soul is united with joy and reveals secrets and new intepretations from above, and all this because he reveres God, Blessed is He and is upright. And reason enters him. And this is what Solomon said : "My soul failed me when he spoke" (Eccl. 5:16). "Yea my body will rejoice when my lips speak right things" (Prov. 23:16). And thus said David : "Bless the Lord, O my soul" (Ps. 104:1). Because the soul which comes from above and strives upward knowing its own secret loves her Creator and eagerly assimilates His Commands, and when this soul reaches the veil (partition) and the degree which is suitable to it then she causes him (the owner) to rejoice with her hidden charms and brings him delight in her hidden chambers and at every moment his love longs for his soul and remembers it in the night as he lies upon his couch. Then God, Blessed is He, sends into her the longing for joy and the heart burns passionately from the great desire of love as it is said "I will rejoice in the Lord, my soul will be joyful in my God" (Is. 61:10). And happy is the soul that merits and experiences such joy.