Even a very silly joke
Hilchos Nefilas Apayim 4:5 insists on the importance of milei dishtusa. Reb Noson repeats the strong language that joy cannot be reached without it, and records Rebbe Nachman's own Yiddish formulation with the qualification “as it appears.” It is a serious response to the troubles that pull a person down.
He then describes the practice of tzaddikim who had people around them acting as badchanim. Their job was to bring laughter and help those present be happy. Reb Noson says this was common among the great, well-known tzaddikim of his days.
The account is broader than a particular Breslov custom or a Purim rav appearing once a year. The need arose in the ordinary course of avodas Hashem. Bodily, emotional and financial troubles could pull a person down, and a little laughter could help him continue.
The rav jokes that many shuls already have someone who makes the others laugh without being hired. He also recalls people bringing laughter to tzaddikim, a video of two tzaddikim laughing together, and a recording in which laughter precedes singing a niggun. He is unsure what caused the laughter and whether the singer thought the tune was new. The identities in that recollection are not secure enough to name here. What moved him was seeing laughter as part of a life of kedushah. His incidental report of off-color remarks around a tzaddik does not replace his explicit requirement that the humor be clean.
He also recalls a tzaddik joking with his rebbe; the names in that brief account remain unclear. These are the rav's recollections, alongside Reb Noson's written account.
Some of the acts described here are deliberately silly. Someone turns a somersault or does something playful. We can object that this seems beneath a serious person's dignity. But the purpose is to protect his avodah from the heaviness that is obstructing it.
We find an earlier example in Rabbah's humorous opening before learning. Reb Noson also cites the Zohar, Tazria 47b, about Rav Hamnuna Sava arranging a passage of milei dishtusa before teaching secrets of wisdom. The Zohar connects it with the benefit that wisdom receives through a little silliness.
The Zohar, Mishpatim 107a, gives another striking image. It calls Dovid the King's badchan. Even in distress, when he came before the King he returned to his way of bringing joy. Reb Noson uses this alongside Dovid's brokenhearted teshuvah. His remorse did not require abandoning his relationship with Hashem or his capacity to come before Him with joy.
The practical boundary is also part of the discussion. Making fun of another person or of something holy defeats this purpose. A clean joke can be quite ordinary. It does not need a hidden Torah explanation to give a person a useful moment of laughter.
The rav's daughter enjoys knock-knock jokes. Some are funny, and many are terrible. Sometimes she has not quite worked out how to deliver the punchline, and that makes the exchange funnier still. Nothing important is being explained by the joke itself. Yet a harmless moment of laughter can help a person become more available to what matters.
You need not wait for a child to tell it. A person can keep a clean joke book nearby or find another small, permitted way to make himself smile. Its effect on his next encounter or his next tefillah can give that little act a place in his avodah.
When simcha itself feels far away
Reb Noson describes galus in the language of the Shechinah and the simcha of Israel. A person should be able to feel the value of his connection with Hashem. In galus, that recognition becomes difficult. He can do a mitzvah and feel almost nothing of its simcha.
Tehillim gives the direction of that joy:
יִשְׂמַח יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּעֹשָׂיו בְּנֵֽי־צִיּוֹן יָגִילוּ בְמַלְכָּֽם׃
Let Israel rejoice in its Maker; let the children of Zion exult in their King. (Tehillim 149:2)
When the joy of that relationship is hidden, a person can begin looking elsewhere for it. Wealth, status and the freedom to pursue every desire seem to offer the happiness he is missing. A teenager may look at a visibly unhappy religious life and imagine that leaving it will finally make him free and happy.
The teaching asks us to recognize this as part of the concealment. The value of the mitzvah has not disappeared because I cannot currently feel its joy. Nor does an impressive display of pleasure settle the question of what can sustain a person's life.
Reb Noson explains this through nitzotzos, sparks. The joy that appears in idolatrous or wicked pursuits borrows its vitality from sparks of holy simcha that have fallen into galus. Those sparks are clothed in forms that turn the joy away from its proper purpose.
This is the source's spiritual account of exile and restoration. The rav explicitly says that the appearance of complete happiness in wealth, status and desire is deceptive: its borrowed spark is real, but the surrounding pleasure cannot supply lasting simcha. Reb Noson calls the distorted forms more bitter than death. These are strong religious claims about the source and purpose of joy, not a measured judgment of every outsider's feelings or a diagnosis of a particular teenager. The focus is the difference between passing enjoyment and the simcha of the covenant, of Torah and mitzvos. We need to understand that account in order to follow why a little ordinary pleasure can become a place of tikkun.
Koheles asks of laughter and joy:
לִשְׂחוֹק אָמַרְתִּי מְהוֹלָל וּלְשִׂמְחָה מַה־זֹּה עֹשָֽׂה׃
Of laughter I said, “It is mad,” and of joy, “What does it accomplish?” (Koheles 2:2)
The question is what the pleasure produces. Achashverosh's long display of wealth and drinking ends with the destruction of his own household. In the application here, a celebration that gives no lasting direction cannot supply the simcha a person is seeking.
A familiar pattern of concealment
The opening of Likutey Moharan gives another example. It describes the chen and chashivus of Israel as fallen, so that their true beauty and importance are no longer readily recognized. Torah raises that chen again. The fallen quality can seem to belong elsewhere because its source has become hidden.
The Sfas Emes brings a related explanation from the Chiddushei HaRim concerning Egypt:
וַיָּקׇם מֶֽלֶךְ־חָדָשׁ עַל־מִצְרָיִם אֲשֶׁר לֹֽא־יָדַע אֶת־יוֹסֵֽף׃
A new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Yosef. (Shemos 1:8)
Koheles says:
מַה־שֶּֽׁהָיָה הוּא שֶׁיִּהְיֶה וּמַה־שֶּׁנַּֽעֲשָׂה הוּא שֶׁיֵּעָשֶׂה וְאֵין כׇּל־חָדָשׁ תַּחַת הַשָּֽׁמֶשׁ׃
What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing entirely new beneath the sun. (Koheles 1:9)
The rav stresses that novelty beneath the sun is already becoming old as soon as it appears. Renewal at its source comes from above the sun, from the life Hashem continually gives creation. The Sfas Emes asks how Egypt acquired this appearance of renewal. He explains that Israel's loss of its own connection with renewal gave strength to the new Egyptian rule. At the source, life is continually renewed by Hashem. When that connection is hidden, the outward novelty can seem to be the whole story.
Rashi records both readings of the new king: literally a new king, or a king whose decrees became new. The homiletic explanation does not erase either reading. Its concern is the spiritual source of the renewed power described in the verse.
As the geulah approaches, Israel receives:
הַחֹדֶשׁ הַזֶּה לָכֶם רֹאשׁ חֳדָשִׁים רִאשׁוֹן הוּא לָכֶם לְחׇדְשֵׁי הַשָּׁנָֽה׃
This month shall be for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first for you among the months of the year. (Shemos 12:2)
The Sfas Emes connects this with the return of the power of hischadshus, renewal, to its proper place. We can now recognize the pattern Reb Noson is using with simcha as well: something whose source is holy has become concealed, and the work of geulah brings it home.
The spark in the knock-knock joke
We can now return to the person who cannot feel joy in his mitzvah. Telling him once more how precious tefillin are may not yet reach him. There are also sparks of simcha in the ordinary, permitted things of life. A little harmless playfulness may give him an opening.
The instruction is not to enter forbidden entertainment or harmful behavior in order to rescue sparks. The example is a clean joke, something ordinary that does not contain an aveirah. Its small pleasure can be directed toward avodas Hashem.
The rav gives two possible uses of the same joke. I could use it to spend the next several hours avoiding everything I need to do. In the language of this teaching, I have wrapped the spark in further layers of concealment. The enjoyment is carrying me farther from its purpose.
Or I could laugh and feel less closed in. I can now enter Shacharis with more presence. I can speak more gently to my family. I can daven Minchah or Maariv with more attention. I become able to appreciate being a Jew and having mitzvos to do.
Something more has happened than a useful distraction. The little simcha that was clothed in the ordinary joke has been brought into service of its source. It has helped renew the simcha of avodas Hashem. Reb Noson calls this an elevation of sparks of the Shechinah from galus.
The joke did not have to become a complicated Torah. Its role is in the direction given to the joy. A small laugh has become part of a return.
This is why the eitzah matters to Tikkun HaKlali. We are learning to restore the simcha that gives a person strength to serve Hashem and return after a fall. Reb Noson will next apply the same account to Dovid's conduct when he was in danger among the Pelishtim, and then develop its connection with Purim further. The small, permitted opening in front of us already gives us something practical to work with.