For those who spent or spend their time learning in the walls of the Breuer’s Bais HaMedrash, there has always been a small curiosity on the Mizrach wall- one that might have piqued our interest, but we may not have ever thought of asking about.
Several lines come from the Magid Mishnah’s commentary on the Rambam’s Hilchos Sukkah V’Lulav (8:15).
There the Rambam writes:
השמחה שישמח אדם בעשיית המצוה ובאהבת האל שצוה בהן. עבודה גדולה היא. וכל המונע עצמו משמחה זו ראוי להפרע ממנו שנאמר תחת אשר לא עבדת את ה’ אלהיך בשמחה ובטוב לבב.
The joy a person experiences in performing a commandment and in loving the G-d who commanded it is a profound form of service. Anyone who withholds this joy from themselves deserves to be punished, as it is written: “Because you did not serve the L-rd your G-d with joy and gladness of heart.”
The Rambam had a unique style: he veered from his role as halachic codifier and used a pedagogical technique in which he added an introduction or closing paragraph to specific sets of laws, interjecting ideas that gave the laws meaning or moral imperatives.
Some have suggested that Saadya Gaon pioneered adding chapter and book introductions in rabbinic literature. From Google: This was a revolutionary shift inspired by Arabic and Islamic scholarship of the Abbasid era. Rather than diving straight into verse-by-verse commentary (the standard Midrashic approach), Saadya used formal prologues to establish overarching thematic, philosophical, and structural frameworks for his works.
On this closing statement of the Rambam, Magid Mishnah (Vidal of Tolosa) writes:
ועיקר הדבר הוא שאין ראוי לו לאדם לעשות המצות מצד שהן חובה עליו והוא מוכרח ואנוס בעשייתן אלא חייב לעשותן והוא שמח בעשייתן ויעשה הטוב מצד שהוא טוב ויבחר באמת מצד שהוא אמת ויקל בעיניו טרחן ויבין כי לכך נוצר לשמש את קונו וכשהוא עושה מה שנברא בשבילו ישמח ויגיל לפי ששמחת שאר דברים תלוים בדברים בטלים שאינן קיימים אבל השמחה בעשיית המצות ובלמידת התורה והחכמה היא השמחה האמיתית. וזהו ששלמה בדרכי מוסרו שבח שמחת החכמה ואמר בני אם חכם לבך ישמח לבי גם אני:
The essential point is that a person should not perform the commandments merely because they are an obligation—acting under compulsion or duress—but rather should perform them with joy. He ought to do good because it is good and choose truth because it is truth, regarding the effort involved as light; he should understand that he was created for the very purpose of serving his Creator. When he fulfills the purpose for which he was created, he will rejoice and exult, for the joy derived from other things depends on trivialities that lack permanence, whereas the joy found in performing the commandments and in studying Torah and wisdom is true joy. It is this joy of wisdom that Solomon praised in his teachings, saying: “My son, if your heart is wise, my heart, too, shall rejoice.”
These inspiring words are deeply infused with Jewish thought and ring with a strong Jewish spirit.
Now the story behind the plaque:
The former Rosh Yeshivah of the Bais Medrash program, Rav Yaakov Perlow z’l was known to often cite these words. When he left his role as Rosh Yeshivah in 1981 to assume the mantle of Novominsker Rebbe, the talmidim thought it appropriate to frame these words and hang them on the wall as a testament to the powerful and thought-provoking “Shmuessen” Rav Perlow was known for.
According to different versions, either Rav Perlow asked Danny Moeller to write it and hang it up, or the students asked Jackie Fulda to have the words framed.
Perhaps these words also serve as a bridge between the Chassidic thought that Rav Perlow absorbed from his upbringing and the meaning that Rav Hirsch sought to put into Mitzvah observance- all expressed in the philosophically infused words of the medieval Spanish Rabbi Vidal of Tolose – and, if so, the plaque represents the melding of Jewish thought across borders and centuries.
