QUESTION:
What is the difference between the laughter that comes from true joy (simchah) with laughter that comes from being light-headed (kalus rosh)? Can a person be serious and live an internal life of pnimiyus and also allow himself to laugh and allow his joy to be expressed without any bounds, to become enthused and to allow his positive emotions to just flow? I find that when I am in a very happy and joyous mood, I’m not as serious and I don’t take life seriously, in general. When I’m in “serious” mode, I can sit and learn Gemara in-depth and concentrate on my learning, and I want nothing to disturb me from my learning, not because I’m pressured but because I really enjoy my learning and being focused on it, but when I’m in “laughing” or “happy” mode, I don’t take my learning seriously. I noticed that I can either be very serious or very not serious, and I live with this contradiction all the time in me. What is the way to go about these two opposite emotions and states?
ANSWER:
When laughter comes from being light-headed, a person’s head becomes “lighter” as he’s laughing and he can’t think that well. But when a person is laughing out of true joy, like if he’s happy when he’s doing a mitzvah, he can amazingly maintain a settled mind (yishuv hadaas) even as he’s in the midst of laughter and joy, and his laughter only serves to free him from his normal constraints but he can remain centered. It is fine for a person to laugh whenever he needs it emotionally, but one needs to always that he can maintain his yishuv hadaas even as he’s laughing.
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