DEUT1335 Simha [joy] in the Torah is never about individuals. It is always about something we share. A newly married man does not serve in the army for a year, says the Torah, so that he can stay at home "and bring joy to the wife he has married" [this verse]. You shall bring all your offerings to the central Sanctuary, says Moses, so that "there, in the presence of the Lord your God, you and your families shall eat and rejoice in all you have put your hand to, because the Lord your God has blessed you" (Deuteronomy 12:7). The festivals as described in Deuteronomy are days of joy, precisely because they are occasions of collective celebration: "you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites in your towns, and the strangers, the fatherless and the widows living among you" (Deuteronomy 16:11). Simha is joy shared. It is not something we experience in solitude.