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Why does the Torah (תורה) discuss marriage within war laws rather than giving it comprehensive treatment, and why limit the happiness mitzvah (מצוה) to one year? Marriage represents focused partnership within life's broader responsibilities, not life's ultimate goal. True happiness comes from empowering others to give—making your spouse happy by enabling their contributions, not by what you receive from them.
Rabbi Zweig begins by analyzing the pasuk in Parashas Ki Seitzei (24:5) that commands a newly married man to make his wife happy for one year and exempts him from war. He raises three fundamental questions: Why does the Torah (תורה) discuss marriage only briefly within the context of war laws rather than giving it its own comprehensive treatment? Why is the mitzvah (מצוה) limited to just the first year? And why does the trop (cantillation) place a pause after 'vesimach' rather than connecting it directly to 'es ishto,' creating an unusual grammatical structure? To understand true happiness, Rabbi Zweig points out that Haman is the only person explicitly described as 'sameach' (happy) in Tanach. This teaches us that happiness based on getting what we want is fleeting and ultimately unsatisfying, as demonstrated by Haman's immediate shift to anger upon seeing Mordechai's defiance. The unusual trop on 'vesimach es ishto' reveals a profound insight: the pause after 'vesimach' emphasizes that happiness comes from the act of making others happy, not from what we receive.
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Parashas Ki Seitzei 24:5
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