In which body part does a person feel joy? Joy is felt in the heart and the mind. Yet, when you smile, your mouth begins to feel it. When the joy is even greater the hands might catch on and start smacking each other with excitement, most commonly known as clapping. As joy increases, it begins to permeate the hips, the knees, and finally, when you are totally elated, the joy descends into the feet, overflowing them with positive energy, and you break out into dance.
Dance does not only increase the joy that inspired it in the first place, and spread joy to anyone who may be privy to your dance, but it has the power to transform painful circumstance into sweet life experience. Rebbe Nachman says it best, “Through dancing and clapping hands a person sweetens all of the dinnim, painful conditions.”(1)
Come on, can dance really have any effect on the difficulty that I have with my health, with finding a job, with marital issues? Yes. First you must know that according to the Kabbalah, every body part corresponds to a different supernal world.(2) As the Arizal put it, “Man is a small world, and the world is a large man.” Each body part, whether used for holiness or otherwise, influences its corresponding aspect of existence. This is what it means to function within the Oneness of G-d; a person does not lift a finger in his living room, without a corresponding, cosmic effect.
So, what spiritual world do the feet correspond to? Well, the most unfeeling part of the body is the heel of the foot. One can prick his calloused heal with a needle, and he will not feel anything. It is the part of the body that makes contact with the ground; a place of dirt, mud, and the waste of people and animals.
“Man is a small world, and the world is a large man.”
According to Kabbalah, the feet are a manifestation of the lowest spiritual part of a human being. They are the farthest from the head, the knowledge and control center of the body and closest to the impurities of the earth and all of the waste that ends up there. They therefore are prone to attract negative spiritual energy,(3) and correspond to the lowest, darkest aspects of life, the places in which G-d’s light are most eclipsed.
When the joy of a Jew permeates even the lowest aspect of his being, as manifested by his physical feet, and they are moved to dance, then all of the lowest situations of pain, loss, confusion and brokenness are woken up and elevated to a higher state of revelation of light and Divine wisdom, thus sweetening them.
The amazing corollary of this is that it also works in reverse. Say, you are having a hard day. Everything seems to be going wrong- you are in definite need of some harsh-decree sweetening. If you push yourself to dance, even if you are not feeling it, then your feet wake up your knees, which wake up the hands, which wake up your heart and mind, generating real, life-giving joy.
Today, the vibrant spiritual world is more hidden than ever. The first man, Adam, is considered the head of mankind, and we, the feet. Like the feet, we, of all generations, are least attuned to holy power. That is why the work of Simcha, just maintaining happiness, is so fundamental and challenging for us. Rebbe Nachman talked about the importance of being happy so much. He implied, to his followers, that his teachings were intended for a future generation, one which would be submerged much more so in the struggle for joy. The final work before the Mashiach is through us! If we can truly arouse ourselves to joy, especially in the mitzvoth, until we dance in exaltation, then we are doing the final work, of elevating the lowest spiritual reality of the lowest generation, to the joy of G-d’s creation.
So, may we all be blessed to make happiness forefront on our things to work on, and may the joy of our hearts permeate all the way down to our feet, and may we not hold back from busting out a dance move. We thus activate tangible sweetening of painful situations in our lives and in the world at large. And, if you remember one thing from this article, just dance! Rebbe Nachman told one of his followers, and is thus telling all of us, that an excellent way of Teshuva, service of G-d, is to dance every day. Even five minutes. Turn the music on, or sing a tune, or just tap into the rhythm of your heart, and set your feet free.
That is why the work of Simcha, just maintaining happiness, is so fundamental and challenging for us
1. Likutei Mohoran, 10:1
2. Chayei Mohoran, 505, Zohar, part II, 76
3. Eitz Chayim, Shaar 38, Chapter 2
Please note: We spent much time and effort to bring the inspirational teachings of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov as accurately as possible in this article. If you find any mistakes in translation or have trouble understanding the article, please let us know! Feel free to comment below.We bless the viewers to be connected to Rebbe Nachman and to his teachings, and to always be happy and inspired…