Hashem is always blessing u with his bounty. Indeed, Hashems love for us – his children, is called ‘Ahava She’eino Teluyah B’davar’ – ‘An uncoditional love’. However, most of the time we do not appreciate these blessings since we have grown accustomed to them. For this reason, the Yetzer Hara – our Evil Inclination, need not busy himself with stealing the limelight and claiming attribution for these blessings which we do not fully appreciate anyway..
However, when it comes to our pursuit of all forms of pleasure and enjoyment, here the Yetzer Hara must aggressively assert himself and claim rights (to) and attribution for these pursuits. This is because the elation, pleasure and enjoyment from (joyful) pursuits, are and should be an inherently spiritual feeling and experience.
The Mesilas Yesharim tells us in his opening paragraph to his acclaimed sefer - that our purpose on this Earth and the purpose of our creation, is to derive pleasure from our service of Hashem Yisborach! It is a big misconception for us to think that being Jewish requires any type of nullification from deriving pleasure in this world and/or requires that we engage in any form of self flagellation.
Hakadosh Baruch wants us to enjoy life! It is for this purpose that he created us in the first place and it is the purpose of our existence on this Earth. Hashem is constantly showering us with his blessings and bounty and we are suppossed to find enjoyment in these blessings and to express appreciation to him for these brachos.
It is also for this reason that the Yetzer Hara works so hard to steal away our ability to channel our enjoyments towards spiritual pursuits and accomplishments. Insted, he would like us to run after the mundane and lowly enjoyments that rip us away from our creator and seeks to lay claim to these enjoyments as the defining purpose of our existence.
We can find unlimited spiritual enjoyment and pleasure in our learning of Torah, doing mitzvos and connecting to Hashem through the powr of Tefiloh-Prayer.
The Rambam writes in his letter to his Son regarding th Tefilos on Rosh Hashana, that “when a Jew closes his eyes in Prayer and supplication before Hashem and talks to him, he experiences an enjoyment the likes of which cannot be rivaled in any other way!”
<Heard From Rav Shimshon Pincus>
