Passing of Rabbi Israel Lipkin (1810-1883), known as "Rabbi Israel Salanter," founder of the "Mussar" (ethicist) movement.
A good life, like a powerful dynamo, is generated between the opposite poles of wonder and joy.
At its foundation there is wonder and awe—a sense that you stand naked before a presence that encompasses all and fills all, and that presence awaits you to act, and relies upon your action.
Wonderment then flows outward into beautiful deeds, helpful words and healthy thoughts—along its way encountering joy and delight.
And when there comes a time to rest, on Shabbat and special days, then that joy breaks out of its cocoon of your deeds, in an outburst of pure bliss and delight.
What could be more delightful, more worth celebrating, than a life spent each moment in the presence of an infinite, loving G-d?