My young son came home from school. After giving him a drink, I treated him to a special piece of news. Tonight was the night he was scheduled to sleep over at his Grandma's house! The little boy was so excited—his face shone, he laughed, and then he began to dance: jumping and skipping, lifting his legs all about the room. The unabashed show of joy touched me. The laughter in his eyes, the movement in his feet, were his natural expression of the great excitement he felt.

When a person is happy, his first reaction is to smile. A smile can express varying degrees of joy, but if it is an intense joy, he may laugh out loud. Clapping is a way to show someone else your appreciation or your happiness, or to express your approval of a thing to others.

The highest form of joy is dancingIn Chassidic thought, however, the highest form of joy is dancing. When a person dances for joy, his happiness has spirited him upwards, and he is no longer tied down to this world. Not only are his heart, his face, his hands involved, but now the feet, the lowest part of himself, are included in the joy—and he raises them up. He succeeds in raising his whole self upwards. In such a state of joy, what will stand in the way of him serving G‑d in the sweetest way?

Dance with me!
Let the gladness of your heart
Spread to your face.
Share it with me
As you bring your hands together.
Joy rises to your lips
To your hands
Out to me
I see just light in your eyes
Your hands make music

Raise your feet up
Off the earth
And higher
Gravity alone ties you down.
Reveal the soles of your feet,
The lowest,
The hidden,
'Til they too fly
In twirls and leaps.

Feet off the floor
Hands in the air
Shining smile

Dance with me. Dance!
Dance with me, as I dance with you.