T34 (Tinyana) PNC - Yisro's Joy from the Root — Reflections of Light

Among ordinary people there is no single joy that gathers all the goods together. At a wedding one is happy from the food, another from the music, the in-laws from the match itself; some feel jealousy and pain, not joy at all. Even those who are happy from each thing taste them only one after another, never all at once. The greatness of joy is reserved for the one who can rejoice from all the goods together as one whole — and that is impossible without looking upward, past the visible benefits, to the Root from which all goods are drawn. There, in the Root, everything is one — all joys are gathered as a single entity. From that vantage one's joy is from all the goods at once, and the joy becomes immense and shines with great light, because joys nested inside joys reflect off each other (hisnotzetzus) and the light multiplies. The more joys included, the more reflections; the more reflections, the more light. This is what 'vayichad Yisro al kol ha-tovah' means — Yisro looked upward, past the good itself, to the Root, where all the goods are one, and so he was joyful from all of them simultaneously.