Said the student to his Rebbe: “I want happiness”. Replied the Rebbe: “First remove the “I” which is haughtiness. Then remove the “want” which is desire. After that, all that will be left is “happiness”.
The Zohar explains that the 613 Mitzvos of the Torah have two functions (1) “Taryag Itin” which means “613 eitzos” – advice, and (2) “Taryag Pikudin” – 613 Commandments, which include the great light of each Mitzva (פקודין is a lashon of פקדון– referring to the light that is “deposited” inside each Mitzva). When a person reaches the level of לשמה, he merits to feel the great light inside each of the Mitzvos. But before we reach that level, the commandments function as “Itin” – advice, i.e. 613 tools that help us learn to let go of the self and give our will and our lives over to G-d. Each Mitzva teaches us somehow to give up another aspect of the self. In every detail of our lives there are mitzvos. Whether we buy a house and put up a Mezuza on the door and a fence on the roof, or whether we dress and put on Tzitzis, eat and bless G-d, harvest our fields and give tithes and leave Shikcha and Peah, we Jews are blessed to have Mitzvos at every step and stage of our lives. And if this wasn’t already enough, our Sages came and instituted hundreds of mitzvos de’rabanan, prayers, halachos and minhagim. It seems that there is not a single aspect of our lives that is not governed by some halacha or another, even the way we put on shoes in the morning and the way we are to bathe ourselves. The Torah - and by extension our Sages, teach us to constantly live with G-d and for G-d, and to love G-d with all our hearts and with all that we have. Why? Does G-d need something from us? No. But it is the peeling away of the ‘Self’ that is the secret to the great light and happiness that He wants to give us.
With this understanding, perhaps we can now comprehend what is meant by the light of creation being hidden in the Torah. The Torah is a blueprint for letting go of the Self and learning to give over our Will to G-d. Not only do the Mitzvos give us this (as in the “Taryag Itin”), but Torah itself (when studied) has the power to help us let go of the self, as our Sages say המאור שבה מחזירו למוטב - “The light in it brings one back to good”.
But giving up one’s will feels like “death” at first. That is what the Zohar means by the “smell of death” on the tip of the vial. G-d specifically asked the nations to give up the very source of their strength and existence before they would be able to receive the Torah. Why? Because the great light of G-d is “hidden” in the Torah under the heavy mantel of the SELF. If the nations had been willing to give up their deepest desire, the one thing that defined them more than anything else, that would have been the opening for them to be given the Torah and access the great light of creation.
It follows from all the above that attaining happiness and the great light of G-d is achieved when a person merits to change their focus from the SELF to that of being of service to G-d. We also find this concept hinted at in Tehillim in a number of places. Here are 3 examples: