U'vchein Tzaddikim

וּבְכֵן, צַדִּיקִים יִרְאוּ וְיִשְׂמָחוּ, וִישָׁרִים יַעֲלֺּזוּ, וַחֲסִידִים בְּרִינָּה יָגִילוּ

"And so too, (When Mashiach comes) the righteous will see and be glad, the upright will exult, and the devout will be mirthful with glad song." (Shmoneh Esreh, Yamim Noraim)

The three types of man mentioned here; The righteous, the upright, and the devout, are three categories that men fall into. The Sfas Emes explains that they are listed in ascending order of worthiness. Righteous people (Tzaddikim) are those people who do the will of Hashem even when they “aren’t feeling it.” They push past their strong temptations for other things and they follow Hakadosh Baruch Hu even though they may not understand the Justice of His ways. The upright (Yesharim) are those people who have such perfect faith, that they never question God’s will or ways. As a result, they are in a constant state of joy; more so than the merely ‘righteous.’ [This is all according to Rashi’s opinion in the Gemara in Taanis 15a, that the upright are greater than the righteous. However, the Rashba over there holds that the righteous are greater. Seemingly this is because they have to put in more effort to go against what they want to do, and instead do what they know they should be doing. Someone who is constantly willing and joyful when it comes to his/her Avoda has less struggle, so the schar (reward) and accomplishment aren’t necessarily as great. -Unlike my Bio-Psych Professor, Hashem grades of effort.] And finally, The Zohar Hakadosh explains that the devout (Chassidim) are those who try to serve Hashem by doing more than the minimum requirements of the law; in effect they do Chessed with Hashem, kavayachol. So basically the moral is- We should all be Chassidim!!

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(Pic courtesy of Judaic Art Exchange)