Why Are Torah Jews So Happy?

WHAT GALLUP COULDN’T EXPLAIN

In recent years Gallup interviewed hundreds of thousands of Americans about their lives. On the basis of those interviews Gallup constructed a “well-being index.” Religious people typically ranked higher than secular and religious Jews highest of all. Gallup even composed a composite of the happiest man in America — an Oriental living in Hawaii of above-average height over sixty-two married and with children earning over $120 000 per year and oh yes an Orthodox Jew. Alvin Wong an Orthodox convert living in Hawaii fit the portrait.

Part of the explanation of the higher levels of general “well-being” experienced by Torah Jews lies in the scientific research we cited before Pesach contrasting the long-range impact of “fun” activities versus that of a general feeling of purpose and fulfillment.

The pursuit of happiness in the form of hedonistic pleasures is like the pursuit of kavod (honor): the harder one runs after it the faster it recedes before him. As society has increasingly turned towards the pursuit of hedonic pleasures the rates of depression have risen. The reasons are not hard to discern. Moments of fun consist of a sudden break from the mundane a tickling of the nerve endings. But such moments are invariably the minority. When they become the goal life resembles an endless cycle of waiting half an hour in line for a minute-long roller cycle ride. 

Most of what we experience as unhappiness comes from an emptiness inside. The cure is to fill that emptiness. That cannot be done by either material goods or physical pleasures. A Lexus cannot be amalgamated to one’s being or fill the inner hole. Even when we attain the Lexus the inner disquiet remains. Failing to recognize why we convince ourselves that two Lexuses will do the trick or perhaps a Maserati.

Finally the pursuit of pleasure cuts us off from others. Other people become either competitors over limited material goods or objects for our use or important only insofar as they honor us. “Desire jealousy and honor remove a person from the world:” They make life not worth living. 

In the language of our Sages happiness is expressed as overflow as an expansion of one’s private boundaries to include others and ultimately to connect with Hashem. The more one feels interconnected the more one is led back to recognition of Hashem. 

A fascinating Rabbeinu Bachya links the “men of the city [Sdom]” to the Generation of Separation who said “Come let us build a city.” The latter proposed to build a tower to the heavens and wage war against Hashem — i.e. to sever the lower and upper realms. The former forbid seeking help from someone else or offering it; they rejected the existence of any fundamental human connection and mutual dependency. 

In a Torah society there is a constant emphasis of every member’s responsibilities and duties with respect to others and to the collective community. A full Torah life can only be lived in a communal context and not in isolation. Those who would be joined to Hashem must also be bound to their fellow men. 

Belief in G-d necessitates belief that life has meaning and purpose. If an Infinite Being perfect unto Himself brought the world into existence then He had a purpose for doing so and the world He created is filled with meaning. 

Not only does life in general have meaning but so do each of our individual lives. In Nefesh HaChaim Rav Chaim of Volozhin stresses that everything we do is laden with purpose. Every time we perform a mitzvah do an act of chesed learn Torah we open up the conduits of Divine blessing to the world. And writes Reb Chaim it should be our intention to do so. In addition each of us has a unique role to play in the Divine plan for revealing Himself: No one else was ever born into identical circumstances with the same abilities or confronting the same challenges — and thus no one else can reveal precisely what we can. 

The more these ideas of our individual importance and concomitant responsibilities become ingrained within us the easier it is to maintain a base feeling of well-being even in the face of the vicissitudes of life. 

Where Does President Peres Stand?

OBAMA-PERES SUMMIT IS CAUSE FOR CONCERN 

Ron Pundak director-general of the Peres Center for Peace played a prominent role in the recent J Street Conference. J Street we remind you is the “pro-Israel” organization that urged the United States not to veto the recent UN Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements has opposed sanctions against Iran and is currently opposing a congressional petition against Palestinian incitement. 

Pundak told the conference the current Israeli government “was doing all it could to thwart a peace agreement” and that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad are a “dream team” for peace who unfortunately lack any Israeli counterpart. He called for President Obama to impose a solution on Israel.

Pundak’s remarks represent the familiar self-flagellation of the Jewish Left: If only we were more magnanimous peace would suddenly spring forth. It’s a peculiar form of Jewish hubris that believes the Jews can do everything and the Palestinians are irrelevant. Perhaps Pundak forgot that it was this “dream team” that refused to negotiate with Israel during the Netanyahu government’s ten-month settlement building freeze including in post-1967 Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem preferring to rely on American pressure on Israel or that the same “dream team” regularly visits the mourning tents of deceased terrorists and hails them as martyrs and names town squares after arch-terrorists. 

What is most problematic about Pundak’s remarks is that he is perceived as a spokesman for President Shimon Peres. Pundak was actively involved in the secret negotiations leading to Oslo and could never have been tapped to head the Peres Center without the president’s imprimatur. He contrasted for his J Street audience “Peres [who] believes in pursuing peace in any way” to the current Israeli government. 

Peres himself sent official greetings to the J Street Conference in which he said the “remaining gaps [with the Palestinians] are small.” He did not say which gaps have been bridged. Like J Street Peres does not like to highlight Palestinian incitement. In the heady early days of Oslo then–Foreign Minister Peres tried to prevent congressional screenings of Yasser Arafat’s speeches in Arabic calling for a jihad on Jerusalem. 

All of which raises the worrisome question: What did Peres tell President Obama when the latter recently received him for a long chat at the White House with a warmth never shown Netanyahu? 

A Tasty Metaphor

HOW MUCH IS INGESTING POISON WORTH?

On the nights she works late my wife usually prepares dinner for me. My input rarely exceeds lighting the stove. Recently however it included purchasing a carton of soy milk and adding it to the chicken curry. When I opened the newly purchased soy milk container it was missing the inner seal with a plastic ring. 

I wondered whether a disgruntled store employee could have tampered with the soy milk. But I had no wish to return to the store which would likely receive my claim that I found the seal missing with skepticism. On the other hand I had no wish to lose the ten shekels spent on the soy milk. 

So after sniffing the contents a few times I added the soy milk in smaller than normal amounts. I hoped that whatever poison was in the soy milk would not prove fatal once absorbed into the chicken. After consuming less curry than usual I headed for Maariv and my weekly constitutional around the neighborhood with my brother. 

During Shemoneh Esrei I could not escape the thought that I had ingested poison to save ten shekels. And before embarking on the walk I told my brother that if I collapsed while walking he should go to my home and take the soy milk on the counter to the hospital for analysis. 

Why do I share this story that makes me look loony? Because using soy milk that might have been poisoned to avoid wasting ten shekels seems like such a good metaphor for all the idiotic daily decisions we make where the downside risk is overwhelming and upside gain is infinitesimal. Sometimes those decisions are in the physical realm — rushing a left turn in front of oncoming traffic; sometimes in spiritual — failing to calculate the pleasure of an aveirah against the eternal loss. 

By the way it turns out that the particular brand of soy milk does not come with an inner seal.