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May 25, 2012
Happiest people on earth?
Judaism offers instructions for joyous living and contentment.
SORIYA DANIELS
In an effort to measure “the good life,” the Gallup Organization polled 1,000 randomly selected American adults each day over three years to inquire about their emotional status, work satisfaction, eating habits, illnesses, stress levels and other indicators of their quality of life. Once the results were in, the New York Times asked Gallup to put together a composite of who are the happiest people on earth.
One of the surprising finds is that Jews have the highest well-being overall of the groups studied – and observant Jews over the age of 65, especially men who are married with children, and who are living in a relaxed, warm environment (such as Hawaii or south Florida), were the most content, happy people on earth.
Jewish sources are replete with instructions for joyous living. To name but a few:
• Chassidism emphasizes joy as a precondition to elevated spiritual awareness, and teaches the avoidance of melancholy at all costs. Moreover, the Chassidic sages warn that excessive obsession with trivialities and minutia of Jewish law can become an unnecessary hindrance in the service of God due to its potentially disheartening nature.
• In the Book of Proverbs, King Solomon wrote that a happy heart is as good as a cure.
• A well-known Jewish maxim is that joy breaks all barriers.
• In Yiddish, the word nachas is loosely translated to joy, but, in Hebrew, there are 10 or so words for joy. Nachas is the kind of joy that comes from having children, one of the characteristics found by the Gallop poll that contributes to leading a happy life. Nachas usually refers to the joy parents have in watching children not merely grow bigger, but also grow into people who know what is valuable and important. To see a child extend themselves and help someone else, one of the tenets of Judaism, gives a parent nachas. To see a child make a blessing without prompting because they realize the importance of recognizing the good in the world is also true nachas.
• The Ba’al Shem Tov, the founder of the Chassidism, related: “No child is born except through pleasure and joy.” He continued, “By the same token, if one wishes his prayers to bear fruit, he must offer them with pleasure and joy.”
• Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, one of the most quoted Chassidic masters, emphasized living joyously with the simple faith that the Almighty is taking care of everything. Rebbe Nachman encouraged Jews not to worry or despair, saying that nothing destroys worry more than happiness.
• Jewish life centres around community, and the act of attending a minyan regularly, for example, helps one stay involved with other people and thwarts loneliness, another joy-buster.
• Prayer is considered by many to be a form of meditation, which has calming effects well documented in the scientific literature.
• Today, there are Chabad outposts all over the world, wherever Jews are to be found. One of their key philosophies is simchah shel mitzvah, the joy of performing a commandment.
The key to happiness within Judaism might be just that: with hundreds of mitzvot to perform, all given to us by the Creator of the universe, if we follow His instructions by doing a mitzvah with joy, existence brightens.
Soriya Daniels is a Florida freelance writer.
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