I recently heard this question on a podcast called Freakonomics, which explores everyday questions and situations and analyzes them from the perspective of economics. And their topic a few months ago was, Does Religion make you happy?
The podcast explored many different perspectives on the topic, explaining how religion provides community, social networks, and that religions can sometimes help a person get a job through the interpersonal connections that you make. And, oh yeah, as a sidebar, the podcast mentions that religion can give a person faith as well.
This led me to reflect on two basic questions:
1) What is the point of living a Jewish life?Let’s start with the second question – is Judaism supposed to make us happy?
2) And is Judaism supposed to make you happy?
In a wonderful essay, Prof Solomon Schechter z”l, the early 20th century leader of the Conservative movement, wrote an essay on what is called simcha shel mitzvah – the joy that comes from performing a mitzvah. He identifies at the outset that the halachot, the laws of Jewish tradition, have a harsh sound to them, suggesting that something external is forcing us to observe our tradition.
And as someone who works with children, I can tell you that children and adults alike despise any time that an external force demands burdensome tasks.
Schechter continues by talking about simcha shel mitzvah, the joy of observing Jewish tradition that is essential to the fulfilling of mitzvot. (148) He continues by describing the tale of a woman who celebrated the upcoming holiday of Sukkot. She recalled a rabbinic teaching of our, that we are supposed to make the sukkah like our permanent dwelling.
So this person took this mitzvah seriously, as some here may have in the past, and brought the children to sleep in the sukkah with her.
She was so looking forward to fulfilling the mitzvah of shaking the lulav and etrog that she woke up before sunrise, and waited impatiently for the first moments of dawn, when she could say the beracha over the lulav and etrog for the first time. (150)
I remember a similar story of our own Aaron Kamins, who was a part of the Kosher Ribfest this past year. He told me that, after everyone stayed up pretty much all night preparing the delicious fleishiks, that at sunrise a group of people gathered together for a Minyan. They did not only get a Minyan together because they had to – but because they wanted to, because it provided them with great joy.
After the exhaustion of staying up all night, working hard to prepare huge amounts of meat, one could imagine the shacharit service being a great burden; but it can also be an uplifting, joyful moment that relieves stress and exhaustion, bringing about a stronger sense of self and community.
Aaron and others found joy not only in the making of chicken and ribs worth salivating over, but more significantly found joy in the morning tefillot that followed.
Being Jewish is not simply for the purpose of happiness – that could be accomplished through something as simple as something like prepping and eating the Ribfest food. The point of Jewish tradition is that we live lives as Jews.
Rabbi Joseph Dov Baer Soloveichik, known as the Rav, talks about being an observant Jew as seeing everything in the world through a Jewish lens.
Simcha, for Jews, is always through the lens of mitzvot, our traditions.
During this coming week when we celebrate Sukkot, we get to celebrate one of the most joyful mitzvot – sitting in the Sukkah.
And I remember as a kid in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, even when it was freezing cold, we WANTED to sit in the sukkah. An outside observer would have looked in on us and said, what are you thinking? Even with the tradition of building a sukkah, someone from the outside could say, Moses NEVER imagined that people should sit in sukkot when in frigid, snowy Canada!
But we loved every moment of it: building, decorating, and setting up the sukkah. We loved bundling ourselves in jackets and extra scarves, taking in the smell of the evergreens. All we wanted to do on Sukkot was sit as a family and enjoy each other’s company. Our joy was made possible through the observance of the mitzvah.
For Jews, the joy is in the how-to – in learning how to do things like build a sukkah. We learn how to build it, we decorate it, we make it logistically happen.
And being Jewish is also about with whom we observe Jewish tradition. Judaism is celebrated when we do it with friends, with family, with community.
So while Freakonomics suggests that the happiness one derives from religion is based on financial success; and while general American culture tells us that we have a right to pursuing happiness; Jewish tradition instead insists that we find joy from elevating the most mundane moments – sunrises and sunsets, Judaism is seeking to elevate every moment, every place, every thing, every person that we interact with.
Our tradition teaches that once we conclude Yom Kippur we must immediately begin building the Sukkah, in order to transition from one mitzvah to the next.
Right after we finish ne’ilah, we are not simply supposed to rush to our break-fast. We are supposed to rush to the joy of performing another mitzvah.
So I ask you, what is the Sukkah for each of us?
What are we building during, and right after, these Yamim Noraim, these High Holy Days?
What is that mitzvah that you want to ensure you take on with extra joy this coming year?
Is it being more thoughtful in prayer?
Is it in how you perform tzedaka?
Or how you celebrate with your family?
More eager in providing meals for those in our community who are in need?
More active in causes for justice that will help change Chicago?
I challenge every one of us to go through the coming year and constantly ask the question: Am I finding joy in this mitzvah?
One of the new tunes that we introduced this year to the Malkov High Holy Day services is one to simcha le’artzecha – may we have joy in God’s land. The goal of Yom Kippur is to create a prayer service of meaning and yes, even joy – joy that we pray together, joy that we reflect for ourselves, joy in how we pray for a new year.
And our mission is to determine how to bring that joy into everyday life after Yom Kippur.
So may I offer all of us the following beracha:
May we discover Jewish tradition with open hearts;
May we find great joy and meaning in daily life;
May we share that simcha shel mitzvah, that joy of celebrating Jewish tradition with others;
And may that celebration lead to a fulfillment of the High Holy Day mantra simcha leartzecha – of bringing about a land that is filled with joy and peace.
Shana tova.
