Mina's Musings: Ki Tavo 2014
Ki Tavo: The Command to be Happy
Shabbat Shalom and Mazel tov to the Heifetz family. Katie is doing beautifully this morning.
As you can see, above our heads there are five Hebrew words which read: Da lifnei mi atah omed - Know before whom you stand. These same words are found in Jewish congregations throughout the world. But there is another phrase which is also found in many congregations, including one I once worked at. That phrase is Ivdu et Adonai B’simchah - serve God with joy. It is a wonderful sentiment, but it poses a challenge. You see, it is hard for people to rejoice in serving God, when many people quite simply don’t know how to be happy in general.
As Americans we are brought up on the idea as Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Constitution that “all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” We spend a tremendous amount of time trying to figure out how to be happy. Entire sections of book-stores are filled with self-help books to help us make our lives better, happier. People post pictures of cute animals and babies on Facebook to make themselves and others happy. Articles in magazines month after month are devoted to how to become happy. Something isn’t working or else we wouldn’t need all those books, all those articles!
By now you might be wondering why am I talking about pursuit of happiness this morning, two days past the 13th anniversary of 9/11, the same week our President informed us we are basically now at war again in the Middle East. Though you might think it, I’m not actually trying to escape from the reality of the world, though it is sometimes tempting. No, I am here to share some lessons from Torah with you. You see, in this morning’s Torah portion Ki Tavo we read the following (Deut. 26:11):
“And you shall rejoice in every good thing which the Lord your God has given to you, and to your house, you, and the Levite, and the stranger who is among you.”
As unbelievable as it seems, this verse tells us that we are commanded to be happy. It is more than our right to pursue happiness as Thomas Jefferson said. It is, at least for Jews, a commandment directly from God. On its surface, this is a rather puzzling commandment. If we already are aware of all the good things in our life, why must we be commanded to be happy? Shouldn’t we already be happy if we have so much good in our lives?
The answer is yes we should be, but many of us aren’t. There are many reasons for this, but most often it boils down to not understanding what true happiness is. We think our happiness depends on getting into the right social group, wearing the right clothes, going to the right school, getting the right job, or buying the lovely things we see on television, print-ads, and those annoying computer pop-up ads. From the time we are young we are bombarded with the message that if only you buy this product you’ll be happy. Whether it is a child hoping for a new toy, a teenager waiting for a new cell-phone, or an adult waiting to buy a fancier car or bigger house, we convince ourselfs that happiness comes to us from something external - whether it is from being in the right social circle to purchasing one’s way to joy. But, quite simply happiness cannot be bought with an education or a credit card!
A number of years ago I read a story in U.S. News and World Report that I keep in my office. It was entitled: “How to make yourself happy.” I kept the article because I liked it, and it reinforced what I had already intuited from our tradition. It read as follows: “although census data show that many measures of quality of life have risen since World War II, the number of people who consider themselves happy remains flat....Once income provides basic needs, it doesn’t correlate to happiness. Nor does intelligence, prestige, or sunny weather. People grow used to new climates, higher salaries, and better cars. Not only does the novelty fade but such changes do nothing to alleviate real problems.” The article continues by stating that scientists also know what works and lists some indicators of happiness - strong marriages, family ties, friendships, self-esteem, hope, spirituality “of the church-going” kind, and a sense of gratitude. The last three, hope, spirituality, and gratitude are all related, and as a rabbi I am tickled that a scientific study advocates what our tradition has always taught - practice gratitude, connect to God, and hope for the future.
Gratitude is the prerequisite for happiness. That is why Jews the world over start their day with prayers of thanksgiving. These many blessings we begin with each morning are designed to inculcate a sense of gratitude, which is the first step in being happy. By acknowledging that everything we have is a gift we cultivate our sense of gratitude. This is effective when times are good but even when times are bad. Each day of life - even on bad days - is a gift, and that is why the rabbis mandated that we thank God for the basics - waking us up, letting our bodies work, keeping us alive, having clothes on our back, being free, for helping us stand straight, etc. Inddeed the rabbis knew that once we begin to think about all the things we have, we often realize that we have far more than we thought.
Acknowledging all God has given us provides a spiritual connection which scientists have repeatedly said correlates to happiness. By remembering that every moment, every breath, every thing we have - is a gift from God, we automatically begin to think more about our relationship with God. This in turn provides us with a sense of hope - hope for a better tomorrow, hope for a better world, etc. Even when things don’t go our way, our connection to God provides us hope, another key element to true happiness according to the scientists. That is perhaps why the rabbis said that we should recite the Ashrei three times a day, for it is a prayer that reminds us from Alef to Taf, A to Z, the gifts God bestows on us, and its first sentence reminds us that happy are those who dwell in God’s house.
Now some people might say that the Torah cannot command us how to feel. To that I will simply say you may think it can’t or shouldn’t command us how to feel, but it does so repeatedly. We are commanded to love God, to love our neighbor, to hate evil, etc. To command happiness is no different. Not only that, we can increase our happiness by doing what our tradition commands - by cultivating gratitude which leads to a spiritual connection which then leads to a hopeful outlook and therefore makes us happier. It is for this reason that the midrash says in Tanhuma that if you observe the commandments and rejoice in them, God will increase your joy! Just as one mitzvah begets another mitzvah and one sin begets another sin, the rabbis believed that joy begets joy.
Over the summer for a few weeks Facebook was abuzz with the ALS ice bucket challenge. The last couple weeks I have seen a number of people participating in a gratitude challenge. I’m not saying you have to post it on Facebook, but everyone should challenge themselves in this way. The rewards will be great.
At this point, I could stop. But before I stop, I want to make sure that nobody misunderstands me. While the Torah commands us to be joyful, we are of course allowed to be sad sometimes. Just as the rabbis taught us that joy begets joy, they also said:
"At a time of joy there is joy, at a time of sorrow, there is sorrow."
My prayer today for all of us here is twofold: first, that we each have many more moments of joy than sadness and second that we allow each individual moment of joy to build upon the other moments, filling our souls, helping us to become the type of individuals who serve God, our family, our friends, and our community with joy every single day.