Since the Biblical era, the quest toward happiness has been a chief focus of Jewish practice.1 However, the questions of how to be happy and the nature of happiness have often been in dispute. Judaism is a religion born of the influences around it. As Jews moved from place to place and encountered new peoples and ideas, they merged these novel approaches into their collective philosophical frameworks. Like the archaeological tel, these new idea were built atop the foundation of older ideals, creating tensions and contractions within which insights were forged. The Jewish approach to happiness is a wonderful microcosm of this phenomenon.
Bryan Turner and Yuri Contreras-Vejar, in their work on happiness, have identified a fundamental tension in the way societies have understood the concept.2 This tension can best be identified as the imagined dialogue between Aristotle and Saint Augustine. For Aristotle, happiness was of this world. To be happy was to attain pleasure in life through companionship, the fulfillment of ideals and self control. Saint Augustine had a very different idea. For him, happiness was found with God. In his view, one should look for divine favor and love outside of this world and the search would bring us joy and fulfillment.
The Jewish view on happiness was forged in the space between this dialectic, with some voices in the tradition choosing a happiness rooted in the experiences of the everyday world while others pursued a path through Divine connection. Even when both are options, there is debate around how much of each to include in the lifelong project of finding joy. Perhaps the most famous example of this tension appears in a talmudic discussion around the proper way to celebrate the Jewish holidays.
For it was taught3: R. Eliezer says: On a Festival, a man has should either eat and drink or sit and learn. R. Yehoshua says: Divide it—half of it for the Lord [and] half of it for yourselves. R. Yochanan said: Both drew their inference from the same Scriptural verse[s]. One verse states: A solemn assembly to the Lord your God (Devarim 16:8) and another verse reads: You shall have a solemn assembly (Bamidbar 29:35). How is this [to be reconciled]? R. Eliezer is of the opinion: Either the whole of it is for the Lord or the whole of it is for yourselves; while R. Yehoshua is of the opinion: Divide it—half of it is for the Lord and half of it is for yourselves.4
To understand this argument, one must understand its context. At certain key times in the Jewish calendar, Jews are commanded to be happy. The most famous example of this occurs in the book of Deuteronomy where Moses reminds the people of the proper way to celebrate Sukkot, the feast of Tabernacles that occurs in the fall holiday cycle. There the Torah commands:
Be joyful (ושמחת—v’samachta) at your festival—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites, the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns. For seven days celebrate the festival to the Lord your God at the place the Lord will choose. For the Lord your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and you shall be nothing but happy (שמח—sameach). (Dt. 16:14–15)
It is clear from this text that happiness (in Hebrew, sameach) is a legislated and commanded virtue. On Sukkot and other holidays, joy is not a suggestion. Jews are required to rejoice. The question for the rabbis, writing nearly a millennia later, was how one might achieve that joy. Would it be through the avenue of the world we can see or the world beyond our grasp?
The above talmudic discussion centers around an inherent tension within the Torah’s description of who owns and subsequently benefits from the holiday celebrations. Though modern scholarship would reconcile differences between books of the Torah by assigning them different authorships and historical contexts, our rabbis are not afforded this luxury. When texts disagree, they are compelled to harmonize them.
The text in Deuteronomy explains that the primary beneficiary of our holidays is God, “A solemn assembly to the Lord your God.” Our joy, like Augustine wrote, would come through our search for God. We would study God’s law and through encountering God’s words bring ourselves nearer to the Divine. In that closeness we would find happiness.
The text from the book of Numbers disagrees. Here, the holiday belongs primarily to the Jewish people: “You shall have a solemn assembly.” If we are to own the holiday, then we must directly benefit from our joyous acts. Eating and drinking, as we will come to see, is the archetypal this-worldly avenue to happiness in the Jewish tradition. Though more primitive than Aristotle’s prescription, both the Jewish and Greek views share the feature of achieving joy apart from God.
Noticing this tension, rabbis Eliezer and Yehoshua attempted to reconcile the opposing commandments. For Eliezer, joy cannot be split. Happiness is the wholehearted enjoyment of heaven or earth. Therefore, we need to serve either God or ourselves. Yehoshua disagrees. Joy can be fully felt and shared between the heavenly and earthly realms. We can spend half of our energy on God and the other on us.
Ultimately, Yehoshua wins. His discussion of holiday celebrations becomes a microcosm for the Jewish view on happiness. Joy is neither this-worldly nor other-worldly. Any attempt to understand the Jewish approach to happiness must include both divine and human avenues. The rest of this essay will outline many of the classical ways Jews have embraced both outlooks and will conclude with an examination of one important attempt to synthesize them.
Happiness of This World
Like the holiday of Sukkot, there are times in the Jewish calendar where happiness is mandated through law. During these periods, joy is a paramount concern. Because adherence to the law is nothing short of the fulfillment of God’s will, our worldly behaviors become a critical avenue to achieve happiness. It is much safer to seek out tangible sources of delight. We know if we have failed to touch, feel or taste something. Therefore if happiness is sought through these actions, we will be confident when we are done with them that we have done everything possible to pursue joy.
Perhaps the best summary of how to achieve happiness during the holidays can be found in the writings of Maimonides.5 In his opus, Mishneh Torah, Maimonides writes,
It is forbidden to fast or recite eulogies on the seven days of Pesach, the eight days of Sukkot, and the other holidays. On these days, a person is obligated to be happy (שמח—sameach) and in good spirits; he, his children, his wife, the members of his household, and all those who depend on him, as [Deuteronomy 16:14] states: “And you shall rejoice (ושמחת—v’samachta) in your festivals.”
The “rejoicing” mentioned in the verse refers to sacrificing peace offerings, as will be explained in Hilchot Chaggigah. Nevertheless, included in [this charge to] rejoice is that he, his children, and the members of his household should rejoice, each one in a manner appropriate for him.6
Beginning his discourse on happiness, Maimonides opens with a discussion about which acts might stand in the ways of achieving it. In his view, based on the views of earlier rabbis, fasts and eulogies take someone away from the joyous spirit needed during the holy periods of the year.
Eulogies here serve as synecdoches for all forms of mourning. As Maimonides reminds us elsewhere, it is a commandment to mourn when a loved one dies.7 During that period, we intentionally limit our joy. When one is in mourning, for example, he is forbidden from attending concerts and shows and prohibited from attending certain Jewish milestones like weddings and Bnei Mitzvah. The separation between joy and sadness, however, moves in both directions. Just as we don’t want our joy to take away from the act of mourning, we don’t want our mourning to limit our joy. The fundamental acts of mourning, avoiding social gathering, tearing garments, sitting on low stools and refraining from practices that involve grooming and shaving, are all harmful to the project of pursuing happiness.
Like eulogies, the act of fasting is detrimental to a Jewish path toward joy. The Talmud tells the story of Mar son of Ravina who would often fast during the year. However at select holidays the joy required from their observance would necessitate that he stop fasting.8 In ancient days, fasts were primarily undertaken as a last resort to sway God’s judgment. The talmudic tractate on fasting, for example, called in Hebrew masechet taanit, deals principally with fasts undertaken to affect rain in times of drought. Likewise, the fasts of Yom Kippur are rooted in the command in the Torah to “afflict ourselves” (Lev 16:29).9 For these reasons, fasting, while bringing us closer to God, causes us physical suffering and reminds us about the troubles of the world, both of which limits our ability to feel the worldly joy mandated by the Torah during our holiday season.
If, as we have established, the factors that limit joy are abstinence, pain and social isolation, it would follow that the opposite factors, indulgence, satiety and companionship, are necessary avenues to joy. Predictably, this is exactly the direction in which Maimonides moves.
Returning to the above quoted text, Maimonides begins by citing community as a source of joy, explaining that when a person seeks to be happy, “his children, his wife, the members of his household, and all those who depend on him” all add to his pleasure. He derives this imperative from earlier rabbinic discourse. Debating the importance of community as an important facet of joy, the rabbis write:
Our Rabbis taught: A man is duty bound to make his children and his household rejoice on a Festival, for it is said, Be joyful at your festival—[you, your sons and daughters etc.]. (Dt. 16:14)10
However, simply being with others is not enough. In ancient days, as Maimonides cites, one would rejoice through the sharing of the sacrificial meat. This worldly enjoyment would provide inspiration for later generations who would find other means of worldly pleasure outside of the Temple service. Again, Maimonides finds precedent for his views in the Talmud:
Rabbi Judah ben Bathyra said: When the temple was in existence there could be no rejoicing (simcha) save with meat […] But now that the Temple is no longer in existence, there is no rejoicing save with wine, as it is said, and wine that maketh glad the heart of man. (Psalm 104: 15)11
In the ancient world, wine was a major source of joy, and became the inspiration for the oft quoted folk adage, “There is no joy but through the eating of meat and the drinking of wine.” Though, we will soon see, the Jewish tradition has a complicated relationship with the overconsumption of wine and meat, the former was a paramount avenue to joy. As one talmudic maxim states, “aged wine delights the elderly.”12
However, wine and meat are not the only worldly pleasures encouraged on Jewish holidays. Continuing his discussion of joy on Sukkot, Maimonides adds to the above proscription:
What is implied (i.e. How can one attain happiness)? Children should be given roasted seeds, nuts, and sweets. For women, one should buy attractive clothes and jewelry according to one’s financial capacity.13
Like wine, clothing has a long history of engendering and facilitating joy. Mishnah Taanit teaches that the two most joyous days on the calendar were the fifteenth day of the month of Av14 and Yom Kippur.15 On both of these days, women would go out donning white clothes with the express intent of dancing in the vineyards and finding a husband.16 Additionally, donning a new article of clothing is one of the classic instances where Jews are commanded to say the Shehechiyanu prayer, a prayer accompanying joyous occasions where one thanks God for divine subsistence and “the opportunity to reach this day.”17
Like their parents, children also had an avenue of joy. As it was for their fathers, food would be their chief vehicle. Similar to today, sweets were seen in ancient times as delicacies. Honey, for example, was used to facilitate learning. In the medieval period teachers would write out the Hebrew letters using nectar and entice students to lick them in order to endear them to the act of study. They knew children would gain joy from eating the honey and hoped this would create a sort of Pavlovian affinity to their schooling.
Perhaps the most famous association between sweets and joy appears in a description of rabbi Akiva’s practice on Passover. There, in order to encourage the children at the table to ask questions about the Exodus story they would be given “parched grain and walnuts” as bribes.18 Interestingly, the fourteenth- and fifteenth-century scholar rabbi Nissim ben Reuven noted in his commentary on the Talmud19 that the major reason why children are given sweets rather than wine on Passover (their father’s source of joy) is because they had not yet developed a taste for it. Joy is a subjective experience and while we can legislate behaviors that we hope will bring happiness to an occasion, we cannot expect someone who lacks the palate for wine to gain joy from it.
In addition to food and clothing, Jewish law also legislates other avenues to joy. Shabbat, like Sukkot and Passover, was considered a time where happiness is mandated. The biblical prophet Isaiah proclaimed, “if you call the Sabbath a delight (ענג—oneg) […] then you will find your joy in the Lord, and I will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob” (Isaiah 58:13–14). To achieve this “oneg,” our rabbis required a number of behaviors, some of which we should pursue, others we should abstain from doing.20
Like on Sukkot, things that bring suffering are condemned. Yet, in addition to avoiding fasting (except in a few rare cases) and mourning, Shabbat brings a host of other prohibitions. Maimonides, taking his direction from earlier rabbinic writing, explains that “[washing] in water that causes diarrhea” or soaking “in quicksand” or “water [in which flax was left to] soak and which has turned foul smelling” are all unbecoming of the mitzvah of oneg (delighting in Shabbat).21 Furthermore, physical exercise for health or therapy is forbidden.22 The Jewish tradition understands what too many gym rats know all too well: exercise isn’t always fun. Though the debate over physical exercise on Shabbat would last for hundreds of years, eventually it was decided that when exercise is for pleasure rather than health then it would be permitted, but when undertaken for fitness, exercise may work against the command to feel delight.23
Two classic sources of this-worldly joy on Shabbat, not mandated during the holiday cycle, are lighting the Shabbat candles and engaging in marital relations. In the first case, the joy one achieves from the flickering flame supersedes the joy from food or drink. As Maimonides reminds us, “Even if a person does not have food to eat, he should beg from door to door and purchase oil to kindle a lamp, for this is included in [the mitzvah of] delighting in the Sabbath.”24 In fact, if one lights candles and does not take time to enjoy them, they are liable because they have offered a “bracha l’vatalah” or a blessing in vain, a sin whereby a person utters God’s name with the intention of fulfilling a commandment but does not engage in the act which accompanies the blessing.25
Like candles, sex is an incredibly important part of one’s Shabbat observance. Maimonides explains, “Sexual relations are considered a dimension of Sabbath pleasure. Therefore, Torah scholars who are healthy set aside Friday night as the night when they fulfill their conjugal duties.”26 Here, Maimonides is making an important point. Jewish law requires each person to provide their wives with a minimum amount of sexual pleasure. To determine this minimum measure, they weigh a person’s marital obligations with their professional duties. Camel drivers and sailors, for example, are often away from home. Therefore, they are exempt from regular relations with their wives. Scholars, who return home nightly, are required at least weekly to engage in marital relations.27 Thus, Maimonides is reminding us that when faced with the choice of when to have their weekly marital tryst, one should choose Shabbat in order to bring more bodily and this-world pleasure to the day. Like exercise, only when sex is fun and enjoyable does it fulfill the command to delight in Shabbat. However, unlike exercise, its absence is worse than its misuse. One of the five classic ways we are supposed to “afflict” ourselves on Yom Kippur is to refrain from sexual relations.28 Not only is sex considered too joyous for such a solemn day, but the knowledge that it is forbidden is meant to add to the somberness of the festival. Therefore, engaging in sex makes an explicit statement that the day should be joyous and a day free from “afflictions.”
In all of the above cases, happiness is felt in the most tangible and human ways. Whether eating, drinking, marveling at a flame’s beauty or making ourselves beautiful through dress, the world we live in is filled with amazing ways to find joy. During periods of the year when we are commanded to feel happy, these become paramount tools to feel delight. However, they are not the sole avenues the Jewish tradition has to offer.
Happiness through God
As our opening text stated, study is the emblematic other-worldly avenue to happiness.29 There are many famous accounts in rabbinic literature of the act of study bringing joy to those who engage in it. The Talmud tells the story of Rav Sheshet who used to revise his studies every 30 days exclaiming “Rejoice, O my soul, Rejoice. O my soul; for thee have I read [the Bible], for thee have I studied [the Mishnah].”30 For him, the simple act of reading the Bible or studying Mishnah engenders profound happiness.
A second example of joy through learning comes from an unlikely place. According to classical Jewish law, Torah study is forbidden on fast days like Tisha B’av, which commemorates the destruction of the First and Second Temples. The primary source for this prohibition appears in the Talmud:
Our rabbis taught, all of the commandments that apply to a mourner apply on Tisha B’Av […] One may not read the Torah, the Prophets or the Writings, one may not study Mishna, Talmud, or Midrash […]. The schools are closed on that day as it states (Tehillim 19:9) “The commandments of God are just, they cause the heart to rejoice.”31
Commenting on the reason for this prohibition, the nineteenth-century legalist rabbi Yechiel Michel Epstein wrote in his work Aruch Hashuchan,
In truth, it is very difficult for a scholar who is studying, because his mind will involuntarily think of questions and answers and the like. However, based on what I wrote, it is not a problem because all matters of Torah bring a certain element of joy (simcha), even the somber matters. However, the suffering [of the day] nullifies the joy. Therefore, even if one thinks of a novel idea, the suffering is not nullified.32
These two texts tell a clear story about the power of Torah to affect joy; however, despite the two teachings, one is still left with the question: why does study bring joy? Whereas this-worldly acts like eating and drinking are self-explanatory, it is not entirely clear why the act of study brings one closer to God. For this answer, one must look deeper at the sources surrounding the centrality of study. Though there are many, I will give three classical answers of why study links humanity and heaven and how this act engenders happiness.
Study as a Divine Sexual Encounter
As we established in the previous section, sex is an important source of joy. However, throughout time, sex has also become a metaphor for the unity felt between humanity and God. Most notably this appears in the move during the rabbinic period to reframe the sexual language of Song of Songs into an account of the relationship between God and the Jewish people.33 However, there are many other examples of this phenomenon. In a particularly graphic account the Talmud explains,
R. Samuel b. Nahmani expounded: With reference to the Scriptural text (Proverbs 5:19): “Loving hind and a graceful roe etc.” Why were the words of the Torah compared to a “hind”? To tell you that as the hind has a narrow womb and is loved by its mate at all times as at the first hour of their meeting, so it is with the words of the Torah—They are loved by those who study them at all times as at the hour when they first made their acquaintance. “And in graceful roe”? Because the Torah bestows grace upon those who study it. “Her breasts will satisfy thee at all times.” Why were the words of the Torah compared to a breast? As with a breast, however often the child sucks it so often does he find milk in it, so it is with the words of the Torah. As often a man studies them so often does he find relish in them—“With her love wilt thou be ravished always,” as was the case with R. Eleazar b. Pedath, for instance. It was said of R. Eleazar that he sat and studied Torah in the lower market of Sepphoris while his linen cloak lay in the upper market of the town.34
Here, there is no mistaking the sexual overtones. The study of Torah is akin to sex with a perpetual virgin and the act of sucking on a breast. Both of these are ecstatic experiences, meant to bring the learning into an other-worldly euphoric state like the one realized by Eleazer ben Padath who would study Torah naked in the streets of Sepphoris.
Eleazer ben Padath was not the only sage who felt that Torah study was a sexual experience. For a talmudic sage known as Ben Azzai, Torah too was an avenue of sexual unity with God and God’s word. In a rabbinic discussion where Ben Azzai is questioned by a contemporary about why he commands others to procreate while he refuses to marry, Ben Azzai responds, “What shall I do? My soul desires Torah. Let the world continue by the efforts of others!”35
For Ben Azzai, marriage was extraneous because the Torah fulfilled his sexual needs. Though he was an extreme example of sexual satiety through Torah study, the rabbis believed that his experience, along with that of Eleazer ben Pedath, was universal. Eliezer Diamond, in his book Holy Men and Hunger Artists: Fasting and Asceticism in Rabbinic Culture, explains:
It may be that the tension between study and sex is alluded to by R. Hanan who said, “Why is the Torah called tusya [in Isa 28:29]? Because it saps [mateset] one’s strength.” It was commonly believed in late antiquity that intercourse had a significant weakening effect on the body. The rabbinic position being expressed here is that study is like sex in this respect. Therefore, one can have a life of prodigious study or intense sexual activity, but not both.36
In essence, when we are told that to be happy we should “sit and study,” we will soon learn there is little that is tedious about the act. The joy partners get in the bedroom exists in the study halls as well. Torah study brings sexual satisfaction. Through God’s word we become more intimately connected with the Divine.
Study as a Taste of Heaven
There is little question that religious conceptions of the afterlife deal a great deal with the concept of heaven. In each tradition, whether Christian, Muslim or Jewish, the concept of heaven is synonymous with eternal joy. However, Judaism is particularly concerned with the idea that certain acts on earth are microcosm of heaven (Hebrew: Gan Eden), and the simple act of engaging in them brings God into our midst and rehearses the happiness we will feel after death.
Though the Talmud teaches that three things are called a taste of, or “one-sixtieth of heaven,”37 namely the peace and wholeness of Shabbat, the brightness of the sun and joy of sex, there are others, including study, which also serve the purpose of reminding us of our eternal reward and previewing heavenless bliss. Two powerful rabbinic depictions of heaven follow:
Ulla Bira’ah said in the name of R. Eleazar: In the days to come the Holy One, blessed be He, will hold a chorus for the righteous and He will sit in their midst in the Garden of Eden and every one of them will point with his finger towards Him, as it is said, And it shall be said in that day: Lo, this is our God, for whom we waited, that He might save us; this is the Lord for whom we waited, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.38
Rabbah said in the name of R. Johanan: The Holy One, blessed be He, will in time to come make a banquet for the righteous from the flesh of Leviathan; for it is said: Companions (chaverim) will make a banquet (yikru) of it (Job 40:30). Kerah must mean a banquet; for it is said: And he prepared for them a great banquet (Kerah) and they ate and drank. (2 Kings 6:13). Companions must mean scholars; for it is said: Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the companions (chaverim) hearken for thy voice; cause me to hear it. (Song of Songs 8:13)39
Both of these depictions see heaven as incredibly joyful. In the first, we learn that heaven is a place where the righteous listen to music in proximity to God. Knowing that through their just acts they have earned their place, they point with pride to their portion in eternal salvation. The second text adds another layer to our understanding of heaven; it is filled with scholars, sitting down to a banquet of Leviathan, a primordial sea creature, filleted for their satisfaction. Here, Torah study is shown to serve two purposes. It is the reason they have earned their place in heaven40 and it is the activity that brings them joy while in it. Though not explicitly mentioned in either text, this latter inference is more explicitly present in other commentaries.
Kabbalists, for example, felt that God revealed two Torahs to humanity. The simpler one was given at Sinai. Though it would contain law and history, it lacked the esoteric, intimate knowledge of God and heaven. The second Torah is the original, secret Torah (sod) that God used as the blueprint for the world kept. God reveals it to the righteous scholars in heaven after they die. The sixteenth-century mystic Isaac Luria writes, “For the Torah in which the Holy One took delight [before creating the world], as well as the Torah that the tzadikim learn in Gan Eden, is none other than its level of sod. Indeed, the Torah studied in Gan Eden was the initial Torah.”41
By understanding the role of Torah study as an avenue to heaven and divine connection and as the central activity of paradise, it should come as no surprise that Torah study is a source of joy here on earth. As one studies they are not only happily assured of their own place in Gan Eden but the act of study itself becomes a rehearsal for eternity.
Study as Revelation
Revelation is the act of Divine disclosure of truth. In the moment of revelation, humanity and God are proximate and connected. Though revelation happened at Mount Sinai though God’s giving of the Torah, revelation happens in small parts every day through the sacred literature of Judaism. However, Torah study is different than the Jewish experience at Sinai because it is delayed revelation. It has been taught that at Sinai, God revealed not only the Torah in its written form but every interpretation that has and will be given on it. If that is true, then the act of studying transports Jews back to Sinai, recreating a piece of the original revelation and facilitating a divine encounter.
God’s presence during the revelation of study is clearly stated in many Jewish texts. The Mishnah teaches, “Rabbi Halafta from the village of Chanania says: where ten sit together immersed in Torah study, the divine presence dwells in their midst.”42 The text then goes on to explain that even if five, three, two or one person studies, God is still present. Here, as people learn, they draw God into the room. Interestingly, this may be one of the reasons why one is required to study in a state of partial purity. Just as Moses demanded the people be pure during the Sinai experience43 so too does the learner need to avoid situations while learning that would involve filth or bodily excrement—reading Torah in the bathroom, for example, is a forbidden practice according to Jewish law. Here, drawing God into our midst for a divine encounter necessitates that we are in a state to welcome the Divine.
The original revelation at Sinai was considered an incredibly happy experience. Tanna D’Bei Eliahu states, “The Revelation at Sinai came down in a language of joy.”44 Part of the reason for this happiness is because Sinai was the place where God and Israel were joined together in the symbolic bonds of marriage. With Israel as the bride and God as groom, the two parties sealed their fate together.45 As one unit, God could convey the lessons of the Torah and the Jewish people could accept them both in their time and as proxy for future generations.46
If the original revelation was a time of profound happiness, it follows then that the study serves the same purpose. By bringing God into their midst, the learner embodies the talmudic teaching of rabbi Papa, “There is no grief in the Presence of the Holy One blessed be He; for it is said: Honour and majesty are before Him; strength and happiness are where he dwells” (1 Chron. 16:27).47 Each act of learning Torah becomes a microcosm of the joy of Sinai, a reencounter with the Divine and a renewal of vows.
***
Though Torah study is one such other-worldly avenue to happiness it is not alone. Much of what has been examined in regard to Torah study as an encounter sexually, historically and eschatologically with God can be translated to aspects of other commandments. Like study, prayer and kashrut, Shabbat and holiday observances, all contain other-worldly elements that connect the practitioner to God, securing their place in the world-to-come and connecting them with their ancestors. Though less tangible than food and drink, these avenues to happiness are equally profound.
Hospitality as the Synthesis of Two Avenues to Happiness
While we have established a clear dichotomy between this-worldly and other-worldly sources of happiness, there have been movements throughout time to break down this distinction. Each source of happiness comes with its own risks. On the one hand, this-worldly sources of happiness like food, drink and sex can easily become hedonistic. On the other hand, other-worldly sources of happiness like study and prayer can remove a person from the world and create a harmful strain of asceticism. The Jewish tradition has worked hard to mediate these tensions and has sought to bring about joy in the healthiest way possible.
To combat hedonism, the rabbis cautioned against gluttony and drunkenness. In the Bible, both were primary causes for an insolent and rebellious child to be stoned.48 Wine in particular was troubling to the rabbis. While there are certainly positive statements about the power of wine in the tradition,49 negative warnings in the Talmud far outweigh the positive sentiments. The rabbis liken a drunk to a “pig” and a “monkey.”50 In addition the Talmud says that one who prays while drunk is performing an abomination.51 However, perhaps the most salient response to hedonism as a path toward happiness appears in Maimonides’ discussion about the power of eating and drinking on Shabbat:
Eating meat and drinking wine on the Sabbath is a form of pleasure for a person, provided this is within his [financial] capacity. On the Sabbaths and holidays, a significant meal at which wine will be served is forbidden to be scheduled for the time the house of study is in session. Instead, the practice of the righteous of the former generations would be as follows: A person would recite the morning service and the additional service in the synagogue. Afterwards, he would return home and partake of the second [Sabbath] meal. He would then proceed to the house of study, to read [from the Written Law] and to study [the Oral Law] until the afternoon, at which time he would recite the afternoon service. He would then [partake of] the third [Sabbath] meal, a significant [sitting] at which wine is served, and continue eating and drinking until the Sabbath passed. (Hilchot Shabbat 30:10)
Here, in addition to the notion that the enjoyment of worldly pleasures should not lead one to poverty, Maimonides makes an important claim about priorities. Like it was for Yehudah, a day of happiness must consist of a mixture of this-worldly and other-worldly actions. One begins with the morning service to assure that eating and drinking will not get in the way of prayer. Only then may a person return home for food and drink. However, this gastronomical interlude cannot last too long. Soon, he must turn around and head off to the house of study where he will find happiness in a very different realm only to return at the end of the day for more eating and drinking.
Though one might think that this schedule is meant to temper one’s instinct toward excessive physical enjoyment, it also serves the purpose of tempering our ascetic impulse. Since study and prayer are established avenues of happiness, one runs a risk of forgetting or rejecting worldly pleasures in light of them. Maimonides again writes,
A person might say, “Since envy, desire, [the pursuit] of honor, and the like, are a wrong path and drive a person from the world, I shall separate from them to a very great degree and move away from them to the opposite extreme.” For example, he will not eat meat, nor drink wine, nor live in a pleasant home, nor wear fine clothing, but, rather, [wear] sackcloth and coarse wool and the like—just as the pagan priests do. This, too, is a bad path and it is forbidden to walk upon it. Whoever follows this path is called a sinner [as implied by Numbers 6:11’s] statement concerning a nazarite: “and he [the priest] shall make an atonement for him, for his having sinned regarding [his] soul.” Our sages declared: If the nazarite who abstained only from wine requires atonement, how much more so does one who abstains from everything. Therefore, our Sages directed man to abstain only from those things which the Torah denies him and not to forbid himself permitted things by vows and oaths [of abstention]. Thus, our Sages stated: Are not those things which the Torah has prohibited sufficient for you that you must forbid additional things to yourself? This general statement also refers to those who fast constantly. They are not following a good path, [for] our Sages have forbidden a man to mortify himself by fasting. Of all the above, and their like, Solomon directed and said: “Do not be overly righteous and do not be overly clever; why make yourself desolate?” (Ecclesiastes 7:16)52
In this statement, Maimonides finds two sources to prove that asceticism is antithetical to a holistic Jewish life. He first likens the ascetic to a more extreme version of a Nazarite, a person who makes a vow to God consisting of ascetic acts like abstaining from wine and keeping one’s hair uncut. Since, he says, a Nazarite needs to offer a sacrifice of atonement for this small act of asceticism, how much the more so should a person who gives up all worldly pleasures require atonement? Following this discussion, Maimonides turns to the concept of why we should keep the commandments rather than embellish them. In his view, Judaism is a perfectly closed system. It needs nothing added or taken away. He believes that in God’s plan there is a place for eating just as there is a place for fasting. Through adherence to the Jewish halachic (legal) system, one can find a perfect middle ground. In his view, taking his inspiration from Ecclesiastes, one who pursues asceticism is “overly righteous” and risks bringing “desolation” upon himself. Here, the use of “desolation” (Heb: tishomem) is no accident. Used often to describe the emptiness of the desert, Maimonides is asking through the quote, “Why would you give us your path to happiness and seek it among the barren and dangerous?”
In light of our need to mediate between the hedonistic and the ascetic paths to happiness, how can one find the balance between the need to wholly embrace the happiness of food and drink with that of study, prayer and a life that fulfills God’s commandments? The answer is charity and hospitality. In his same discussion of eating and drinking as a means of rejoicing on holidays (quoted above), Maimonides ends his treatise with a warning:
When a person eats and drinks [in celebration of a holiday], he is obligated to feed converts, orphans, widows, and others who are destitute and poor. In contrast, a person who locks the gates of his courtyard and eats and drinks with his children and his wife, without feeding the poor and the embittered, is [not indulging in] rejoicing (simcha) associated with a mitzvah (commandment), but rather the rejoicing of his gut.53
Rejoicing is not a solo experience. This-worldly pleasures are only useful insofar as they can be shared. A person who eats and drinks for himself only is engaging in an incomplete joy. He is filling his stomach but not his soul. Hospitality is the path toward true happiness. Even without excessive consumption, eating without sharing is hedonistic.
Maimonides finds proof for his statement in the original commandment to rejoice in the book of Deuteronomy, “You shall rejoice on your festival together with your son and your daughter, your male and your female servants, the Levite, the convert, the orphan, and the widow.”54 Here, the operative word is “with.” In order to rejoice we must do it with others, whether our own kin or the stranger that lives in our midst. The reason for this is because while eating and drinking are this-worldly acts, sharing and hospitality are innately other-worldly. In a related discussion about feeding the poor on Purim, Maimonides writes, “There is no greater and more splendid happiness than to gladden the hearts of the poor, the orphans, the widows, and the converts.”
One who brings happiness to the hearts of these unfortunates resembles the Divine Presence, which Isaiah [57:15] describes [as having the tendency] “to revive the spirit of the lowly and […] those with broken hearts.”55
Like study, which allows a person to simultaneously embody heaven and revelation, charity allows us to embody Godliness by imitating God’s ways.56 Later, the Kabbalists would expand on this notion. When a person facilitates a feast on earth, he or she creates a parallel heavenly feast. They imagined that each day of sukkot, seven angelic forefathers (called ushpizin)57 visit a person while he is sitting in his sukkah. Like a good host, one should seek to feed these guests. However, the Kabbalists understood there was one problem with this intention; spirits can’t eat. How then do we entertain these ushpizin? The poor and destitute become their proxies and their enjoyment becomes the enjoyment of the heavenly visitors.
The second verse quoted above: “they shall dwell in booths” is for those of us (Jews) in this physical world, for those who are a part of the Holy People and have a portion in the Holy Land sits in the shade of true faith with the Ushpizin, to rejoice in this world and in the World to Come (where his soul will be elevated to bina, the place of rejoicing). And we must gladden the poor, for the portion of the [spiritual] guests he invited comes from the enjoyment felt by the poor when they eat [and it is as if he has placed it before the Ushpizin].58
In Judaism, happiness may be felt through food and drink or through observing commandments like study and prayer but the truest forms of happiness are found when this-worldly and other-worldly sources of joy are mixed. Hospitality provides a synthesis of the sometimes conflicting views of happiness and makes it possible to bring together the visions of Aristotle and Saint Augustine.
Conclusion
Can you be commanded to be happy? In truth, the answer is no. Judaism has a long history of walking back ancient legislation on emotions.59 It is just too dangerous to force someone to feel something. Since we can’t control our thoughts, it is too easy to sin. However, just because you can’t be told to be happy doesn’t mean that you can’t be guided in that direction. Over many centuries of discussion, the commandment “you shall be nothing but happy” (Dt. 16:15) has become less a mandate than a proscription: Keep the laws and you will feel joy.
In a way, the command to seek happiness demands faith. The Jewish tradition has laid out a highly specific spiritual curriculum that promises that if we follow it, we will find delight. Happiness may feel far away but if you take that bite, savor that sip, study that page or perform that precept, it will come. Jewish practice is a diverse path to happiness. And since joy is so multifaceted it only makes sense that the avenues to achieving it must be manifold as well. If we lack the physical means to achieve happiness there is a spiritual path. When God feels absent in the world we have tangible sources of joy.
Joy is experienced in this world with heavenly implications. It is of the body and of the soul. It is meant for today and the hereafter. If religion is a path toward achieving fulfillment, pleasure, joy and delight, then why wouldn’t one seek out as many diverse avenues to achieve these things? Happiness is a case study in how multiple routes toward a goal can find a place beside one another and how the thoughtful merging of the two can bring wholeness and union to the experience of living.
1Because I am a Jews and rabbi I cannot differentiate myself from these texts and from the Jewish tradition. Although this chapter seeks to be an academic study of happiness in Judaism, I will, from time to time, use the first person plural when speaking about Jewish experience of observing commandments and seeking happiness.
2Turner, Brian and Yuri Contreras-Vejar. “Happiness.” Found at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281207797_Happiness.
3All talmudic quotes are taken from the Soncio translation of the Babylonian Talmud and all Maimonides quotes are taken from the Touger translation available for free on www.chabad.org.
4Beitza 15b. For a parallel text with a few minor variations see Talmud Pesachim 68b.
5Maimonides is perhaps the most famous and important medieval Jewish legalist who lived most of his life in Northern Africa and Israel. He lived primarily in the twelfth century and died in 1204.
6Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Yom Tov 6:17.
7Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Avel 1:1.
8Talmud, Pesachim 68b.
9Talmud Yoma 76a.
10Talmud, Pesachim 109a. The full verse, not quoted in its entirety in the Talmud reads, “Be joyful at your festival—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites, the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns.”
11Ibid.
12Talmud, Megillah 16b.
13Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Yom Tov 6:18.
14Often called the “Jewish Valentine’s Day” this day historically was a day when women would seek out a husband. For other historical occurrences on this day see Talmud, Taanit 31a.
15Though this is a day of fasting and prayer, historically this is also the day that God granted forgiveness to the Israelites for the sin of the golden calf. This act of divine grace is the reason that Yom Kippur is considered a particularly joyous day (see Taanit 31a).
16Mishnah Taanit 4:8.
17See Shulkan Aruch 223:3 f.f.
18Talmud, Pesachim 109a.
19Folio 23a loc cit “ma.”
20There are more than a half dozen words for happiness or joy in the Jewish tradition. Though the chief word in holiday celebrations is simcha and for shabbat is oneg they are often used interchangeably to express the same phenomenon.
21M. T. Hilchot Shabbat 21:29.
22See Toseftah Shabbat 17:22 and M. T. Hilchot Shabbat 21:28.
23See Shulkan Aruch Orach Chayim 301:2 and the accompanying Mishnah Berurah.
24M. T. Hilchot Shabbat 5:1.
25See Shulkan Aruch Orech Chayim 263:9.
26Hilchot Shabbat 30:14.
27Mishnah Ketubot 5:1: The times for conjugal duty prescribed in the Torah are: for men of independence, every day; for laborers, twice a week; for ass-drivers, once a week; for camel-drivers, once in 30 days; for sailors, once in six months.
28The others are not: eating/drinking, anointing, wearing sandals and bathing (see Talmud, Yoma 73b). These are derived by the five-fold command to “afflict” ourselves as found throughout the Bible (see Leviticus 16, 23 and Numbers 29).
29Prayer and the observance of the commandments serve similar functions. See M.T. Laws of the Lulav 8:15: “The joy that a person takes in performing a mitzvah and in loving God Who commanded it is itself a great [divine] service.” For the sake of brevity and because it was mentioned alone in Talmud Betza 15b, we use Torah learning as a case study. However, the same section could have been written for a number of other commandments to connect one to God and foster joy.
30Talmud, Pesachim 68b.
31Ta’anit 30a.
32Aruch HaShulchan, Orach Chaim 1:554:3.
33For a good article about the history of this phenomenon see Scolnic, Benjamin Eddie. “Why Do We Sing the Song of Songs on Passover” Conservative Judaism, Vol. 28:4 (1996). Found online: https://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/sites/default/files/public/jewish-law/holidays/pesah/why-do-we-sing-the-song-of-songs-on-passover.pdf.
34Talmud, Eruvin 54b.
35Tosefta Yevamot 8:7.
36Diamond, Eliezer (2003) Holy Men and Hunger Artists: Fasting and Asceticism in Rabbinic Culture. London: Oxford University Press, pp.. 44–45.
37Talmud, Berachot 57b.
38Talmud, Taanit 31a.
39Talmud, Bava Batra 75a.
40For a particularly interesting example of this idea see: Sixty angels stand on the head of each and every just man and urge him to eat honey with joy because he occupied himself with the Torah and to drink wine preserved in the grape from the six days of creation. (Seder Gan Edin, found on, Frank Manuel, Fritzie Manuel (1972) Utopian Thought in the Western World. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, p. 41).
41Likutei Torah, parashat Bereishit (Chumash HaAri, Bereishit, pp. 5–6). Translation found http://www.chabad.org/kabbalah/article_cdo/aid/379726/jewish/Creation-Hidden-and-Revealed.htm.
42Mishnah Avot 3:6.
43Exodus 19:10 says in reference to the Israelites preparing for the revelation at Sinai: “And the LORD said to Moses, ‘Go to the people and warn them to stay pure today and tomorrow. Let them wash their clothes.’”
44Tanna D’Bei Eliahu, Ch. 13.
45For examples of this teaching see Talmud, Taanit 26b and Talmud, Shabbat 88b.
46The notion that those at Sinai are proxies for future generations is derived from the statement in the Torah, “I make this covenant, with its sanctions, not with you alone, but both with those who are standing here with us this day before the LORD our God and with those who are not with us here this day” (Dt. 29:13–14).
47Talmud, Hagigah 5b.
48Deuteronomy 21:18–21.
49See Eruvin 651-b and the command on Purim to get so intoxicated that one does not know the difference between Haman and Mordecai (see Talmud, Megilah 7b).
50Midrash Tanchuma, Noah 14.
51Talmud, Berachot 31b.
52Mishnat Torah, Hichot Deot 3:1.
53Mishnat Torah, Hilchot Yom Tov 6:18.
54Dt. 16:14.
55Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Megillah 2:17.
56Maimonides likely found inspiration for this sentiment in the talmudic teaching:
R. Hama son of R. Hanina further said: What means the text: Ye shall walk after the Lord your God (dt. 8:5)? […] [the meaning is] to walk after the attributes of the Holy One, blessed be He. As He clothes the naked, for it is written: And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife coats of skin, and clothed them, (gen 3:21) so do thou also clothe the naked. The Holy One, blessed be He, visited the sick, for it is written: And the Lord appeared unto him by the oaks of Mamre, (Gen 18:1) so do thou also visit the sick. The Holy One, blessed be He, comforted mourners, for it is written: And it came to pass after the death of Abraham, that God blessed Isaac his son, (Gen 25:11) so do thou also comfort mourners. The Holy one, blessed be He, buried the dead, for it is written: And He buried him in the valley, (dt. 34:6) so do thou also bury the dead. (Talmud, Sotah 14a)
57These are: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron and David.
58Zohar Emor 103b, Translation by Rahmiel-Hayyim Drizin found at: http://www.KabbalaOnline.org.
59The most famous example of this is the way Jewish law has viewed the last of the Ten Commandments, which prohibits “coveting” a neighbor’s property. Later legalists felt uncomfortable with legislating against jealousy and redefined coveting as scheming against another, which would lead a person to “take that which he coveted.” Instead of prohibiting jealousy the rabbis interpreted the Tenth Commandment to forbid acting on it (see Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Gezelah 1.9). For another good example, see the many commentaries on Leviticus 19:18, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”