If You’re Happy and You Know It

Despite having a national history replete with slavery, exile, persecution, and pogroms, we Jews are supposed to be happy! Such ideas are mentioned numerous times throughout our holy books. In the Torah, in sefer Devarim (the book of Deuteronomy), we’re commanded to rejoice during the festivals. In tehillim (psalms) we’re told to “serve God with joy.” 

In the Talmud, even when discussing the saddest month of the Jewish calendar – Av – it doesn’t say that sadness increases during this month but rather that joy decreases. And Chasidic rabbi, Rebbe Nachman, even went as far to proclaim, “It's a big mitzvah to be happy always."

So what is the Jewish obsession with joy, and what is it exactly? It seems that according to Jewish thought, living a full life - even serving God to one’s full capacity - is not considered complete unless it's done with joy. If joy is meant to pervade our every action, then it can’t possibly be the giddy-rollercoaster induced kind of joy (since that wouldn’t be sustainable), but more like a constant contentment in life. 

Now finding contentment in life may not always be so easy, on a personal level and certainly not on a national level, but the fact that we’re literally commanded to be joyful gives us some further clues behind the Jewish idea of happiness.

Number one – it’s attainable. We have a concept within Judaism that the mitzvos are within our reach. So if we’re commanded to “serve God with joy” then there must be a way to fulfill this commandment, and it’s up to each of us to find the joy in everything we do.

But there’s an even deeper lesson we can learn from being commanded to live with joy: our Parent in heaven is concerned with our well-being and wants so much for us to be happy in this world. 

It’s like a kid who grows up and goes out into the world to make a life for himself. When he leaves, although his father is not involved in the day to day events of his new life, simply knowing that his father is there, sitting back at home, concerned about his happiness, brings a certain joy to the son’s demeanor.

We all have such a loving Parent watching over us, wanting so much for us to be happy in life. Let’s keep that thought in mind, go out, and find a way to do it!

Allison Josephs is the creator of JewintheCity.com, which features her online videos and blogs that challenge the public perception of Orthodox Jews and traditional Judaism. She earned a degree in philosophy from Columbia University and lives with her husband and four children.