Jewish Life #1 The Supreme Value of Joy

Joy is a supreme value. Above all, joy is a social emotion. A person can only experience joy when shared. This implies an open house. A well-occupied and filled table is the way to give shape to this. 
 
Joy, in Hebrew, simcha, is the sensation that one feels when one is close to one’s own destiny. Simcha is an emotion shared with others. 
 
Joy is at the heart of Judaism. “Serve the Lord with joy,” says the psalmist (Tehillim 100:2). The root s-m-ch of the word simcha in this psalm is also at the heart of the book of Kohelet and is the theme of the festival of Sukkot. Rabbi Sacks highlights the message of Kohelet and Sukkot: “What redeems life and etches it with the charisma of grace is joy: joy in your work, joy in your marriage and joy in the simple pleasures of life. Take joy in each day.”[1]
 
In the book of Devarim, we read about joy as an imperative for a meaningful orthopraxis: “And you shall rejoice before the Lord, your God” (12:18). In Devarim 14:26–29 it says: “You shall rejoice, you and your household.… and the stranger, and the orphan, and the widow, who are in your cities, will eat and be satisfied, so that the Lord, your God, will bless you in all the work of your hand that you will do.”
 
“And you shall rejoice before the Lord, your God.” This phrase suggests, according to Rabbi Soloveitchik, that when one is in the presence of God, there is joy. A person is required to develop the ability to feel closeness to God every nanosecond of his life, to feel His breath on his face, to see Him in every phenomenon, in historical events, and in the majesty of nature. One must perceive God not only in miracles but in natural phenomena, and particularly in one’s own destiny. True simcha occurs only when a person feels himself directly in His presence and logically when he has a strong identity and a basic attitude of chesed (loving-kindness) and mishpat (justice) regarding others, above all for the stranger and the vulnerable (orphans and widows). 
 
On a personal level, joy and a positive mindset give a person energy and allow him to overcome obstacles. Joy enables one to actualize his potential. Joy is a natural inclination. Joy brings out a person’s hidden strengths. Joy opens the heart. According to Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, it is always possible for a person to see the positive, and one should rejoice over whatever positive exists in a particular situation. As he says, “The way to achieve constant joy is to identify one’s positive points and to be happy about them. Focusing on the positive is uplifting.”[2] According to him, a person must search for and find his good points. Quoting Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook, he says: “A person who is healthy in spirit and body will always be cheerful and joyous. This is the natural state of a healthy spirit.
 

Read more in the upcoming book of Dr. Gershom, A Life of Meaning and Joy: In Search of Social Identity Man. Pomerantz. [publishing summer 2024]

[1] Sacks (2017), Ceremony and Celebration: Introduction to the Holidays. p. 126. 
[2] Steinsaltz (2020), The Concise Guide to Mahshava: An Overview of Jewish Philosophy. p. 267. 

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