Timeless Torah

When Rosh Hashana arrives, we wish each other a Happy New Year. The phrase is repeated again and again, but rarely does anyone pause to think about its contents. For example, what exactly is happiness? All of us pursue it, but a survey asking for its definition would produce as many different answers as the number of people questioned.
But if our supreme wish is to be happy, then the term must contain some familiar meaning. Undoubtedly, everyone would agree that a happy home life, a good livelihood, health, and joy from children produce happiness. But life shows us that few of us possess all of these things together. So are we then consigned to unhappiness? Secondly, experience has shown us that even the possession of all these blessings is no guarantee of happiness. Therefore, happiness must be something else altogether.
Let us examine various theories about happiness. The oldest theory is the hedonistic one, where happiness is achieved through physical pleasure and giving in to man's bestial nature. Although the Greeks two thousand years ago realized that hedonism was false, this theory keeps coming back to life. Unfortunately, we live in a time in which hedonism is not only enjoying a new lease of life but is actually thriving in the Jewish community.
The truth of the matter is that this sort of happiness has no value for the human being. To the devotees of this narcissistic philosophy, I simply recommend that they join their cousin (according to Darwin), the ape in the jungle. There the primate has no worries. They have their fill of bananas and you will never find a monkey sitting around moping and depressed.
Another theory about happiness is that man is above the animal in that he can raise himself beyond the cares of this world. This happiness is spiritual, thus the individual who wishes to be happy must renounce all materiality and live by the spirit. This theory is as false as hedonism for the common man, for the ordinary individual cannot achieve this state of spirituality.
Then there is the modern psychological theory that happiness is completely tied up with social life. A person who lives alone can never be happy. Happiness comes from being involved in society. But happiness which depends on one's relations with others is no happiness. Indeed it may end up being a formula for disappointments, shattered illusions, and mistrust.
Judaism's approach to happiness is related to the distinction between having and being. What one has, one can lose. What one is, cannot be lost. The error of all the above-mentioned theories is that they place happiness in the category of having and not being. That is why they seek happiness in material goods, spiritual solitude, or friends. But in truth, one does not have happiness, one is happy. And to achieve this desired state one must be true to one's own identity. For the Jew, this means living a Jewish lifestyle.
On this New Year let us then, wish ourselves a life of Jewish thought, of Jewish deed, of contributions to our own community, and to Jewry at large. Only this can cause a Jew to find harmony and joy with life.
Forgive me then if I skip the traditional blessing of, “Have a Happy New Year,” and instead I wish you, “Be Jewish. Be Happy.”