Why Are Torah Jews So Happy?

Why Are Torah Jews So Happy?

WHAT GALLUP COULDN’T EXPLAIN

In recent years Gallup interviewed hundreds of thousands of Americans about their lives. On the basis of those interviews Gallup constructed a “well-being index.” Religious people typically ranked higher than secular and religious Jews highest of all. Gallup even composed a composite of the happiest man in America — an Oriental living in Hawaii of above-average height over sixty-two married and with children earning over $120 000 per year and oh yes an Orthodox Jew. Alvin Wong an Orthodox convert living in Hawaii fit the portrait.

Part of the explanation of the higher levels of general “well-being” experienced by Torah Jews lies in the scientific research we cited before Pesach contrasting the long-range impact of “fun” activities versus that of a general feeling of purpose and fulfillment.

The pursuit of happiness in the form of hedonistic pleasures is like the pursuit of kavod (honor): the harder one runs after it the faster it recedes before him. As society has increasingly turned towards the pursuit of hedonic pleasures the rates of depression have risen. The reasons are not hard to discern. Moments of fun consist of a sudden break from the mundane a tickling of the nerve endings. But such moments are invariably the minority. When they become the goal life resembles an endless cycle of waiting half an hour in line for a minute-long roller cycle ride. 

Most of what we experience as unhappiness comes from an emptiness inside. The cure is to fill that emptiness. That cannot be done by either material goods or physical pleasures. A Lexus cannot be amalgamated to one’s being or fill the inner hole. Even when we attain the Lexus the inner disquiet remains. Failing to recognize why we convince ourselves that two Lexuses will do the trick or perhaps a Maserati.