Abstract
Both in his focus on the “essentially collective” nature of happiness in Judaism, and in his privileging of simcha over ashrei, the better-known biblical term for happiness, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks differed from others who have studied the Jewish view of happiness. Nahum Sarna, writing about the Psalmist; Hava Tirosh-Samuelson in her survey of pre-modern Jewish philosophy; and Michael Fishbane, in his study of “The Inwardness of Joy in Jewish Spirituality” all highlighted the individualistic nature of happiness in Judaism, with special emphasis on Torah study, pursuit of wisdom, and commitment to a way of life governed by God’s teaching. By contrast, Rabbi Sacks, operating in a world that views happiness as a natural condition, the way we are all intended to be, looked to counteract the paradoxical elusiveness of happiness in contemporary times. His solution was to focus on relationships. The Psalmist, the philosopher, the mystic—they had lived in different times and settings. Rabbi Sacks, living as he did amid “the acquisitive individualism of our late capitalist, postmodern order,” concluded that “the resilience of simcha, the joy that exists in virtue of being shared,” could provide Jews and non-Jews alike with “the ever-renewable promise of hope.”