In Pursuit of Happiness

Just like many of you, of us, I also used the pandemic and related events in my life to ponder the things that truly matter in life – the quality of people around us, the relationships, the love, the community and the sense of belonging – but also celebrating, giving thanks, cherishing life and its blessings. These are all things that are “important but not urgent, and therefore tend to be neglected until it is too late”. I borrowed this verbatim from my favorite Jewish thinker and scholar, Rabbi Jonathan Sachs zt’’l, who had a God-given gift of putting thoughts into writing so eloquently and beautifully that writing anything else would just not do the justice here.

Below comes an excerpt from Rabbi Sachs’ essay on the ‘pursuit of happiness”:

“We have to make space for the things that really matter: relationships, marriage, the family, being part of a community, celebrating, giving thanks, being part of a tradition and its wisdom, a faith and its blessings, giving to others and sharing with them our joys and grief.”

“There has to be room in life for something bigger than us, larger than self-interest and longer than a lifetime. There are times when we have to let the soul sing, to express gratitude and know that what we have is God’s gift. That’s what living Jewishly does. It structures our lives around the things that matter – the things that are important but not urgent, and therefore tend to be neglected until it is too late. Don’t leave it too late.

“For this is what Judaism shows us: how to take hold of life with both hands and make a blessing over it. That is what distinguishes happiness from mere pleasure, and gives meaning to our years and days.”

This essay has a Jewish angle to it, as I am Jewish and erratic, but I encourage each and every one of you to embrace your own tradition because it is the tradition that keeps us rooted in this world #mentalhealth. I pray for 5782 to bring many revealed blessings, bring us perspective and make us make the things that matter urgent not just important.

With milk and honey,

Dvora