BEHAR BECHUKOTAI 5781

One of the profound observations I have made in over 40 years as a rabbi, is that you can have everything in the world and still be miserable. We all know people like that. Or you can have relatively little and feel unbounded joy. It may sound trite to say this, but happiness is a state of mind. Can I say this kindly and respectfully? If you’re unhappy it’s probably because you choose to be.

We Jews have every reason not to be happy considering our depressing history replete with slavery, exile, persecution, pogroms and anti-Semitism. And yet the Torah commands us to be happy! In the 2^nd of today’s Torah portion, we have the Tochecha—the list of terrible things that will befall us if we abandon Gd’s Torah. Do you know what the worst sin is? Let me read it to you from the longer version of the Tochecha in Deuteronomy (28:47): “Because you did not serve Hashem your Gd with happiness.”

So the worst sin is not serving Gd with happiness. That’s why King David (Psalm 100:2) implores us: Ivdu et Hashem b’simcha, “Serve Gd with happiness.”

What it adds up to is that happiness doesn’t just happen. Happiness is a choice, an obligation, even a mitzvah—or as Rebbe Nachman puts it—the greatest mitzvah! That’s why the Sages further tell us that the Shechina (Gd’s Holy Presence) does not rest upon those who are sad or melancholy …but only upon those who are happy. So, regardless of your circumstances, regardless of how hard the Covid pandemic was for you, choose to be happy!

George Burns once said, “Happiness is having a loving, caring, close knit family…living in another state.” The loneliness of the Covid pandemic has exposed that lie.

The truth is, you may have people in your life, perhaps in your own family who are hard to get along with. They push your buttons and do things just to aggravate you. So you draw a line in the sand and say, “No more! I’m not giving away my joy. I’m not going to waste my life being unhappy because of how someone is or isn’t treating me. They don’t deserve to have that power over me.”

One of the most important things I ever learned is…that I am responsible for my own happiness! It’s not up to my wife Cheryl to make me happy…although she does—most of the time—just joking. It’s not up to my family and friends to keep me cheered up. Someone may be treating me wrong; they may not be doing what I want them to do; I may get ill like the heart attack I had last summer—but it’s not an excuse for me to live a bitter life. No one can take away my happiness or my joy. 

But what does one have to do to be happy? In the 1^st of this week’s Torah portions there’s a beautiful mitzvah given on how to treat down-trodden people (Lev. 25:35): V’chi yamuch achicha umata yado imach, v’hechezakta bo (If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself beside you, you shall strengthen him). Actually, it says, v’hechezakta bo, literally “strengthen in him.” What does it mean to become stronger “in” him?

The Chassidic master, the Skulener Rebbe, offers an amazing insight. When we do mitzvot of helping others, we become stronger. Therefore, the verse can be understood as, “When you help your brother you shall become stronger in him,” meaning “through him.”

And Medicine agrees. My colleague, Rabbi Elliot Pearlson, sent me a study from the University of Basel published in the journal, Evolution and Human Behavior. It found that people who volunteered to help others were happier and lived an average of 6.2 years longer. Lest you think it was a fluke, this study subsequently was replicated at the University of Western Australia and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin. Not only did these volunteers live longer, but they also had a higher quality of life as well, complete with lower blood pressure, lower incidence of ulcers, strokes and emotional stressors like anxiety.

Last week I shared with you what my friend and colleague from Israel, Yaakov Fogelman z”l, used to say: “The Torah is the Manufacturer’s (the Manufacturer is, of course Gd) manual for how to live in this world.” Through it, Gd teaches how a meaningful life should be lived. So, whenever we feel our lives are broken or not functioning at their optimum, we need to turn to the Torah—our “User Manual”—and v’hechezakta bo, find ways of helping others and your life will begin to straighten out.

My friends, although things are now with the Covid pandemic are getting better every day, there are still people having a hard time. Let’s make sure to reach out to them, aid them, make sure they have what they need: food, employment, self-esteem and respect. Let’s look for opportunities to help each other. For then not only will they be strengthened by our  actions, but we too will also become stronger and healthier as well. Amen!