Justice or Happiness: Which Will Jews Pursue?

Despite the war in Gaza and the many charges of genocide that war has generated, Israel is the eighth happiest nation in the world (https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2025/). Beware the change. Being happy while neighbors suffer is a sure sign of Empathy Deficiency Syndrome. That’s not something Jews had been plagued by previously.

From the day of Abraham’s calling until sometime after the Six-Day War, Judaism was a religion of the oppressed. And it worked as that. No group has persevered as long with as little against as much adversity as the Jews. And Judaism is the likely reason for that perseverance. It taught love of neighbor as self (Lev. 19:18) and pursuit of justice as divine command (Deut. 16:11). When Jews lived for love and justice, they generated hope for peace, which, even in times of terror, inspired subdued happiness.

In 1948, Israel ranked among the poorest and most religious nations. Now it ranks among richest and least religious. Half or so of Israeli Jews have abandoned Judaism. It is as Moses warned it would be in Deuteronomy (Chapt. 8).

In America, Jews constitute the richest religious group (https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2016/10/11/how-income-varies-among-u-s-religious-groups/). But some 30% of American Jewish adults have abandoned Judaism. This number rises to 40% among young American adults (https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/05/11/jewish-americans-in-2020/). Reform is the largest Jewish denomination in America, but the New Reform Judaism of Dana Kaplan et al (“A Life of Meaning, Central Conference of American Rabbis, N.Y., 2018) rejects traditional teaching and divine commands: “It can be nice to know something that is unchanging, permanent . . . but that is not something that we can offer in this book or in this movement” (p. XXV). “The notion of a single, unchanging core of Jewish wisdom is bogus” (Marmur, p. 40). Without the permanent, unchanging truths of Torah, there is no reason to love others as self, or to pursue justice. Happiness can become the goal, rather than the reward for reaching the true goal of selfless love or justice.

Americans claim that all men “are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” (Declaration of Independence). Have Israelis fallen for this fallacy? The real inalienable rights are listed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was ratified without dissent by the UN General Assembly in the year of Israel’s birth. And there is no mention there of any right to pursue happiness. Indeed, this pursuit is conspicuously absent as Article 3 reads as follows: “Everyone is entitled to life, liberty, and the security of person.”

Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar began teaching how to be happy, which quickly became the most popular course in Harvard’s history (https://gsas.harvard.edu/news/master-happiness#:~:text=He%20took%20over%20his%20mentor’s,)%2C%20became%20international%20best%20sellers). While learning how to be happy might seem patriotic, in Boston, it should have seemed sacrilegious in Israel. But Dr. Tal brought his happiness course to the Interdisciplinary Center at Herzliya and now the Happiness Studies Academy (https://www.happinessstudies.academy/abouthsa/). It’s a tragic mistake that threatens Judaism.

Even people who see eye-to-eye with Netanyahu must grieve for the innocent Palestinian victims in Gaza. This grief is the energy to solve the problem. Dismissing this grief in pursuit of personal happiness is the height of callousness. But that’s precisely what Jews of Israel, America, and across the world are practicing. They celebrate Shabbat, celebrated Purim, and will celebrate Passover and Shavot as if nothing were wrong. Innocent Palestinians have been slaughtered by the Israel Defense Force. That’s what’s wrong. And Jews across the world look away. That level of callousness is the antithesis of Judaism. Akiva, Hillel, and Jesus all taught that love of neighbor and stranger as self (Lev. 19:18 & 19:34) was the essence of Judaism. The Talmud agreed (H. H. Donin, To Be a Jew, Basic Books, N.Y., 1972, p. 41-60).

No one picks their parents. But for chance, Israelis would have been born Palestinian in Gaza. Israelis must treat innocent Gazans as Israelis would want to be treated were the tables turned. That’s what it means to love neighbor and stranger as self. Israelis can’t do that by being happy while Palestinians suffer. Without love, without kindness, mercy, and justice, without grief, when grief is appropriate, as it is now, personal happiness is not different from a crack high.

Let’s call upon Dr. Tal to acknowledge this fact and correct his approach to happiness. It is not an end in itself, but only the reward for pursuing or achieving Judaism’s goals of selfless love and justice as manifested by kindness and mercy. My new book on this subject, “Blueprint for a Dream: Saving Our Species in Seven Steps” is available at Amazon, and, free of charge, on the website, Thinktankmoms.com.