Author Archives: Rabbi

Now, what conclusions could we possible come to ? That each of these terrorist murderers was a Muslim ? That Americans should be on guard against a fifth column that might number in the thousands, that is not reluctant to kill or to die, that serves a master that loves death more than we love life, that is part of a new world jihad ? Certainly no sane person would jump to any of those conclusions.

So the New York Times eight hours after the incident preferred to report that the shooter had “expressed no religious preference,” attempting to conceal his Muslim identity. And others – often Muslim apologists but not exclusively so – will pretend that this was an anti-war act having nothing to do with Islam, or the result of the stresses of serving (poorly) in the combat zone of Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington or his forthcoming deployment to the Middle East.

And people will find fault with the Army – why didn’t they foresee these horrific crimes given Hassan’s anti-American rants in the last year or two ? – to which the answer is: had he been discharged, or prosecuted, or demoted, or treated, he would have cried “anti-Muslim discrimination!” and “freedom of speech!” and his discharge would have been a cause celebre, and the anti-American and anti-Jewish haters at CAIR would have wrapped themselves in the flag and the Constitution defending his rights and lamenting his mistreatment. And most Americans would have joined them, and like sheep continue to tolerate the spectacle of old women with arthritis having to remove their shoes at airport security lest “good people” be accused of profiling the only targets.

These arguments – much like the Goldstone Report that is attempting to deny Israel any right of self-defense (more on that next week) are not serious arguments but ploys, rhetorical tricks that are seducing an entire generation – including politicians – that does not want to ever jump to conclusions, or, better said, just report the obvious.

And those who warn constantly of the threat of the home grown jihad will continue preaching to the few who will listen, unable to attract the attention those will not even crawl to conclusions, much less jump to them.

Hassan’s profile appears much like Israel’s bulldozer terrorists – people who exhibited no prior signs of violent behavior, and “appear” to have snapped. But “appearances” deceive. We will never learn, but can suspect, that there are sleeper cells among us that are activated at the will of the terrorists – that seem then to be random attacks but are not random at all.

Certainly we cannot jump to conclusions. But if we did, we could state the glaring and obvious reality that the last 25 years has banged us over the head with: not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims. And when all terrorists emerge from one group, then measures can be taken within that group – if the will is there – and from outside that group in order to protect society from their madness.

We can choose to see, or choose to not see. Americans who avoid conclusions choose not to see, and when those Americans are in positions of power and influence, we are all in danger.

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Posted in Contemporary Life, Current Events

The Pursuit of Happiness

Posted on October 30, 2009 | Comments Off

The Declaration of Independence acknowledged that mankind is endowed with a number of “unalienable rights,” among them “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” While the first two rights are generally understood in both general and specific forms – government cannot capriciously take another person’s life or encroach on his liberty – it is the third that has proved most vexing to define, categorize, quantify and achieve. Note, as many have, that there is no guaranteed right to happiness; rather the right is defined as the pursuit of happiness – each person in his/her own way. And therein lies the hoary problem: if it is a pursuit, how do we know where to find it? In what direction do we turn in order to commence our pursuit of happiness, and at what point do we say that we have found it?

A traditional Torah definition – happiness is the state of satisfaction of a being fulfilling the purpose for which it was created – is both provocative and accurate, but also requires additional explication. Fortunately, modern man quantifies, analyzes, measures and concludes from an inordinate amount of hard date – even in the realm of happiness – that leaves us capable of finding appropriate guidance. Thus, for the last 45 years, almost a third of Americans have consistently defined themselves as “very happy,” and despite great fluctuations during this time in income, social trends, and national stability (1972-30%; 1982-31%; 1993-32%; and 2004-31%). It is remarkably consistent.

These are the findings of a recent book by Syracuse University economics professor Arthur C. Brooks, entitled “Gross National Happiness.” Of course, the most critically important data delineate exactly what each person should want to know – what makes happy people happy? In what realms should we seek to find happiness, and what aspects of life should be enhanced? His conclusions are illuminating, at first glance somewhat surprising, and, upon reflection, most comforting to the Torah Jew.

For example, political conservatives have always polled significantly higher than political liberals on the “very happy” chart – averaging between 10-15% points higher, with the two groups only intersecting in 1974 and 1985. Equal percentages of secular liberals say they are “very happy” and “not too happy” (22%), whereas religious conservatives are ten times more likely to say they are “very happy” than “not too happy” (50%-5%). These statistics transcend ethnic groups and income levels. Religious liberals say they are as happy as secular conservatives (33%).

There are a number of reasons for this, all instructive. Conservatives generally value the role of the individual in society, and place much more emphasis on individual initiative and personal responsibility. Liberals tend to focus on the collective. Conservatives, thus, usually donate more money to charity than do liberals, volunteer more, and even donate more blood. Liberals generally support government solutions to social problems (health

coverage reform, anyone?), and therefore see their primary role as inducing government to act on behalf of the less fortunate. What is relevant here is not which group is more politically successful or logical, but that it is much easier to feel successful when one can rely on his own actions than when it is necessary to rely on the actions of everyone else, especially since the acts of the collective (even successful ones) do not necessarily reflect any individual accomplishment.

Furthermore, liberals are generally discontented with the state of society, and see injustice, victimization, and discrimination everywhere. They are forever, like the mythical Sisyphus, pushing the boulder up the hill and watching it roll down again, and are therefore less likely to feel happy than conservatives who wish to “conserve” the status quo, for better or for worse.

Even more to the point, and most reflective of America’s divisions today, conservatives are twice as likely as liberals to attend weekly religious services, and liberals are twice as likely as conservatives to never attend religious services. And conservatives are also much more likely to be married (2/3) than liberals (only 1/3), and more likely to have children and to have larger families than do liberals. (Children, oddly, decrease short-term happiness but increase long-term happiness.) Married conservatives are three times more likely to say they are “very happy” than are single liberals. Married people generally are six times more likely to say they are “very happy” (they had better!) than unmarried people. Almost twice as many religious people say they are “very happy” when compared with secular people (43%-23%). (Interestingly, agnostics are gloomier people than atheists.) Why ?

Religious people are more likely to be part of a nurturing community (social integration is a key determinant of happiness) and people who live in religious communities tend also to be more financially successful – because those communities reinforce a culture of hard work and prosperity. Religious people also have an innate purpose in life that affords meaning even to the most mundane aspects of life. It is understandable then that – to take the two extremes – 52% of married, religious, conservative people with children describe themselves as “very happy,” whereas only 14% of secular, single liberals without children describe themselves in that way. That validates, to an extent, Tolstoy’s observation at the beginning of “Anna Karenina” that “all happy families resemble each other; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

In another subset, people who donate money to charity are 43% more likely than non-givers to say they are “very happy,” and volunteers are 42% more likely to be “very happy” than people who never volunteer.

All these numbers are exhaustively and comprehensively crunched in this engaging book – you can literally look it up – and all to tell us what we already know (!).

The keys to happiness are:

Faith: “Serve Hashem with joy, come before His presence with song” (Tehillim 100:2) and “be glad of heart, all who seek Hashem” (Tehillim 105:3).

Marriage:“It is not good for man to dwell alone, I will make a helper for him” (Breisheet 2:18).

Work: “When you eat the labor of your own hands, you are happy, and it is good for you” (Tehillim 128:2).

To be sure, there are plenty of unhappy conservatives, unhappy religious people, unhappy marrieds, happy liberals, happy singles and happy seculars – so none of this affects the life of any individual person who still must make his/her own choices. Abraham Lincoln said that “most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” And, of course, life throws us its curves every now and then that necessitate adjustments, and cause temporary variations in our happiness levels.. But the overall message for us is one that is worth summarizing and internalizing: How does one pursue happiness ? Get married, start a family, stay married, go to shul, do mitzvot, give tzedaka, do acts of chesed, work hard and be a friend to others.

And realize that these are Hashem’s blessings that He bestows according to His will.

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Posted in 1, Contemporary Life, Current Events, Machshava/Jewish Thought