November 2003 Happiness Or Goodness? By Rabbi Alvin Kass The Declaration of Independence promises us life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We understand what life and liberty are all about, but what is happiness? It's hard to define and each person has his own unique approach and requirements for happiness. Furthermore, Judge Richard Posner of the federal appeals court, who has written widely about rights and society, affirmed that "happiness is not a word on which you can found a lawsuit." In other words, happiness is a concept which doesn't have any legal meaning. Notwithstanding the ambiguity and the imprecision of happiness, it is the principal battleground of our society. The search for happiness is a constant chase which animates Americans' daily lives and ties them up in knots. Professor Darrin McMahon, who is writing a book on happiness, says: "We're constantly being told that we've failed if we feel unhappy. Happiness is not just a right but a duty." Americans have interpreted Jefferson's exhortation to pursue happiness as a civic responsibility. Although we don't usually regard happiness as a zero-sum game in which one person's happiness causes another person to be unhappy, in actuality that often happens in our highly diverse society with its multiplicity of viewpoints. Our differences have generated culture wars in which there are winners and losers. In sharp contrast to contemporary mores, Judaism discourages the pursuit of happiness. It argues that our principal aspiration ought to be virtue. In Deuteronomy we are taught: "Justice, Justice shalt thou pursue." There is, however, no injunction to pursue happiness. Similarly, while in English Jews frequently wish each other a happy new year, the Hebrew felicitation is shanah tovah, a good year. In other words, our objective in the year ahead should be goodness, not happiness. Indeed, happiness is most likely to come when it is not actively sought. It is a natural byproduct of constructive endeavor. The happiest human beings are not those who pause to ask themselves: "Am I happy?" but rather those who are busy doing useful and worthwhile things. Our tradition also urges us to be content with what we have. The Talmud teaches: "Who is rich? The one who is satisfied with his lot." Such thinking is at the opposite end of the spectrum from the prevailing philosophy of Madison Avenue, which maintains that our consumer culture requires keeping us dissatisfied and unhappy until we get the next thing. Happiness through shopping is the American way. As long as we keep buying, all will be well. Our faith certainly rejects the notion that augmenting our material possessions will add to our joy. Indeed, the Rabbis contended that "the more you have, the more worries you have." Perhaps, most important, the Jewish way of life advocates that we concentrate primarily on others rather than ourselves. If you want to be happy, then make life fuller and richer for somebody else. That's what the concept of mitzvah is all about. A mitzvah is a good deed which strives to make other people better off because of our actions. I suspect that when Jefferson spoke about the pursuit of happiness, he had in mind yearnings more exalted and sustainable than the carnal and material goals of many millions of contemporary Americans. After all, his whole life was devoted to social and communal responsibility and he believed that democracy could survive only when all citizens manifested a similar commitment to the preservation of a stable and free society. The Rabbis, however, were convinced that these and all other meritorious goals were far more likely to achieve realization if, instead of pursuing happiness, we devoted our lives to the pursuit of goodness.