42 | APRIL 25 • 2024 

M

oshe teaches us again and 
again that joy is what we 
should feel in the Land of 
Israel, the land given to us by God, the 
place to which the whole 
of Jewish life — since the 
days of Avraham and Sarah 
— has been a journey. 
There, says Moshe, you will 
celebrate the love between 
a small and otherwise 
insignificant people and 
the God who, taking them 
as His own, lifted them to greatness.
It will also be there, says Moshe, that 
the entire tangled narrative of Jewish 
history will become lucid, where a 
whole people will sing together, wor-
ship together and celebrate the festivals 
together, knowing that history is not 
about empire or conquest, nor society 
about hierarchy and power; that com-
moner and king, Israelite and Kohein, 
are all equal in the sight of God, all voic-
es in His holy choir, all dancers in the 
circle at whose center is the radiance of 
the Divine. This is what the covenant is 
about: the transformation of the human 
condition through what Wordsworth 
called “the deep power of joy.”
Happiness, the philosopher Aristotle 
once said, is the ultimate purpose of 
human existence. We desire many 

things, but usually as a means to some-
thing else. Only one thing is always 
desirable in itself, and never for the sake 
of something else, namely happiness.
There is a similar idea in Judaism. The 
biblical word for happiness, ashrei, is the 
first word of the book of Tehillim and 
a key word of our daily tefillot. But far 
more often, Tanach speaks about sim-
chah, joy — and this is different from 
happiness. Happiness is something you 
can feel alone, but joy, in Tanach, is 
something you share with others. In one 
of the most extraordinary lines in the 
Torah, Moshe says that curses will befall 
the nation not because they served idols 
or abandoned God but “because you 
did not serve the Lord your God with joy 
and gladness out of the abundance of 
all things” (Devarim 28:47). A failure to 
rejoice is the first sign of decadence and 
decay.
There are other differences. Happiness 
is about a lifetime, but joy lives in the 
moment. Happiness tends to be a cool 
emotion, but joy makes you want to 

dance and sing. It’s hard to feel happy 
in the midst of uncertainty. But you can 
still feel joy.
And yes, life is full of grief and dis-
appointments, problems and pains, but 
beneath it all is the wonder that we are 
here, in a universe filled with beauty, 
among people each of whom carries 
within them a trace of the face of God.
Kierkegaard once wrote: “It takes 
moral courage to grieve. It takes reli-
gious courage to rejoice.” I believe that 
with all my heart. So I am moved by the 
way Jews, who know what it is to walk 
through the valley of the shadow of 
death, still see joy as the supreme reli-
gious emotion. 
Every day we begin our morning 
prayers with Modeh Ani (I Thank), fol-
lowed by a flurry of thanks. We thank 
God that we are here, with a world to 
live in, with family and friends to love 
and be loved by, and that we are about 
to start a day full of possibilities, in 
which, by acts of loving kindness, we 
allow God’s Presence to flow through 
us into the lives of others. Joy helps 
heal some of the wounds of our injured, 
troubled world. 

The late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks served as the 

chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of 

the Commonwealth, 1991-2013. His teachings have 

been made available to all at rabbisacks.org. 

Rabbi Lord 
Jonathan 
Sacks

SPIRIT
A WORD OF TORAH

QUESTIONS TO PONDER
What is the difference between 
happiness and joy?
Which do you think most people 
are striving for?
How can you achieve joy in your life? 

The Deep 
 Power of Joy 

