The secret to happiness #parashatemor#devartorah#parashathashavua

In this week’s Torah portion, Emor, we read about the cycle of holidays.  Of course, you know in the fall, we celebrate Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot.

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch noted that Rosh Hashana in the Torah is observed for only one day (Rabbinical law renders it two days.) Yom Kippur is only one day, while Sukkot is seven days. Rosh Hashana is a day of shaking us out of ways of life displeasing to the Almighty. Yom Kippur is a day of fasting and awareness of our faults and mistakes. In counter distinction Sukkot instructs us to enjoy God’s blessings and be happy before the Almighty. There is only one day for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur but a whole week for the joyful celebration of Sukkot. This is what is most characteristic of Judaism.  One shouldn’t be bowed down and broken before God. The normal mood of one’s life should be the joy of life which runs equally throughout the year thanking the Almighty for His abundant gifts. (Based upon Growth Through Torah by Zelig Pliskin, page 287)

If we’re supposed to be happy why is it so hard for so many people? Hopefully this wonderful sufi story which will inspire us to find happiness in our lives.

The Sack

Mula came upon a frowning man walking along the road to town. “What’s wrong?” he asked. The man held up a tattered bag and moaned, “All that I own in this wide world barely fills this miserable, wretched sack.”

“Too bad,” said Mula and with that, he snatched the bag from the man’s hands and ran down the road with it. Having lost everything, the man burst into tears and more miserable than before, continued walking.

Meanwhile, Mula quickly ran around the bend and placed the man’s sack in the middle of the road where he would have to come upon it. When the man saw his bag sitting in the road before him, he laughed with joy, and shouted, “My sack! I thought I’d lost you! Watching through the bushes, Mula chuckled. “Well, that’s one way to make someone happy!”

If you want to be happy everyday starting today, cultivate a gratitude attitude by identifying the happiness that is already there in your lives, in the present, and to experience it for what it is worth.

As the story shows, happiness is not a distant bird somewhere in some bush. It is often perching right upon our own shoulders. Often we fail to recognize it unless it flies away or as in the story, gets taken away.

I wish all of you this Shabbat and the days that follow a pleasant discover of this already existing happiness.