I was talking to some jewish friends over shabbos {yes, I’m still in NY} about what I perceive as a common mentality in jewish circles of, as I see it, trying to convince themselves that they’re happy with their lives.

My point focused on the multitude of jewish songs with lyrics - typically taken from the bible - that emphasize that point. {e.g. “mah ahavti torahsecha…”; “Ashrey ha'am shekacha lo…”; etc.} To me, it seems like they’re trying really hard to be happy and feel fortunate. Frankly, it kinda freaks me out. I mean, how often do you see grown men holding hands, dancing in circles, singing about how happy they are… about anything!? Let alone about their joy that they get to study and follow difficult laws? And the fact that this is an expected and regular part of society! I mean, ok, perhaps someone may break out in song and dance now and then, but by the occurrence of it in many jewish circles, you’d think they were living in a bizarro world of Glee.

Anyways, my friends disagreed. They said the dancing was an expression of happiness or perhaps a way to increase their happiness, but ‘what’s wrong with that?’. As for the songs, 'well, they’re just biblical lyrics.’ And, in their defense, I have had mixed feelings about the dancing for awhile, and it took me a long time before I got into it when I was religious.. {and even then…}, so perhaps I just don’t appreciate it.

So that’s all possible, but it’s not how it seems to me. And I was just reading some bullshit article from aish.com about the olympics vs the siyum ha'shas, and the author ended with this tidbit which I think perfectly expresses the mentality that I was suggesting the merriment was meant to foster:

… How fortunate are we that our life focuses on the spiritual and intellect. How honored we are that we have been chosen to live a hard life in a mundane world, and then to accept the difficult yoke of infusing it with spirit. How privileged we are to act as a paradigm to the world of what man’s true achievements are. How privileged we are to be given the task of refining ourselves to a degree that we become a light unto nations.

Now’s a good point to clarify something: When I say that 'they’re trying too hard,’ I don’t mean that this is a conscious effort. I think it’s probably a form of cognitive dissonance. For instance, consider this classic study:

Dissonance is aroused whenever individuals voluntarily engage in an unpleasant activity to achieve some desired goal. Dissonance can be reduced by exaggerating the desirability of the goal. Aronson & Mills[19] had individuals undergo a severe or mild “initiation” in order to become a member of a group. In the severe-initiation condition, the individuals engaged in an embarrassing activity. The group they joined turned out to be very dull and boring. The individuals in the severe-initiation condition evaluated the group as more interesting than the individuals in the mild-initiation condition.

And see the wiki page for a few more fascinating studies. Oh, and of course, I’m sure some people really are happy with it all, but I’d suspect a significant amount are not. But again, that’s just my conjecture because it seems to me they doth insist they’re blessed too much-eth.



P.s. More common songs:

“Toras Hashem Temima..” - God’s torah is perfect, and restores the soul.“

"Olam haba iz a guttah zoch” - The next world {i.e. heaven} will be good.

“Ashrey mi she'amalo bitorah” - Praiseworthy is he that toils in studying/fulfilling the torah.

“Moshe emes vitoraso emes” - Moshe is a true {i.e. true prophet; reliable} and his torah {i.e. the bible} is true too.





(Source: jewishatheist)