Be Happy- Like Israelis

 Are Israelis happy people? Based on their own admissions, the answer is a resounding yes. Israel has climbed three spots to ninth, its highest-ever placing, in the annual UN-sponsored World Happiness index. It came in 12th last year, up from 14th in 2020. Besides being the Jewish homeland, Israel is a country with a lot of positives. Perhaps most importantly, it is a country that while situated in a challenging part of the globe, understands the importance of optimism. Psychologist Martin Seligman identified a number of characteristics that are associated with optimistic people. Optimists are more likely to internalize positive events; they see themselves as in control of their destiny. That’s why optimists are not likely to give up in the face of adversity. On the other hand, pessimists externalize; they see success as being beyond their control.

 In light of Seligman’s research we can understand why Israel ranks so high in the Happiness survey. In the face of adversity, the founders of Medinat Yisrael never gave up. They took their future into their own hands. 74 years later, Israel continues to believe that a better future happens through our hard work and effort (and prayer).

 Today, many countries are stuck in a pervasive cloud of pessimism. We hear about an impending global economic crisis that many people believe was not our doing and yet we have no ability to avoid. This feeling of helplessness has been generalized and turned into a feeling of despair.

 The dangers of helplessness/ pessimism can be learned from a mitzvah in Parshat Kedoshim. In the fifth aliyah we learn of the prohibition against the disturbing idolatrous practices of Molech, which included child sacrifice. Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch notes that the name Molech is related to the word Melech, but whereas Melech refers to a specific person, ie the king, Molech refers to an abstract concept of power. Rabbi Hirsch goes on to explain that whether the Molech service involved actual child sacrifice or merely passing children through a fire its purpose was to appease fate. The thinking was that the best we can do is offer one child up to fate with the hope that this will somehow protect the rest of our family from being hurt. (This might explain why if a person offers all of his children in a Molech service, then he is exempt from punishment.) 

The Molech service is predicated on a profound pessimism, a feeling that the world runs in a random fashion and that we have no control over our lives. The Torah makes a point to reject Molech and to emphasize the severity of approaching life in a pessimistic manner. On the heels of Yom Haatzmaut, let us commit to a can-do attitude. Like the Zionist pioneers, let us remember that we have the ability to shape our destiny through serious thought, hard work and an optimistic attitude