About happiness and freedom and the last post.

Hello Rabbi.
A few days ago I asked our rabbi what is better, a happy fundamentalist (or captive) or a suffering freeman, and the rabbi answered me that freedom is better. The rabbi told me that happiness is not a value, but freedom is a value, and happiness is a means. What did the rabbi mean by this? Isn’t happiness the purpose of all human beings?
2. Regarding the last column on the “Ha’az” (the “spiritual” of the soul), if the essence of the “Ha’az” is actually instinctive at its core, then what is the matter of accepting God or not? There is really no opinion here. The opinion is external.