Q&A: Torah and Peace of Mind
Torah and Peace of Mind
Question
Hi there,
According to my understanding, the main essence and role of the Torah (the Five Books of Moses) is not related to the question of how to bring a person peace of mind (happiness? quality of life? serenity?). It seems to me that you yourself would agree with me about that.
Even so, the Torah does not ignore this question, and certainly the faithful members of the Jewish people—who are flesh-and-blood human beings—are very interested in it.
In light of this, I want to ask you (and perhaps also the holy flock on your site): is this point nevertheless relevant, and if so, in what way?
Answer
I didn’t understand the question.
Discussion on Answer
The Five Books of Moses mainly come to teach Jewish law and a bit of history. There are lots of other things it doesn’t teach.
The Five Books of Moses also teach proper conduct—how to be careful about vindictiveness, to seek peace, to look at reality with a generous eye, to admit mistakes, and the like.
The halakhic and historical components in the Five Books of Moses are completely marginal. But these components were still needed, because otherwise the fools and imbeciles wouldn’t relate to it.
The Skeptic, if those are marginal, then what do you think the main components are?
And more importantly: shouldn’t a Torah from Heaven have given believers a serious treatment of the question of happiness in life? Even if we assume that our concept of happiness is to a large extent a construct of our own times, still a person’s aspiration to have things be “good” for him was not all that far-fetched even in the ancient world.
Happiness is connected to abundance: “And you shall rejoice in all the good…” “Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness of heart, out of an abundance of everything.”
Put simply: does the Five Books of Moses try to teach us how to be happy? If so, what principles can be learned from it? If not, why not? Happiness is an important thing, and I would expect such a body of knowledge to address this issue as well.