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| No my table, but same idea; Jews all over are doing Shabbat! |
Today
is Day One of Week Six of the Omer. That is Thirty-six Days of the
Omer. The Theme continues to be Happiness.
A few weeks ago, I participated in a ‘Harmony
Day’ event at Griffith University, here on the Gold Coast. My part was to be a member of a multi-faith
panel discussing the subject ‘How Religious Faith Fosters Harmony’ (how’s that
for a no-brainer?) in society. I was
happy to participate; since my day as a US Air Force Chaplain, I’ve always
considered the interfaith beat to be an important part of my home turf. Even now, almost eight years after retiring
from that career, I enjoy such participation from time to time.
After the forum, there was some light
refreshment served at the university’s chaplain’s office. I never got to the refreshments. Instead, I was talking for some time with a
young man, a student at Griffith, who approached me full of questions about
Judaism.
I am used to fielding questions after
a public presentation. But usually, they’re
from a member of some other religion who had learnt something he didn’t know
before about Judaism from my talk, something that resonated with him as a
Christian or whatever, and he wanted more information and references for
further study. In this case, the young
man was not a religious believer himself but was searching for some spiritual connection.
I find that most seekers of the millennial
generation, are not seeking affiliation with a religion. They’re seeking ‘spirituality’ of an
amorphous kind, outside of some institutionalised religion. I don’t fault them for this, given all the
scandals that have come out of institutionalised religion! I think that today, where belonging to a
religious community is considered so optional, where one can easily live one’s
life without the community that it provides – instead drawing one’s community
from other mutual-interest groups. One student
whom I taught in a couple of courses at Colorado College some years back put it
this way: Spirituality is considered ‘cool’;
religion is considered passé. I get
this, and I certainly don’t fault those of the millennial or any other
generation who try to find a spiritual uplift without involvement in an organised
religion. If I did, it would be – in my
opinion – akin to complaining because someone told me they feel an uplift from
listening to Beethoven. If you read my
blog post from a few days back, about music and happiness, you know I would
never think that way!
So this young man was adrift in the
spiritual world, not having been raised in any religion, even nominally. But unlike many of his cohort, he intuited
that what he was seeking, was to be found within a religious faith with
all of its trappings of text, law, and ritual.
He just didn’t know which religious faith. I gave him my contact details and invited him
to get in touch if and when he might be interested in a Jewish experience. And I told him that nobody would ‘twist his
arm’ to get him to commit to becoming a Jew.
We don’t do that; we’re happy to help those who are motivated from
within to join us, but the initiative had to come from them.
The young man did, after a number of
weeks, ultimately visit us for a Shabbat evening. But his quest got me to thinking; is an
organised religion, specifically Judaism, superior to an amorphous
spirituality, at least in terms of Happiness?
A raft of research studies suggests that, generally speaking, religious
involvement is superior in that regard.
For example, I’ll cite one completed by the Austin Institute for the
Study of Family and Culture, in Austin, Texas, USA, in 2014. The study surveyed more than 15,000 Americans
between the ages of 18 and 60. Of those
who reported no involvement in religion, 28 percent considered themselves ‘very
happy.’ Of those who reported ‘occasional’
involvement, 33 percent considered themselves ‘very happy.’ Of those who reported ‘frequent’ involvement,
45 percent considered themselves ‘very happy.’
Now I don’t know about you, but I think that 28 percent to 33 percent to
45 percent is a very significant jump.
And this is just one of several such studies; other projects by other
think tanks and by universities show similar results.
Some in the academic world tend to
pooh-pooh such findings. They complain
that the data show some correlation but not causality. The subjects in the particular survey I
cited, were not challenged on their self-assessments as to whether they were Very
Unhappy, Somewhat Unhappy, Neither Unhappy nor Happy, Somewhat Happy, or Very
Happy. The subjects were not given
specific definitions as to what each one of those points on the scale
means. And religion being a
multi-layered phenomenon, it is difficult to tell exactly what it is
within religious involvement that contributes to happiness. Is it the structure of standards? The comforting ritual? Or those closeness of the community that
religion fosters?
To that, I say: All of the above. I can think of how each one of the
elements mentioned, could and would engender Happiness. And I don’t think it matters. The point is that people seek a number
of things in religion: structure, order,
meaning, community, and Happiness. And –
wonder of wonders! - sometimes
they find such things…sometimes all of the above.
I’m writing this as the sun sets on a
lovely Shabbat. We began in our home
last night, with a dozen or so including ourselves, for a relaxing and evoking
service of prayer and song. And then we
all sat down to a delicious and relaxed dinner.
Then, this morning, we gathered at the home of a member of our community
for the morning service, also about a dozen of us. Again, it was a lovely interlude of prayer and
song, and I offered a few thoughts on the weekly Torah reading. Then we sat down for another relaxed meal
with interesting conversation and a little more singing and praise at the
end. Clara and I returned home at two in
the afternoon; I read for half an hour then fell asleep for a nap. Now it’s dark again, Shabbat is over, we feel
refreshed and can now face the coming week and whatever it may bring. It doesn’t matter which of the elements of
religion that gave us this sense of well-being, this sense of Happiness. Only that it did. A good week to all!
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