麻豆约拍

Recently I gave a lecture about Judaism to a group of undergraduates.听听As always, the questions were more interesting than my talk.听听One caught me a little off-guard.听听The student asked me to comment on the Jewish attitude to joy, particularly as to the outsider, religious life can look rather miserable!听听And, unfortunately, she鈥檚 not wrong.听听Some religious people do sometimes seem quite self-absorbed and sombre. But it鈥檚 not meant to be like that. In fact,, the Jewish Bible says that we should serve God with joy and also that those who seek God will have joyful hearts.听听I can鈥檛 claim to be joyful all the time and it鈥檚 something that takes a lot of work.听听But I recognise that it鈥檚 vital to inject joy into prayer, Sabbath meals, family gatherings and even the intense study that is so central to Jewish life.听

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听In my synagogue, we try to get people into a joyful mood whenever we can.听听When I lead prayers, I try to choose tunes that lift and inspire people to feel connected to God and to each other.听听When it works, I can have the whole place singing and clapping, even on the holiest of days. This reminds me of a remarkable group of religious Jews.听听They follow Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, who died some 200 years ago.听听Their raison d鈥檈tre is to promote joy, sometimes in quite extreme ways.听听These include singing and dancing in public places, even in traffic jams to cheer people up.听听Their motto, which of course, they sing, is 鈥榠t鈥檚 a great mitzvah 鈥� commandment 鈥� to be joyful always鈥�.

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In 2005, the film director Paul Mazursky accompanied 25,000 bouncing Breslovers on their annual pilgrimage to the grave of Rabbi Nachman, which, ironically, is in Ukraine, whose people are currently suffering so much.听Mazursky, who is not religious, produced a niche movie aptly called, 鈥榊ippee: A Journey to Jewish Joy,鈥� which I reviewed at the time. It's interesting that Rabbi Nachman wrote about his own depressive tendencies and how he overcame them.听I believe his conviction that it鈥檚 possible for everyone to generate joyful moments is universal.听听All of us experience moments in the week when we feel down, perhaps even despondent.听听But with the right words, song, or a willingness to talk to God, we too can emerge joyful.