Shabbat Sermon: The Moral Dimension of Happiness with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz

It is the Shabbat of Hanukkah, typically a time when we give and receive gifts.  But this Hanukkah takes place in the tenth month of our pandemic. What is the right kind of gift to give in a pandemic?

In his book Morality, the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks  contrasts the happiness that comes from the market with the happiness that comes from a moral dimension.  When we try to find our happiness in the market, he puts it this way: we spend money we don’t have, on products we don’t need, for a happiness that won’t last.  By contrast, the biblical and rabbinic traditions emphasize a moral dimension.  Happiness is not what you buy or what you own.  Happiness is what you do, living a moral life, being a force for good in the world.