We have the richest society in human history, but not the
happiest. According to a recent article in the New York
Times, the average American family makes 16 percent more
money now than 30 years ago, but the percentage of people
who described themselves as "very happy" fell from 36
percent to 29 percent.
The powerful and relentless greed that drives people around
the globe to produce more and more is a harsh taskmaster.
Although people are making more money, they are doing it
with mesiras nefesh: they are giving of themselves to
do so. They work more hours, are under more pressure at work
and must perform tasks that are so demanding that they have
little opportunity left to enjoy the fruits of their
labor.
The forces that drive the American economy are the greatest
wealth-producing forces the world has seen, but they are
based on constant growth. They cannot maintain an
equilibrium, where everyone has enough and he or she turns
his or her attention to other pursuits. Their focus is on
more and more material wealth, with no attention to
spiritual matters that are anyway beyond their normal areas
of attention.
Even those of us who are not farmers can appreciate the
wisdom of the Torah in directing farmers to take every
seventh year off for contemplation and introspection. As the
farmer goes daily to the beis medrash instead of his
fields he has a chance to reflect on things and perhaps to
reach conclusions about where to improve his life. The
sabbatical forces him to recognize that the laws of the
Torah are more important than the pressures of the
marketplace, and he must not ignore his obligations to raise
his own level and that of his family. His own life during
the six working years will be profoundly different for the
time spent learning Torah during shmittah.
A year of successful learning can effect a deep
transformation. "One who has achieved knowledge of the Torah
(meaning that the mind that was originally implanted in the
soul, as a seed in the furrow of a field, was united with
chochmoh to the extent that they became as one flesh)
goes among people and appears as just another person -- but!
In truth he is an angel who lives among mortal beings and
lives a life of nobility, elevated beyond all blessings and
praise." (Chazon Ish, Letters, II, 13)
Though it is the immediate climax of a process that begins
on Pesach, our accepting the Torah on Shavuos is the
beginning -- or the renewal -- of our lifelong study of
Torah. Once we have received the Torah we are a nation, and
the acceptance of Torah alone already makes us into a nation
-- but we are a nation with a task. Keeping the Torah means
studying it, and studying it means internalizing it, making
it the mold of our minds and hearts as well as the guide for
our actions. This common purpose and common effort centered
around the Torah, Hashem's blueprint for our lives, brings
us all together.
We are happy when we understand what we are doing and we
know it to be worthwhile. Now that the West has learned how
to create so much wealth, the proper thing to do, the policy
that will increase happiness rather than decrease it, is to
use the wealth to increase Torah and not just to pamper our
bodies. We cannot influence the culture of the West, but we
can do it for ourselves. Let us reiterate our commitment of
Na'aseh venishma and get to work.
