Judaism Commands Joy

Judaism commands joy.  It insists joy should always take precedence, even over sadness.

The Shulhan Arukh, the compendium of Jewish law written by Joseph Caro in the sixteenth century, rules: “If a funeral procession and a wedding procession meet each other on the road, the funeral procession must yield to the wedding procession.  Likewise, if there is not sufficient people in the community to attend both the funeral and wedding, the wedding comes first and then the community attends to the funeral.” (Yoreh Deah 360)

It is a mitzvah, commandment, to comfort the mourner.  It is also a mitzvah to dance with the wedding couple.  You cannot do both at the same time.  The tradition therefore says, first you dance then you bury the dead.

Often, our impulse, is to delay what we call fun.  We say things like, “There will always be time to celebrate.  There will always be another occasion to dance.”  Such statements see the wedding celebration as an opportunity for us to rejoice.  It removes the focus away from the needs of the wedding couple.

We rightly feel the obligation to mourn with others.  We do not feel the same weight of insistence when it comes to rejoicing.   We need joy.  Our hearts are swept up by rejoicing.  At celebrations, we not only help the wedding couple rejoice, but also add sparks of joy to our own hearts.  We are uplifted when we wrap our arms around others in the hora. 

We feel the pull of others, we feel the weight of our friends’ needs.  When we hear about a funeral, we say things like, “My friend needs me now.”  And we rush to help carry them through their sadness.  Why do we think our friends need us any less at their wedding?  These obligations should be equally felt.  In fact, the tradition rules the wedding comes first.

You cannot dance the hora with alone!  A couple can’t dance the hora if there are too few people there.  The couple needs their community to hoist them in chairs! 

Our first priority is to rejoice.  Judaism commands us to celebrate.  It insists that we cannot rejoice alone.  We are uplifted by our community.  Our hearts rejoice in the swirl of people dancing around us.  A wedding can only become a simcha with others. 

Simhat Torah arrives tomorrow evening.  It is the day when we rejoice in the Torah.  Its very name is synonymous with joy.  This too cannot be done alone.  We must celebrate together.

Judaism commands us to rejoice!  Let us rejoice in the gift of Torah and the opportunity another year offers us to pore over the scroll’s words.

Judaism commands joy.