Happiness and Pleasure: Exclusively Spiritual?

Western culture has flooded the world with advertisements promising happiness and success if we purchase certain products. We are exposed to lottery draws and stories of people who became wealthy, which results in frustration from not becoming rich or achieving all our desires, and those who do succeed immediately find new desires they cannot achieve (as the saying goes, 'he who has a hundred desires two hundred'). The truly happy person is the one who finds happiness not in external things, but within himself! The one who succeeds in nullifying his will before the will of Hashem, accepts the reality and the tools Hashem has given him [after he has made his efforts], rejoices in his portion, and is truly happy, because happiness does not reside in things outside a person, but within a person's heart.

Our sages warned against the desires of this world, such as (Yevamot 20a): 'Sanctify yourself with what is permissible to you,' and 'Eat bread with salt.' In many religious texts, the approach to material pleasures is seen as something that obstructs the path to closeness with Hashem. Indeed, many Jews base their way of service on these instructions, while others who cannot establish their lives this way, feel sinful and experience severe guilt every time they enjoy themselves, ultimately feeling internal alienation from the Torah world.

What Is Negative Abstinence?

The Ramchal struggled with the contradiction of taking care of the physical body and self-restraint (Path of the Just, Chapter 13, in the explanation of the trait of abstinence), explaining that there is a distinction between good abstinence and bad abstinence. The concept of abstinence is merely a trick for a person to escape sin and to use only what is necessary according to his natural needs and not beyond. Nonetheless, there is another type of abstinence, which is 'negative abstinence.' The text states: But negative abstinence is like the way of foolish gentiles, who not only refrain from taking from the world what is unnecessary, but already deny themselves what is essential, afflicting their bodies with pains and foreign practices that Hashem does not desire, but on the contrary, the sages said (Taanit 22b) it is forbidden for a person to torment himself. Regarding charity, they said (Jerusalem Talmud, quoted in Rambam at the end of the Laws of Gifts to the Poor) anyone who needs to take and doesn't is shedding blood. It was also said (Taanit 22b): "To a living soul" (Genesis 2:7) - a soul was given by G-d and we are to required to sustain it. Moreover, (Taanit 11a) anyone who fasts is called a sinner, and they established it regarding one who is unable to cause himself distress. Hillel would say: "A kind man benefits himself" (Proverbs 11:17).

Physical pleasure cannot bring happiness – it is not intended that we should be preoccupied all day long in search of physical pleasures. Our role in the world is spiritual, and there lies the true happiness.

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