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Joy and Community Are Essential to Jewish Fulfillment — Even in the Darkest of Times
In his evocative 1964 book, Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer, C.S. Lewis used a series of fictional letters to a friend to explore various aspects of prayer and religious life. By using this intimate literary device, Lewis made his profound insights more accessible to a broad audience.
“Joy is the serious business of Heaven,” Lewis wrote to Malcolm, suggesting that our deepest longings point us toward something beyond the earthly. “All joy … emphasizes our pilgrim status; always reminds, beckons, awakens desire. Our best havings are wantings.”
Although Lewis didn’t quote the famous verse about joy in Ki Tavo (Deut. 28:47) — which warns of potential consequences “because you did not serve God with joy and a glad heart when you had an abundance of everything” — it is clear that, like many others who have deeply reflected on faith, Lewis understood that without joy as a constant companion, and without recognizing that joy is not an add-on but a necessity, the life God gives us is squandered and pointless.
Shawn Achor, author of the bestselling book The Happiness Advantage, is a leading expert in positive psychology. According to Achor, “Happiness is not the belief that we don’t need to change; it is the realization that we can.” Rather than seeing happiness as the result of success, Achor’s research shows that happiness and positivity are actually the fuel for it.
When we cultivate a positive outlook and engage in meaningful activities, we not only enhance our mood, but also improve our performance in nearly every aspect of life. Achor’s studies demonstrate that happier individuals tend to be more productive, creative, and resilient. This is because a positive mindset opens us up to new possibilities, allows us to think more broadly, and equips us to tackle challenges with greater energy and enthusiasm.
Achor’s findings have profound implications for how we understand the role of joy in religious life. If happiness is a precursor to success, then joy in serving God isn’t just a pleasant byproduct of religious practice; it is a critical component of spiritual fulfillment and effectiveness. When approached with joy, the performance of any religious act as directed by Jewish ritual law is not just a duty but a source of strength and spirituality.
Modern neuroscience has also increased our understanding of how joy and happiness are wired into our biology. Research on the brain’s reward system reveals that acts aligned with our values — like altruism or community service — release chemicals such as oxytocin and dopamine, enhancing our well-being.
This creates a positive cycle — because the more we engage in value-based actions, the more joy we experience, which encourages us to continue. Studies from Harvard and Berkeley confirm that individuals who regularly participate in community service report higher levels of life satisfaction, much like those who perform mitzvot with genuine intention and enthusiasm.
The scientific data aligns beautifully with the Torah’s perspective. The verse in Ki Tavo warns us that the absence of joy in serving God can lead to negative consequences, and neuroscience supports this wisdom. without the neurochemical benefits of joy and fulfillment, our spiritual practices can feel hollow, and our efforts become burdensome.
It’s not enough to merely go through the motions; deep-seated joy must drive our actions. When mitzvot are performed with joy, they engage both our minds and our bodies, transforming religious practice from mere obligation into an experience that elevates and fulfills our spiritual potential.
But how do we make this happen? How can we ensure that joy truly infuses our lives? Everyone faces moments of grief and disappointment — those are inevitable parts of the human experience. The challenge for all of us is to cultivate and nurture a default setting of joy, so that we have a natural inclination to embrace it daily. How do we do it?
Viktor Frankl, the renowned Holocaust survivor and author of Man’s Search for Meaning, offers a profound insight. Even in the direst of circumstances, he said, we have the power to choose our attitude.
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way,” Frankl wrote. For him, joy wasn’t just a fleeting feeling; it was intertwined with meaning. Finding purpose, even in hardship, can transform our experiences into something worth celebrating.
Another powerful way to cultivate joy is through gratitude, which can fundamentally shift how we see challenges in our lives. Dr. Robert Emmons, a leading researcher in positive psychology, has demonstrated via his research that gratitude helps us move our focus from what we lack to what we have, creating a mindset of abundance rather than scarcity. This shift in perspective not only increases happiness but also helps us approach life’s obstacles with a more optimistic outlook.
Gratitude, in essence, reframes challenges as opportunities for growth and learning. When we consistently focus on what’s going well in our lives, setbacks appear more temporary than permanent. This aligns with the concept of “learned optimism,” introduced by psychologist Martin Seligman, which suggests that we can train ourselves to respond to adversity with resilience and hope. By embracing gratitude and optimism, we will reinforce a sense of joy that will sustain us even in the toughest times.
Most importantly, the company we keep is critical. The people we spend time with and the environments we choose shape our emotional and spiritual state. Surrounding ourselves with positive, joyful, and supportive people helps create an atmosphere where joy becomes automatic. Community—whether it’s a synagogue, a group of friends, or a supportive family—is vital for sustaining a joyful life.
President Ronald Reagan was famous for his optimism and infectious humor, even when things looked bleak. After he was shot in 1981 during an assassination attempt, Reagan was rushed to the hospital in serious condition.
As he was being wheeled into surgery, Reagan looked up at the doctors and, with that signature twinkle in his eye, said, “I hope you’re all Republicans.” The room burst into laughter — a moment of joy even in that life-or-death situation.
When questioned about it later, Reagan said there’s no better way to help people—and yourself—than making everyone smile. Because joy isn’t just something to feel, it’s something to give. And maybe that’s the answer to all of life’s challenges: keep joy as your default setting and share it with others, even when things get tough. Everything else will follow from that.
The author is a rabbi in Beverly Hills, California.
The post Joy and Community Are Essential to Jewish Fulfillment — Even in the Darkest of Times first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria’s Sharaa Says Talks With Israel Could Yield Results ‘In Coming Days’
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks at the opening ceremony of the 62nd Damascus International Fair, the first edition held since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, in Damascus, Syria, Aug. 27, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa said on Wednesday that ongoing negotiations with Israel to reach a security pact could lead to results “in the coming days.”
He told reporters in Damascus the security pact was a “necessity” and that it would need to respect Syria’s airspace and territorial unity and be monitored by the United Nations.
Syria and Israel are in talks to reach an agreement that Damascus hopes will secure a halt to Israeli airstrikes and the withdrawal of Israeli troops who have pushed into southern Syria.
Reuters reported this week that Washington was pressuring Syria to reach a deal before world leaders gather next week for the UN General Assembly in New York.
But Sharaa, in a briefing with journalists including Reuters ahead of his expected trip to New York to attend the meeting, denied the US was putting any pressure on Syria and said instead that it was playing a mediating role.
He said Israel had carried out more than 1,000 strikes on Syria and conducted more than 400 ground incursions since Dec. 8, when the rebel offensive he led toppled former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
Sharaa said Israel’s actions were contradicting the stated American policy of a stable and unified Syria, which he said was “very dangerous.”
He said Damascus was seeking a deal similar to a 1974 disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria that created a demilitarized zone between the two countries.
He said Syria sought the withdrawal of Israeli troops but that Israel wanted to remain at strategic locations it seized after Dec. 8, including Mount Hermon. Israeli ministers have publicly said Israel intends to keep control of the sites.
He said if the security pact succeeds, other agreements could be reached. He did not provide details, but said a peace agreement or normalization deal like the US-mediated Abraham Accords, under which several Muslim-majority countries agreed to normalize diplomatic ties with Israel, was not currently on the table.
He also said it was too early to discuss the fate of the Golan Heights because it was “a big deal.”
Reuters reported this week that Israel had ruled out handing back the zone, which Donald Trump unilaterally recognized as Israeli during his first term as US president.
“It’s a difficult case – you have negotiations between a Damascene and a Jew,” Sharaa told reporters, smiling.
SECURITY PACT DERAILED IN JULY
Sharaa also said Syria and Israel had been just “four to five days” away from reaching the basis of a security pact in July, but that developments in the southern province of Sweida had derailed those discussions.
Syrian troops were deployed to Sweida in July to quell fighting between Druze armed factions and Bedouin fighters. But the violence worsened, with Syrian forces accused of execution-style killings and Israel striking southern Syria, the defense ministry in Damascus and near the presidential palace.
Sharaa on Wednesday described the strikes near the presidential palace as “not a message, but a declaration of war,” and said Syria had still refrained from responding militarily to preserve the negotiations.
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Anti-Israel Activists Gear Up to ‘Flood’ UN General Assembly
US Capitol Police and NYPD officers clash with anti-Israel demonstrators, on the day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of Congress, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, DC, July 24, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Umit Bektas
Anti-Israel groups are planning a wave of raucous protests in New York City during the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) over the next several days, prompting concerns that the demonstrations could descend into antisemitic rhetoric and intimidation.
A coalition of anti-Israel activists is organizing the protests in and around UN headquarters to coincide with speeches from Middle Eastern leaders and appearances by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The demonstrations are expected to draw large crowds and feature prominent pro-Palestinian voices, some of whom have been criticized for trafficking in antisemitic tropes, in addition to calling for the destruction of Israe.
Organizers of the demonstrations have promoted the coordinated events on social media as an opportunity to pressure world leaders to hold Israel accountable for its military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, with some messaging framed in sharply hostile terms.
On Sunday, for example, activists shouted at Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon.
“Zionism is terrorism. All you guys are terrorists committing ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza and Palestine. Shame on you, Zionist animals,” they shouted.
BREAKING: PRO-PALESTINE PROTESTORS CONFRONT “ISRAELI” AMBASSADOR DANNY DANON AT THE UNITED NATIONS
1/5 pic.twitter.com/4G1VYEMGzV
— Within Our Lifetime (@WOLPalestine) September 14, 2025
The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), warned on its website that the scale and tone of the planned demonstrations risk crossing the line from political protest into hate speech, arguing that anti-Israel activists are attempting to hijack the UN gathering to spread antisemitism and delegitimize the Jewish state’s right to exist.
Outside the UN last week, masked protesters belonging to the activist group INDECLINE kicked a realistic replica of Netanyahu’s decapitated head as though it were a soccer ball.
US activist group plays soccer with Bibi’s mock decapitated HEAD right outside NYC UN HQ
Peep shot at 00:40
Footage posted by INDECLINE collective just as UN General Assembly about to kick off
‘Following the game, ball was donated to Palestinian Genocide Museum’ pic.twitter.com/TQ84sgZhKr
— RT (@RT_com) September 9, 2025
Within Our Lifetime (WOL), a radical anti-Israel activist group, has vowed to “flood” the UNGA on behalf of the pro-Palestine movement.
WOL, one of the most prolific anti-Israel activist groups, came under immense fire after it organized a protest against an exhibition to honor the victims of the Oct. 7 massacre at the Nova Music Festival in southern Israel. During the event, the group chanted “resistance is justified when people are occupied!” and “Israel, go to hell!”
“We will be there to confront them with the truth: Their silence and inaction enable genocide. The world cannot continue as if Gaza does not exist,” WOL said of its planned demonstrations in New York. “This is the time to make our voices impossible to ignore. Come to New York by any means necessary, to stand, to march, to demand the UN act and end the siege.”
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), two other anti-Israel organizations that have helped organize widespread demonstrations against the Jewish state during the war in Gaza, also announced they are planning a march from Times Square to the UN headquarters on Friday.
“The time is now for each and every UN member state to uphold their duty under international law: sanction Israel and end the genocide,” the groups said in a statement.
JVP, an organization that purports to fight for “Palestinian liberation,” has positioned itself as a staunch adversary of the Jewish state. The group argued in a 2021 booklet that Jews should not write Hebrew liturgy because hearing the language would be “deeply traumatizing” to Palestinians. JVP has repeatedly defended the Oct. 7 massacre of roughly 1,200 people in southern Israel by Hamas as a justified “resistance.” Chapters of the organization have urged other self-described “progressives” to throw their support behind Hamas and other terrorist groups against Israel
Similarly, PYM, another radical anti-Israel group, has repeatedly defended terrorism and violence against the Jewish state. PYM has organized many anti-Israel protests in the two years following the Oct. 7 attacks in the Jewish state. Recently, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) called for a federal investigation into the organization after Aisha Nizar, one of the group’s leaders, urged supporters to sabotage the US supply chain for the F-35 fighter jet, one of the most advanced US military assets and a critical component of Israel’s defense.
The UN General Assembly has historically been a flashpoint for heated debate over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Previous gatherings have seen dueling demonstrations outside the Manhattan venue, with pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups both seeking to influence the international spotlight.
While warning about the demonstrations, CAM noted it recently launched a new mobile app, Report It, that allows users worldwide to quickly and securely report antisemitic incidents in real time.
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Nina Davidson Presses Universities to Back Words With Action as Jewish Students Return to Campus Amid Antisemitism Crisis
Nina Davidson on The Algemeiner’s ‘J100’ podcast. Photo: Screenshot
Philanthropist Nina Davidson, who served on the board of Barnard College, has called on universities to pair tough rhetoric on combatting antisemitism with enforcement as Jewish students returned to campuses for the new academic year.
“Years ago, The Algemeiner had published a list ranking the most antisemitic colleges in the country. And number one was Columbia,” Davidson recalled on a recent episode of The Algemeiner‘s “J100” podcast. “As a board member and as someone who was representing the institution, it really upset me … At the board meeting, I brought it up and I said, ‘What are we going to do about this?’”
Host David Cohen, chief executive officer of The Algemeiner, explained he had revisited Davidson’s remarks while she was being honored for her work at The Algemeiner‘s 8th annual J100 gala, held in October 2021, noting their continued relevance.
“It could have been the same speech in 2025,” he said, underscoring how longstanding concerns about campus antisemitism, while having intensified in the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, are not new.
Davidson argued that universities already possess the tools to protect students – codes of conduct, time-place-manner rules, and consequences for threats or targeted harassment – but too often fail to apply them evenly. “Statements are not enough,” she said, arguing that institutions need to enforce their rules and set a precedent that there will be consequences for individuals who refuse to follow them.
She also said that stakeholders – alumni, parents, and donors – are reassessing their relationships with schools that, in their view, have not safeguarded Jewish students. While supportive of open debate, Davidson distinguished between protest and intimidation, calling for leadership that protects expression while ensuring campus safety.
The episode surveyed specific pressure points that administrators will face this fall: repeat anti-Israel encampments, disruptions of Jewish programming, and the challenge of distinguishing political speech from conduct that violates university rules. “Unless schools draw those lines now,” Davidson warned, “they’ll be scrambling once the next crisis hits.”
Cohen closed by framing the discussion as a test of institutional credibility, asking whether universities will “turn policy into protection” in real time. Davidson agreed, pointing to students who “need to know the rules aren’t just on paper.”
The full conversation is available on The Algemeiner’s “J100” podcast.