What is Joy?

Is it all the things in this picture? What about bliss, cheer delight, elation, light-heartedness, exultation, mirth, merriment, ecstasy, gladness, wonder, glee? Is it happiness?  Is it all of these or is it something deeper, something more?

Before we delve deeper, here are a few thoughts from friends about Joy and what it means to them. 

Some Thoughts…

• Hasan Turgut – “Joy comes from internal beliefs. When you find it, you want to share it”. 
• Ojas Pitre – “G-D finds joy in you. You just need to completely tune in to HIS love. Thisy is our natural state but we tend to lose the feeling as we grow up because of negative people and the narrow-mindedness of society. You can find that joy when you develop a personal connection with GOD. It is also linked to satisfaction and fulfilment and it can be looked at intellectually or it can be felt. I am looking at it intellectually. But I will feel it only when I am one with the heavenly truth. Pure Joy is part of that heavenly truth.”
• Mary Ann Furda – “Joy to me is taking the time to really notice the beauty all around us. It’s sitting there relaxing and watching the birds fly free, listening to their songs. Looking at a rainbow or the sky at sunset and seeing the wonder of how the colours blend into one another. How the stars at night look like sparkly diamonds or little tiny fairies. Joy is in appreciating the little details in things that seem so simple.”
• Evelyne Novello – “Joy (for me) comes from deep inside…. not from outer stimuli or people. It is a feeling of inner calm and resolve to keep working at maintaining it. It is sometimes easily disturbed and then must be re-found. Right now, in our crazy world where nothing is fair anymore, it feels more difficult to achieve and maintain.”
• Robin Samelson – “Joy arises from within in response to daydreams, nightdreams, external events like hearing wonderful news on the phone or visiting people I love in person or watching an incredible movie. I look forward to those things once I’ve heard about them because of the joy they might bring.  It comes naturally… pay attention, it’s a prime motivator for choosing who to see, what to do or make and for whom.”

What do the experts say?

There’s a difference between  happiness and  joy. It’s valuable to be aware of this because when things get tough, logic might want you to default to despair, or utter sadness or worse, you might think you have to choose between hardship and joy, or support and separation, or light and dark. So here are the differences.

First Happiness…

• Happiness is like rising bubbles — delightful and inevitably fleeting. 
• Happiness is always passing through. It can claim your full attention for the ten seconds it takes to swallow a sip of incredible coffee. Or it can stream through your being for weeks on end. But happiness can’t hold the same space as sadness, or anger, or the range of so-called “negative” emotions for very long. This is why it’s transitory.
• Happiness is an emotion in which one experiences feelings ranging from contentment and satisfaction to bliss and intense pleasure.
• Happiness is external. It’s based on situations, events, people, places, things, and thoughts. Happiness is connected to your hope for a relationship or your hope for a future with someone. For example Happiness is linked to that ‘some day when I meet the right guy’ or ‘when he starts changing and acting right’ or ‘when he goes to counseling.
• Happiness is future oriented. It puts all its eggs in someone elses basket. It is dependent on outside situations, people, or events to align with your expectations so that the result is your happiness.

Now Joy…It is —

• almost a mystery, isn’t it? It’s a spiritual quality that is internal. 
• an emotion, not a mere feeling. Feelings are bodily reactions, while emotions are active responses, and they have objects.
• the oxygen, ever-present.
• a stronger, less common feeling than happiness.
• It comes when you make peace with who you are, where you are, and why you are.  When you need nothing more than your truth and the love of a good G-d to bring peace, then you have settled into the abiding joy that is not rocked by relationships. It’s not rocked by anything.
• simply being alive. So cosmically basic it’s mind-blowing:  to be here, connected, animated, breathing, blessed, resilient, to be broken, to be open, to have what was, what’s left, what’s coming. To be part of reality.
• the fibre of your Soul.
• It gives you the power, motivation and confidence to achieve things that otherwise seem too difficult to attempt. Better than a granola bar – joy is pure energy.

According to Judaism …

Joy is very central and indispensable to a normal healthy Jewish life and a huge priority in character development. It is said that one who learns with joy can learn more in one hour than what he can learn in many hours when he is sad. It is an invaluable gift of G-d that radiates to others. G-d simply wants to give us this gift when we choose to trust in Him. 

Maimonides describes serving G‑d with joy as an avodah gedola—an “immense effort.” The state of joy–simchah in Hebrew–is not one of vain frivolity, or of light-headedness or shallow self-gratification.  To think that a mortal human flesh and blood can bring joy to Almighty G‑d is truly wondrous and certainly the cause for celebration. When this happens we understand that we have been endowed with a unique gift, which is the ability to become attached and bound up with holiness. “Serve G‑d with joy”.   It is central to connecting to G‑d. 

Being happy when you do a mitzvah (commandment) demonstrates that you like this connection, this tremendous privilege of serving the Infinite Author of All Things. And as stated by the Arizal, 16th-century master Kabbalist, that the gates of wisdom and divine inspiration were opened for him only as a reward for doing mitzvahs with boundless joy.

It’s everything we do:

Eating, sleeping, business, and even leisure activities can be part of the way to connect to G‑d. All it takes is the right intentions. If so, “serve G‑d with joy” applies to all times and every situation.

Without getting into all the sources and quotes, know that the Torah links happiness and joy in the context of the service of G-d. However if you are interested in the specifics, click here and here and read more about it.

So about Happiness and Joy…

• Definition of Happiness and why its different from Joy
• Joy vs. Happiness
• The Differences
• Quotes from the Bible

Did this help you? If so, it would be great if you shared it with your friends and colleagues and don’t forget to comment below and/or share on Facebook. 

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