"And may Hashem give you from the dew of the Heavens and the
fat (choicest) portions of the earth and much grain and wine.
Nations will serve you and the sons of your mother will bow
down to you. Those who curse you are cursed and those who
bless you are blessed" (Bereishis 27:28).
These are the blessings that Yitzchok Ovinu gave to his son
— our father — Yaakov. The blessings promise him
material cornucopia and political power. It would seem to fit
right in with the modern, Western world. Money and power are,
along with pure hedonic pleasure, what evidently drive the
modern rat race, and the blessings of Yitzchok Ovinu appear
to promise success in that race.
That, of course, is ridiculous. Even modern psychology has
found that wealth is not correlated with happiness. As Daniel
Gilbert, head of Harvard University's Hedonic Psychology
Laboratory, writes, "Wealth is a poor predictor of happiness.
. . . The difference between earning nothing and earning
$20,000 is enormous—that's the difference between
having shelter and food and being homeless and hungry. But
economists have shown us that after basic needs are met,
there isn't much `marginal utility' to increased wealth."
In fact, Yitzchok is certainly not blessing his son with
wealth in order to make him happy. The Rambam explains in
Hilchos Teshuvoh (9:4): "Hakodosh Boruch Hu
gave us this Torah, a Tree of Life, and whoever does all that
is written within, and knows it thoroughly and properly
— will thereby merit life in Olom Habo. . . . And the
Torah promised us that if we do it with simchah and a
happy soul, and we think about its wisdom constantly, that He
will take away all those things that prevent us from
fulfilling it, such as sickness and war and famine and the
like. And He will shower us with all the beneficial things
that strengthen our ability to fulfill the Torah, such as
satiety, and peace, and plenty of silver and gold — so
that we should not spend all our days occupied with the
things that the body needs, but rather we will be free to
learn wisdom and to do the mitzvos, so that we will earn Olom
Habo. . . ."
The blessings received by Yaakov are not the goals of his
life themselves, chas vesholom, but just the tools to
achieve the true goal of life.
Interestingly enough, Professor Gilbert has something to say
about what is usually correlated with happiness, and this is
backed up by many other researchers in this area. (It is
somewhat surprising that leading university researchers spend
their time on these topics. It speaks volumes about the
shallowness of modern thought, even among the genuinely
intelligent thinkers.) "Social relationships are a powerful
predictor of happiness—much more so than money is.
Happy people have extensive social networks and good
relationships with the people in those networks."
As a concerned father, Yitzchok Ovinu did not leave this key
to happiness out of his blessings. When he tells Yaakov Ovinu
to take a wife in Padan Aram, he adds, "And [Hashem] should
bless you and make you fruitful and multiply, and you should
become a community of nations" (28:3).
As tens of thousands of happy chareidi Jews can testify,
being fruitful is usually a very effective way of making sure
that one has an "extensive social network and good
relationships with the people in those networks."
Professor Gilbert himself notes that ". . . while money is
weakly and complexly correlated with happiness, and social
relationships are strongly and simply correlated with
happiness, most of us spend most of our time trying to be
happy by pursuing wealth. Why?" He answers, "Individuals want
to be happy, and societies want individuals to consume."
Society teaches us "that consumption will bring us
happiness."
So much the worse for society. However he leaves a very
important question unasked: Why do people not pursue the most
effective way of ensuring happiness-bringing social
relationships, i.e., why don't they have large families?
We do not have an answer to this, except to stress that it
was Odom Horishon, the father of all men, who was originally
told to be fruitful and multiply. Those who cut off their
link to the first man, apparently also cut off their link to
his first commandment.
In any case, our concern is not with the nations of the
world. Our hope is that our people will continue to take this
commandment and blessing to heart, and will be fruitful and
will multiply. We should realize that it is the best path to
happiness in This World, no less than it is a mitzvah that
brings reward in the World to Come.
