Happiness in Premodern Judaism

Traces the Jewish discourse on "happiness" from antiquity to the seventeenth century. From Plato to the present, Western philosophers have debated the meaning of "happiness." Is it a feeling, a subjective psychological state, a general disposition, or a regulative idea? What are the conditions necessary for its attainment? What is the connection between happiness and virtue and how does it relate to pleasure? That Jews were interested in happiness may appear odd to most people. According to conventional thought, its pursuit hardly seems like one of the major tenets of the religion. This book argues to the contrary. Not only did Jewish thinkers reflect on the concept of happiness, they devoted considerable attention to it. Moreover, the author argues, Judaism understood itself as the best path to a happy life, and that happy life is inseparable from a set of religious beliefs, the most important of which is that God, the creator of the world, has a special relationship with the People of Israel, to whom He revealed His wisdom and will in the form of law: the Tor

Hava Tirosh-Samuelson is Associate Professor of History at Arizona State University.