LEV933 Today, the average person is wealthier by far than at any other time in human history. Inventions have made life easier and more convenient than ever before. Man is able to control his environment and has more options in life than previous generations ever dreamed of. People enjoy more leisure time than ever before. And yet, many, if not most, people do not perceive themselves as happy. Seminars to teach unhappy people how to be happy proliferate and hundreds of books that have sold millions of copies have been written about achieving happiness. Why, then, are people not happy? What is happiness--can it be defined? And, once defined, how is it obtained? People usually associate happiness with "fun" and "having a good time." But these particular concepts are alien to Jewish thought. There is no word for fun in modern or ancient Hebrew. Thus, Israelis have borrowed an Arabic word, "kef," to express fun. Even the term "having a good time" is unheard of in Hebrew. Thus, Israelis use an idiom, "laasot chaim--to make a life" to express this idea because no expression exist. Obviously, these concepts cannot be the definition of Jewish happiness. There is another Hebrew word often mistranslated as the Hebrew equivalent of happy, simchah. While this may be a close approximation, this is really not the true definition of Jewish happiness. The mitzvah to be same'ach on a Jewish holiday is only referred to in the Torah by the holiday of Sukkoth [this verse and Deut. 16:14-15]. This cannot possibly be a commandment to be happy only on Sukkoth. First, how can a person be commanded to feel an abstract emotion such as happiness? Secondly, why was the holiday of Sukkoth, of all the other Jewish holidays, singled out for happiness? Therefore, this Hebrew term cannot mean happy either. What, then, is the meaning of the word same'ach? The well-known dictum from Ethics of the Fathers (Avot 4:1) says that a person who is truly rich is he who is same'ach with whatever he possesses. Many mistranslate this as he who is happy with what he has, but it is clear that it really means he who is satisfied with whatever he possesses. Therefore, the word same'ach translates (most of the time) as a term of satisfaction or appreciation. This is something God can command: to appreciate what you have, to be satisfied with what God has given to you. The truly rich person, in Jewish terms, is the person who appreciates what he has, no matter how much or how little it is.