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Simcha vs. Pleasure

Wednesday, 21 March 2012

The basis of addictive behavior is "I want to feel good right now". Certainly being be'simcha is a yesod of yiddishkeit (and as AAs say "if you are sad all the time you are not working the steps right"), but nowhere do we see any Torah source saying "if it feels good, do it" - or - "if it is hard or painful, then it avoid it!". Rather, we see things like lefum tzaara agra, etc....
Remember, you and me did all our acting out to "feel good", right? We addict-types obviously have no clue (functionally speaking) about what really makes us happy in life.
Life - and certainly living right - is not all about feeling better right now. It is about being fulfilled; the "feeling good" comes me'meila. But if it's our goal, forget it.