12 Flavors of Happiness: Part 2
Gila, Rina, Ditza & Chedva
Happy Erev Purim!
We are continuing our study of happiness within our larger study of the Language of Life. One of Hebrew’s operating principles is that it has no synonyms.
This rule gives you full permission and encouragement to respond when someone who explains to you about a certain Hebrew word, “oh, that’s just another word for X.”
It’s not. In Hebrew, this isn’t a thing. Just like the Torah is written with precision, with nothing lacking and nothing extra, so too, the language in which it’s written. Every word in Hebrew exists for a reason. This is what makes it so fun to learn. You can always sharpen one word against a similar word to figure out exactly what each one means.
In the last post, we started going through the 12 words for different flavors of happiness that form the grand finale blessing to a chattan-חתן (groom) and kallah-כלה under the chuppah-חופה (wedding canopy).
We’re at #5:
5. GILA-גילה - the joy of realizing that something wonderful was right under your nose all along
The word "Gila-גילה” is closely related to the word “Galui-גלוי,” which means “revealed,” and the word “Gal-גל, which means “wave.”
When the humdrum nature of of life lulls us to sleep with its illusion of familiarity, the revelation of something you had taken for granted swells inside your heart and mind like a wave.1
6. RINA-רינה - the celebratory rejoicing of surviving a challenge
As serious as life gets when the din of judgement hangs over our heads, the celebration on the other side of it is just as great. Rina is the inner experience that will produce an instinctive fist-pump after emerging victorious in a court case. When you see a running back erupt into a touchdown dance after making it past four 350 pound men in pads and helmets, you’re seeing Rina in action.
7. DITZA-דיצה - the sudden exhilaration of happiness
Ditza-דיצה is the least common of the 12 words for happiness listed in that final blessing for a chattan and kallah. Here is one of the lone places I found it in Tanakh:
Iyov 41:14
וּלְפָנָיו תָּדוּץ דְּאָבָה…
…[even] melancholy leaps up to dance before [God].
When a person feels stuck, her forward motion grinds to a halt, and she get sad. Sadness makes her feel more stuck, and then, more sad. This is the vicious cycle of sadness. But with even a glimpse of God’s plan, of possible paths ahead of her, the opposite can happen. Optimism leads to happiness, which leads to openness, and increased happiness. This virtuous cycle can happen fast. This is why Ditza-דיצה is described as a “leap” of exhilaration — so powerful that even “melancholy [itself] will leap up to dance before Him.”
8. CHEDVA-חדוה - the uncomfortable gladness of growth
Chedva-חדוה is secretly my favorite of the twelve. It comes from the word Echad-אחד, which means “one” because Chedva is the experience of coming into alignment — taking disparate pieces in ourselves that don’t fit together and moving towards being a more unified person. People will experience Chedva when they are open to the sort of deep learning that demands that we question their assumptions, and change their lifestyles. It’s not just that they are happy despite being uncomfortable — they are happy that they are uncomfortable because their discomfort means that they are growin.
The first time Chedva appears in the Torah is when Yitro, Moshe’s father–in–law hears about the deaths of former friends and Egyptian colleagues, but understands that they had it coming to them for their oppression of the Hebrews over the course of decades. He has mixed feelings, but was happy to be sorting them out.2
In the 6th century BCE, when many Jews returned to the land of Israel from the Babylonian exile, mostly unlettered and not very religious, the mood on Rosh Hashana became mournful. As the Torah was read to them for the first time in decades, people felt despair in the face of having to change their entrenched, irreligious lifestyles. Ezra, the leader in that generation, instructed them to “not mourn or cry,” but rejoice in the fact that they were growing — “let the Chedva you feel towards God is your strength — כִּי־חֶדְוַת ה׳ הִיא מָעֻזְּכֶם.”
Four more flavors of happiness to go as we gear up for Purim!
The Malbim in his comments on the phrase “יִשְׂמְחוּ הַשָּׁמַיִם וְתָגֵל הָאָרֶץ” explains that the Heavens (Shamayim-שמים) change in consistent and predictable ways, life on Earth (Aretz-ארץ) is constantly surprising us. On the other hand, the refrain from King Solomon in Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) is that “there’s nothing [truly] new under the sun.” If you put these two together, you understand that what’s new under the sun is new to us. The joy of this experience is Gila-גילה.
See once again the comments of the Malbim here. The Malbim made it his business to explain every word he could in Tanakh with as much precision as possible.