Good on them. This isn't silliness; it's a wonderful use of their time taught to them by their rabbis. The 18th-century Hasidic sage Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav used to teach that Judaism commands us "to be happy always...by any means you have, even through foolish words." His disciples nowadays in Israel dance and sing their way through traffic while blasting upbeat dance music. (Yes, it gets annoying sometimes.) But R' Nahman took this silliness very seriously. He lived a life of excruciating pain and uncertainty, a life shaped by oppression and violence and manic-depression that ended in a death at 38 from tuberculosis. The happiness he commanded, sometimes from deepest depression, was an almost superhuman commitment to recognize the vast good inherent even in a painful life. It was a happiness achieved through great and persistent effort, and its great prize was the spiritual balance and psychological replenishment that only a mind trained to profound and abiding gratitude can offer. Happiness isn't a function of life's circumstances, he taught (echoing Maimonides and others). It is achievable in every life. And if one achieves it, all pain becomes more bearable and all obstacles are easier to overcome. R' Nahman allowed an exception to the mitzvah of happiness, a moment when he believed great sadness could be useful: Prayer. Set yourself a time each day, he wrote, to let your heart break, and let that broken heart pour itself out before its creator. That, too, is part of a life of happiness. So good on these guys. No better place than an eight-mile backup on I-80 to do some spiritual upkeep on one's soul.
See Tweet