Amichai Lau-Lavie

Because as a Rabbi, I believe joy is a response to terror

Joy can be, perhaps must be, our strategy. It’s not enough to solve this mess but it’s a must-have tool in our human lifeline.

In a recent article, Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, author, pastor, and professor of African American and Diaspora Studies at Vanderbilt University, wrote this about Vice President Kamala Harris—dubbed by her husband, Doug Emhoff, as a “joyful warrior.” 

“Her laughter… is not a silly joy but a sober joy, one that derives from confronting bullets, bullies, and ballots with the determination to forge ahead to the future in the belief that the universe smiles on our every step.”

In the face of adversity, supremacy, extremist and fundamentalist viewpoints that threaten to dominate our lives with disregard to human dignity, freedom, and justice—joy is a response to terror. 

Laughter, through the tears, paves the path to our better future, face to face, with love and respect. 

That is what we need in this country, and we must work hard to ensure our better future, starting with all the ways we show up to this coming election.

Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie is the founding spiritual leader of Lab/Shul NYC and the subject of the new documentary film, Sabbath Queen.