RECORDING OF Zman simchateinu: The art and science of joy with Dr Tamra Wright

Succot is 'the season of our rejoicing.' But how can we feel intense joy in the midst of wars, political unrest, and concern about an AI Armageddon? 

We will explore what modern happiness research and ancient Jewish practice agree on: that joy is not something you wait to feel. It is something you build. 

We will look at:

• The difference between pleasure and enjoyment, and why it matters
• Rabbi Sacks's understanding of simcha as 'joy shared'
• Four evidence-based techniques for savoring the good moments in your life
• The "as if" principle: why acting joyful can make you joyful
• Succot and Simchat Beit HaShoeva as a case study in reverse emotional causation, the ancient art of engineering joy
• Practical steps you can take this week to increase enjoyment

Drawing on the work of Harvard professor Arthur Brooks, positive psychology research, and insights from three leading books on joy, this session is for anyone who wants to move beyond fleeting happiness toward something more durable.

This shiur is dedicated to the memory of Yocheved Hillman, Dalia Hillman and Chazzan Hillman z'l.

Dr. Tamra Wright brings an unusual combination of skills to coaching and leadership development. Her academic background in philosophy enables her to think deeply and critically about leadership challenges and proposed solutions, and she draws on decades of experience teaching, coaching, and mentoring hundreds of leaders and educators from different faith communities. She is a certified Tiny Habits Coach and a Mental Fitness Coach, and serves as Curriculum Development Advisor at Faith in Leadership.

Tamra is an academic specialising in continental philosophy and 20th-century Jewish philosophy. She is the author of The Twilight of Jewish Philosophy: Emmanuel Levinas’s Ethical Hermeneutics (1999), and co-editor of Face to Face with Animals: Levinas and the Animal Question (2019) and Radical Responsibility: Celebrating the Thought of Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks (2012). She has published numerous articles on contemporary Jewish thought and, more recently, on Judaism and Positive Psychology. She is the co-author of an article entitled "Radical Resilience: Hope, Agency, and Community in the Thought of Rabbi Sacks", published in Tradition in 2025. Her article "Serve God with Joy (and Self-Actualization): Positive Psychology and the Thought of Rabbi Sacks" is included in An Ode to Joy: Judaism and Happiness in the Thought of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks and Beyond, edited by Erica Brown and Shira Weiss (2024). Her recent work explores Rabbi Sacks's call for a new approach to mussar, bringing Jewish ethical tradition into conversation with contemporary behavioural science.