Cause vs. Reason

The first session I attended at the “Renew Your Spirit” conference was about “The Jewish Pleasure Principle”. There were several very interesting points made. The most interesting being the distinction between cause and reason.

The following example was used. A team of researchers figured out how to send an electrical impulse to a mouse’s brain to provoke the sensation of being “full” (i.e. having eaten a full meal). They rigged up a leaver in the cage that when the mouse pushed it, rather than a food pellet being dispensed, the impulse was administered, so the mouse thinks it has eaten and is full. This worked very well; the mouse was never hungry and never needed to eat. Of course the mouse died from starvation in a matter of days. The mouse had cause to be full, but no reason.

Now, how does this apply to Judaism? The issue is having cause for feeling pleasure vs. having reason for feeling pleasure. The theme of weddings was used often in the talk. The speaker compared secular weddings, where it is the host’s job to make sure the guests have a good time, to Jewish weddings where it is the guest’s job to make sure the couple has a good time. (As an aside, the speaker branched off to talk about the difference between mixed and separate dancing at weddings. With separate dancing, each couple is there to have a good time with the spouse, and tend to ignore the bride and groom. With separate dancing, everyone takes it upon themselves to dance around the bride/groom to make sure they have a good time.)

The story was told of a Jewish wedding where all the guests had much to drink and were all having a great time. The drink gave them all ample cause to feel pleasure. However, the Rabbi was not pleased; he took a crystal bowl and smashed it to sober everyone up. The Rabbi admonished the guests since the guests had cause to be happy (the wine) but no reason (they were not making the bride/groom happy).

I thought this principle of cause/reason could be applied to many aspects of Jewish life (and life in general). Before we do anything, positive or negative, we need to make sure we have reason and not just cause for doing it.