World Happiness Report

Readers of The Jerusalem Post have their say.

Israel is near the top of the world in one aspect of happiness: perceived life satisfaction or well-being. Our emotional happiness is healthy but has room to improve.

Having achieved so much in the first 75 years of our existence that has led us to become one of the top five happiest countries in the world, we must ask if we can preserve it.

People can personally be happy and satisfied, even though at a national level they may feel there are dark clouds everywhere. That Israel ranked so high on the 2023 World Happiness Report shows this.

Israel has, in recent years, ranked among the happiest nations in the world. Now, in 2023, it advances to the number four spot.

How does one explain the huge gap between an intolerable existence full of tension in Israel of 2022 and the OECD’s ranking of Israel as one of the top ten happiest countries in the world?

When we’re counting those 613 seeds of the pomegranate that correspond to mitzvot on Rosh Hashanah, remember that it’s a major mitzvah to be happy.

One of the leading factors that I have read about and makes the most sense to me is that in this geographically small land, one’s family and loved ones are nearby.

An explanation is needed for why Israel is one of only two non-European countries [the other is New Zealand at No. 10] in the top 10 happiest places on earth.

The World Happiness Report is issued by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), and it makes me happy that sometimes even a UN-affiliated body has something nice to say.

Remember that when we were crossing the sea after the Exodus, some looked down and only saw the mud. They missed the miracle.