Yes, the Torah Cares about Your Feelings—and It Sometimes Doesn’t Approve of Them https://mosaicmagazine.com/picks/religion-holidays/2020/06/yes-the-torah-cares-about-your-feelings-and-it-sometimes-doesnt-approve-of-them/

June 12, 2020 | Josh Yuter
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Axiomatic to the traditional concept of Jewish law is that its demands override subjective emotions; thus, as a general rule, halakhah requires a person to pray at prayer times, even if he isn’t feeling prayerful. But, explains Josh Yuter, it hardly follows that Judaism is insensitive to the vast range of human emotion. For instance, the Talmud teaches that “one who embarrasses his fellow in public, even if he has Torah and good deeds, has no portion in the World to Come”—and surely embarrassment is a subjective response. The more complex question, for Yuter, is the extent to which the rabbinic tradition is willing to adjust halakhic obligations out of sensitivity to people’s feelings:

Sometimes concern for people’s emotional states can even override established halakhah. Under normal circumstances, it is forbidden to acquire property on Shabbat. [One exception is] the case where someone is dying [and has no written will]. The sages decided that he may articulate a legally binding will on the Sabbath, so that his mind will not be further disturbed and worsen his already weak condition. . . . We also find cases where people may decline to fulfill an obligation because they feel it to be beneath their dignity. Deuteronomy 22:4 commands that one must return a lost object, but the Talmud qualifies that an elderly person for whom returning the lost object would be undignified is exempt.

[W]e also find examples where the Torah either commands one to feel certain emotions or at least demands one to regulate particular emotions.

The Divine Presence is said not to rest only upon those who are melancholy or in a state of excessive levity, but only upon those who experience the joy associated with fulfilling commandments. . . .

Emotional regulation applies to both pleasant and unpleasant emotions. When certain sages became too joyous at weddings, another sage had to intervene in order to reset his colleagues’ emotions. . . . The Talmud directs us to [the passage] where the prophet Elisha, experiencing a state of anger, needed a musician to play for him in order to ready himself for prophecy (2Kings 3:14-15).

Read more on Lehrhaus: https://thelehrhaus.com/scholarship/does-the-torah-care-about-your-feelings/