Nachas and Mechaiyeh

In my attempts to understand fun, and especially to convey that understanding, I find myself very often using two Yiddish words: nachas and mechaiyeh.

The word mechaiyeh describes the experience of soaking in a hot bath. Not too hot, of course. But perfectly hot. Quietly soaking. Not scrubbing. Not even necessarily soaping. Effortlessly afloat in the embrace of penetrating warmth. Finding yourself, from time to time, saying, to no one in particular, except maybe the entire universe: “ahhh, such a mechaiyeh!”

Of course you can have mechaiyeh-like experiences almost anywhere. A shower, maybe. Even, you should forgive the reference, on the toilet. Of course, you don’t need water to experience a mechaiyeh. You can be lying in the sun, on the beach, on your porch. You can be having a massage. You can be sitting still on a hot day in a cool breeze. And then there’s that first sip of tea or soup, especially in cold weather or in the morning. And then, in the evening, the simple acts of opening your belt, taking off your shoes and socks, putting on a bathobe or a soft sweater.

Mechaiyeh comes from the Hebrew word “chai.” Which means life. To experience a mechaiyeh is to experience yourself becoming more alive, your being being enlivened. Listening to music. Dancing. Holding hands with your spouse, your friend, your children or grands. Ah, such mechaiyehs!

So, if you understand the meaning of mechaiyeh, you understand something else about fun.

Then there’s nachas. Nachas is fun of a very different kind. It’s the kind of fun you have when you’re watching your kids at a school play. A funny kind of fun, because you can have it even when you’re not doing anything. Fun of the nachas variety is most often attributed to the fun you get from your kids and grandkids, and sometimes even your spouse and parents and friends. You can be playing a game with your kids, and get beaten, both fairly and squarely, and also totally and entirely, and feel good about it. Because it gives you such nachas.

Nachas is the kind of fun where you find yourself actually feeing happy for someone else. Because of someone else.

There are many kinds of nachas. You can get a sense of nachas from walking into your kitchen after a particularly greuling round of cleaning and putting away, and just noticing how everything is so clean, orderly. You can get nachas just from appreciating things – yourself, your spouse, your kids, your car, even.

Nachas comes from the Hebrew word “noach” – which means “rest” or “peaceful” or “comfort.” It also means a sense of satisfaction, contentment, gratification, of beeling accomplished. It’s a kind of fun that feels good, like a mechiayeh. But it’s not the body that gets the good feeling. It’s more like nachas is a mechiayah for the soul.

So here we have two kinds of fun, both penetrating very deep into the core of being: the fun of great physical comfort, and the fun of great spiritual comfort. They are the kinds of fun that enrich our lives, whether we are young or old, healthy or not so much. They are gifts, and the more we receive them into our lives, the more fun our lives become.