There is an old Hasidic tradition. You may have heard of it before. A large drop of honey is placed on the first page of the Torah the first time a Jewish child opens the Bible to read and study it. The child is instructed to lick the honey from the page, forever imprinting the young scholar with the memory-paste of pleasure, the conviction that the study of God’s “Word” is sweet.

It is what we are calling a “sacred pleasure.”

“Pleasure” in life is not something most of us immediately connect to the “sacred.” Instead the word “pleasure” is more typically coupled with another word, “guilty,” as in “guilty pleasure” or even “naughty pleasures.”

It’s almost as if we think that to find some activity enjoyable, or pleasurable, means it must also be suspect. Here’s my proof: an extra rich, ext…