I am very excited for the opportunity to share words of Torah with you. Each week, in this spot, I look to share an idea I've found that speaks to me and that I think will resonate with you as well. This week, I share an excerpt from an article by Rabbi Stephen Baars entitled 'The Best Things in Life are Never Free', which shares a fascinating perspective on the complaints of the Jewish people in the wilderness.
[...] After seeing water stand on end at the Red Sea, receiving the Torah and witnessing a multitude of miracles, the Jewish people post this complaint:
"We remember the fish we ate in Egypt for free, along with the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic." (Numbers 11:5). [...] While in the desert the Jewish people had a miraculous food called Manna. It fell from the sky every day and it tasted of whatever you wanted to think of. Everything? Well, not everything. There were five things it didn't taste of. Yes, you've guessed it, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic.
What about fish? Nope, the Manna even tasted like fish, it just wasn't free. You mean to tell me, that this Manna was like walking into a restaurant and everything was on the house except a few incidentals, and that's what they are complaining about? [... I]f the Manna fish wasn't free, how much did it cost? More than they were willing to pay. The best things in life are never free.
Let me explain. [...] How we think about tomorrow changes how we feel right now, no matter what kind of day we're having. In other words, nothing will ruin your day if you are willing to pay the price of thinking that tomorrow will be incredible.
"But what if it isn't?" That is not the point, this is: [...] If you knew you won the lottery you would have an absolutely incredible, over the top, amazing day. With all the same problems and all the same issues. And what's more, it will cost you nothing. Except one thing. Thinking. Oscar Wilde famously said, "There are two problems with life, sometimes you don't get what you want, and sometimes you do." [...] Some people need to get what they want to realize it won't make them happy, and some people are willing to think. If you thought that something tomorrow was going to solve all your problems, and thinking that would make you happy now, it means that your mind controls your happiness - now! And that thing won't do you any good - because it isn't making you happy, your thinking is. Therefore, you can have the best life possible if you are willing to think.
If you thought that this Manna fish was the most incredible tasting fish any human being had ever tasted, beyond anything ever, then what a great meal that would be. That's what the Manna fish required. And if you didn't think, then that's what it would taste like too.
If you wake up tomorrow truly expecting your day to be the best day ever, then you know what? It will be a great day. Can you do that? For sure, you have done that many times. [...] But you have to think, and most people would rather let someone else think for them, so they just turn on the T.V. That's why they wanted to go back to Egypt where they didn't need to think, because thinking is the most expensive cost there is. And relative to thinking, slavery is a bargain. [...]
Have a Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Davies
Rabbi@SOICherryHill.org
