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Rav Gedalia Schorr, in his sefer Or Gedaliahu, quotes a midrash in Parashat Chayeh Sara , referring to Eliezer Eved (servant of) Avraham Avinu as an Eved Maskil/a wise servant. What was wise about him, the Midrash tells us, was that Eliezer was a Cana’ani. He was cursed by Noah to be a slave. He could have been bought by any barbarian, but Eliezer made the following statement: “I'm better off becoming a servant in this house (referring to Abraham's house), than another house.”
So we see from here, says Rav Gedalia, that his wisdom was that he was Makir Et Mekomo/He knew his place. There is a Hazal that says, “The wise one is he who knows his place.”
Normally, it’s human nature to find a way out of difficult situations. If someone’s a slave, they try to get out of slavery. But Eliezer Eved Avraham realized that if his mission was to be a slave, he’d do it to the best of his abilities. He recognized that he wouldn’t be able to get out of, because that’s what he was supposed to do.
And that brought him to his tikkun/perfection, because any curse in the Torah is not a curse out of vengeance. When God cursed Adam and Chava, that wasn't a curse. That was the way they were going to get to their tikkun. If Adam did not toil by the sweat of his brow, and Chava did not raise children, they wouldn’t come to their perfection. The same is true of the Eved. That's the way to find his perfection. And he says that this applies to everybody- LeHakir Et Mekomo/ know your talents and abilities that God gave you, and serve with them. Don’t go looking for levels that are not yours.
Hacham Yosef Raful said in a speech around Succot time that a person's goal in life is to find his place. Only when you find your place are you happy. When a person gets engaged and finds his proper soulmate, he's full of joy, because he found his place in life. He adds that at times, a person may think that this is his place or that is his place, and nevertheless, something will be bothering him. Why is that? Because truthfully, he's not in his proper place.
The Sefer Tiferet Yosef, when discussimg the holiday of Succot, quotes a pasuk in Yehezkiel (36,27):
וַהֲסִ֨רֹתִ֜י אֶת־לֵ֤ב הָאֶ֙בֶן֙ מִבְּשַׂרְכֶ֔ם וְנָתַתִּ֥י לָכֶ֖ם לֵ֥ב בָּשָֽׂר
I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh, and I'll give them a Lev basar/ heart of flesh.” The Midrash Rabba in Noah (chapter 34) says, basar could be understood as boser, a heart that looks at his friends as if it's sour grapes. What does that mean?
I look at what my friend has. But it has no place by me. I know what's mine is mine and what’s his is his. That's the ultimate happiness. And the Midrash Raba is talking about the concept that a person finds happiness in his place. It goes on to describe different stories of people that lived in places that were hard to live in. But God puts what's called Chen Makom al Yoshvav/
God puts a grace on where a person lives. If you live in a certain town, that that town suits you. God gives you a certain feeling of satisfaction when you're in your place. But it has to be your place, you can’t be searching for someone else's place. That is the ultimate satisfaction, and it's the ultimate reward. Hacham Yosef Raful quotes a prayer after Shir Hashirim that is said by many. It says, “We should merit to be in the place from where the spirits and souls were excavated.” That means that the ultimate goal in life is that all parts of our soul reach their place. That's the greatest satisfaction. And the ultimate punishment is when a person doesn't have his place, like Kayin, to whom it was said, Na V’Nad/you'll be a wanderer. And it’s interesting that his punishment matched his crime. As we said earlier, Kayin’s mistake was that he looking through other people's glasses. Kayin did not fulfill living out his life. And therefore, his punishment was that he had no place. Because he didn't live in his place, he lost his place.
Furthermore, our rabbis tell us that after one passes on, the ultimate punishment, worse than Gehinom, is called Kaf Hakella, the spiritual slingshot, where the soul shoots all over the place, throughout all the galaxies, and can't find a place of rest.
That's the ultimate punishment- where you don't have a place, where you're just always searching and looking for something else and you're not satisfied with your place. And when a person passes on, the words of comfort said to the mourners, in many communities is, “HaMakom Yenachem Etchem.” Simply, it means God, who is the Place, should give you nechama. But another explanation is that there is comfort in fact that the person who passed away found his place. The Place is really finding your connection to God, and they found their place.
That is the ultimate nechama, that somebody has reached their place, but you only reach your place in the next world if you lived your your life here in your place.
Rabbi Ades once quoted Rav Dayan Wosner, who said that legally, a person has 4 amot/six cubits, that are his. That means if a person's walking in the street within his six cubits, and he sees something on the floor, he can have in mind to acquire it, because it’s in his domain.
On Shabbat, there is a concept of carrying out of 4 amot. That is because man has a makom, and it's actually learned from the laws Shabbat in the pasuk, “Don't leave your spot.”
Everyone in this world has a spot. And your satisfaction comes from being in your spot, and not going out into other people's spots.
Have a wonderful day.