This week, I had a meeting with a friend of mine whom I’ve known for many, many years. We met at his office. I hadn’t talked with him beyond “Hello, how are you?” for many months. I looked at him and said, “You look tired. Tell me.” He said, “I’m exhausted.” I asked, “What happened?” He said, “Since October 7th, I don’t stop. It just brought a lot of passion from me to help Klal Yisrael (the Jewish people), to help people.”
One of the most incredible projects he did was in May. I’m not going to say his name because he wants to remain anonymous. He took 29 kids who were hostages in Gaza. He took a few adults who were hostages. He took family members, and they became a group of almost a hundred people. He flew from Israel all the way to Orlando for a full week at Disney, with Shabbat, a hotel, money to go shopping, and an incredible seven or eight days to take the minds of these kids mainly, and also some adults, away from the horrors they are living in Israel.
There’s a video. It’s very, very painful to watch. You see, for example, they’re in SeaWorld, and people are clapping when the dolphins come out. One of the kids said, “Ah, like this, what’s going on? I can’t see people clapping.” The kid was asked, “Why can’t you see people clapping?” The kid said, “Because when we got kidnapped and were taken into Gaza, all of Gaza was clapping, and it reminds me of that clapping.” These kids are traumatized for life, so he tried giving them what I would call moments of distraction, when they are singing and talking and having the time of their lives, to distract them from the horrors, their reality, and their traumas.
But you had to see how his eyes lit up when he spoke about what he did and his new passion. He looked shiny; he was so passionate, he was so happy. It’s a light, it’s an energy that I never found in somebody who made a great deal of money. Why? Because when you make a great deal of money, when you make a good killing, when you have an amazing transaction, whatever it is, it’s for you, it’s for you. It gives you pleasure, but it doesn’t give you happiness. It’s two different things. Here he was happy. It cost him a fortune, and he told me, “The 10% is long gone, but I don’t care, because this is real life.”
And I know that the Pasuk (verse) says it already: You’re not going to live just on lechem, on bread, on things that are physical. That’s not going to give life. That’s going to give survival. But for life, satisfaction is not something that you’re going to find in something material. They could help, of course, but the real satisfaction, the real simcha (satisfaction), happens in other areas, which are motza pi Hashem; it’s all the spiritual things: the mitzvot (commandments) you do, the chesed (kindness) that you do with people. This is real satisfaction.
So the truth of the matter is, this is not a very, very complicated concept. It’s something that we all know, but I was really looking for rock-bottom examples of the same concept. I found some examples, including a quote from Jim Carrey. Jim Carrey said the following: “I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of. Wish them the best.” For what purpose? So they can see that it’s not the answer.
Not that the Torah needs any proof, but even an actor in Hollywood—what I call the lowest of the lowest—agrees. That means that there is no discussion on this. And gashmiyut (materiality) and finding more deals and more money are great, but it’s not enough. It’s not going to give what people are looking for. What people are looking for is meaning, is depth.
And all along Sefer Devarim, including this week’s Parashat Shoftim, you’re going to find so many treasures in the Torah. Lo yarbeh lo susim, lo yarbeh lo nashim (He shall not have many horses; he shall not have many wives), the pasuk says in this week’s Parashat. The king or other people—the shanim—discuss this topic, but should not have too much. Because when you’re in the search for more and more and more, thinking, “Oh, now it’s going to be fulfilling, exactly, exactly what I was looking for,” it’s just not true. Torah is clear about this, but everybody agrees with it, yet we’re still fake in that area.
But once you find a passion, I think October 7th brought a lot of this to many people who found maybe a passion towards Israel, a passion towards their own communities, their own family, their own selves. It just reset the button of importance. And now that we’re before Rosh Hashanah, during the month of Elul, it’s such an important thing because what is the most important part of my life? What is my priority? What is real life? And when we go deeper and understand this, it’s life-changing.