Some people think. Do you think Avraham Avinu's life was a tremendous success? Yes or no? Yes? Obviously, it was an unbelievable success. He's the founder of the Jewish people. You can't be greater than Avraham Avinu. You can't do better than that. Before him, there was no nation. After him, there is a nation. He's the founder of the Jewish people.
But I'll tell you the truth. If I were Avraham Avinu, I'm not sure I'd feel like a success, because he had many sons, and most of them were nothing. One, Yitzchak, was good. But Yishmael and the whole rest of the list were all nothing. In fact, some of them were bad. The only one that was good. So I'd say, “Here I am, the great Avraham Avinu. I got maybe one out of eight good sons.”
If you were Yitzchak, would you think Yitzchak was a success? Again, I think Yitzchak was the most unbelievable success in the world. But Yitzchak had only two sons, and one of them, his whole life, he thought had the potential to be good, the potential to be great, and could be the partner of Yaakov Avinu. He would find out in his old age, once he was already blind, that that son was completely not what he hoped him to be. And his son was not the son he wanted. And his whole life sort of turned out upside down.
If you were Yaakov Avinu, would you feel like a success? I would think so. But Yaakov Avinu's own words say that when he appears before Paro at the end of the story, he describes his life as difficult and painful, as if it wasn't a success.
If you were Yosef HaTzaddik, would you think you were a success? Maybe so. But he was in a foreign country for so long. His second son was better than his first. And the truth is, he was the first of his brothers to die.
If you were Moshe Rabbeinu, Moshe Rabbeinu was obviously the most tremendous success in the world. If there's anyone who should feel like a success, it should be Moshe Rabbeinu. That would be obvious. But you know what? If I were Moshe Rabbeinu, I'm not sure I'd feel that way. Most of the time that I was leading the people in the desert, it feels like they were complaining. At least that's what the Torah talks about. I had sons. They couldn't take me over. And the whole goal was to enter into Eretz Yisrael. And I never got there.
If I were Aharon, would I feel like a success? I would think so. I would think he should. But he had four sons. Two of them died in his lifetime. And he participated in the Egel (calf). I don't know if I would feel like a success.
If I were David HaMelech, would I feel like a success? I would say he should feel like an unbelievable success. He's the first king of Malchut Beit David. You know what else happened? He had a son, Rebel, who got killed. He had another son who got killed. He had a daughter who was hurt and killed. His life was so difficult.
Every person on planet Earth has a reason to believe that they're not what they want to be. And I think that that is the solution. The solution to the problem is the realization that Hashem made the world so that everyone feels this way. The solution to that little sense of, like, “Oh, I don't feel like I'm doing as great as I could”—everybody feels it. You're not the only person who feels it. The realization you need to have, if you have this feeling I just described throughout this class, is that almost everybody has it. I don't know if Harav Ovadia Yosef has it. I don't know if Reb Chaim Kanievsky has it. But I think almost everybody has a reason to feel this way. Almost everybody has a little bit of a black hole and a reason to believe that maybe they're not doing good enough. And maybe Hashem made it that way on purpose.
Yaakov Avinu, when he finally meets Esav in our parasha, bows down seven times. Why does he bow down seven times? Why seven times? And there are those who say—and the midrash (rabbinic teaching) says this is because it refers to the pasuk (verse), “tzaddik (righteous person) bows down seven times and keeps getting up.” He bows down and he gets up. And he bows down and he gets up.
The Pachad Yitzchak says that despite the fact that you fell, you got up. That's not the case. He says it's because you fell that you got up. Because you fell and because you failed, that's why you got up again. And because you failed again, that's why you got up again, and because you failed again, that's why you got up again.
Which means that Hashem deliberately creates that black hole because that black hole keeps you going. That black hole keeps you motivated. That black hole keeps a fire in your belly. That black hole becomes your engine. That black hole becomes your determination. That black hole stays with you until the end of your life, and so it makes sure that you do better and you do better and you do better. And you don't get content and happy the way you are.
So, in other words, Hashem created the world on purpose so that He's the only one in control. Nothing is able to say, “I am complete.” Nothing in the whole wide world can say, “I am complete.” Because anything could find a failure. You could find a failure in any institution, in any school, any shul (synagogue), any rabbi, any business, any person, any family. You could find a failure in every single one. That's on purpose, because it makes Hashem in control, number one. And number two is, it keeps a spark and it keeps a fire and it keeps an energy to make you say to yourself, “I have to do better tomorrow than today because I don't feel like I'm there yet.”