Good morning, everybody. It's good to see you again. Wishing you all a great week and a wonderful day.
We're continuing our study, trying to figure out a very big question that Abraham Avinu had to deal with, and that every one of us has to deal with. A few days back, we asked: If, after we leave this world, we were offered another lease of 100 years, 120 more, and given a choice to come back as a human, a squirrel, a cow, or any of the other animals, what would be the best answer?
As we've been doing over the last few days, we're making a little comparison between the pleasure that we all seek: the pleasure of an animal and the pleasure of a human being. So far, it's been a very, very disturbing study. As you go through all the different elements that make humans unhappy in this world, we find, in summary, what we've learned: most humans are working very hard, many are suffering, and many are unhappy, if not for a very big portion of their lives, then certainly for a chunk of their lives. They're struggling to make ends meet, or they're worried about losing what they have. There are moments of jealousy, moments of desperation, and many moments when they don't have the ability to fulfill their desires. There are desires that cause them great pain. There's disappointment, even after they got what they got. Very often, they work and work for something, and in the end, they realize they don't even need it. There's the endless pursuit of honor, like we discussed, and the frustrations that come when you don't get the honor, which happens very often. There's the difficulty of dealing with relationships, as we mentioned: machloket (dispute) with family, friends, neighbors, community, and partners.
Sickness, which we didn't discuss, is another area where humans struggle more than animals. For the purpose, animals, generally speaking, are healthier than humans. They don't need to go for checkups. They don't need to go to the dentist to fix their issues. Generally speaking, animals are stronger than humans, and they have fewer issues or sicknesses that we know humans have to deal with.
After seeing all of this and thinking it through, perhaps the answer would be to come back as a squirrel. But that's not really why we went through this now. We didn't go through it so we could decide what to come back as. Really, we went through it because it brings up a very big question that Abraham Avinu had, and we could all have the same question. What has God done? What happened? He created trillions and trillions of animals, and each one has the ability to live a life of satisfaction, a life where they have what they need, where they don't have desires for things that will hurt them. And humans...
When Hashem created the top, He got to the top of the mountain. Everything was created first, and Adam HaRishon was created in the end. That's what the Torah tells us. It's like a wedding. The marchers start to come in. The least important marchers usually come in at the beginning. As you get toward the end, you get to the Kallah (bride), who is, of course, the beginning. Of course, she's the most important person of that night. She comes in at the end, and the Chatan (groom) goes to get her. They march together. The Chatan and Kallah are the centerpiece of the night, so they come in at the end. First, people may come in that morning to set up tables and chairs and bring the food. These are not the most important people at the wedding. These are only preparation for the main course.
When Hashem created this world, He created so many different parts: the animals, the planets, all the different trees, foods, fruits, and vegetables, and all the metals. We have oil. We have so many things that Hashem created. All of them are important, but not important for themselves. They were all the backdrop, the setup, the preparation for the purpose of creation, which is Adam HaRishon. That's why he was created at the end.
So how could God do this to us? Why did He give us a desire for things that are going to hurt us? Why did He program our minds? Why did He go to heaven? Why did He mind that there is something called jealousy? Jealousy is not something that just happened. Jealousy is something that God created and put inside of us. He programmed us to be jealous. He programmed us to feel sometimes empty because of our desires. Of refining ourselves. And hungry and in pain because of that. All these feelings that we discussed were planted by God Himself. Hashem put in this ability, we'll call it, to have machloket. We can hurt ourselves. Animals don't hurt themselves. Why did Hashem do this to us? Why didn't He make us without these things and give us a life of pleasure? This is a huge question about the Creator.
But when you review what we know about Him, number one, He has wisdom. We see that throughout the world. Number two, He has the ability. We see He could do this. Meaning, if somebody answered, "Well, you know, God can't make everything perfect. It is what it is. It's not perfect," that's not true, because Hashem made so many thousands, excuse me, millions and billions and trillions of examples where He did it perfectly. He could do it. In fact, maybe He created so many kinds so He could prove to us that He could do it. So He has the wisdom. He has the power. And He's a Baal Chesed (master of kindness). We see the entire world around us is one big machine of kindness.
Remember, we don't have to be born. We take life for granted, as if, of course, we have to have life, and we have to have food, and we have to have health. We have to have nothing, because we didn't do anything. So whatever we have is a bonus. If we lived for a moment and enjoyed one cup of coffee, that would be extra. It's a bonus. We don't deserve anything. We were created without deserving. We were given all of this without having to deserve it. Our Creator, our Host, is a tremendous Baal Chesed.
So now put all these things together, and you have a very big problem. He has the wisdom. He has the power. He's a Baal Chesed. So what, is He playing a joke on us? Is that what Hashem is doing? Is it a joke on humanity? Is this what this world is all about? This question needs to bother us, to bother every human on the planet. Now, of course, a person who doesn't take time and focus on a question like this either will not spend time thinking about it and certainly will not get any kind of valuable answer. But if it means something, if life means something to any of us, which of course it should, like it did to Abraham Avinu, this became a very big question that he needed to understand the answer to. Remember, the wisdom of the Creator is evident in everything around us. So we can learn a lot about Him from questions like these.
You know what the answer to this question is? The obvious answer to this question. Again, it's only obvious if you take time to focus on it, to think about it, to study it, to work it out. What's the answer? The answer is that if we don't have the capability to enjoy and have pleasure every moment of our life because these things are constantly pulling at us, it must be that Hashem, the Creator of the world, wants us to do it ourselves.
Again, an elephant, although he is very, very satisfied in his life and has pleasure in his life and doesn't have the issues that we have to deal with, gets no credit for that. He was born that way, and so was every animal. But when it comes to humans, it is obvious that Hashem created us with many things that are lacking, things that don't allow us to live a life of complete bliss and pleasure. And that's because the Creator wants us to do it. He wants us to perfect ourselves. He specifically made us perfect. Meaning, He made us so that we would be able to perfect ourselves, that we would not be robots like the squirrel and the cow. Yes, the squirrel has everything, but it gets no credit for it. It didn't do anything for it. We humans, Abraham Avinu understood, were created with a natural tendency to want to fight with others. That's normal. That doesn't make us unique. What makes us special is when we control ourselves and rise above the creatures. It's normal to be selfish, but we need to take ourselves and become givers. Yes, we have all types of desires pulling at us left and right. Yet we have the ability to make ourselves perfect. We are here to perfect ourselves. That's an obvious conclusion that Abraham Avinu understood: all these things that we humans have to deal with are in order to perfect ourselves.
This actually explains one of the mitzvot (commandment) that we have: the mitzvah of Berit Milah (covenant of circumcision). There was a Roman who had a question for Rabbi Akiva. He told him, "I don't understand you people. A baby is born, and you cut off a part of his body? If the Creator wanted that part cut off, don't you think He's capable of doing it Himself? You think He needs your help? And from the fact that He didn't create him that way, you're actually going against His will. If that's the way He decided to make him, who are you to take God's creation and tamper with it?" That's what Turnus Rufus asked Rabbi Akiva.
Rabbi Akiva explained to him, "Sir, you got it all wrong." This Roman thought that we are in this world to help the Creator. We're here to assist Him. So, therefore, if He already created something the way He wanted, what are we tampering with? Rabbi Akiva told him that's not why He created the world. He created humans specifically imperfect. He created us with a tendency to get angry. He created us with many imperfections for the purpose that we will perfect ourselves. And the sign, the siman (sign), that Hashem gave Am Yisrael that we have this elevated purpose in life is the berit (covenant) that He made with us. What was the covenant that He made with us? He couldn't have written it on a piece of paper and put a sign on it. But the covenant that He made with us is that He is asking us: "You see how I made you physically? I could have made you perfect. That extra piece of skin, I could have taken it out myself. I don't need your help. But I specifically put it there because I want you to perfect it." And that's not just something you do on the eighth day of a baby boy's life. That's the story of our lives. The story of our lives is that Hashem has put into our lives many aspects that we need to cut off, that we need to perfect. We are actually here for that purpose.
You know that same Roman, Turnus Rufus was his name, asked Rabbi Akiva another interesting question. He asked him, "Why do you give charity to poor people? Don't you believe there is a Creator to this world who guides this world? So who made that man poor? God Himself. You don't think God could give him money? So if Hashem decided that that person should not get money, who are you to go and tamper with His creation? And you're going to give him money? It's like a father who doesn't want to get something for his son, doesn't feel it's appropriate, doesn't want to get him a scooter, thinks maybe it's too dangerous, and the neighbor comes and gets him the scooter. You think you're smarter than a father? If God decided that that person needs to be poor for whatever reason, what are you doing giving charity? You don't think you can support him?"
Again, Rabbi Akiva answers the same question. It's the same thinking. Rabbi Akiva says the Creator made this world imperfect because He wants me to make it perfect. Of course He could do it Himself. But then what would that do for me? If God created a perfect world, what have I done? What have I accomplished? If we were robots and acted perfectly, it would not be to our credit. If you see a computer that works beautifully, you don't thank the computer. You don't say, "Wow, what a computer. You're beautiful. You're unbelievable. God bless you." You don't give compliments to the computer. You give compliments to the programmer, to the manufacturer who made it. If we were born perfect, that would mean no credit to us. It would be credit to our manufacturer. But this world was created for me and you to make something of ourselves.
Maybe we'll get into that a little more in detail tomorrow: exactly what the purpose of creation was. But Abraham Avinu understood, just from looking around and seeing what we're seeing now, that we're obviously here for a higher purpose than the physical world. Because if the Creator only created me and you for the physical existence of our life, then He could have done a much better job at making the world we live in much happier for me, much easier for me, with much more pleasure for me. He's going to give me a hundred years. These hundred years could be perfect and give me perfect physical pleasure. He could have done that. He didn't need to give me the headache of raising children and worrying about them or their future. He didn't need to give me that. I could have been much happier without that. He didn't need to give me jealousy. He didn't need to give me the run after honor. He didn't need all that. He could have given me...
If the purpose of this world is this world, then the answer to our question—should we come back as a squirrel or a cow, a squirrel for a hundred years or a human for a hundred years?—is obvious: You have to be insane to come back as a human. Literally, you have to be insane to come back as a human. If you look at life only in the physical, from year one till year a hundred, there is no way a normal human who sees the statistics will come back as a human. Because if you're a squirrel, you're guaranteed a hundred years of satisfaction. A human has no guarantees of anything. In fact, the more we see, we see people suffering in so many ways, if not all the time, then for a large portion of their time. Why would anyone want to come to that?
But Abraham understood that this obviously can't be. If the Creator is interested only in our physical well-being, then He wouldn't have done what He did to us. From there, he understood there is obviously a higher purpose. There's obviously something beyond this world. And it is that which makes this world perfect, and it is that which makes me perfect. Yes, the imperfections are what make me perfect, because I have to elevate myself. I have to elevate my soul in this world. I have to go through all those challenges so I can become something myself. And then I will be able to have something more beautiful than this world. We call it eternity.
Eternity is also obvious. If the Creator is perfect, He wouldn't create anything that's not perfect. Anything that has an expiration is not perfect. If the milk sitting in your refrigerator expires and begins to rot, then it's obviously not perfect, because perfect milk would never rot. Anything that expires is not perfect. If we're the purpose of creation, why is there an expiration? Why is there a time when we just expire? For what reason? Isn't God's creation perfect? It is. Abraham understood that we are not here for our physical life. Rather, in this physical world, we're here to raise and elevate ourselves. It is all these challenges that we mentioned, and more, that give a person the opportunity to become great himself.
Yes, we have a tendency to get angry. Absolutely. If you see someone angry, if you get angry, that's not abnormal. People don't get surprised: "Oh, wow, they get angry." That's the norm. But haven't we seen humans change? Haven't we seen humans who had bad habits change? Have you ever seen an elephant change? Never. Abraham Avinu did see humans change, like we do. He saw a selfish person. And you know what? He changed. He became a giver. He started writing checks. He started sharing. He changed. An angry person learned how to be calm. Change is beautiful. Change is something we see all around us. Abraham saw that humans change but animals don't. So he understood that this is the purpose of our life. We should never be surprised by our bad habits or our tendencies that bring us to struggles. That should not bother us. We should learn from those struggles.
If Hashem created me with these struggles, if I have a desire to look for honor and I start doing everything in my life to get honor from others, that should be my alarm. You have to perfect that. You're not here for that. That's a bad thing. It's not good to run after honor. It's worthless. It's meaningless. But I have it. It's natural. What should I do? This is who I am. How many times have you heard someone say, "Well, this is who I am. What can I do?" This is who you are. What could you do? So you're saying you're an elephant? That's not who we are. There are millions and millions of people we learn about, people we see in our lives, who have changed. Of course people change. "Oh, I have jealousy. What can I do? What should I do? I'm jealous. I can't control it." It's not true. The biggest and most important thing that every human has to know from the time they're little is that you can change who you are. And you better change, because if you don't change, you're going to get hurt.
"I think that change is only for people who are, like, really sick. Like if you're a drug addict, you've got to change. If you're an alcoholic, you've got to change. Those people need to change." A human has to change. Look at a little baby. A little baby's perfect. A little baby's selfish. All he thinks about is himself. A little baby wants all of the attention. A little baby's jealous. You're going to blame that baby for being jealous or for being selfish? But we know, as parents, that we need to educate that child that he can change. It's not automatic. You don't just go from being selfish to unselfish automatically. You have to be taught. You have to practice. You change. Haven't we seen our children change? But squirrels don't change. Never. Never happens.
That's why I told you a few days ago, by the creation of all the animals, it says tov (good): they were born, they were created perfect. Humans were not. A little baby comes into this world with some very bad middot, very bad character. His purpose is to change. The single worst comment a human can make is, "This is who I am. That's who I am. I think this way. I act this way." That is the beginning of the end. There's nothing wrong with any of us who have bad middot. There's nothing wrong. There's nothing wrong with us if we have jealousy and anger. There's nothing wrong with us, just like there's nothing wrong with a baby boy who's born. There's nothing wrong with him. But he needs, or we need, to perfect him, as a sign for our life. We are born with issues, and our mission is to take care of those issues.
Yes, there have been great people in humanity. We've met many of them who have become givers of the highest caliber, who have dedicated their lives just to help others. There are people who dedicate their lives so that they can learn and have more wisdom. They're growing. They're learning. They're not the same person they were yesterday. Let me tell you something: If you're not growing in this world, you're only going backwards. Because the natural tendency is that there's gravity in this world, in the physical world. Remember, whenever Hashem creates something in the physical world, there's something to learn from it in the spiritual world. We can't see the spiritual world with our physical eyes. But Hashem gave us examples in the physical world that we can appreciate spiritually, too. One example is gravity. In this world, you cannot just stay in the air. It doesn't work. If you're in the air, that is the way of humanity. If you don't do anything to elevate yourself, you will end up at the bottom, and you'll keep going down until you destroy yourself.
They once asked a great rabbi, "What should a person do if he wants to have the worst middot? If you want to have the worst middot, you want to be the absolute—you want to take the crown of the worst human that ever lived. So what should you do? How do you do it?" It's simple. If you don't do anything, don't learn anything. Don't try to help yourself. Don't try to grow. Don't do anything. If you don't do anything, gravity pulls you right down. So next time you see something fall down and you see gravity, know that's a message for life. If I'm not going to help myself get rid of all these imperfections, if I'm not going to help myself grow in all aspects, then automatically I'm headed down. Because that's the natural creation of a human.
This is an obvious conclusion to this very big question that all humans need to ask: What's going on with me? What is this? Why am I dealing with all these struggles? Why me? And the answer is the purpose of creation. Yes, it's a perfect world. You're the purpose of creation, and your purpose is not this world. Your purpose is something greater than this world. It's something that never ends. Only things that never end can be called perfect. And you're here, and I'm here, to continuously raise ourselves. No. You don't say, "That's who I am." You could say, "That's how I was created." That much you could say. But don't say, "That's who I am," as if you have been basically put away for life to become that person. That's a terrible, terrible outlook on life. No matter who we are, no matter what we've done, and no matter what we've become, we must know—the first rule is that we humans have the ability to change. We've seen it all around us. It's not only the ability; it's our life mission. Our life mission is never to stay the same.
A person who says, "Yeah, I'm good, I'm fine, I'm okay. I'm not a terrible person," that's a terrible thing to say. If we're here in this world, then every day we should be getting better. There's no ceiling in this area. There's no, "Oh, I did it." We're not here to impress God. I think He needs our service. When we say, "Oh yeah, we're fine, we're okay, I think He's happy with me," we're not here to make Him happy. We're here to become something special. And as long as we're living in this world, that means there's something to fix. As long as the light is on, there's something to work on.
That is the most tragic mindset of humanity: the one that looks at themselves as fine, "I'm okay, I'm good," or "I can't." It's a terrible way to think. As long as Hashem is leaving us on this planet, there's something to accomplish. There's something to grow. We can change. We will change, and we will live a great life. By the way, there's nothing happier than when a person changes. There's nothing that gives a person more satisfaction than changing. Yesterday, they used to get angry at everything, and today, they're calm. Yesterday, their desires were taking over their life. They couldn't think straight. And today, they're in control, like a melech, like a king, like a gibor, a powerful person who's actually in control of his life. It's beautiful to change. It's satisfaction. Every single day, we learn, we change, and we experience, and we learn from that, too. This is the obvious conclusion that Abraham Avinu had for himself. And that's why he began to work on all of those things that he knew every human had challenges with. And that is our mission in life. Every day should be better than the day that preceded it.
Have a wonderful day, everybody. Thank you.