Are You Rich? - Rabbi Benzion Shafier

I'd like to ask you a question I don't mean this question to be facetious and I don't need you to answer the question immediately the question is are you rich are you rich but I don't mean rich in terms of friendships and M mitzvahs and I mean wealthy materially wealthy are you rich now guys you got to take out wide view because I'm going to walk around with it the reason I ask this question is because I've asked this question for 20 years now in unbelievably diverse audiences from different communities young old from the what we call the wealthiest to the least and that one single person ever answers yes and it's incredible because studies show that almost no one considers themselves wealthy wealthy is fifty percent more money a hundred percent more money and i'd like to share with you this evening a very interesting perspective on that issue the hollows of elvis gives a marshal he says imagine the following imagine a man where 35 years of age becomes blind loses his sight and he has to learn everything from anu and he does just that he learns at a walk learns how to navigate learns how to get about this thing called life and he begins again living and he spends ten years in utter blackness finally after a very very long time he hears about a medical procedure it's experimental it's very dangerous but in theory the doctor explains to him they could reconnect his optic nerve and he might be able to see he discusses it with his family he discusses it with a drug he agrees to undergo the operation he shows up at the hospital they put him on the anesthesia 10 hour operation and he wakes up after 10 hours and he's ready to find out he's ready to know how he's gonna live the rest of his life and he's about to open his eye the nurses stopped relax three days you have to wait it has to heal and he waits 72 hours finally after the longest time with his family gathered at the foot of his bed with the doctors and nurses at aside the nurse pulls off one bandage she pulls up a second he opens his eyes and he sees colors dimensions textures he sees in his loved ones who hasn't seen in 10 years he looks out the window he sees a tree an ocean he sees a meadow he sees grass with tears in his eyes he says doctor doctor what could I ever do to repay you for this gift this gift of sight Hovis olive of us explains that each morning we are supposed to open our eyes and appreciate the wonder of sight that a sham gave us we have a brothel we say every day poke KF Avram Hashem you give sight to the blind I'm supposed to open my eyes and see the wonders colors in gradations of color beauty in front of me I'm supposed to be appreciated and I'm supposed to give sheva flawed I am so so thank a sham and it's a very very curious thing the human we could have so many brothers so much wealth and we don't appreciate it if you read through that string of Broca's that we say every morning the fact that I have hands with which to feel legs with which to walk and I can stand up with ease and mobility I could walk around but more than that I live in a world replete with beauty and wonder sites that i see sounds that I here and a person is forced to appreciate it and a person is supposed to have such a sense of wow look what a Shem has invested into this world for me to enjoy and unfortunately and I don't think we often do it it's only when something happens someone breaks his leg and then a sham why me quickly the complaints find their home but until that happened there wasn't even a recognition of it being a Brava certainly no recognition of who it came from and i'd like to share with you that this is a fundamental part of the human but it shouldn't be that way and i'd like to share with you a perspective that may be very eye-opening to appreciate that which a xem does for our enjoyment let me explain to what i mean when one of my daughters with six years old she went to school and they were learning about my sabritas about creation and she came home and she said alba i get it before I sham created the world and there were no clouds the no mountains are no trees I get that but abba what color was it let me share with you what she was asking if you imagine the moment before creation the moment before I xem said by he if you close your eyes and imagine that moment what do you see blackness but you see blackness is a color even vacuumed implies physicality before I shem created the world there were no Adams no corks no molecules there was absence of physicality from absolute complete absence of anything Hashem said via he and a hundred billion galaxies each containing a hundred billion stars came into existence but when you take this difficult step of imagining what it was like before I sham created the world I think you'll start seeing some very very interesting features that I xem put into the world and you should ask why before I shouldn't created the world there were no models and nothing to pattern after everything that I sham created was for a reason and let's look at some of the features in this world and ask the why behind it the world we live in is replete with color if you can drive on the palisades parkway on a fall day you'll see every shade between red and orange and you look at an ocean and you see so many different variations of color would you like to know how many variations all you got to do is open in Microsoft Word the color palette has 16 million variations now I don't want to date myself for your folks but when I was a kid growing up I watch TV in black and white and you could tell the full spectrum the full drama within the gray tones spectrum and a sham could have created the world that we live in in black and white so here's the question who needs color why create a world with so many different gradations so many different hues why create a world so rich in color and would you like to know what the answer is the answer is from a functional standpoint for the world to function you don't need color and if I xem created the world strictly as a utilitarian functional object a sham would not a need to create color because color serves no purpose other than one so that you and I should look at a beautiful scene and say it's magnificent so that we should enjoy it so that we should see it and say wow a sham created color in this world for one reason for us to enjoy and when you begin studying many many of the things that a sham put into the world you quickly see that they were created for one purpose only for our enjoyment and no other reason and folks and goes so far that it's hard to imagine the stapler makes a very important point food that we eat serves a very particular function we eat food for its nourishment we eat food because we need the energy to live and by all rights food all food should be brown and taste like cardboard I guarantee we'd still eat you're hungry you need it you'd still eat yet the food we eat isn't just brown and doesn't just tastes like cardboard why did a sham invest so much wisdom so much forethought into the different flavors aroma's and textures of food for one reason so that when you sit down to that steak when you sit down to that salad you'll enjoy that activity it wasn't just supposed to be something that you do I xem needed and to give if it could be wanted to give and a shim wanted us to enjoy our stay in the planet and if you look at the beauty of this world and if you look at the various things that I xem put into the world you quickly see that many of them didn't have to be there many of them are strictly for our enjoyment and let me share with you an interesting idea when I was in fourth grade I was bored most of the year maybe fifth grade as well and it didn't get much better anyway I remember clearly in fourth grade sitting there with an orange now folks if you did the same you could smile along with me but you haven't noticed that when you peel the orange of all those wedges and if you take the single wedge little wedge of the orange and you peel back the membrane you'll note that there are hundreds of little juice sacks right all the juice in the orange is arranging these tiny little sacks now again if you're bored and fourth grade you know one at a time they get you Teresa okay now here's the question why did a Shem design the orange with wedges and each wedge to contain hundreds of little juice sacks would you like to know why if you go to a candy store and you see a candy that says bite in for a burst of flavor you'll understand the orange you see when you bite into that wedge of the orange you get a burst of flavor those juice sacks burst and you have an enhancement to your enjoyment you see it wasn't enough that the citrusy sweet delicious flavor of the orange should be there Hashem wanted to add another little part to it I shall wanted to add that burst of flavor so that when you bite in it just hits your palate but that's not where it ends you ever noticed that foods come in so many different colors the orange is orange and the apple is no it's not there seven hundred varieties of Apple but let's take the red apple okay the delicious Apple is red why is the apple red ladies anyone know why I'll give you a simple answer and go to a supermarket find Tide detergent in that neon orange container know that Proctor and Gamble spent millions of dollars in consumer research to determine that shade has more I appeal than any other shade and that's why it's in that color cheerios is in that same yellow box for 60 years now why because consumers like it better the Apple is red on the outside because it looks pretty it's attractive note pleased that the peel on the inside is white because that's no longer needed a Shem wanted the Apple to look attractive and because a shim wanted to add to our enhancement but here's the next step when you bite into the orange you get the burst of flavor when you bite into the Apple you get the crunch why did I she'll make the cellular walls of the apple brittle so that you get the crunch anyone know why okay I'm back to the supermarket 75 feet floor to ceiling of breakfast cereals each one bragging to be crunchy ER than the next ours is country Roger crunchiest art is so crunchy we even include earplugs so you don't go that okay here's a question why is in general mills spending so much marketing dollars to convince you that their product is crunchy the answers are simple because when you sit down to the crunch it's enjoyable my kids whenever little if the milk it that cereal more than 20 seconds ago here it's soggy I'm not eating it it's fun to crunch on food so Shem designed the Apple to be brittle so you get the crunch and the orange for the burst of flavor for the life of me I don't get bananas but whatever for the baby may be on or whatever but okay here's the point it wasn't just that a sham gave various different flavors to every different type of food and it wasn't just that they would enhancements in the arrangement the colors had to be different but here's one more step what about aroma you ever come home friday night and you're really anxiously awaiting your wife's best soup and you sit down and it doesn't taste right because you have a cold science now shares with us that most of our sense of taste comes through our smell and the reason why you can't taste something if you have a cold because you can't smell it and the aromas doesn't don't work here's the point not only do the foods come in different textures in different colors they have vastly different aromas and if you'd like to appreciate this point let's go back to that orange when you peel the outside of the orange what happens ever notice that mist goes up in the air and that mist smells like an orange but if you get some on your finger and you lick it it tastes bitter why is that not explained to you very simply you see when you break the peel you get that spray the aroma is emitted you smell the orange and you hunger for it therefore when you actually bite into the orange you enjoy it more but that means in plain language is that a sham micro encapsulated sent into the peel of the orange to be emitted it didn't have to taste sweet that'd be a waste of resources but it had to smell and like the orange so that you should enjoy the orange that you eat to a greater extent and if you study the foods that we eat the sites that we see you'll see incredible wonders I once opened my eyes on shoeless and I couldn't stop laughing we try to stay up she was night learning and I often make it especially by three o'clock i'm giving shir and i'm starting to get punch drunk anyway by shoppers it was about 7 30 and I did something I never did before I actually fell asleep standing and suddenly I kind of opened my eyes and I saw the Bema I don't know why but I was looking at the Bema and I started laughing why because on the Bema was a large bouquet of flowers and I saw the irises the daffodils the colors the different textures of the flowers and I started laughing why because do you understand that the flower has no functional purpose in terms of its color the B is largely colorblind the B is attracted by the sense of smell the reason why there's so many delicious luscious colors in flowers is so that you and I should look at it and say that beautiful from a utilitarian functional standpoint it didn't have to be and when you study so many of the features that are Shem put into the world for one reason for us to enjoy you should stop and say wow that is interesting why did I xem do it and there is only one reason because a sham wants us to enjoy our stay in this world it's not the reason why sham created us but a sham is amitav shame as a giver and a shim wants us to enjoy our stay on the planet I have one more step that I find very very compelling my grandmother nilesh Ellen lived to be 93 and she was born in Europe and before World War one and she described to me life as she lived it as a little girl she explained to me that her family were well-to-do they owned a two-room house but a two-room house meant two rooms one room where the parents slept and the other room with the whole family ate in work and did their chores and did everything else they were considered wealthy because the floor was made of wood unlike her friends who had floors made of dirt let me explain to what I'm saying in the barest shack 2 with holes in the walls that let the cold air in without air conditioning without running water and people lived my grand parents your grandparents may be a great grandparents a hundred years ago in this country much of the farmland didn't have electricity and if you study life a hundred years ago 150 year go and compare it to now you'll find it's so different that it's hard to imagine my father had a friend parenting Sheila in Europe also actually between the first war and the Second World War and he went to your she's in Poland there was a room that he slept in and he had a handy way to tell whether it was a cold morning or not many people put the negev asif at the waterfront Szilard I'm right by the bed so they could wash right away as soon as they get up here put the water right by his bed and in the morning he would take the covers off of his head and look at the water if the water was frozen over it was a cold morning if the water wasn't frozen over it was a regular morning but that was a room he slept him folks if it hits 55 degrees in your house I guarantee you're sleeping by your sister your mother your brother you're not sleeping there but regular people lived in houses that were the barest imaginable without any connection to our world and if you compare the life that we lead now and the luxuries that we enjoy to people who lived a hundred years ago two hundred years ago there is no basis of comparison and if you're not sure I'm right I'll give you a little example if you are a student of American history you'll know this answer if not you won't who was the King of England during the Revolutionary War period anyone know the King of England during the Revolutionary War period 1776 or so okay so the answer is King George King George now I'm going to be a famous portrait of King George sitting on the throne a big man I mean he actually wasn't that big but as he sat on that throne he had this very big fur coat on on top a fur coat was a pelt on set up top of that pet was another pelt and there he sits there on the throne of England very very big because of all of the clothing that he was wearing so here's the question why is the King of England sitting there with a fur coat and the pelt and the pelt on top of that why is he sitting in that way the answer is because Buckingham Palace was freezing cold how do you heat the palace so wait over yonder there was a fireplace radiant heat now rating he is real good because it radiates out and it warms this party buddy very nice but this party but it's called what he do you turn around not very nice this part the body is warm and this press called the King of England with the crown jewels could not he his own home he walked cold smelly dank hallways at night got into a bed of 36 inches of down feather you don't happen to your back when you do that and no chiropractor in the morning so kind of put you back in into place the King of England when he was invited to the Earl of Francis wedding got into his carriage pulled by 12 white steeds that sounds wondrous doesn't it twelve white horses pulling a carriage on the problem the wheels were made of wood riding on pothole filled roads and the King of England was his role was because in the carriage it was quite cold SAT there going for seven days seven days with the Royal steeds pulling the carriage folks I am NOT a wealthy person I get into my toyota camry air cushy ride i have surround sound stereos six speakers i have controlled the sound to trebled the base I have my own mixers I have solved fifty percent of Sholem bias problems what's the second biggest cause of divorce in America anyone know it's what temperature we set the thermostat 2 69's everyone look at a robot 60 I got it solved you know why dual controls my wife wants it warmer we make our side warmer I want to cool on my cycle no problem listen to what I'm saying to you I Drive at 60 plus miles an hour in an air-conditioned car air conditioned you know what that is air conditioning look at pictures from 1910 in the United States of America and you'll see the apartment buildings in the summer you ever notice on the fire escapes if you look at those pictures you'll see sleeping bags not a blanket and people always were out there in the summer sleeping on a fire escape why was it so common to sleep on the fire escape and the apartment buildings in New York City answer is good no such thing is air-conditioning the building was baking all day in the 95 degree heat and it absorbed it and absorbed it and it was no way you could cool off your apartment the only choice was to go onto the fire escape and that's how many people spent the night in the 1950s something called air cooling and was introduced in the movie theaters and people would flock there because Wow an unheard-of unprecedented luxury folks I've seen pictures of the grand Rothschilds house Lord Rothschild one of the wealthiest finance ears bankers in Europe my house is larger my house is fancier I also happen to have indoor plumbing and electricity that runs through the walls and I have luxuries that Rothschild could imagine in the 1800s and if you compare our life to people who lived a hundred years ago two hundred years ago you see we are wealthy beyond belief if you take the richest king's living three hundred years ago and compare their life to ours there is no comparison if you don't get this point yet I'll make it a little bit more clear it was a known medical fact in England in the medieval times and even later than that that to bathe in the wintertime was dangerous to your health so that means the average person did not bathe from about October till about March oh that sound very comfortable I mean the average person the average man by the time you get 30 had lost most of his teeth and there were no dentists to kind of you know give you a bridge and kind of take you uh-huh there was no lotion to put on your hands your fingers would open up in the cold brittle cracks and people live the most austere difficult life you could if you would take an average person from 200 years ago and bring them to our world they'd be astonished they'd fall on their face and one more step if you'd like a religious experience try me on this one go to walmart 100,000 square feet of material goods rose and Rose aisles and aisles of everything imaginable and by and large you and I have enough discretionary income to buy what we want there and if you begin to study the wealth the opulence the tremendous assurance that we have you begin to realize something very very astonishing are you rich me rich I barely pay my mortgage I got my kids tuition with rich you know why we don't realize it we're rich because we get so caught up in the world we get so busy and that we stop and we no longer even realize the tremendous wealth that we have we don't look at sites and appreciate them you don't smell aromas and appreciate them and we don't appreciate the tremendous Brotha that we have living in our time folks in the course of history mankind never had it this good we in this country here enjoy freedom opportunity of unprecedented ever in history you could be what you want and become what you want go to school for what you want what did you do in the middle eight medieval times anyone what did you do by and large moneylenders why would use moneylenders why why because they were guilds you couldn't become a carpenter you couldn't become a jeweler there were guilds kind of like trade unions that wouldn't allow Jews in you could do what you want in this country go to school you'll become a lawyer a doctor an Indian chief go take a course in it open your own tribe you could do it go online create your you could do it if you want so here's the question there's a world that we live in there so magnificent and we don't appreciate the magnificence of it and we live in a time of such luxuries and opulence and we don't appreciate it what's shot why not and i'd like to share with you what i think the answer to this question is and it's not a small question viktor frankl was a vini psychiatrist and viktor frankl discovered that he was Jewish and when the Nazis put him on a train bound for outfits and he interesting Lee survived the war after the war he landed in the DP camps then he landed on the on the upper east side of manhattan and he ended up writing a book his book is called man in search of meaning and there are two parts to the book the first part of the book is where he describes being in Auschwitz in the concentration camp and trying to be dispassionate to sort of step back to play psychiatrist to kind of analyze what was going on in the psyche in the minds of people and that part of the book is a fascinating read a towering but a fascinating read and then there's a second part of the book in the second part of book describes then when he landed on these shores Upper East Side and he very shortly put out his shingle he had been a world famous psychiatrist and he explains that very shortly after he began his practice here his practice was filled but he describes that the patients that he was seeing and the symptoms that they were reporting were things that he had never seen before in decades of practice in Europe he describes a woman would come in for the intake interview and he would say madam what can I do for you well I'm depressed doc I'm sorry here that is it is it your marriage now your kids know what is it I don't know that that's why I'm here hmm middle-aged man will come in 45 years age what can I do for you I'm depressed I'm sorry that is it is he marriage now is your kids know is it your job now is it your golf game no why are you depressed I know that that's why I'm here patient after patient would come in without unattributable caused an attributable cause is a reason why person should be depressed if you were married for 35 years and you lost your Ben that's a very powerful life-shaping moment and that requires a lot of pulling yourself up and we certainly would understand why woman would have to really be going through something and that's an attributable cause if you have a genetic predisposition a gift from your parents that's also an attributable cause but he describes that patient after patient would come in without a reason to be depressed and his conclusion as a secular psychiatrist is that these people were depressed because they had no meaning in life they had no purpose in life he made a lot of money I became famous I became world renown and i wake up at 40 or 45 and I say yeah I don't get it there's something missing and his theory from again a secular vantage point is that these people are depressed because they lack meaning in life now folks let me share with you that he got it right one hundred percent light in the United States of America the wealthiest country in the world the wealthiest country ever in history there are tens of millions of cases of depression reported every year of those tens of millions science now shares with us that only sixteen percent have unattributable cause the other vast majority have no reason why they shouldn't be happy have no reason why they shouldn't have energy in the morning but can't get out of bed because something's missing would you like to know what that's something that Miss is missing is a shim and took you from under the key see I covered for my Shems thrown up above put you into a body said this is the ideal life for you lead your life accomplish do change yourself change the people around you grow your put here for a grand mission and if you lead your life that way than you and you are in sync you and you are in harmony and there's an inner peace there's an inner joy there's a happiness but if you lead your life for any other purpose whether to be to make money or to become famous and become whatever you're going to feel a tremendous void inside you know why and because there's a voice inside you that says so what you made 10 million dollars so what you made it to the cover of Time magazine so what what are you doing what are you accomplishing and there's an inner voice within you that will not let you rest I remember as a young boy reading a novel that a black kid who grew up in the south in 1920s and this kid described poverty he said he was hungry from morning tonight he never knew what it meant to be not hungry until one day he was walking to school and he discovered that a neighbor had let the garden hose left it out so he went over to the garden hose put on the spicket and began drinking and drinking and he filled his belly I filled his stomach filled with water and the hunger pains subsided until 20 minutes later when the water left and the hunger pangs came back worse than before if you'd like to understand our generation you see people running and doing and running and doing any wake up a 30 or 40 and there's a sense of emptiness inside do you know why and because when you're hungry and you try to fill your stomach with water it doesn't work Hashem created us to draw to accomplish to reach stellar Heights and if you live your life for any other purpose you'll make money you become famous come well-known and you're going to wake up with a sense of emptiness inside if you study this world you see so many things that I xem put here for us to enjoy Hashem is a mate if God wants us to enjoy this world is not the purpose of creation but even this temporary world a sham wants us to enjoy and if you want to enjoy this world you have to know how to use it you have to know how to use your life because if you use your life for any purpose other than when I sham intended well guess what it's kind of like using a surgical tool to pry open a window there's a lousy job and it dulls the blade if you live your life with any other intentions any other focus you're going to be empty you're not going to enjoy this life and you're certainly not going to accomplish much Hashem gave us a Torah there exact directions very exact formula follow these steps to follow these guidelines you'll accomplish you'll grow and as a side benefit by the way you'll enjoy this world too much greater extent one reason is quite simply because you'll be happy you'll be fulfilled you'll be satisfied i'll be happy when i'll be happy i make a million dollars I'll be happy if I get married I'll be happy when I have a kid I'm having obtained grandkids everyone has an answer to that line you ever noticed everyone's going to be happy when i'll be happy when and guess what the win happens and they're not happy and you live in a generation with so many intelligent cultured sophisticated people are miserable and you gotta save yourself what's going on and you like to know what's going on it's very simple if you lead your life not as your creator made you you're not going to be very satisfied with life I shall wants us to enjoy this world understand put many many things in this world for us to enjoy and a sham wants us to be happy in this world and when you leave your life properly when you lead your life as you're supposed to there's an inner joy there's an inner happiness you wake up in the morning with a sense of wow you look at the stars and look at the ocean you look at the pictures you look at what you see and it's beautiful us especially the Jewish nation were given a mission and we're given a very exact way to accomplish that mission each person individually and as a nation the Torah is replete with directives with warning examples do this you'll accomplish your bro you'll be happy in this world obviously happy in world to come and when you live in a world that we live in with so much wealth and people don't feel rich and you live in a world that's so beautiful and people don't even see it what you're looking at at a certain point you have to say wow what a shame look what a sham did look how she wants us to benefit but to do that you have to stop you have to ask yourself what am I doing here I have to look in the mirror and ask yourself what does the Sham one for me and when you do that you bro you accomplish accomplish a mission is world and you feel in a sense of joy we all have tremendous a flaw