Break Water Edison: A $5 Million Lesson - Rabbi Joey Dayon

[Music] In 2007, a good friend of mine was making a lot of money and he tells me at the time that he decided to buy four raceh horses. He tells me one of the horses never ran a race in its life, but he paid $500,000 for the horse. I said, "Why would you pay $500,000 for a horse he never ran?" He said his grandfather was Lemon Drop Kid, a famous raceh horse that won a lot of races, so you have to pay for pedigree. Anyway, he named the horse after a hotel that he owned called Breakwater Edison. And sure enough, I'm keeping tabs cuz it's very interesting. He tells me the horse wins the first race, the second race. Four races in a row, the horse wins, and now it's being ranked one of the important horses and it's running in Saratoga, New York at the stakes race. And it's a big deal. He tells me if he wins this race, it's possible he'll be running in the Kentucky Derby. He goes to Saratoga. He tells me the people over there, they dress up. The men are wearing suits. The women are wearing dresses and hats. It's packed with people. They're very into their horse racing over there. And he says as soon as the horse comes out of the gate, there were six horses. He's screaming, "Come on, break order." And he says his horse goes from sixth to fifth to fourth to third, second, and he says by the last turn, he's coming into first place. The place is cheering. He's screaming on top of his lungs and the horse comes in first place. And he said, "It was the greatest experience. It was unbelievable." And then he tells me, he gets a call from an Arab chic. He tells him, "Your horse is ranked number 16 in the world. I'll pay you $5 million for the horse." And I look at my friend, I said, "I'm sure you took it. You got 10 times on your money in less than a year." And he says, "Actually, I told him, I want 6 million." Anyhow, a week later, I see my friend. I said, "So, what happened? Did the Arab chic pay 6 million for the horse? And my friend puts his head down. I said, "What happened?" He says, "You don't know." He was training a few days ago. He got spooked. He jumped. He broke his leg. And we had to put him to sleep. And the horse is worthless. There's no 5 million. There's no races. There's no Kentucky Derby. There's nothing. Breakwater Edison. Allah shalom. He's gone. And I was reminded of something that we know. When it comes to physical pleasure, it's fleeting. And one minute it's here, the next minute it's gone. This guy was on top of the world. His horse is running. He got $5 million and now he's got nothing. And it could be that is the sharpest application of this. The person's driving down the street, you're going to the supermarket, you're in the airport, and you see something or you're tempted to see something that you shouldn't look at. And if you look at it and you think to yourself, what pleasure did I get from it? 10 seconds later, it's gone. I got nothing from it. 10 minutes later, 10 hours later, nothing from it. The only thing you're left with is the build. The only thing you're left with is the feeling of I shouldn't have done it. It's so dumb. Why did I look? You'll tell me, "But Rabbi, at least I got the pleasure in the moment that I looked at what I shouldn't be looking at. At least I got that pleasure." But Kazal tell us it's not true. Even that pleasure you don't get. If you're supposed to have 100 volts of pleasure and you take 20 illegally, Hashem says, "I'm going to take it from somewhere else." Maybe you're supposed to go on a trip with your wife and your family and the weather didn't turn out to be good. Maybe you're supposed to enjoy a barbecue and you didn't have a good meal. your stomach was bothering you. You can't beat the system. So even the pleasure you don't get. So the next time we're tempted to see something that we're not supposed to see, let's remember breakwater Edison. Let's remember that one minute he was on top of the world, he had $5 million, the next minute he was gone. And let's ask ourself, is it really worth it? [Music]