Transcript
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[music]
Today's podcast is entitled the happy
fish and I was teaching a class in body
soul health and I told the class that we
have to take good care of the body
because it's a priceless gift from
Hashem. One of the participants, a young
man named Ron, he didn't like what I
said. He called out, he said, "Hey,
Rabbi, who ever heard of giving a gift
and then dictating to the recipient how
to use the gift. Besides, if my body is
a gift, then it should be I should be
entitled to use it any way I see fit."
He says, "Who asked for the gift in the
first place?" He continued, he wasn't a
happy young man. And he said to me, I
should be entitled to use the gift any
way I want. And he said, I'll give you
an example. I'd like to eat shellfish,
especially shrimp. And the Torah says I
can't do that. And I I love to drive to
the beach on Shabbat. And the Torah says
I can't do that. So what kind of gift is
that? You give me a gift and you give
all these stipulations. I can't do this
and I can't do that. And what's good is
a gift that's got all types of strings
attached to it. In this case, 613
strings. Well, it seemed that the young
man was making a strong point. The other
people in the class said, "Oh, wait.
This guy's got something to say." But
it's only superficially. So, so I
noticed that he liked the water. He
mentioned shellfish, he mentioned fish,
he mentioned the beach, and he probably
loves the ocean, too, and everything
related to it. So, I asked him, I said,
"Hey, Ron, if your birthday was coming
up and I really like you and I decided
to buy you an aquarium, would you be
happy with a gift like that?" And Ron
said, "Sure, the bigger the better." So,
I said, "Okay, that's fine. Suppose I
get you this gorgeous 80galon aquarium
complete with everything you need. It's
got a heater. It's got a filter. It's
got lights. It's got all the equipment
you need. And you've got a beautiful
pair of fish neon tetras that they glow
in the dark and the proper feed food
that you have to fish that pet store
owner gives everything we need. And he
says, "But one thing that the pet store
owner gave when I bought the gift for
you or when I will buy the gift for you,
I give it some stipulations how to take
care of that aquarium." He's going to
tell me to to make sure that the water's
got to be 78 degrees Fahrenheit plus -4
degrees. It's not a big deal, but best
to aim for 78 degrees. And make sure the
pH, the acidity of the water is neutral.
And if possible, if not exactly neutral,
which is 7.0 pH, we got a little bit
acidic, somewhere between 6.5 and seven,
but no more no certainly not not more
acidic and not more alkalinic, of
course. And then we have to make sure
that that water doesn't have any ammonia
in it or it doesn't have any additives,
not chemical additives that could danger
the fish. They have to clean the filter
on time and do proper maintenance. would
to agree to these stipulations and give
this gorgeous gift. Mar says, "Sure,
that's a proper maintenance. That's what
you have to do." So, wait a second. I
asked him. I said, "Wait, what if you
thought that I had no right in dictating
you how to use your gift that maybe you
want to save electricity and you don't
want to use the light or you don't want
to use the filter and maybe you don't
want to change the water or change the
filter because when you change the
filter, it doesn't smell so good. It
stinks.
Maybe you want to feed the fish
breadcrumbs instead of this expensive
fish food. If you did that, made these
changes, the fish wouldn't last long,
would they? He agreed. Of course, the
fish wouldn't last long. So, not only
did Ron agree, but the whole class
agreed that the best way to take care of
an aquarium is to read a proper manual,
care for aquarium, and care for fish.
And that's definitely not dictating to
the recipient of the aquarium, the
recipient that gift how to take care of
his gift. They're not dictating what to
do. It's how to get the best enjoyment
and to make it look beautiful. You when
people come over to your aquarium, you
want the the water to be clear and the
fish to look fantastic and you get your
most enjoyment out of this. So, we see
that it's even it's an a gift even
though there are conditions about the
best way to care for it. Well, the same
thing with the body. The body is truly a
gift, but the Torah is simply the
creator's manual how to take the best
how to get the very best out of that
gift. just we need a manual to care for
our fish and for our aquarium. We
certainly need a manual how to take care
of ourselves because we're a lot more
complicated creatures than fish. We have
uh creatures that fish have a basic a
basic animal soul and they can't speak.
They don't that's neish. They don't have
a they have nama. We have the basic
animal soul. We have the ru the human
soul speaking the soul. We have nama.
The higher part is part of the divine.
People think they know how to take care
of themselves, but maybe they're only
taking care of one part of themselves.
Most people don't even know how to take
care of nef, the basic animal soul. How
many people eat junk food? How many
people do things that are detrimental to
themselves? But since so many people use
this gift from the creator improperly,
they suffer from anger. They suffer from
jealousy. Uh millions of people are
chronically depressed. That's not what
Hashem didn't put us in the world to to
be chronically depressed. He gives us a
manual. what's called a Torah. We
fulfill the Torah. The Torah teaches how
to be happy. So all these ailments that
we have or for not properly following
the the manufacturers's guid guidelines
which is the owner's manual and Hashem
created us at creator. He created us and
gave us the owner manual which is called
the Torah. So the Torah doesn't force
anyone to do anything. Torah gives a
blessing for doing the proper thing and
it's a curse. The Torah is really more
cause and effect that is telling you
must do this. If a person doesn't do
what the Torah says, he doesn't go
outside, get a hit in the head with a
bolt of lightning. That's taken away our
free choice. Hashem doesn't take our
free choice. So, it's not dictating what
to do. It's telling us the best possible
way to take care of ourselves. And
that's what the creator wants us. He
wants most enjoyment from our lives,
most enjoyment from ourselves. And this
way we need to follow the owner's manual
because the creator, he wrote that
himself. That's the Torah. And we follow
the Torah. We manifest what the creator
wants in the world. We make this world a
better place. We make ourselves a better
place. Meanwhile, take care and God
bless.
