Two vines. Only one knew the secret. 🍇

[music] >> For generations vineyards around the world believed that in order to grow excellent grapes, you needed to water them abundantly. Lots of water, rapid growth, large yields. But in the [music] 1990s, wine researchers discovered something completely opposite that shook the wine world. They found that a vine that is watered abundantly produces large watery grapes, but they [music] are bland and lacking in flavor. In contrast, a vine that is deliberately subjected to controlled thirst, receiving only a measured amount of water, produces the sweetest, deepest, and richest grapes. These are the grapes from which fine wine is made. When the vine is thirsty, it stops wasting energy on leaves and the trunk [music] and concentrates all the sugars and flavors into the grape itself. It is the thirst that concentrates the sweetness. Abundance dilutes it. Scarcity deepens it. It is not abundance that creates quality. >> [music] >> It is precisely the measured lack that forces the vine to concentrate all its strength inward. Without thirst, [music] the vine would scatter itself. With thirst, it turns every drop into something exquisite. Friends, we chase [music] after abundance. More comfort, more stimulation, more of everything instantly and effortlessly. We are convinced that the more we have and the easier it comes, the happier and more fulfilled we'll be. And yet, we're surprised that when we have everything, life feels bland, shallow, watery, like a big grape that's empty inside, lacking any deep flavor. The abundance we thought would enrich us has actually diluted us. Thousands of years before wine researchers, [music] the Torah taught us the law of the soul's thirst. In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses compares the land of Israel to Egypt. It is not like the land of Egypt [music] from which you came, where you sowed your seed and watered it with your foot like a vegetable [music] garden. Egypt is irrigated by the Nile. Constant abundance with no dependence on the heavens. But the land of Israel drinks water from the rain of heaven. Rashi explains, the land of Israel is always thirsty, dependent on rain, and therefore its inhabitants constantly [music] lift their eyes to the heavens. The Ramban adds that it is precisely this thirst that is the gift. It is what creates the ongoing connection with the creator. Egypt, with all its abundance, grows a bland and ordinary vegetable garden. The land of Israel, specifically through its thirst, cultivates holiness. Thirst is not a punishment. [music] It is the gift that concentrates the sweetness. Every place where we feel thirst is precisely the place that gathers depth within us. So the next time we feel lacking, thirsty, that we don't have everything, let's not rush to fill ourselves. Let us remember the vine. Let us remember that it is the thirst that concentrates the sweetness. Let us not chase after more abundance. It is precisely through measured thirst that we become fine wine.