The Jew In Bangkok - Daily Dose - Hillel Eisenberg

[Music] Not long ago, I was in the city of Bangkok, Thailand. Now, Bangkok, Thailand is one of the most chaotic and crazy and hectic cities in the world. There's floating markets and elephants and people eating snakes, and you have people driving Rolls-Royces crashing into people riding donkeys, and you have entire families riding together on a bike. You have people selling fruits and vegetables that look like they're grown in another planet. It makes New York look like sleepy Monttoello. And so I'm walking down the street and you can imagine my surprise when I see a Jew walking down the street towards me from a mile away. You can tell this guy's Jewish. And so I go over to him and I say, "Shalom, how are you? What are you doing here?" And so he looks at me with a slightly sad face and he says, "I'm running away." So I said, "What's a guy like you running away to Bangkok, Thailand?" And he looked at me and he sighed and he said, "Well, I recently got divorced and I'm running away because my wife hates me and my kids hate me and so I flew off to Bangkok and this is where I'm roaming the streets." And I said, "I'm really sorry to hear that." And he said, he turns to me and he says, "Yeah, I I just don't get it. I just don't understand. I did so many big things for them. I took them all to Disneyland. I took them to Europe. I bought them fancy presents. I bought my daughter a car. I bought my son World Series tickets. I bought my wife a $20,000 necklace. How could they hate me like this? Okay, sure. I was a grouch more often than not, and I probably didn't give them the positive attention that they needed, but look at all the big things I did for them. I just don't get it. I just don't get it. This man walks off into the streets of Bangkok. You know what this guy didn't understand? That deep down, nobody cares about the big things. About the massive trips, about the massive presents, about the World Series tickets, about the $20,000 necklace. Nobody cares. People want the small things. The constant love, the validation, the being there through the thick and the thin for the attention you give them even when they know you've got other things going on of the celebrating of the milestones, even the small ones, especially the small ones. That's what people really want. Hashem is the same way. Of course, it's nice to learn on a sha night, but Hashem wants to see us learn on a Tuesday in December when it's raining outside. Of course, he loves our daving during nila. But Hashem wants to see us do and cry when it's not. He wants to see us dance when it's not and learn when it's not Shabu night and ask people from when it's not. He wants to see us conquer the small stuff. The smallest thing in the entire world is an atom. The most powerful force in the entire world is an atom bomb. Is that a coincidence? Of course it's not because greatness is the sum total of mastering a million small things. That's how you become great. It's like when Gordon Ramsay, one of the best chefs in the world and one of the most successful restaurant owners in the world, when he was asked what does he look for when he's hiring a new chef. He didn't say, "I look at how they fillet a sea bass." He didn't say, "I watch them sear a ribeye." You know what he said? He told them, "I watch them make an omelette." You want to know why? Because I want to see my chefs who have the ability, who perfected the small things. Because the difference between a good restaurant and a great one aren't the big things, it's the small ones. It's exactly the same thing in a hashem. The difference between good and great isn't the big things. It's not the big events. It's not the big moments. It's the million small things. [Music]