Life's #1 Lesson - Never Let Someone Else Steal Away Your Happiness

I want to start with a very puzzling uh midrash puzzling in more than one way first of all one piece of this puzzle is we don't know where it is we haven't really found it in any type of midrashic source but there are later books that quote it as a midash because its style of language is in the is in the style of midrash so this midash essentially says like this it says that if God would have commanded us to chop wood all day so we would do it that's the midash the main part part of it that we're dealing with and uh we want to appreciate what is the message behind such a statement now on the surface I think it's puzzling to to really understand what they're trying to say because what's God God is the king God is in charge God is the boss when you work somewhere if that boss tells you and it's your job so and if you tells you you know clean up sweep up fold this take out the tra whatever he tells you to do as an employee you would do it right anybody would argue with that I don't know today what's what's correct what's not correct because everything changes in every generation it's like different every 10 years you got to recheck what's normal so is it is it still normal to that your boss tells you what to do when you have to do it CU that may be a very strong term have to maybe you choose to do it conveniently when he says to do it is that what goes on these days hopefully at least so basically the point is that what's the Kish of this teaching if Hashem would say to you chop wood you would do it of course you would you do whatever Hashem says right fortunately we do what hasem doesn't say also but that's not our topic tonight tonight it's a lovey-dovey topic so if Hashem tells you chop wood you would do it so what is the praise what is this what is the praise here about us as God's servants that if God would even have told us to chop wood we would do it what is the praise there now this idea I would like to connect with the mistake on some level of korak and a lesson for us today and how we can avoid such a mistake in our life so let's analyze what is chopping wood all about now again you should fill in that example because that was a big thing in the olden days you know chopping wood was like the job today fill it in with I don't know being a you know doing something with a computer program whatever today's essential job but it's not the glamour job it's not like the boss you know the boss those I like those boss shirts you know if you can't be a boss at least have one boss now it's not the pick any job that you can think of that you've done in the past you don't have to confess now the jobs you've done that were you know the the little the little like the little what do you call Soldier type of job but all those jobs out there that are necessary for things to function but they're not glamorous you're not the boss that's what they mean cuz shopping wood is not glamorous it's not like a you're not going to become the king you're not going to be the big CEO chopping wood is basically simple like the mailman or working in the mail Department you know you have a big company IBM Amazon somebody's got to work in that mail Department you know making sure that what's that guy's name again not the b b basos right basos that ba that when it says basos it goes in the BOS box cuz you don't want to mess up you get fir he's the boss so you don't want to put it in the the wrong box so someone has to make sure that his mail gets to him so but it's not glamorous and that's what they mean over here with if Hashem would have told us to chop wood all day we would do it because he's Hashem and we have to do it but there's something the deeper point over here is this really we all seek we all want there's an inner desire for us to feel like we have accomplished something that we're doing something that we're going somewhere we're building you know says a statement if you believe you could destroy then be smarter bit smar and believe you could build the greatest thing as human beings can do is make oursel better and make this world better we can be Builders unfortunately we could be foolish and destroyed we see a lot of that around the world today but ultimately our greatest accomplish is to be a builder we have an inner drive an inner pull to be someone to be something to seek our truth and to live a meaningful purposeful life now what could be more purposeful what can be greater than fulfilling the will of our maker fulfilling the will of Hashem can there be anything greater than that the greatest thing we could accomplish the greatest purpose the greatest everything is to do what hasm wants and that's what this midash is actually telling us you want meaning in your life so ultimately meaning in your life comes from fulfilling the will of God if God's will would have been such that our job is was just to chop wood all day we would do it and we would get the greatest pleasure we could imagine from it because we would know it was that was what God wants from us and that's the ultimate we can accomplish doing what God wants from us his will now when you apply that to the way we approach having a job having a career trying to make our mark on the world some of us are just making a messy Mark and really messing up the world when you put all the messy marks together you got a mess so we have to be careful what type of message do we want to leave off when we when we leave behind what kind of message do we want to pass on to our children what do we want to accomplish in our life do we want to be boss is that what we're we're all about to be boss so korak had a lot of this happening and everyone in their life in every society there is this hierarchy of you know I'm On Top I'm on the bottom but ultimately anyone that thinks for more than a moment we will understand that we cannot all be the boss of a company there's there's many roles to fill and everyone has to choose a role clown is in the desert and and today mankind as a whole and the Jewish people in particular in order for us to fulfill our purpose as a whole we know we're part of Cl so we have a general purpose but the particulars for each and every one of us we have to find our our area where we Excel where we can give where we have what to offer and we're each unique in that sense but we can't all look to be on the top if everyone wants to be on top then there is no one to do the work necessary now korak was very smart very talented and very rich he must have had a good sh but the question is what was he all about it says that he was unbelievable his job he had an unbelievable job who knows what job he had let's anybody any takers rabbis are allowed what was korak's job he wasn't chopping wood he wasn't flipping burgers and he wasn't uh you know working in the mail Department he was he had a real good job what was his job he was one of the few that were carrying the Aron the holiest holiest thing in the world where the the rested between the two he that's what his job was to carry that that Arc the ark can you get better than that he had an awesome job unbelievable job top four jobs in the world there was three other people I guess that were helping him that's it that's it now what was his problem what was his big problem why wasn't he happy why wasn't he satisfied egotistic ah ego ego is the killer of everything that ego comes and just messes things up unbelievable thank God I don't have one anyway so the question is anyone could get more specific within that ego the ego was really the the the cause of his flaw and his mistake but what was what was his problem why wasn't he satisfied why wasn't he happy no any takers you know since you guys are thinking about I'll give you time to think I'll tell you a little bit of a analogy my way of saying a similar type of idea if you do your research and you look at how life was once upon a time thousands of years ago it will come out that even the male guy the guy that works in the mail Department he has a better life a better quality of life than the one of the greatest king of a thousand years ago thousands of years ago he we live better than Kings all of each and every one of us here lives better than a king I every morning have unbelievable capucino I got the thepro machine I do the double with the little bit of little bit of milk little bit of sugar some Splendor for my diet you know everyone you got to try and the Kings didn't have an espresso in their house I do the ice I do the hot got it all you know we we have running water we have air conditioning we live better than Kings so why aren't we all so happy you know what the problem is you know why I'm not so happy it's that King next door he's got a better bigger Palace than me he's got a bigger car than me two he's got two of them actually you know it's him that makes me less happy because he has more it's it's a relative happiness because everyone's lives like King so we're not happy with living like King we have to live Super King so that's why we're not happy today is because the guy next to me he makes me he he somehow encroaches on my happiness he takes away my happiness and that's foolish that's nonsense how could someone that's separate from me that has nothing to do with me how can he take away my happiness because I'm a fool I let him take away my happiness because of I selfish and ego and all of that so how do we solve the problem so that's what we the lesson we're going to take out is how to solve that problem but that was korak's problem in my opinion he had the number one job in the world but he had a job he was a worker he had a job he wasn't the boss who was the boss God who was the boss don't give me this mystical stuff who was the boss he had the best position in the world that you could have except for one other position he wasn't the king and he wasn't the coin gutle he was like the number three guy in all of Israel not happy why cuz they're number two and number one why am I not happy with My two-bedroom apartment because the guy across street has a four-bedroom Department that's it that's that's the problem we have we're not happy what we have cuz the other guy has more and the funny thing is we think the other guy has more but who says the other guy has more how many people that are wealthy are miserable many the money is not giving him better life being the boss doesn't make him a better person or give him a better life and if we stop falling for that fallacy we will have the good life that Hashem already gave us korak had it all he was missing nothing but a wife that knew what to say because his wife of course was the cause of a lot of problems his wife fired him up what you're not the boss you let mosha do that to you and of course he went all fired up and that was it that's one approach but that's not the approach we're dealing with now because we have to be politically correct so we're not going to talk about that so much today although I just did but we'll get to my point so kah was not happy because he was just a worker and the boss was Moshe and Aon was higher position now why was mosha and Aon a higher position than him what was with them so the truth is they understood what you said the first time they understood that Hashem is the boss this is hashem's world and the only one with a boss t-shirt is of course not Hashem doesn't wear t-shirts but the only one that's boss is Hashem he's the boss we're all just workers we're all just chopping wood if we understood that we're all just doing the Ron of hasem he has many things that he wants and needs we're there to fulfill that particular thing that we can fulfill whether it's taking care of the mail or the garbage or whether we're in charge but it's it's only we're there to fulfill and the place that hasm wants us to fulfill and to do rat on hasem and so if whoever understands that secret that secret of life and of purpose is if Hashem would have told me to chop wood all day I would do it happily because it's all about doing what Hashem wants if K understood that he had a Divine mission to fulfill his Divine Mission his unique Mark that he could make on the world he would have been happy with that how could you not be happy with a Divine Mission given to you from Hashem the fact that we're not all the same is is is the way hasem made us now God made us all but and we are all equal but we're not all the same because we could equally fulfill the potential that hasm gave us Moshe had a different role than korak and that was his mistake not accepting that reality that my job is to recognize what I can do not to be obsessed with what I cannot do