Parshat Va'eira: The Entire World was Created for Me - Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair

Pasha's Ferreira the Torah says I will harden Pharaoh's heart and I shall multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt a lazy Sunday afternoon in high summer the dull splash of a cormorant diving for fish in the lake pumped awaits the chorus of the bees and the birds butterflies idly wing their way seeking closed petals for a short rest the bees on the other hand ignore the closed petals and are focused on the open flowers from which they can draw nectar in the higher branches a bird is busy feathering its nest oblivious to a fox that's investigating the trunk as its potential lair insects patrolling the trees bark looking for using SAP up from the underbrush comes the heavy sound of work boots as the woodcutter advances to the tree his gas-fueled saw chatters away idly at his side pocket to pocket the pocket the pocket ax he considers the tree for a few moments and then decides to look for another victim a pair of jogging yuppies talked in Nikes finest burst into the glade and decide that the tree would make a perfect spot to shade them for a brief rest our sages teaches that a person is obliged to say the world was created for me the entire world was created for me the Sun shines for me the trees were created to be of use to me everything in this world was put here for me what's amazing is that everyone can say the world was created for themselves and they can all be right the tree is one tree but it's a myriad of worlds every morning we bless a sham for preparing the footsteps of man wherever we are God orchestrates each moment in our lives every aspect of our lives is prepared for us as the backdrop against which we will make the choices that lead us to eternal life or to wasting those moments letting them dissolve into black holes of opportunities lost and amazingly each person's world is intertwined with the thousands and maybe millions of other people's worlds and they all provide a unique scenario for each and every one of us the altar of slavochka writes that each plague that the Egyptians suffered was both a punishment and a demonstration of God's hashgacha protect his individual providence while the Egyptians languished in darkness the Jewish homes were filled with light the spiritual masters recount that during the first plague of blood a Jew and an Egyptian could drink from the same glass and what was blood for the Egyptian was water for the Jew each of us live in our own world we're traveling on our own individual monorail that's why jealousy is both ridiculous and frustrating I can never be in your world and you can never be in mine they're both infinitely separate and eternally entwined [Music] you [Applause]