Parshat Vayechi: The Difference between Fun & Happiness - Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair

the number of children aged 6 to 17 ever having been diagnosed with either anxiety or depression increased from 5.4 percent in 2003 to 8 percent in 2007 and to 8.4 percent in 2012 8.4 percent is an alarming number why do so many children experience feelings of depression and anxiety now without oversimplifying a complex topic I think one reason comes from a certain mindset in our modern world we have developed a society which is predicated on the idea that things should be easy convenient shopping microwave dinners drive-through Banking Drive in marriage driving divorce I don't want to get out of my car now one of the fundamental components of a happy person is a healthy self-esteem what helps us build our self-esteem when we do something which is difficult and we succeed in doing it there's nothing better than that by making life into easy streets by giving the subliminal message that everything we do should be easy we have unconsciously taken away a major prescription for achieving self-esteem rising to a challenge what's the difference between fun and happiness well Mount Whitney in California is the highest peak in the lower 48 United States it's fourteen thousand four hundred ninety four feet tall now you could probably fly to the top of Mount Whitney in about 15 minutes in a helicopter but unless you're an extremely fine fettle climbing that mountain will take you two days and some of it will involve the use of crampons and ice axes it could well be the flying to the top of Mount Whitney is more fun than climbing it but climbing it will give you a lot more happiness because you'll have achieved something quite hard fun is external and because it's external it's evanescent it's fleeting happiness is inside it becomes part of our essence learning Torah is the ultimate deferred gratification the Torah is as hard as steel and is difficult to hold on to as water it takes many years of application of what's called breaking your head to be able to master its sublime intricacies and yet there's no simcha no joy in the world like learning Torah it may not be much fun but it's the greatest happiness the babies yes AHA is the tribe of the Torah scholars a Torah scholar carries a heavy yoke but he's called by the Torah a strong bone donkey because God gives him the stamina to carry out his tasks and even though he Labor's day and night he rests between the bound uses itself he rests between the boundaries of the day and the night how can anything exist between day and night isn't that all there is day or night the Talmud Hakam experiences a repose of the soul of a spiritual plane that is beyond the boundaries of day and night on that plane he rests he has a contentment a fulfillment that is out of this world as the Torah says he saw tranquillity that was good yet he bent his shoulder to bear he understands that the ultimate achievement comes from hard work and dedication to God's holy Torah and through that he ends up much higher the Mount Whitney [Music] [Applause]