The Red Car Theory | Rabbi Shlomo Farhi

Yesterday I went out to eat with my daughter. We went outside on Lexington Avenue in New York City. I stuck out my two fingers, a cab pulled over, and we were on our way. And my daughter asked me a really good question. If you're flagging this guy down in the hustle and bustle of a Manhattan street, how in the world does he see your hand or your fingers, indicating that you want to be picked up? There's so much going on. There's traffic, there's people, there's people on scooters, there's bikes. How does he notice you? And I actually had the answer, because I had just read an interesting theory about this exact concept, and it's called, The Red Car Theory. Let me explain how it works. If I ask you, How many red cars did you see this morning, on your way to work, Yeshiva, school, whatever? You might say: I don't know. Two, three... Not sure, right? But if I tell you, On your way home, pay attention. For every red car that you see, I'll pay you $1,000. When you get home that night, you are absolutely sure how many red cars you saw. There were four red cars and one was maroon, maybe I'll give you an extra thousand for that. But you're sure, because it's important to you to see what you saw. This guy who's driving a cab, it's not just a hand or a finger hanging out in the crowd for him. For him, that hand is so important. He has to see it. It's his very Parnassa. It's what puts food on his table, it's what sends his kids to school, it's what gets him through the year, financially. So he pays close attention and he makes sure to see, because seeing is important to him. Red Car Theory, Taxi-Driver Eyes, are not only true about things that are important to see. Our Chachamim and our Torah were very careful in explaining to us how important it was not to see certain things. And it is only when we understand how important it is not to be seeing things that are inappropriate, that we become amazing at not seeing things. The same way the guy who couldn't tell you what he saw, but becomes an expert at seeing, when he knows how valuable it is, in the exact opposite, when you know how valuable it is for you to not see, suddenly you become an expert at not seeing. People will sometimes say, What could I do? It's there, it's on the street. How could I look away? Focus on the value, on the שכר, on the reward, on the danger, and suddenly you’ll realize you have amazing control over what you cannot see.