Count your Blessings | Rabbi Ariel Mizrahi

Numbers in Judaism are very important. Gematria. As an example, the number 1 is Hashem. 2 means two people. Friendship. The number 400 is a very bad number. Actually, it represents עין הרע. The word עין רע numerically is 400. And anytime we find 400 in the Torah, it is always associated with the evil eye. So as an example, Esav comes to fight Yaakov with 400 men. Efron, whose name is numerically 400, he sells מערת המכפלה to Avraham for 400 Shekel. It's very interesting that the Forbes 400, the list of people that are very wealthy is also 400. People that have a lot of עין הרע on them. But Rabbeinu Bachya explains, Why is it that 400 is such a dangerous number? And he says, Because 400 is the Gematria of the letter ת. And he says that the same way ת is the end of the alphabet, so, too, עין הרע - 400 is the end of all Bracha. It ends Bracha. But my friends, not only for the ones that we give it to, but even, and more importantly, for ourselves. So many times we go through life looking around at other people and we compare, especially in today's day and age with social media, where people are inviting us to access, to see their lives, their parties, their vacations, and we compare what they're doing to what we’re doing. We compare our children to their children. We compare our homes to their homes. We go through life thinking that the grass is greener. And instead of stopping and appreciating how lucky we are, how blessed we are, we’re focusing on the things that the other person has that I don't. This robs me of my Bracha. This is ת. This is 400. This takes me away from my life. I have a beautiful job. I have a beautiful family, I have health, I have amazing things. But it takes me away because I'm focusing on what I don't have. And so the message of ת, the message of 400, is that we need to get rid of this comparing. We have to start being שמח בחלקו. You know, today they tell us to count many things. They say: Count your steps. They say: Count your calories. The Torah also reminds us, Make sure to count your blessings.