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Thought for the Day: Having Everything And Realizing It

I am always inspired by R' Pinchas Eichenstein's shalosh s'udos drasha, but yesterday was particularly inspiring.  R' Eichenstein quoted a Rav Gifter (already reason to take notice when a chassidishe rav quotes a Telshe rosh yeshiva) on the pasuk from last week's tochacha that gives the reason these curses will come to be: because you didn't serve HaShem your G-d in a spirit of rejoicing and optimism when you had it so good.  (d'varim 28:47, following Rashi).  Rav Gifter explains what the issue was with a drash on the last two words of that pasuk: mei'rov kol; literally: "from lots everything".  Rav Gifter is referring back to when Yaakov met Esav on his way back from Lavan's house.  The brother's asked about each others welfare; Esav answered "yesh li rav" (I have a lot), while Yaakov said "yesh li kol" (I have everything [that I need]) (b'reishis 33:9 and 33:11).  The source of our difficulties, says Rav Gifter, is that we don't look at our abundant wealth as everything we need; instead of feeling "somei'ach b'chelko" we feel "marbe n'chasim, marbe da'agos".

So I was thinking; how does one turn his "rov" into "kol"?  Imagine coming to a friend's house you haven't seen in a while and you see a bucket in the middle of the living room.  So you ask him about it and he tells you, 'Its the craziest thing.  I was driving through Death Valley in California and my car overheated 30 miles from the closest service station.  It was the middle of the week and in the heat of the day; I had seen no cars for hours and I was sure that this was the end.  Suddenly, a hand reached down from heaven and brought me this bucket filled with enough water to refill my radiator and get back to civilization.  Baruch HaShem!"  "That's amazing!", you exclaim, "But why don't you have that bucket in a glass case, with the story engraved in gold lettering all around?!?  You've be zoche to a real miracle!"  "I know," says your friend, "but its such an ordinary bucket.  I mean, of course I kept it because it came straight from the hand of HaShem, but its nothing special to look at."

Everything we have was chosen by HaShem Yisbarach Himself, with great care and precision, to be precisely what we need.  Look around your house and your life, everything you see was placed there by the Hand of HaShem; each Jew is obligated to say: bishvili nivra ha'olam -- for my sake the entire world was created.  If that's not everything, I don't know what is.
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