Someone just paid nearly $240 million for an apartment in London. Granted it’s a nice penthouse. But that is a steep price tag by all definitions.
Likely it is a foreign billionaire that is taking up (partial) residence in London. And for someone who can afford it, cash will not stand in the way of landing in a covet pad.
But is our residence what truly makes us happy?
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We had the privilege yesterday of hearing from a remarkable man, Richard Bernstein. Richard is blind from birth and is a disabled rights activist. As an attorney he heads up the pro bono department at his family’s law practice. He also has run 18 marathons and completed the Ironman triathlon.
His magnificent accomplishments aside, what touched me most about Richard’s story is his attitude. For seeing people, sight accounts for 60% of perception. Missing this means that people like Richard would be lacking a lot. But not if you ask Richard. He believes that he has a world of opportunity. And that Hashem has blessed him with a mission that no one else could achieve.
In this sense, Richard is the happiest and richest man. He may struggle to cross the street, but he believes that no one else could accomplish the victory of that experience better than him. In mastering the challenges that G-d has prepared for him, there is no equal. That realization makes him uniquely joyous and proud. And it also helps him reach his true potential – even if it means that he must blindly jump into 55 degree water to compete in the triathlon.
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This is perhaps the message that this week’s parsha Emor imparts, when G-d commands us to sit in the sukkah on the festival of Sukkot. The reason for this mitzvah is “in order that your generations should know that I had the children of Israel live in booths when I took them out of the land of Egypt.”
For forty years the Jews lived in huts. Truth be told, they could have afforded better accommodations. They had emptied Egypt of its wealth. Here they were with the deepest pockets – yet G-d led them through the wilderness, rendering their wealth sort of worthless. Why didn’t Hashem arrange better accommodations for them? What kind of cruel joke is it to reward the children of Israel with vast wealth, but prevent them from enjoying it?
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Rather, G-d was teaching us a powerful lesson. True, a home makes a person feel like a mentsch. But true wealth and happiness is not achieved by amassing material effects. True joy is realized when we perceive and act upon our sense of mission. When we realize that G-d is leading us in our lives and that He knows and does what is best for us, then we will ecstatically embrace the gift of life that G-d has specifically entrusted to us.