Parashat Devarim: The Ultimate Pleasure

ArtScroll will be offering many books at 50% off in the upcoming weeks including some volumes of Living Emunah. Click the link to view the selection. artscroll.com/categories/wk1. html In this week's parasha, Devarim, Moshe Rabbenu reviews some of the events which transpired during the forty years in which the Jewish People traveled through the desert. One of which was the episode of the meraglim – the spies. The pasuk says when the Jews heard the negative report from the meraglim, they complained and said, "בשנאת ה' אותנו הוציאנו ממצרים לתת אותנו ביד האמורי להשמידנו– Because of Hashem's hatred for us He took us out of Egypt to have us wiped out at the hands of the Emorim." Rashi, there, writes, they thought Hashem hated them, but in truth Hashem loved them. Their crying that night came from a misunderstanding of who Hashem is and that proved to be their downfall. Many people today still misinterpret Hashem and think that He hates us, Heaven forbid, even though He loves us so much. If you would combine all of the love that exists in the world today, it won't even come close to the love that Hashem has for every single Jew individually. Having the wrong perception of who Hashem is destroys our emunah and makes our lives so much more difficult emotionally. Somebody told me he has so much blessing, but he's afraid to enjoy it because he thinks at any moment Hashem is just going to take it all away from him. His fear comes from a misunderstanding of who Hashem is. He believes that Hashem is looking to hurt people, but there could be nothing further from the truth. אהבת עולם אהבתנו – Hashem has an eternal unbreakable love for us. If He ever does take something away from a person, it's because it was the absolute best thing Hashem could have done for him. Hashem looks to give us. He loves bestowing blessing upon us. He begs us to do the mitzvot and follow Torah so that He can give us all that He wants to. If someone has the wrong idea about Hashem, he needs to uproot his negative feelings and replace them with feelings of love for Him. Rabbi Lugassi wrote in his sefer Ne'emneh Hashem, one advice for a person to build up love for Hashem is for him to think about Hashem's love when he's about to experience a pleasure that he's excited for. For example, if someone is about to eat a delicious food that he loves, he should pause beforehand and think, Hashem is the one who created this food and He is the one who is giving it to me right now so that I could enjoy it. In fact, He is the Source of all pleasures in this world. I thank Him for giving me the ability to enjoy this right now. The fact that we are even able to have a feeling of pleasure is a present from Hashem. He created us so that we could enjoy ourselves. Real enjoyment comes from spirituality. Physical pleasures are a very distant second, but they do give us some form of enjoyment as well, and it is Hashem who is the source of it. If we get a new car, or a new home, or a new suit or a new piece of furniture or jewelry, whatever it is, we should understand, the pleasure we have in them comes from Hashem, and the gift itself also came from Hashem. How much more so should we have those feelings when we get married or when we have a child. Hashem wants us to be happy more than we do. If we could learn to trust Him and live the lives He told us to live, that will give us the ultimate pleasure, then we'll be able to truly enjoy both this world and the Next one.