Alleyways To Torah

Are you jealous of someone you know? He is earning a six-figure salary and you can barely make ends met. He is such a genius and excels in his learning and you struggle just to understand the simple pshat in the gemara. She is married and expecting her second child already and you are still looking for a husband [and last night you had another lousy date. He was SOOOOO weird!]. She is so pretty and talented and you don't perceive yourself as having similar gifts.

IT'S NOT FAIR!!!

Let us read a poem and forever obliterate those poisonous feelings of jealousy. [Remember, you are poisoning YOURSELF!]:

RICHARD CORY


WHENEVER Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.

And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
"Good-morning," and he glittered when he walked.

And he was rich—yes, richer than a king,
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.

So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.

Edward Arlington Robinson


Tyere Yidden [Precious Jews]!!!! Remember, you NEVER KNOW what is going on in someone else's life! You never know how he is feeling deep inside and what his battles and struggles are. One thing is for sure. It is never as it seems to an outside observer. Everybody has difficulties and challenges. If Hashem sent you certain problems then deal with them but don't look enviously at anyone else. You wouldn't want his problems.

I remember one person whom I envied. He had it all!! It was only later that I learned that he had spent been institutionalized in a psychiatric facility on a number of occasions, that his marriage was in shambles and much, much more. Foolish I was.

And foolish is jealously.

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