HaShem Only Wants To Give Us Good But...

0:07The Sfas Emes gives a chiddush that's explosive. He says, Hashem says, I don't have thoughts like you. You're thinking that you do this and I get upset because you did it. No, you're missing the point. The Sfas Emes says the following: Hashem is the epitome of goodness, always seeking to bestow benefits upon people. He always wants to give good. The only reason He created the world is to give good. How do you define good? Good is something that wants to give good, wants to create good. Everyone thinks they're good. How do you know if you're good? Are you creating any good? If all the good that you're creating is for yourself, then that's not good; that's just selfish. Good means you're creating good for others. Tov u'Meitiv. Meitiv means creating good. So Hashem was perfect on His own, but because of His nature of being good, He wanted to create good, to bestow good on others, and not just keep all the joy for Himself in essence. So the Sfat Emet says He's the epitome of goodness. He always seeks to bestow benefits and good amongst others. But His wisdom, His divine wisdom, His endless wisdom, His infinite wisdom, decreed that man must earn

1:34and deserve that good, meaning you cannot give good for no reason. Because giving good for no reason and spoiling someone is destroying them. Because if they don't deserve it and you give it to them, like in this generation where they give these participation trophies. You just participate and therefore you feel like a winner. This is creating a generation of losers. And I know that even the previous generation already had many of those same loser mentality types of people. We would have people come to my office looking for a job, but they weren't willing to start at the bottom. They wanted to start at the top. They wanted to start already making a million dollars. They had no experience. They had no knowledge. They had no understanding whatsoever, but they wanted you to give them, "Yeah, yeah, I want a trade. Give me $50 million to trade. I'll figure it out." Like money grows on trees.

2:34you tell them, no, no, you have to, you know, build your business, get some clients, get some of this, learn your ropes. No, no, this generation doesn't want to do that. Why? Because their whole life or however many years, their parents just gave them whatever they wanted. Okay, here's a car. Okay, here's a house. Here's this, here's that. Just shut up, and I'll give you whatever you want. Just be quiet, and I'll give you whatever you want. This is bad. Because even though the parent means well, reality destroying them because the person never understands what it means to earn. Once they understand what it means to earn, even if it's earning a lollipop, they appreciate it more. I can tell you that the first time I made a thousand dollars for a month in the investment business... First, A few years, I made virtually nothing. I just survived barely with two jobs. Then I didn't make any money at all because I started at the new place, and somebody conned me. Long story short, I got to literally...

3:50Poverty. So for six months, I made literally zero. Whatever I made, I had to pay in bills to the office, leaving me with nothing. So for six months, I'm going home with nothing. Finally, after six months, in March of 2002, I made my first thousand dollars that I was able to take home, finally. I made more, but after paying the office bills and everything, I was finally able to take off a thousand dollars. To me, that thousand dollars, I will never forget it. That thousand dollars might as well have been a billion dollars. That thousand dollars was, because you have to imagine, I just worked three and a half years for that thousand dollars. It wasn't a month. It wasn't a day. It was three and a half years for that thousand dollars that finally goes in my pocket. Even though when I was 17, I was already making $100,000 a year before this job that I had and changed careers and so on. I knew what money was. But here I worked three and a half years for the first thousand dollars. To me, it was like, might as well have been a billion dollars. Now, you fast forward a couple of years, in, I don't know, I think sometime in 2003, I made in one month 600,000. And then you fast forward another few years, I made in one month 1.6 million. I mean, an absurd amount of money. That money, that million dollars plus, was meaningless in comparison to the thousand dollars. Meaningless. Why? Things changed. Things changed. a couple of years in, I don't know, I think sometime in 2003, I made in one month 600,000. And then you fast forward another few years, I made one month 1.6 million. I mean, an absurd amount of money. That money, that million dollars plus, was meaningless in comparison to the thousand dollars. Meaningless. Why? Things changed. Things changed.

5:18So earning something with all of your might, all of your strength, and all of your effort has a special meaning to it. Both a psychological, a spiritual, and a sentimental value. So Hashem Yitbarach, the Creator of all creation, says that in order for Him to give good, you must earn and deserve it. He can't just give it to you; just because you worked hard doesn't mean you deserve a million dollars. You may have earned a living, you may have earned something, but it doesn't mean you deserve the moon. Earn and deserve. But the chiddush is this: because He's constantly looking for ways to give you good. All He wants to do, all He created you for, is to give you good. All He wants is to give you good. That means that every time we sin, all we're doing is we're holding Him back from giving us what He wants to give us. So instead of giving us good that He created us only to give us good, He now has to give us bad. Why? That's the bill. That's the consequence. For holding Him back, for frustrating, in essence, the godly shower that He wants to give you.

6:18all we're doing is holding Him back from giving us what He wants to give us. So instead of giving us the good that He created us only to give us, He now has to give us bad. Why? That's the bill. That's the consequence. For holding Him back, for frustrating, in essence, the godly shower that He wants to give you. What is it like? It's like someone prepared a huge event. I mean, an event like you would never imagine. People spend $50,000 on bat mitzvahs and bar mitzvahs, and some people spend $200,000 on them. Imagine somebody spent $5 million. But not for a bar mitzvah for 500 or 5,000 people. Just for you. They spent five million dollars. They got the best chefs. They got the best this. They got the best that. They got chandeliers. They got stars coming out from the sky. They're coming to visit you. Angels are coming. Chachamim are coming. I mean, you're in Gan Eden. The greatest things you could ever imagine. Everything is just for you.

7:33Food, anything you've ever liked, they found out in your entire life that you liked, and they put it there, with the best chef in the world making that specific dish. There are 500 chefs in the kitchen, each one just came to make you one tiny little dish that you liked when you were three years old. You said, "I like it, Ima." So they found out, right? There's so much research to find out what you liked at three years old, and they have a chef that made the best one. And at four years old, and at five years old, and at six years old, and so on and so forth. The whole party's for you. And they got the music. Every music you've ever liked. As long as it's kosher, they're bringing it too. And what happens? They spent all the money. They brought the flowers. They put the trees. They put this. They put that. Everything is wonderful. It's set. It's on a Tuesday at 9 p.m. You call at 8:45. It's like, yeah, I can't make it tonight. I'm kind of busy. I'm going to watch the game. I'm going to watch the game at home. I'm going to watch the game. I got a game. I got a football game. I'm going to watch. What do you mean? We just prepared a $5 million party just for you. There are no other guests. It's just you. Yeah, but I'm tired. I'm tired. Let's just do it another time. That's what it's like.

8:59When a person sins against Hashem, that is the frustration that the Sfas Emes is saying they're creating. All He wanted to do is give you good, and all you're doing is frustrating Him and making it impossible for Him to do so.