The Torah is teaching us that our desires are things we can and need to control. If you have the capacity to meet the desire to eat meat, there is nothing wrong with allowing those desires to surface. Hashem created many pleasures for man to enjoy, and you should use those pleasures to better serve Him. But if you don’t have the means to fulfill those hungers and you allow them to be present, then you will be living a very uncomfortable existence, constantly hungering for something that can’t be met.
When Hashem grants you abundance and you can afford luxuries, then you will desire meat – but not before. The Torah is educating us into a higher form of living. When you enjoy the pleasures and control your desires, you use this world for its intended purpose, thereby living b’shleimus – complete, not lacking.
This concept is very applicable as we are expected to be above other nations. Unfortunately, that sense of living at a higher standard can become perverted into materialism, where the expectation is that for people like “us,” nothing less than the best will do. And so our weddings, our wardrobes, our homes, and our cars have to be the best. The way our children dress and the types of toys they expect are nothing short of top notch. And we find ourselves with an ever-increasing cost of living.
When barely surviving in our communities means we need to earn three to four times the national median household income, something is wrong with our lifestyle.
We live in times of mass prosperity in which the average person is, by historical standards, rich, but to enjoy that great berachah we must maintain control. Everything in this world was created for man’s use – but it must be used properly, in balance, in the right time and in the right measure. When man does that, he enjoys his short stay on this planet and accomplishes his purpose in Creation.
To view Rabbi Shafier’s parsha video, click here.