Superstars Too

“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” Can you guess who said this, it’s no other than superstar Michael Jordan.
 
Living your Emuna is an individual moment to moment opportunity. It’s not an easy practice but as they say in the IDF “If it’s tough, it’s good!” It’s not easy being a professional athlete, doctor, or Rabbi, they take an extremely large amount of dedication. For us however trying to be a pro in Emuna can take hundreds of failures. But not to worry, even the very best go and fail and get back up again, on target to their mission in life.
 
What makes things even more perplexing is when we see other people as if they are living their Emuna much better than we are. But rest assured, as Rabbi Shalom Arush explains in The Garden of Emuna that as soon as we get past the plastic smiles, we almost always find that our neighbors, friends, and relatives all have a generous portion of hardship, pain, and suffering. Even the enormously successful-glamorous, rich and the famous.” We have to stop looking at others and focus on our own outlook. We need to turn any feelings of jealousy into productive action.
 
In the 18th century lived one of the most famous Rabbis of all time, his name was Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzato, also known as the “Ramchal”.  In his most famous book, The Path of the Just, he says that many people do not desire to put in the effort necessary to become their best rather they settle. He then equates the matter to a person who sees his peers succeeding in life materially. This guy has a better job, a bigger house or a faster car. The Ramchal says along the lines of, “Hey wait a minute, don’t you feel jealousy about these things? Well wait until you really regret it after your 120 years. You’ll see that your other friend who had the same circumstances as you achieved great things spiritually and his reward is eternal! He learned Torah, got rid of bad habits, and helped people, plus he gave tzedakah, you could have done the same!”
 
The message for us all is not to get too hung up on the material success of the world and not to look at anyone else.  There is room for a certain type of jealousy but a completely purified form, that of yearning. When you hear that your buddy is now planning to move to Israel with his whole family, taking the risk out of ideology, and is doing something that is holy, it’s acceptable to feel the stirring inside to do the same. But this feeling is only acceptable so long as there is no animosity, bitterness, or ill will.  Rabbi Arush explains it beautifully in The Garden of Wisdom that the idea is to feel that, “Wow! If he could do it, so can I!” We don’t mull over into lethargy and wither away, complaining that everyone else has it better than we do. No, no, WE GET BACK UP AND GET TO WORK!
 
It’s not about being embitter toward others that they have made it while you still struggle, but rather those feelings need to be purified, to help you believe that it is also within reach for yourself. You want to lose weight, stop using drugs, buy a home, have kids, or make aliyah, live your Emuna? It’s all up to you to attain them by recognizing Hashem along the way.
 
We want to live our Emuna, and many of us have read The Garden of Emuna and other books once then put it away. But dear friends, it takes much more. We need to review and tear through these phenomenal works over and over again, praying for each piece of wisdom to be part of our lives. That is how we succeed, and maintain our Emuna. We will never have true Emuna unless we review and master it. Just like a superstar basketball player won’t succeed unless he goes over the same drills day in and day out. With Emuna there is no time outs and certainly no off season.
 
We need to have happy feelings for others when they are succeeding in what’s hard for us, because all of the improvement that we make elevates the world to being a better place. So its time to believe in yourself and make a new beginning, in reaching your goals. It’s not to compete with your friends but to become the best you can be.