You need a relatively fast car. A Bugatti Veyron or Porche 918 Spyder is not necessary, but a Plymouth K-car will certainly not cut it.
You are first at the traffic light. Parallel to you is a car whose price-tag is greater than the average sugeon’s annual salary with a blue-blood boy at the wheel. Or a car whose owner spent more on souping up the car than on the car itself. Or the leader of the motorcycle band leader – with the followers who do wheelies in the street.
You glance at the driver, smirk, rev your engine and nod. Pull up a few inches on the red to show you are ready to roll. First one to the next light wins the race. Gaze at the countdown on the walk-sign to the left. 3, 2, 1 green! Put the pedal to the metal.
You speed for about 200 feet and he flies past you at blazing speed. You then slow down.
You smile for he won the race, but you won the game.
How? Your intention was not to win the race. Your intention was to get the other guy to speed.
How exhilarating when you drive past your fellow racer noticing he was caught by the police car that is always stationed at the next corner.
G-d created us with an inclination to do good and an inclination to do bad.
The good inclination – gives us a reason and a desire to do good.
This bad inclination – gets you to join in a game that you have no benefit from playing. It’s the excitement. The freedom to vent my emotions and biases. The freedom to do what I feel feels right. It basically distracts your attention from what is right and makes you follow the emotions.
Following it, Yes, we may win the race. But we lose the game.
Examples abound :
– We follow after vanities of life and ignore our families.
– We go about our lives overlooking all the good that G-d provides on a constant basis.
– University Students and professors – that have no knowledge about or stake in Israel – join forces to protest against G-d’s Chosen Nation, calling Israel an apartheid state. What do they accomplish – they anger the Jewish students. They make them more united. They make them more interested in their Judaism.
– Helping a foreign nation to get nuclear weapons, thereby putting one’s own nation at risk.
– The UN makes resolutions against Israel – to vent their animosity.
– The world wants to give weapons to the enemies of the Jews and of Freedom.
In the end the police – G-d – catches them at the end of the road. G-d will ask them why?
What is the solution?
Think before you act.
There are two ways to target practice. One is to first look at the target and then shoot the arrow. The second is to not look at the target and to shoot the arrow. It makes more sense to first look then shoot.
The Torah is what G-d gave us to guide us to help us make our life decisions. When we first look into what G-d wants and then place our aim and efforts towards that goal – we make the decision that is best for us and the world.
To avoid the distraction from your main goal game – Don’t play the game. Follow the rules of the road. Learn about the Torah’s rules and follow your mind. Let your heart follow your mind, not your mind follow your heart. Don’t let your Emotions control you. Think before you act.
Thinking things out is your greatest asset. Use your mind and time wisely. Use it to build yourself – not to knock down others. Think for the long-term. Think for the good of all.
This is the secret to building a greater world around you and in your personal life.