One day the student of the Ba'al Shem Tov, the founder of the Chasidic Movement, encountered a water carrier huffing and puffing with a few heavy pails of water. The carrier was very depressed and was complaining to everyone who was willing to listen, “I'm exhausted of carrying water all those many years. I don't have enough savings to retire so I need to continue carrying water in my old age.”

A few days later the students encountered the water carrier again. This time he was jolly and looked content and happy. He said, “I'm so grateful that I am still at least able to carry the water in my old age so I can sustain myself and enjoy my day after work.”

The students recounted to their teacher what they saw. The Ba'al Shem Tov explained, “According to Judaism, on the first two days of the year, the Jewish New Year, a person is given his or her destiny for the whole year. Everything that happens has been decreed on Rosh Hashanah, the New Year holiday. However, every day a person can choose how to live life with the resources they have received. With the same resources a person can either be happy or sad. Even the same person can one day rejoice with their lot and one day be depressed.”

What we have or what happens to us is very important, but in the same time the outlook and the focus of life can be just as important and detrimental in a person's happiness and well-being.

As we roll into the new year, we need to stop a moment and reflect on the goodness we had last year. On Rosh Hashanah we pray for a sweet new year, but we can't ask for a new one before thanking for the old one. When we appreciate what we have, we open ourselves up to receive more blessings in the future.

Many criticize the religious emphasis on gratefulness by saying that it is naïve, and it minimizes the negative and failing things in life. My answer to this is twofold, a practical one and a fundamental one.

First, if gratefulness and focusing on the good makes us happier then we should do so even if it sounds naïve. If theorizing what life “should have been” makes us sad, why should we think about it?

Second, humans tend to focus on what they are missing. Even when someone has all that they need, they'll automatically focus on what they still don't have. This premise, that we need to have everything to be happy, is a false premise. Once we dismiss this premise, everything that we do have becomes a gift, and that's the right way of living.

When listening to politics one might think that we live in the worst country under the worst conditions. Both sides attack each other as if we are in an apocalypse. Really, we live under the best conditions that humans have ever lived. Not only in our country; in vast parts of the world, humans experience abundance, ease, and health like never before.

It is vital for all of us to declare every day the goodness that we have. Some hours of the day are focused on achieving what we are missing, but a nice chunk of the day should be focused on marveling and rejoicing at all the good we have, collectively and individually.

“To thank G-d is to know that I do not have less because my neighbor has more. I am not less worthwhile because someone else is more successful. Through prayer I know that I am valued for what I am. I learn to cherish what I have, rather than be diminished by what I do not have. ” - Rabbi Sacks

Questions? Email me: moshe@jaketv.tv