On the other hand, there are people who prepare a simchah with one thought in mind: Everyone who walks into the room should say, either explicitly or implicitly, “What a simchah you prepared... what can I say; there’s no one like you when it comes to throwing a party!” It’s as if he calculated in advance, “What can I do to arouse וכבוד תאוה קנאה in others?” When he ordered the food from the caterer, it was with the thought in mind, “For myself, I already have וכבוד תאוה קנאה—this is what I live on—but for others... how can I ensure that they have a healthy dose of jealousy?”
Says the caterer, “I can make it happen... you just pay the bill.” “Yes,” he says, “But please make sure that it should be in a way that every person who leaves the room should be העולם מן האדם את מוציאין in the most literal sense!” And the caterer is happy to oblige; for the right price, he will make it happen.
And the problem is when these extravagances turn into a standard. A person sees that simple herring won’t cut it anymore. “What did you bring, herring? Everyone brings herring....” And so, he needs something new, something fresh to impress the crowd, something that will arouse וכבוד תאוה קנאה in his friends, and they’ll say, “When I’ll make a simchah, I’ll go even further... it’ll be something even crazier!” He knows who his friends are, and this is what they traffic in all day anyway.
Here we have a new understanding of העולם מן האדם את מוציאין: The standards keep going higher and higher (or rather lower and lower)—and the sky is the limit—because what impressed people today isn’t going to cut it tomorrow.
