Keep Sitting on Your Own Maalos and Appreciate Yourself
The Netziv mentions that there are four types of Jews, and from each type Hashem asks for a different kind of service. You could be into learning, Chesed, Zikkui HaRabbim, or simple matters. He adds that it’s almost forbidden for one type to get involved in the other type. Mind your own business! Enjoy your own strengths, without all that silly envy for those who “made it into the newspapers!”
People were discussing who was greater from the old Mirrer Bachurim: R’ Leib Malin Zatzal or R’ Yona Minsker Zatzal. R’ Ahron Kreiser Zatzal remarked that whoever gets involved in such a thing is like a teller counting other people’s money, and he gets paid minimum wage. So keep sitting on your own Maalos and appreciate yourself! Count your own “money.”
“Envy is ignorance, imitation is suicide.” It’s hard work to sit on yourself daily and to insist how you are the luckiest, despite all those millions of distractions that the Yetzer Hara causes. All the fake envy.
For good reason, in Novardok the #1 Midda they worked on was Amitzus (courage). To meet the world, without fear of: “What will people say?” NOW you can be yourself. So many of us never realize our potential, because we are “drowning” in public opinion, God forbid.
The Netziv on Individual Service
The Netziv, in Ha'amek Davar on the verse "And now, Israel, what does Hashem your God ask of you..." (Devarim 10:12), notes that the parsha is puzzling, for everything that can be asked of a person is already stated in this question. What more is there to ask? In Tehillim (36), David asks, "One thing I asked of Hashem, that I will seek..." Hashem said to David, "You said 'one thing,' but you ask for much!" David replied, "But You also said, 'What does Hashem ask of you?'"
But this is only a manner of speech; Hashem did not ask more than what He began with. The Gemara (Berachot 33b) asks: Is fear a small thing? For Moshe, it is a small thing. But why is fear considered more difficult than love and serving with all one's soul? And how can this parsha be addressed to all Israel equally, when not everyone can attain such levels? Love is only found through Torah or service in the Temple. How can Hashem ask of people what is not possible by nature?
The answer is that Hashem does not ask the same from everyone. The parsha itself says, "to walk in all His ways," not "and to walk." Each person is asked according to his level. There are four levels in Israel: leaders, Torah scholars, working people, and women/children/servants. Each group is asked something different, and it is almost forbidden for one group to get involved in the other's service.
