How to Live with a Higher View of the True Good
Elevating Ourselves to See the Big Picture
We must, however, remember that this view is, at the end of the day, small-minded. It’s all true that we’re wired to hone in on the small things, but this is only according to our narrow worldview in Olam Hazeh. Were a person to elevate himself—amid his pain—and try to see the bigger picture, he’d understand that it’s childish to look only at a part of his situation and reality.
The Childishness of Looking at the “Now”
This is akin to a father who decided to give his children a vacation to remember. He doesn’t usually do such things. But now, he wishes to give them the experience of a lifetime—they should enjoy every moment. He spent lots of money and invested much thought into ensuring that every individual child will have his enjoyments.
But on the way out, a world war broke out over who gets to sit next to the window. The father attempts to explain that this is small change compared to all the fun they’re about to have... but he may as well be talking to the wall. The fighting only intensifies. But it’s such a small thing! Why are they so preoccupied with silliness at such a time? But this is the childish mindset: to focus on the small things and neglect the big picture.
If We Look at the Big Picture, Nothing Can Get Us Down
The same applies to us all. If we were to insist on thinking properly, focusing on the truth, we would surely succeed in seeing the bigger picture. And then, no force in the world could rob us of our joy.
Usually, a person thinks that he has a problem that is so acute that he is now permitted to be downcast and broken. In such a situation, he says, everyone would be sad, and everyone would agree that it’s okay to be sad.
But the truth is different. Of course, we feel your pain one hundred percent, and it’s part of avodas Hashem to feel the pain of another Yid. But when we’re talking about This World, tzaddikim taught us that “the entire world isn’t worth a single krechtz (groan)!”
If we choose to exit the confines of our small reality, and we look at the big picture instead, then there’s no possibility of being sad or downcast. If one lives with the higher view, then there’s no pain or problem about which a person can say, “Okay, now I’m allowed to be broken.”
The Higher You Fly, the Smaller Things Become
There’s an apt saying regarding this that we must learn from an airplane: The higher we fly, the smaller everything down below becomes. But what is the truth? Is the world big or small? Well, that depends on where you’re standing. If you’re down on the ground, everything seems large and imposing—because this is your whole world. But if you raise yourself up a bit... you rise a bit above the world, then everything becomes small. We begin to grasp that all the tzaros of the world are small compared to the big picture.
The Entire World Is a Temporary Passageway
Our neshamah is carved from pure spiritual matter which is eternal! We find ourselves on This World for a temporary existence simply because the Ribbono shel Olam wants to give us good for eternity. But in reality, the entire world is nothing, when compared with the eternal reward that our neshamos will receive.
When a person finds himself in a tzarah, R”l, it feels like an eternity. But later, when he looks at the clock, he sees that it took no more than a few minutes. That’s because when a person is within the problem, it feels like an eternity, but this is not the truth. It’s only because we’re confined to our box... but when we look at things from above, from a higher view, we see that it’s all temporary.
