Q:
You said now that a wise person trains himself in the middah of ratzon, of being satisfied with all aspects of his life. So does that mean that someone who is trying to progress, he’s a fool?
A:
If he’s progressing in the wrong direction, he’s a fool. And the wrong direction means by being dissatisfied with the good things that he has, not being satisfied with the thousands of benefits Hashem is giving him.
Now, if he’s dissatisfied with bad things that he has; let’s say “I’m not frum enough,” “I’m not enough lamdan,” “I don’t stand a long enough shmoneh esrei,” “I don’t give enough charity for people,” “I don’t smile enough to people that greet me,” “I don’t answer heartily and show I’m interested in them,” so certainly he has to make progress in those areas.
But suppose a fellow says, “I won’t let them step all over me. I’m going to demonstrate who I am. I’m going to speak up and let them know who I am.” So he’s making progress in the wrong direction.
Not all progress is good. When people want to give recognition to gays, that there should be rights granted to gays and because they were discriminated against in the past, so from now on they should get affirmative actions and they should get preference in the granting of public jobs to a lot of people it’s called progress; all the liberals consider that progress. But it’s progress over the cliff. So it depends in which direction progress is.
TAPE # 333 (October 1980)
