Machshavot HaLev - Yeshivat Lev HaTorah

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בלה תובשחמ
matter how much honor you will receive, you will not succeed in satisfying your
obsession with it.
There’s a mishna in Pirkei Avos (4:21) that reads:
“םלועה ןמ םדאה תא ןיאיצומ דובכהו הואתהו האנקה“. The need for honor is never
filled. The craving for honor always expands, so eventually you’ll end up being a
prisoner to honor. Very often a person will develop a desire for something that
he doesn’t really need, but rather for something that’s self induced so therefore
they make themselves believe that they really need it. This desire applies to other
things besides honor, for example money. It says in Koheles (5:9), “One who loves
money will never be satisfied with money.” Every time someone acquires a certain
amount of money, he then needs to acquire more money and more money.
The process works in reverse also. Someone who restricts his desires will soon
realize that he will have fewer necessities. There’s a mishna in Avos (6:4) that says
that if a person’s food ration consists of bread with salt and water in order to learn
Torah, he is praiseworthy in this world, and all will be well for him in the next
world. What does it mean that he is praiseworthy in this world? If a person lives
this kind of lifestyle, he will actually be happier in this world. If a person restricts
his demands, he’ll crave less and need less for sustenance, resulting in a happier
life, because he will not make himself believe that he needs all those luxuries.
Perhaps this is the meaning behind Yaakov’s request that Hashem provide him
“bread to eat and clothes to wear” (Bereishis 28:20). Yaakov requested just the
bare necessities and was content because he was able to sustain himself without
all the lusts and desires.