Compare Yourself Only to Yourself

God didn’t make it a secret that He chose Moses as the leader. The Jewish People saw his greatness. Moses was the one that went to Pharaoh demanding that the Jews be set free. Moses, with the help of his brother Aaron, was the one that initiated the plagues in Egypt. Moses was the one who put the staff in the sea, initiating the quintessential miracle of the splitting of the sea. Moses was the one who climbed Mount Sinai, with no food or water for 40 days to receive the Torah. And yet Korach tries to convince the Jewish people that a leader is not necessary, arguing that everyone has their own direct connection to God and that alone should be enough.

What propelled Korach to start such a rebellion against Moses, especially given everything Moses had done for the Jewish people?

Lesson:

The lesson of Korach is a poignant one because it stems from a human desire that is innate in most of us. While Korach’s argument against Moses seemed logical, the reasons propelling his argument stemmed from jealousy.

The yetzer hara, evil inclination, is smart. It can pinpoint the one thing that you do not have, masking all the other blessings that you do have. To Korach, it did not matter that he was so rich, he had 300 donkeys to carry just the leather keys to his treasure chest; or that he was the head of the choir of the tribe of Levites in the Mishkan, holy tabernacle; or that he was one of the four people to carry the holy Aaron. These things were not enough; he wanted it all. This was the downfall that led him to losing all that he did have.

In the story of Esther, we see that wicked Haman acted similarly: he had the entire nation bowing down to him except for one person – Mordechai the Jew. Because one person did not bow down to him, he says it’s as if he had nothing. That one person not bowing down to Haman negated the millions of other people who were. This is what jealousy does.

We all want to excel at something, to be the best. God created us with a drive to succeed and when we don’t, we often move on to the next project. It’s hard to be second, or third, or tenth best. Only one person can be best and that’s ok. However, the only person we should compare ourselves to is ourselves. Are we being the best that we can be?

There’s a story of a famous Rabbi Zusha who taught that when he goes to Heaven and God will not ask him why he wasn’t like Moses. God will ask him, why were you not like Zusha? You are only accountable to accomplish according to what God bestowed us with.

Comparing ourselves to others is not only counterproductive but masks all the blessings that God has bestowed upon us. What other people have and what they accomplish is completely independent of us. When we focus on our blessings, when our hearts are full of gratitude to God, not only can we be satisfied with ourselves and our lives, but we can share in other people’s happiness for their accomplishments as well.

Lesson: compliment someone who is better at something than you.