יום ג Date: 21 Elul, 5774 (9/16/14) – Chagigah#8 {Eliezer}

One for ME…

[8a middle] R’ Ashi: One may not designate his required 1/10 of his animals as sanctified on YomTov (Holy Days) [this required painted every 10th animal that passes through the gate to distinguish them from the rest of the herb, and coloring is a prohibition]. R’ Pam: Why are we not just required to specify just 10% of all our animals without going through this specific method and counting? With human nature, it is very hard for us to ‘give up’ something that we ‘own.’ With this specific process, by counting 1 for me, 2 for me, 3 for me… when we finally get to “10 for Hashem,” it is much easier to give one away after we verbalize how much we have already been given.

E’s Lesson: We should make a point to acknowledge and verbalize every once in a while how many blessings we actually have from Hashem. We must focus on all the positive in our lives and not get caught up in how much “better” things could/should be. This way, we will live much happier and thankful lives (and of course make it so much easier to be able to ‘give back’ to Hashem and others).