Why did the Almighty create a man that he should be eternally dissatisfied?
ANSWER:
For a very big purpose. The purpose is that his life shouldn't be wasted. Every creature in this world has been given instincts to carry out its purpose. You put a cow in the field of grass, the cow is not interested in delivering butter and cheese on your table, but it gets busy chewing that grass, producing milk, that's its job. The bee is not interested in supplying you with honey, or in pollinating fruits and flowers for you to enjoy; a bee has an instinct that it has to do this thing. Therefore its purpose in life is to cause the fruits to germinate and to create honey.
Every creature in this world is busy doing what it's supposed to do, and that's why the Almighty did not make them unhappy, because they are carrying out their functions.
Man's function is to produce something else. In order that he should carry out his function, he is given an instinct not to be satisfied; the instinct is to yearn for the Afterlife. Therefore he could never settle down, something will always push him to keep on trying to be better.
Now if he knows how to direct his efforts, he is fortunate. He is going to succeed, and to a very big extent he's going to gain happiness and achievement in this world. If a man will stop wandering around, he'll discover what he's for in this world, to a very big extent he is going to accomplish happiness. But this feeling will never let him rest on his achievements, he'll always strive for more and more, because he has the knowledge in him without him being taught, that this is not his end.
Now since everything in this world is purposeful, there isn't an instinct in an animal which is useless. Every fly, every bird, has an instinct that's for its benefit, or for carrying out some purpose. And this is the only instinct that we see in all of creation, in the whole universe, that has no other purpose. Except it points to a purpose that man is created not for this life. Because after a man has achieved everything, he has lived a life of accomplishment, then he has to surrender his life. So we ask where was the kindliness here? Could we have been created in a cycle like a horse, a horse doesn't think about anything and it's satisfied with his oats? He's satisfied with a stable where he can sleep, and he's happy. The goat is happy, the homeless alley cat is happy. The cat doesn't have any psychic problems, a cat does not have any psychosis, it's happy. Dogs are happy, they may be hungry but they are happy.
Mankind can be stuffed with food and stuffed with money and all luxuries, but he's not happy, and that causes insanity. Insanity in human beings is the result of this drive-I don't say always-but to a big extent it's a result of unhappiness caused by misdirected drives.
They don't know what they're looking for, and therefore they run in all directions.
Good Shabbos To All
This is transcribed from questions that were posed to Harav Miller by the audience at the Thursday night lectures.
To listen to the audio of this Q & A please dial: 201-676-3210
Important Numbers
