When someone travels in a car and enjoys himself, he pollutes the air and has a harmful effect on the world. Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto explains that all enjoyment comes at the cost of someone or something.
Watch his full class.
If we would stop life for a moment and look at our inner world and try to understand the difference between "enjoyment" and the feeling of "elevation", are their sources similar, or are they opposites?
Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto explained in his class that any enjoyment in the world comes at the expense of someone or something. A person eats ice cream - It comes at the cost of his health. Someone enjoys a car ride; it pollutes the air and has a harmful effect on the world. So too, every enjoyment comes at the expense of someone or something.
But elevation does not come at the expense of anyone, and why? Because the elevation is already in a person's potential, and they only have to open their eyes and see for themselves their uniqueness and, through it, elevate and climb to the highest point.
Therefore, elevation is spiritual, doing acts of kindness and being good to others, and fulfilling the commandments, because they elevate the individual to the next level without harming someone else. On the contrary, they elevate everyone else together with them.
Watch Rabbi Pinto's full class.
This article was written in cooperation with Shuva Israel