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Eat, Drink & Be Merry!
“If there is a G-d, He certainly hasn't done anything for me!" (BB pg 56)
"For tomorrow we will die!" (Isaiah 22:13)
והנה אנכי הולך למות ולמה זה לי בכרה
"And Esau said, Look I am going to die, so of what use to me is a birthright?"
What was the mindset of Esau that he could have so easily sold his birthright for just a pot of lentils? After all, Esau was the firstborn son of Isaac and the grandson of Avraham - he knew he was next in line to inherit this great Spiritual Legacy! Rashi comments that basically, Esau had given up, he had lost any sense of self-worth - he knew that he had done so many sins and neglected to observe his service to Hashem that he concluded that his actions were punishable by death.
This isn't the only place in Tanach that this mindset is expressed. In Isaiah Chapter 22 - the Prophet was speaking to the people of Jerusalem criticizing the way they had turned away from G-d, and the downfall of the Holy City was underway. Hashem had declared that the people should cry and lament their impending doom. Instead, they partied without any restraint like New Year's Eve and declared, "Eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!"
We see further in the Tanach, in Kohelet-Ecclesiastes Chapter 8 during the reign of Shlomo HaMelech-King Solomon - at the time in his life where after accumulating great wealth, tasting every delight on the planet and enjoying many many wives he famously declares:
"So I praised enjoyment, for man has no other goal under the sun but to EAT, DRINK and BE MERRY!"
How many of us live our lives as if this is one of the 613 Mitzvahs/Commandments?! And we do this with such enthusiasm and celebration! We find no limits in our ability to taste and experience every single sensual pleasure - as if this is the last day of our life! Don't worry, we conclude that since we are dressed tzniusly/modestly in designer apparel, our wives are wearing their Chevy Wigs, we are eating at the finest Kosher Restaurants or flying first class on El Al or on the Top Deck of a Kosherica Cruise, we are entitled to eat, drink and be merry!!
Let’s consider what the Parsha can teach the addict...
Just take a personal and honest moment to think about our past or current actions. Perhaps how far we may have fallen into the depths of our addictive and lustful behaviors - whether it's food, drink, sex, internet, smartphones, shopping etc. We may be just like Esau, as Rashi explains who had simply and thoroughly given up any sense of self-worth or hope that we can change - that we can Recover!
But there is a big difference between us and Esau!! For you, me and all of the Jewish People, no matter where we are holding with our Recovery and Sobriety - are SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF YAKOV! That we have a Spiritual DNA in each of us that knows that there is a World even beyond this awesome one - that there is always hope - that no matter how many sins we may have made or how far removed we are - that there is a Higher Power that is always waiting for us to "turn our will and our lives over to Him!"
As we read in Chapter 4 - We Agnostics (BB pg 55)
"Actually we were fooling ourselves, for deep down in every man, woman and child is the fundamental idea of God. It may be obscured by calamity, by pomp and worship of other things, but in some form or other it is there. "