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In this week’s parasha, Yitro , we read the Aseret HaDibrot – the Ten Commandments. The last one is לא תחמוד – we are not allowed to covet what our friends have. There are many details as to how a person could violate that mitzvah, but without a question the root of the transgression stems from jealousy. Hashem wants us to have emunah that what we have is meant for us and is best for us, and what others have is meant for them. The mitzvot are for our benefit. Someone who lives life the way Hashem wants us to live will always be happy no matter what he has. When we realize we are not entitled to anything, everything we have is a gift and more than we deserve, we’ll enjoy it so much more. There are so many people who are unhappy because of their high expectations, wondering why others have and they don’t. They are only hurting themselves. It is up to us to decide if we want happiness or the opposite. Rabbi Zamir Cohen gave a mashal to explain. One man, Joe, has everything he needs but, by the end of the month, his bank account is usually negative a few hundred dollars. Then, when he gets his paycheck, he covers it and uses the rest for the following month. And this pattern continues. Another man, Ralph, owns two homes, one is a summer home with a big pool, and he has a million dollars in the bank in savings. Both of these men come home one night to their respective families. Joe is overjoyed while Ralph is depressed. How could that be? That day, Ralph had a meeting with an old friend of his who is a billionaire. He owns 200 stores. He flew in for a business meeting on his private jet which he bought for 25 million dollars. He owns palatial homes in four different countries. Ralph is sitting at the dinner table now but he can’t eat. His wife asks him, “What’s wrong?” He told her about his friend the billionaire and said, “All I can think about is that he has a billion dollars while I only have a million. I’ve been trying all day to figure out how I will ever make that kind of money and I realized it is never going to happen.” Ralph lost his appetite and had trouble falling asleep for the next few months from that. Joe, on the other hand, walked into his home the same night with the greatest excitement. “I just finished paying off a loan. Now we are going to have a few hundred extra dollars per month. The whole way home I’m thinking about what are we going to do with this extra money? I decided we’re going to enjoy it together.” Ralph may have more money than Joe but Joe’s quality of life is so much better because he appreciates what he has. Being happy with what Hashem gives us rather than being jealous will give us pleasure, both in this world and the Next. Rabbi Cohen told a story that is written up on the tombstone of the woman who it happened to. A girl, 14 years old – lo alenu – was in a terrible car accident and went into a coma as a result. She sustained a major injury to the brain and was expected to live whatever years she had left in a vegetable state. Shockingly, she lived in the hospital in that condition for decades until she finally passed away at the age of 90. She was buried by the hospital in a non-Jewish cemetery. Seven years later, a relative of hers became a ba'alat teshuva and realized that her relative was buried in a non-Jewish cemetery and wanted to help her and move her. She flew from Israel where she lived to America and paid the cemetery to be able to move her. When they dug up her body, they were stunned to see that it was still fresh and whole as if she had just passed away. When this became publicized, people asked Rav Chaim Kanievsky how it was possible. She didn’t have that many mitzvot. In what merit was her body preserved? The Rabbi said that it’s simple. The pasuk says in Mishleh, " ורקב עצמות קנאה " – which Chazal explain in Masechet Shabbat to mean - jealousy is what causes the body to decompose. This woman was not able to be jealous, and so her body stayed whole. Imagine if someone is able to be jealous but overcomes it. Imagine a person who works on himself to the point where he is actually happy when others are successful. We all have the ability to be this way, to be from those who always wish good upon others, who want others to be happy. This attitude will bring us joy in this world and the Next. Shabbat Shalom.