The Torah commands a person to bring the first fruits of the seven species (that have grown in his land) to the Beis Hamikdash. These fruits would be given to the Kohanim and the owner would praise and thank G-d for his harvest. The Torah says that each person "rejoice in all of the good that G-d has given him". How is it possible though for each person to rejoice in everything that they have? Obviously some people have very little while others have an abundance. Can they be expected to rejoice in the same fashion?

When a person realizes that they have "all the good" then they can in fact rejoice. We often look at what our friends, family or neighbors have and think they have it good and we are missing out. If we realize that we have "all the good" meaning everything that is good for us we have then we can come to the same level of rejoicing.

We are all familiar with the saying that we should not look at the glass as half empty but we should look at it as half full. I heard in the name of R'Elimelech Biderman that instead of thinking our glass is half full we should consider who says that we have such a "big glass"? We assume that we should have a big glass and then we have to decide how to relate to a glass that is filled half way, but our perspective is wrong, our glass is really smaller than what we assume and the glass is entirely filled!

Shabbat Shalom,

Heath