On Chasing and Becoming

Opening Our Sages teach: “Whoever chases after honor, honor runs away from him.” It is a short saying, but it goes very deep. A simple question comes up on its own: Why? What is the inner link between chasing something and having it run away? If a person wants honor, let him chase it and get it! What is wrong with the chase? And there is more. This is not only about honor. The same rule holds for making a living, for happiness, for inner peace. The more a person chases, the further the thing moves away. This is a raw nerve that every young married man knows from his own life. If so, what is the way? The Wrong Question The problem, my dear friend, is not in the answer. The problem is in the question. When a person asks, “How do I get this?” he has already made a wrong assumption. He has assumed that the power lies outside him. He has assumed that the “thing” is what needs to move, and that his job is to run after it and catch it. But this way of seeing is upside down. Ask yourself for a moment: What does the chase itself send out? It sends out lack. When you run after something, your body and your thoughts admit that you do not have it. You are missing it. You are empty. And the world is like water, which reflects a face back exactly as it is. It gives you back exactly what you send out: a life of lack and chasing. This is the work of the vessel. The right question is not “How do I get it?” The right question is “How do I become a vessel that is fit to receive it?” Change this one question, and a whole world changes. A Note: The Vessel and the Light In Hasidic teaching the rule is this: blessing does not flow just anywhere. It flows into a vessel. If the vessel is not ready, the blessing passes right by it. This is not a metaphor. This is how reality is built. Hashem wants to give endless blessing: a good living, inner peace, true honor. But the blessing needs a place to rest. When a person is sunk in the chase, he is busy outside himself. He takes himself out of the picture. He is no longer the vessel. The work of “becoming” is the opposite of being passive. Make no mistake. It does not mean sitting and waiting. It means hard inner work: work on your character traits, on your prayer, on a calm and settled mind. It means truly turning yourself into a person in whom blessing can rest. A Parable A cup does not chase after water. It places itself under the faucet and waits to be filled. Chasing is not its way. And if you turn the cup upside down, even an open faucet will not help it. A magnet also does not chase after iron. Its inner nature is what draws the iron. The stronger that nature is, the farther away the iron can be and still be drawn to it. So it is with a person. The more whole his inner nature becomes, the more the things he was searching for begin to move toward him on their own. Closing: “They Will Overtake You” There is a verse in the Book of Deuteronomy that is almost amazing in its simplicity: “All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you.” The blessings chase after you, not you after them. When a person walks on his right path, it is the blessing that does the running. This is a complete shift. Do not ask, “How do I earn more?” Ask, “How do I become the person through whom Hashem wants to give a living?” When you ask this question seriously, you will find that it also leads you to work on yourself, to grow, to become a better person. It is a double win: you grow on the inside, and the blessings arrive from the outside.