The Chovot HaLevavot in the Shaar HaBitachon (chap. 4) describes the foolish things that some people do for wealth and honor. But then he says there are much easier ways to attain those things that are inherently valuable in their own right, and one of those ways is to constantly thank Hashem for all the good that He gives us. How could a person truly feel thankful when he doesn’t have everything that he wants? The answer will become apparent from the following story that a rabbi told me. Last summer, a congregant of his, who we’ll call Dave, came to him practically in tears saying that he deserved twenty years in prison and the judge told him he would reduce it to six in the best case scenario. A rabbi from Israel was standing there at the time and he said to Dave, “Stop crying and understand that the judge has no say. Everything happens only by Hashem, and He is very merciful.” He then asked Dave if he was ready to follow his advice to win the case. Dave said, “Of course.” The rabbi told him that night they were going to make a Melave Malka with music and they were going to dance and celebrate the fact that they believe that everything is in Hashem’s hands. Dave agreed. That night, the rabbi brought many of his yeshiva students and they danced with great joy. The next day, Dave came to shul full of life, ready for the next step. The rabbi told him about all the improvements he needed to make in religion and Dave agreed to comply. A month later, Dave was told that his trial was going to be pushed back to November. He called the rabbi saying how upset he was. He couldn’t bear to wait anymore to find out the verdict. The rabbi told him this was the biggest blessing, perhaps based on his judgment last year on Rosh Hashanah, when he was not observant, the verdict may have come down negatively, but now this Rosh Hashanah, he will be a changed man and can have his judgment reassessed. Those words gave Dave a lot of chizuk and he kept improving himself. When the day of his trial finally arrived in November, the prosecutor was asking the judge to be very strict and give Dave the full sentence. The judge replied by saying that Dave is a good person, he just made a mistake, he’s going to be better, and therefore he was only giving him six months. Dave called his rabbi from the shul ecstatic, relating the great news. He wanted to celebrate and thank Hashem for reducing his sentence to just six months. Later that day, another congregant from this rabbi’s shul related to the rabbi how upset he was. He said he made a side business deal with someone and was told he was going to get a $300,000 commission for it. The deal went through and he was only given $200,000 and he was livid over it. When the rabbi got home that day, his wife asked him how his day went. He said he observed something very interesting. One man was sentenced to six months in prison and was dancing for joy, while another man just earned $200,000 from a side deal that wasn’t even a part of his regular job and he was very upset. The rabbi then explained how that could come about. It all depends on a person’s feelings of entitlement. The first man was expecting to perhaps spend years behind bars and when he was told it was just six months, he was overjoyed. The other man felt entitled to three hundred thousand and when he only got two, he was miserable. This is the nature of man, but if we can recognize that everything that Hashem gives us is a complete gift and we are entitled to nothing, then we could always feel happy. The moment we feel that we should have something or we deserve something, then it becomes extremely hard to appreciate anything. Appreciating Hashem’s blessings brings more blessing, but the appreciation must stem from true feelings of gratitude and that will come about when we stop feeling entitled.