Bechina: Learn to Enjoy Your Hands

From Learning to Love Hashem (#657) by Rabbi Avigdor Miller 
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The Chovos Halevavos teaches in Shaar Habechina that we have to study the benefits that we get in life. It’s important for us to spend time on that. He starts from the benefits of having hands; it’s fun to have a hand. The man on the street, I see him frequently, he has an empty sleeve. Baruch Hashem your sleeves are full, and out of your sleeve comes a derrick, with little derricks attached to it. You can bend it any way you want. Ah, a pleasure, a privilege. 

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We’re missing the fun of life. We don’t really enjoy life.

When you move some joints, do you hear any noise, any creaking, as the bones rub against each other? No, it’s lubricated beautifully. It doesn’t hurt even. That’s a wonderful arrangement. That’s how Shaar Habechina starts, and it goes on and on and on. That’s a career of studying; it’s a pity our lives our wasted. Every day we borrow the body again (“hamachzir neshamos lifgarim meisim — He returns souls to lifeless bodies” [morning blessings]), He gives back the body to us, and we’re not aware of the obligation of being grateful and loving Him for it. 

And I’ll tell you something else that we’re missing in addition to the mitzvah of bechina: We’re missing the fun of life. We don’t really enjoy life. It’s only when you appreciate what you’re getting and you’re grateful to Hashem, that’s when you have enjoyment from it. A man should enjoy his hand. If a man learns that, he’ll have simcha (happiness) all his life. It’s fun to have a hand. If you came here just for that, it’s not wasted. Life becomes happy when you study it in that way. 

Climb the Ladder: Make a list of how life would be different if you were missing your left hand. See how long a list you can make in three minutes.