Don’t think of an elephant right now.
And just like that, an image of Dumbo flies across your mind’s eye!
Can I control what I’m not thinking? And if I can’t, am I being set up to fail? These are core theological questions behind each of the laws that forbids a category of thought, among them “Do Not Covet,” which appears in Parashat Vaetchanan.
While the commandment against coveting is both difficult to fulfill and psychologically daunting in what it represents, it also upholds an ideal for how we position ourselves in relationships of all kinds. If I strive to live a life that lives up to Ben Zoma’s principle, “Who is happy? The one that is happy with his portion,” I will not need (or covet) something that another has.
