The Wrong Sense Of Reality

We identify with the material, and think we do Hashem a favor: "Thursday night I have a class I attend, and with that, I fulfill my responsibility to study Torah for the week." This is the opposite of the reality. I have not met anyone who eats a piece of cake Thursday night and says, "I fulfilled my responsibility to eat for the week." Why? Because he's hungry! You don't think about fulfilling your obligation. If the stomach is empty, you need to eat! If we would feel spiritual hunger the way we feel bodily hunger, we would solve the whole problem of life. The problem of life is the identification with the material. People think they have specific problems. One has this problem, another has a different problem. This is all true, but underlying it all is a root problem; namely, that we have the wrong sense of reality.

(Rabbi Itamar Schwartz)