[Avodah] yesh lo maneh rotzeh matayim

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

R' Arie Folger mentioned the phrase:
> yesh lo maneh rotzeh matayim

R' Micha Berger remarked:
> The maamar "ein adam meis vechatzi ta'avaso beyado" seems
> to be almost identical in meaning.

This is a great opportunity to mention a great comment I once heard about these two lines. I think it is from the Kotzker, but I'm not sure.

Note that RMB remarked that these two lines are *almost* identical. Whoever my source was, he noted that these two lines are actually contradictory. According to the first line, if a person has 100, then he wants 200. According to the second, if a person wants 200, then he will never have 100. He might have 99.99, but he will never actually have a full half of his goal.

How to resolve the contradiction? He (whoever) said that it *is* possible for a person to reach the halfway mark. It *is* possible that a person who wants 200 might get half of that goal. But the half he doesn't have looks bigger (or more desirable) than the half that he does have.

Akiva Miller


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