The Necessity of More as a Test (Nes)* of & for Enough (Shaddai)

The Necessity of More as a Test (Nes)* of & for Enough (Shaddai)

Is More, better, NOW**  but a necessary test of and for Enough (Shaddai)?

          In the animated film, Megamind, super-villain of aforementioned name Megamind (the voice of Will Ferrell) kills his nemesis good-guy hero  Metro Man (Brad Pitt). Thereafter, Megamind becomes bored since there is no one left to fight. Meagmind ‘turns’ (in rasslin vernacular) becoming a hero engaging villain Titan (Jonah Hill) using his powers now for good

          But herein lies the question, ‘would there be any heroes without adversaries -  villains?’ How can one be heroic the challenge? How can coal become the diamond without pressure?’ How can clothes get clean without the agitator in the washing machine?

          In Judaism, there is the yetzer tov (the good inclination) and the yetzer hara (some say evil others say adversarial inclination. And yet, as Rabbinical thought goes, without the yetzer hara no one would even go to work.

Shaddai: God, God Almighty, God All Sufficient, Enough

After rasslin’ with the angel and also becoming alternatively Israel in spiritual matters, Jacob to appease, make peace (repay??) Esau for securing the birthright under duress as well as impersonating Esau for Isaac’s blessing, Jacob had prepared to offer Esau a king’s ransom   (also while confronted by Esau’s 400 men/army).

Esau finally ‘reluctantly’ accepted the offering supposedly due to Jacob’s ‘insistence’ despite Esau’s assertions of ‘having plenty, having enough, having much” aka MORE. Obviously, Esau’s statements of having ‘enough, all, everything, plenty’ wasn’t enough as acceptance was rationalized as an accommodation to Jacob’s urging.

Jacob, the conniver turns hero stating that he ‘has everything, he has all’ (per translations) meaning ‘all and everything’ is God – Shaddai (who is ‘enough’). Thus, for Jacob (now alternatively Israel after rasslin’ with the ‘angel’) and now confronting Esau - Shaddai was enough (everything, all).

The MOREal: More was a test of & for Enough (Shaddai) for Jacob to alternatively become Israel. And More is a testing of our faith in Shaddai being ‘Enough’ – an underlying trial of our MOREality choosing Shaddai or More.

Thus, the question: How can there be Enough- Shaddai without the test of More?

For now over 40 years I have written about more vs enough.  Over those years, ENOUGH(sm) has evolved in definition from ‘clientele realizable goal determination coordinated with orderly plans for their desired payoffs’ to ‘healing personal financial anxiety, puttin’ money in its place, to elevate, transcend, align and connect to one’s significance/assignment – what one is meant to do, meant to be – enough to live for, enough to live on.’ And while ENOUGH(sm) has evolved,  the More More More paradigm, heuristic, filter unquestioned pretense of personal financial planning– has remained constant as ‘the savior.’  More remains the ever present foil and it would seem the necessary adversary of ENOUGH(sm).  

Thus,  is appears that More More More is a derivative of the the yetzer hara - the Yetzer More (the More/ MOREon inclination). This yetzer More inclination if not genetic otherwise has become so acculturated (across political and economic systems regardless of rationalizations otherwise). This yetzer More inclination  is akin to the villain necessary for there to be heroes for the coal to become the diamond. This yetzer More tests faith in 1) Shaddai as enough and secondarily 2) of one’s adaptability and resourcefulness derived from Shaddai.

The More More More – yetzer More Inclination presents itself in a binary from the profane to the profound (if one reads the following from the bottom to the top rather than top to bottom in the following):

    THE More More More BINARY LADDER Designation

if you are WORTHY you are god                  whereas if you are

 (just 1 'o' difference from GOOD)                WORTHLESS you are DRECK.        

                             é                                                       é

if you are GOOD, you are WORTHY             if you are BAD, you are 

                                                                     WORTHLESS                               

                             é                                                       é

if you are a WINNER, you are GOOD             if you are a LOSER, you                             

                                                                     BAD

                             é                                                       é

if you are a BETTER, you are better you're a WINNER

if you are WORSE, you are a  LOSER

                             é                                                       é

if you are MORE - you are a BETTER           if you get LESS you are a

            WORSE

                             é                                                       é

If right get -- MORE                                      you get LESS

          é                                                                é

you are RIGHT                                              you are WRONG

          é                                                                é

if you are useful, of service, functional            if you are NOT very useful, of service functional

          Yet, the yetzer More isn’t & won’t be vanquished (as it will only be displaced like a squeezed balloon). The question is how does one deal with the yetzer More as it’s one thing to fight the dragon, another to slay the dragon and a third to embrace the dragon – in a sense grapplin’ with the angel as Jacob did to also become Israel.

And that’s the test of More versus Shaddai

CHEWish on This© More OR LE$$

* Nes in Hebrew means not only ‘test’ but also ‘miracle’

** More, better, NOW! has a habit of becoming less, worse, later