Rabbenu tells the story of the ‘Horse in the Pump’.

I’ll stick the whole thing below this post, from HERE.

Long story short, it’s a story of how people delude themselves, and let greed and ‘imagination’ totally take them off the right path in life, leaving them chasing after ‘riches’ and ‘success’ that never comes.

Because, it’s just not real.

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So, there’s a guy who is gifted a ‘horse’ by demons called letzim – which he doesn’t believe in.

This is such a fine looking horse, that he takes it to market the next day, and gets offered a good amount for it.

Wow! If they are happy to pay that much for it, it must be worth double!!!

So, he doesn’t sell it, and the price goes up.

He takes that fine horse to a different market, and the same thing happens again, this time at the new price.

Wow! If they are happy to pay that much for it, it must be worth double!!!

So, he doesn’t sell it, and the price goes up.

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This continues for a while, until finally, only the king himself can afford the price of the horse.

And the king himself really does offer to pay that incredible price… but the stupid man repeats his same pattern:

Wow! If the king is happy to pay that much for it, it must be worth double!!!

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At this point, the ‘horse’ runs away, and disappears up the spout of a water pump.

The guy starts crying, runs after it, and every now and then, the horse sticks its head out of the water pump – and he tries to recapture it, but can’t.

Read the whole story below.

The bottom line is, that guy spends his whole life running after an illusion, a chimera – and can’t detach from it even after it’s disappeared up the water pump and shown itself to be totally ‘unreal’.

My friends, this is the real estate market.

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Just like where you live, too, Israel is currently filled with overpriced homes that no-one can afford to buy, but where the price doesn’t drop because ‘it’s worth at least double’.

Everyone is just sitting there, sure as sure can be, that their property is going to double again in another year, or 2 years, or 10 years – so why would I sell it now, for less than it’s really worth?!

The newsflash is, A PROPERTY IS ONLY REALLY WORTH WHAT SOMEONE ACTUALLY BUYS IT FOR.

That shouldn’t be a chiddush, but in our crazy world, it is.

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A few months ago, I met someone I hadn’t seen for 12 years, from the old ‘hood.

She used to have one of the biggest, fanciest houses in that hood.

It’s worth, like, 58 million gazillion, or something.

Trouble was – she ended up getting a divorce. And no-one could afford to buy the 58 million gazillion house, so she and her ex had to split the property, and she lives upstairs, with her new husband, while he lives downstairs, with his new wife.

This honestly sounds like a bizarre form of gehinnom to me, but what do I know.

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I know someone else, who got stuck with their ‘luxury property’ in chul, trying to sell it for years, convinced that it was really worth double.

In the meantime, the mortgage payments was killing them, they’d moved and bought somewhere else, already, and the only thing that got them out of a looming foreclosure issue was paying a pidyon to the Rav.

Even then, they had to accept an offer that was not fantastic, in their eyes, but good enough to stop them going bankrupt…

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So many people are stuck, mouldering away, in properties they can’t sell, because like the guy in the story, any offer they get just doesn’t seem to be ‘enough’.

And it’s having such a bad ‘trickle down’ effect, in so many ways.

To give just one example: old, lonely people rolling around massive villot with rooms they never go in, whilst families with 8 kids are stuck in 3 room apartments, (if they are lucky…) because real estate is just so darned expensive.

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As always, Rabbenu called it precisely.

Your house is the horse is the pump.

And the only way to get out of the problem, is to stop deluding yourself that it’s worth 58 million gazillion, and to sell it for whatever someone is really prepared to pay for it.

And then, move on joyfully with your life.

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Regarding the discussion which [some of Rebbe Nachman’s chassidim] were having about someone who was then in one of the large non-Jewish cities and tarried there a long time because each time he imagined that now he would succeed: and so it was each time, until he was delayed there a long time. And he [the Rebbe] said that that is the way it goes when one comes to such places, that each time it seems to him, “Now I will accomplish, now I will accomplish,” etc., etc. And he told this story:

There was one man who did not believe what the world says, that there are leitzim/tricksters from the Sitra Achra/ Other Side that come sometimes to mislead people, as has happened several times; he did not believe this. One night, a leitz came to him and called him to go outside. He went out and the leitz showed him that he had a beautiful horse to sell. He looked and indeed it was a very beautiful horse, so he asked him, “How much do you want?” Answered the leitz, “Four adumim/rubles.” He saw that it was easily worth eight rubles, for it was a choice, fine horse. So he bought the horse from him for four rubles and he considered it a great find. The next day, he took the horse out to sell, and people stepped up to purchase and wanted to give him some amount. He said, “Probably, if they are willing to give me so much, it must be worth double!” So he was not satisfied and he took the horse onward, and they wanted to give him twice his desire. He said, “It is probably worth more than double this amount.” So he brought the horse onward, until the price of the horse reached into the thousands. However, he was not satisfied with any of them to sell it, for whatever they wanted to give him, he said, “It is probably worth twice as much.” Eventually, there was no one who could buy it except the king.

So he brought it to the king, and the king wanted to give him an astounding amount, for the horse was exceedingly pleasing to everyone. However, he was not willing with the king either, for he said, “It is probably worth more.” Thus, even the king was unable to buy the horse. So he went from the king with the horse to water it. There was a plomf/pump there from which people take water. The horse jumped into the pump, disappeared and was no more. (That is, it appeared to him as such, for the entire incident of the horse was made up by the leitz). He yelled out loud over this, and people gathered around in response to his screaming and asked him, “Why are you screaming?” He replied that his horse had jumped into the pump. And they beat him [with] injurious blows, for he appeared insane since the opening of the pump is very narrow, and how can a horse jump into it? He saw that they were beating him and that he appeared insane, and he wanted to go from there. As he wanted to leave, the horse began to stick its head out of the pump. So he began to scream again, “Aha, aha (look, look)!” since it appeared to him that his horse was there. The people gathered around and beat him again, since he was insane, as mentioned. Again he decided to leave; and as soon as he wanted to go, the horse again stuck its head out of the pump. He began shouting again as before and the people gathered upon him again and beat him.

Thus the Sitra Achra deceives a man each time with nothingness; complete lies having no substance. And he is incited by it, pursues it, and each time it appears to him that he will profit more and that he will fill his craving more. So he runs after it many times, and suddenly all his desires vanish, get away and go away from him — as has happened many times, that the cravings go away a little, and when the man wants to detach from them, then they come back and stick out their heads and he goes back to chasing them. And so it continues, that as soon as they stick out their heads, he goes back to chasing them. (And he explained the matter no further. Understand this well.)