Do not worship idols is a mainstay of Judaism. But besides the blatant idols that we can see, there is a more subtle form of idol worship which everyone struggles with. Worship of money, worship of non Jewish ideals, worship of celebrities, worship of secularism…..and, believe it or not, there is worship of self. That does that mean? We often feel we are correct in our ideas. Or we may have a yetzer hara for something and we try to justify it to ourselves. Or we become so self centered and self involved that we literally spend all our time delving into our emotions, our desires, our wants etc. Any “I”, or self awareness, is a form of idolatry. We cannot worship ourselves. We need to remember we are here to worship God. He told us what is right and wrong and if we desire something opposing that, we are actually worshipping ourselves, our ideas, our conflicts….we are forgetting to worship our Creator and fulfill His desires! This can help put things into perspective in our lives and we wont take our own faults so seriously. We also can reorganize our thoughts, emotions etc be in line with holiness. The more we truly sincerely worship God, the less we worship ourselves or anything else in the world. Remember: nothing really exists outside of God. We don’t even exist except that He constantly gives us existence every second. We feel like we exist. That is the test we face every day. But in reality we are nothing and the more we humble ourselves and remember that God gives us life and we must choose to serve Him, the happier we will be.