It has been said that pleasure from material things doesn't last long, ex. delicious food, while pleasure from spiritual things last.
I don't find this to be true. Do you?
If you felt inspired when you attended a class or read an article, if you helped someone and felt very good about it, if you were spiritually uplifted on Yom Tov, did those feelings last? Are those who felt uplifted by the Internet Asifa still feeling that way now, or do they merely remember that they felt uplifted?
When we say "last," how long are we talking about? Can it be proven that pleasure from spiritual things lasts longer than pleasure from material things? Only if there is a group of people who are willing to keep track of how long they feel good after material and spiritual experiences. They would be asked to rate how they feel several hours later, a day later, a few days later, a week later, a month later and that would give us an idea of how long the feelings last. Until that happens, I am not convinced.
I would say that I do have better memories of spiritual experiences than I do of material experiences. I don't remember much about most of the cars that I have owned and felt some stress about choosing them. I do, however have fond memories of family experiences on Yomtov or of unique spiritual experiences such as the blessing of the sun which only occurs every 26years, or of life cycle experiences such as the brissim of my children or their Bar Mitzvahs and chassunahs. Most new purchases such as clothing, are purchases that don't have long term significance. I wear things until they don't look nice anymore and then I dispose of them. Most of my jewelry is costume and I would not regard those pieces as valuable or remember the happiness that I felt on finding such bargains. Whatever happiness that I felt at finding bargains was fleeting unless it was a gift for a child or grandchild that they really seemed happy with. Usually that meant that they had to have a choice about the purchase.
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