Living Emunah By Rabbi David Ashear

Until We Get There


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After theeighth makah , Pharaoh told Moshe that the Jewish People could go,but they had to leave back their animals. Moshe replied they were going to goand take everything with them, because לא נדע מה נעבוד את ה' עד בואנו שמה– hesaid we will not know what we need to serve Hashem until we get there. Someexplain this pasuk homiletically as saying, we don't know which serviceis more precious to Hashem עד בואנו שמה – until we will see with our owneyes in the Next World. Sometimespeople feel down about themselves, seeing that they aren't accomplishing asmuch as others in avodat Hashem and that could completely break theirdesire to continue trying to grow. Sometimes a person compares his children tohis neighbor's children and wonders why they are so much more successful intheir learning than his, while he is putting in much more effort in hischildren than they are in theirs. We must constantly remind ourselves, we haveno idea which person's avodah gives more nachat ruach(satisfaction) to Hashem. Hashem does not reward based on results, He rewards based onefforts. Every single person has a different job to do and if he does his jobto the best of his ability, he will be amongst the greatest rabbis of all timein the Next World. Just like every person has different physicalcharacteristics, different shoe sizes, different clothing sizes, so too everyperson is given different spiritual strengths, depending on what his job inthis world is to do. If he is notas "tall" as someone else with his spiritual capabilities, that just means hisjob is different and he doesn't need to accomplish what the other personhas to. If a person doesn't know this, he could easily miss out on the life he issupposed to live. If someone is feeling low, he needs to pray to Hashem to givehim chizuk to continue trying to do his job to the best of hisability. The sefer Ki Ata Imadi repeated a story that was told by Rabbi MoshePluchok, one of the Maggideh Shiur in Yeshivat Derech Chaim in America.Their yeshiva moved locations for a couple of months and in that new location,the Rabbi saw a man who looked like he had just started his path in Judaism. Hewas sitting in front of an Artscroll Gemara and learning with suchenthusiasm, swaying back and forth. When he had a question, he would go and askone of the rabbis learning there. Rabbi Pluchok was very impressed and he wentover to introduce himself. The man told him he was diagnosed with a terminalillness and was told by the doctors that he had just months to live. RabbiPluchok then asked him how he was able to learn with such diligence with thaton his mind. The man explained that just in the past couple of years hediscovered Torah and mitzvot and that is the only thing that gives him peace ofmind. A few weekslater, the Rabbi saw that man learning in his usual place, but he seemed to bedisturbed and much less enthusiastic. The Rabbi immediately went over to himand asked if everything was okay. The man said he was feeling very low. Here hesees outstanding Torah scholars all around him learning at the highest levelsfor twelve hours a day. He started to think to himself, I know Hashem getsso much satisfaction from them, but what about me? What does He need me tolearn for if He has all of these great scholars? " I spend a few hours a daytrying to learn and even with that I only get a few lines of Gemaraaccomplished, and I don't even fully understand them. I'm feeling completelyunnecessary." Rabbi Pluchokproceeded to give the man a fiery speech about how every single person has adifferent, unique job to fulfill and that no one else in the world could dowhat he has to do. And how much pleasure Hashem gets from every word of Gemara he attempts to learn. The man felt renewed strength and energy and continuedhappily learning. The followingyear, the Rabbi saw this man's son and asked him about his father. The boy saidhis father passed away, "but until the end, he went happily to learn every singleday and quoted what you said about how important his job is and how muchsatisfaction Hashem got from him." A few words of chizuk can goa very long way. Every single person has a very lofty mission to fulfill. Wewill not see the value of everyone's avodah, עד בואנו שמה – until theNext World – but we can be confident that everyone's avodah is extremelyvaluable and they should never let up, no matter what anyone else is doingaround them.
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Living Emunah By Rabbi David AshearBy Rabbi David Ashear

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