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Friday

י"ט אדר ב’ התשפ"ד

Friday
י"ט אדר ב’ התשפ"ד

חיפוש בארכיון

456. Listening (3)

Behold that the following is the case: It is fitting that a person should overcome his evil inclination and run to the Beis Hamidrash (study hall) to listen to the learning even against his own will when it is not good for him and he should subjugate his own will before the will of his Creator and in the end it will be sweet and pleasant for him. He should consider in his heart the reward of the Mitzvah itself as he receives the reward for the going to the Beis Hamidrash and the reward for the listening to the Torah and the reward for responding “Amen Yehei Shemeih Rabbah” and that they will tear up his sentence and forgive all of his sins and once he starts something for the incorrect reason (shelo lishmah) in the end he will start doing it for the correct reason (Lishmah), as once he commences he will understand the extent of the pleasure that he gives his Creator so that in return he repays him with such a great reward, and there is no reward in this world as great as that of meriting to cause great pleasure to one’s Creator.

This is a great rule in the Torah, that one should calculate the reward for a Mitzvah and consider it like one thousand gold coins and in the same way that one will try hard and make an effort and toil to make a profit of one thousand gold coins so too should one toil and make an effort for each and every good deed and he should believe with complete trust in that fact which is absolutely true that each good deed can not be compared in value to all of the gold, silver and precious stones in the world and that there is no value to the goodness of the next world and the extent of our brains are incapable of understanding this while we are still formed of earthly material to the extent that Chazal said that “One hour of pleasure in the next world is worth more than the entire life in this world!” and this is true even if he would live the life of a king in this world. Go out and learn from the life of Nebuchadnezzar the wicked king when Hashem wanted to reward him for the four steps that he took for the honor of Hashem and he therefore gave him kingship and rulership over the entire world and he ruled even over the wild beasts of the field so that he rode on a lion and tied a snake with a bridle over its neck. Seeing that this is the case, we, members of Klal Yisrael, about whom it is said that even the emptiest ones among us are full of good deeds as a pomegranate is full of seeds, how much more may we expect that our reward will be great in the next world.

“My brothers and my nation, take this sefer Torah, and with this, and like this learn well, so that you should have it good; listen and enliven your soul, and achieve gladness and joy in this world and the world to come” (From the author’s intro.)