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Shpitzer, Harav Hagaon Meir Tzvi Shlita

Use Your Opportunities!

Parashas Ki Seitzei

Harav Hagaon Meir Tzvi Shpitzer Shlita

 

The mitzvah of shiluach haken is followed immediately by the mitzvah of maakeh, erecting a fence: כִּי תִבְנֶה בַּיִת חָדָשׁ וְעָשִׂיתָ מַעֲקֶה לְגַגֶּךָ. Rashi, citing Midrash Tanchuma, explains the juxtaposition of these mitzvos as follows:

אם קיימת מצות שלוח הקן סופך לבנות בית חדש ותקיים מצות מעקה, שמצוה גוררת מצוה, ותגיע לכרם ושדה ולבגדים נאים.

When a person does one mitzvah, he merits further opportunities for mitzvos: mitzvah goreres mitzvah. Therefore, if a person does shiluach haken, Hakadosh Baruch Hu will enable him to build a house and fulfill the mitzvah of maakeh, and if he does that, Hakadosh Baruch Hu will give him a vineyard, a field, and clothing with which to perform additional mitzvos.

We would have understood that the s’char of shiluach haken is the nice house, and the s’char of maakeh is the vineyard and the parnassah. But Rashi tells us otherwise – no, the s’char of shiluach haken is the opportunity to be able to fulfill the mitzvah of maakeh. Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives us a house because the house serves to facilitate the mitzvah of maakeh. The same applies to the vineyard: the vineyard itself is not the s’char of the mitzvah – the opportunity to do a mitzvah is the s’char of the mitzvah! These mitzvah opportunities are the most precious things, and all of the gashmiyus that comes along with it is there only to serve the mitzvah.

The Mishnah says, in Avos, that שינה של שחרית is one of the things that areמוציאין את האדם מן העולם – sleeping in the morning is a death sentence. Why, wonders Rabbeinu Yonah, does a person deserve such a terrible punishment for sleeping in the morning? He explains that this is not a punishment. A fellow goes to sleep in the night and has the opportunity to rise in the morning with fresh kochos, a clear mind, and physical capabilities, all of which are given to him to utilize for avodas Hashem, in whatever form his personal avodas Hashem takes. And what does he do? He turns right over in bed, failing to maximize the opportunities Hakadosh Baruch Hu has given him. Such a person, says Rabbeinu Yonah, doesn’t belong in this world, because this is a world where we are meant to use the opportunities we are given.

If you don’t use your opportunities, if you don’t understand that a house is an opportunity for the mitzvah of maakeh and a vineyard is an opportunity for further mitzvos, then you don’t belong in this world.

The Gemara tells us: כל המענג את השבת נותנין לו נחלה בלי מצרים – if someone honors Shabbos, Hakadosh Baruch Hu pays him back with endless reward. The Beis Yosef explains that this doesn’t mean that when he does the spiritual mitzvah of being מענג את השבת he gets a physical s’char of נחלה בלי מצרים. On the contrary, says the Beis Yosef, the reward is that Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives him additional money, granting him further opportunities for kavod Shabbos and other mitzvos. That’s why he is given s’char.

Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives us so many opportunities for mitzvos, and our job is to utilize each and every one of them.

We say in the Rosh Hashanah davening:אדם יסודו מעפר וסופו לעפר  – man was originally created from earth, and every person eventually reverts to earth. When the Chiddushei Harim would recite these words, he would shed endless tears. Asked by his children why these words moved him to cry so much, he explained that we miss the point – the point is that we had the opportunity to transform earth into gold. We could have created gold, but we didn’t utilize the opportunity Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave us, and nothing came of the opportunity.

Imbibing the Waters

Rav Yerucham, the mashgiach of the Mir yeshiva, writes in Daas Chochmah U’Mussar that in his times, in Mir and many other towns and villages, the water was contaminated, and it made people sick throughout the year. If a person could afford it, and had seichel, he would travel in the summer to a spa that offered natural springs, and the more you drank of the healthy water, the healthier you were throughout the year. Rav Yerucham, too, traveled to Carlsbad for the summer, and when he returned to the Mir yeshiva for the Elul zman, he recounted a conversation that he overheard between two gentiles on the train to Carlsbad.

“What are you planning to do when you arrive?” one inquired of the other.

“Well,” the other responded, “first I’ll go around to the different hotels and decide which is the most comfortable.”

“And what are you going to do after that?”

“Then, I’ll go around to the restaurants and decide where I’m going to eat supper.”

“And what are you going to do after that?”

“After that I’ll go to the spa and imbibe from the healthy springs.”

At this point, the second fellow turned to the first and inquired, “And what are you going to do in Carlsbad?”

“I’m not going to go to the hotels or the restaurants,” he replied. “I’m going to make a beeline for the spa and drink as much healthy water as I can. I can sleep comfortably in hotels and eat in nice restaurants back home. The reason I come here is to fortify myself by drinking from the springs in Carlsbad, so that I can remain healthy the whole year. And the more time that I spend drinking, the healthier I’m going to be.”

This idea, says Rav Yerucham, applies to every one of us. Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives us opportunities: every day is an opportunity, every tefillah is an opportunity, every penny we earn is an opportunity. We have to make sure not to waste these opportunities by looking at hotels and restaurants, and instead imbibe from the waters that fortify us and enable us to do avodas Hashem.

A Talent is a Calling

When Hakadosh Baruch Hu instructed Moshe Rabbeinu to assign the construction of the Mishkan to Betzalel, the passuk introduces Betzalel in the following way: רְאֵה קָרָאתִי בְשֵׁם בְּצַלְאֵל בֶּן אוּרִי בֶן חוּר לְמַטֵּה יְהוּדָה וָאֲמַלֵּא אֹתוֹ רוּחַ אֱלֹקִים בְּחָכְמָה וּבִתְבוּנָה וּבְדַעַת וּבְכָל מְלָאכָה. “See,” Hakadosh Baruch Hu says, “I have called upon Betzalel, and I have endowed him with the kochos that he needs in order to build the Mishkan.”

The meforshim note that this passuk seems to imply that there has been a previous conversation between Hakadosh Baruch Hu and Betzalel. Yet when we turn back, we find no previous mention of Betzalel anywhere. This is the first time that Betzalel arrives on the world stage, and yet he is introduced with the words, “See, I have called upon Betzalel.” How are we to understand this passuk?

In Darash Moshe, Rav Moshe Feinstein offers a beautiful explanation. Betzalel, from the day he was born, was endowed by Hakadosh Baruch Hu with the kochos and understanding to be able to construct beautiful structures and fashion outstanding keilim.

Similarly, every person is given kochos, and if you are given kochos, they must be utilized for avodas Hashem. Every capability that a person has is meant to be harnessed for avodas Hashem; that’s why it was given to him in the first place.

Betzalel was not blessed with artistic ability to be able to make nice sculptures in his own home. The fact that he possessed these heaven-sent kochos is itself a calling:קָרָאתִי בְשֵׁם בְּצַלְאֵל. Similarly, every one of us can look in the mirror and see the resources that Hakadosh Baruch Hu has given us. Some of us have time, others have talents, others have money, and others have health – and everything Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives us is a calling, an opportunity for avodas Hashem. If you have a home, it was given to you to do the mitzvah of maakeh. If you have a vineyard, it was given to you to do mitzvos with.

We have to look at life as a series of opportunities – mitzvah goreres mitzvah – and know that every opportunity in life has been given to us for avodas Hashem.

By taking advantage of these opportunities, may we all be zocheh to a kesivah vechasimah tovah.

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