Chizkiyah HaMelech, you must know, was a very great tzaddik, but he’s especially famous for being mezakeh es harabim, for how he spread Torah in all of Eretz Yisroel. About him the Navi said ן∆מָׁ ̆ י≈נ¿ּפƒמ לֹע לַּבֻח¿ו – the yoke was broken because of the oil (Yeshayahu 10:27); and the Chachomim tell us that the yoke that the gentile nations wished to impose upon the neck of the Am Yisroel was broken because of the oil of Chizkiyah. What oil? Chizkiyah distributed oil to all the batei medrashim for the lamps so that the nation should be able to study Torah at night. He made it his business that all across Eretz Yisroel, every beis medrash was illuminated at night, and because of him, everywhere people sat late at night and learned.
And those years became famous in our history – they were unequaled in the study of Torah! There was no person m’Dan v’ad Beer Sheva that didn’t know all the hilchos tumah v’taharah. They knew everything! And it was all due to the effort in zikui harabim of Chizkiyah. And so we understand on our own that he was a tzaddik gomur; our Sages tell us that he was worthy even of being Moshiach (Sanhedrin 94a).
The Shidduch Crisis
What happened? A surprise, a tragedy. Suddenly Chizkiyah became deathly ill. He was on his deathbed and now the Navi Yeshayah came to be mevaker choleh, to visit him.
And Chizkiyah said to the navi, “What’s going to be my fate? What will happen to me?”
“You’re going to die,” said the navi. “You’ll die in this world and then in the Next World too – you will have no chelek l’Olam Haba.”
“What do you mean?” Chizkiyah said. He was shocked. “Why?”
“Because you didn’t marry and have children.”
“Marry?! But I was too busy doing more important things” said Chizkiyah. “I was spending my entire life in being mezakeh es harabim. Look how many good things I accomplished for our people, for the world! I spread Torah over all Eretz Yisroel.”
“No, no,” the navi said. “That’s no excuse. Nothing will help if you didn’t get married and have children.”
Planting Children
Now, that’s a remarkable story! It’s not a mashal, an idea; it’s a real story about a great person who was mezakeh es harabim, and yet, it wasn’t sufficient. Zikui harabim? Very nice! Excellent! But what about planting children in this world?! That’s the first step in being mezakeh es harabim; that’s number one in making this world a better place.
Living on this earth means you are using up the resources of the world. Do you know how many loaves of bread you ate before you reached 180 pounds? If you would sit down and make a quick calculation, you’ll see that you consumed a mountain of bread. Do you know how many pounds of vegetables you ate? How many hundreds of gallons of milk? A mountain of fish! A mountain of meat! Could be that you ate from this world a herd of cows already. Even water is a commodity. Tons of water you drank. Ice cream too — maybe a ton of ice cream.
So it’s your function to replenish the world in one way or the other. Hakadosh Baruch Hu says, “Look, you came into My world and you’re using up so many materials. Just to come into this world and consume? How will you pay back what we expended on you, the investment we made in you? What will you leave over when you leave this world? Nothing but a mess of dead, decaying flesh? That’s all?
Now, even though you cannot, let’s say, bring more water into the world or more air into the world, you could bring more fruit trees into the world, more cotton plants and wool; yes, that’s possible. But there are other things besides that, more important things. And you want to know what is the most important thing? Children! When parents raise a family, a Torah family, that’s the best planting a Jew can do.
Supporting Diversity
What are they doing? The parents are planting various kinds of trees and flowers in the world. The world can’t have just one kind of tree or plant. Even all roses, it’s not enough. All violets? Not enough. You need various roses and violets and lilies, everything else – all kinds of plants. You need apples and oranges and bananas and dates and figs. You like to eat everything, don’t you? The sweetness of apricots is not like the sweetness of an apple. And the sweetness of an apple is not like the sweetness of an orange. And grapes are different and pears are different.
And therefore, when parents have children, they’re putting into the world people of different natures and each nature is a plant, a sapling, with its own sweetness. Why did Hakadosh Baruch Hu make all kinds of fruits? Because He wants the world to have all kinds of hana’os. ֹ̇וּבַר ֹ̇וָׁ̆פ¿נ ‡≈רֹוּב ןָנֹרו¿ס∆ח¿ו – He gives everybody all kinds of pleasures. And every child is a different pleasure that you gave the world. It’s a pleasure to have skinny serious Jews – it’s very important to have them. Fat jolly Jews – it’s a pleasure to have them too. Business like Jews – it’s a pleasure to have them. Each one is a pleasure, no question about it.
And so when a mother and father look at their children and they see that they planted the world with various kinds of fruit trees, they should know that they’re planting for the world. One son is full of energy, the second one less so; but he’s quiet and thoughtful. One daughter is quiet and obedient. Another daughter is a little freilach and mischievous, a lebediger. Another daughter is stubborn. Even their voices are different! That’s adding flavor to the world. We want Jews with mellow voices, with soprano voices, people with bass voices; all kinds of voices are necessary.
The Great Replacement Theory
And it’s the husband and wife who are accomplishing that tremendous achievement for the world, the great zikui harabim of raising the next generation. It’s true that the parents didn’t make any famous chiburim. They didn’t write books or say drashos. He didn’t write a peirush on Shas, and she didn’t write any shaalos u’teshuvos. But you should know that they published something more important than a sefer! Tzaddikim, talmidei chachamim, daughters who will have families of their own; they added so much to the world. What a tremendous achievement!
And so those people, the mothers who are having those children and raising them, the fathers who are laboring to pay tuition and support the family, together they’re building the world. They’re paying for all the things that they took out of this world. For the air you breathe, for the garments you wore out, the food you ate. It’s a tremendous replacement! And don’t think it’s a small thing. It’s a tremendous form of replacement!
And therefore don't drag your feet. Old bachurim; don't wait any longer. Find a nice homely girl who likes to cook, who likes to be a home girl, and get married as soon as possible. Forget about romance. Forget about love and happiness. Just get married. And even if sometimes she'll have a bad temper, it's worth suffering from her because she's going to produce children for you. That's a tremendous accomplishment! And even though all your life you'll suffer from her, it's worth it. You don't have to, by the way. If you're wise, you'll get along with her. You'll learn how to handle it. It’s one of the greatest fulfillments of ם∆ּ ̇¿עַט¿נּו, to build up this world by means of children. Every child is a world of good!
Planting Yourself
And that brings us to the grand finale, the most important child of all. The child that you have to worry about most is yourself. I repeat the same things all the time. When it tells us the history of Noach, it says ֹ̇„¿לֹוּ ̇ ה∆ּל≈‡ַחֹנ – these are the generations that came out of Noach, ̃יƒּ„ַˆ ׁ̆יƒ‡ ַחֹנ – Noach was a tzadik. So the word Noach is repeated; “These are the children of Noach; Noach.” So the Medrash says like this: ַחֹנ ,ַחֹנ ֹ̇„¿לֹוּ ̇ ה∆ּל≈‡ – These were the children of Noach; Noach – the first and the best child was Noach himself.
And therefore, when Noach was thinking of building the world with children after the Mabul he knew that his most important child was himself. Of all the good products he would produce for the world, the best product should be Noach. Of course you should have many children and from all your children you should have nachas; but the biggest nachas should be from yourself.
Now don’t say, “Well, that’s a different subject; improving yourself has nothing to do with improving the world. That’s selfish! Right now we’re talking about making the world a better place!”
Mysterious Elevators
So listen now to the words of the Mesillas Yesharim on this subject: He’s talking there about an adam hashaleim, a person who is striving for perfection in the service of Hashem, and he says, ֹ̇וּיƒר¿ּבַה לָכ¿ל לֹו„ָּ‚ יּוּלƒע ה≈ּנƒה יƒּכ םָּלֻּכ – it’s a great elevation for all the creatures in the world and all the things in the world, ם≈לַָּׁ̆ה םָ„ָ‡ָה י≈ׁ̆¿ּמַׁ̆¿מ םָ ֹ̇יו¿הƒּב – when they serve a superior person (Chapter 1). Not it’s an elevation for himself – it’s an elevation, a ‘great elevation’, for the world and everything in the world.
Now that can be explained in various ways and in some ways it’s mysterious but I want to explain it in a way that we should understand. To serve you, we need all the features of this world. You have to have the world revolving on its axis. You have to have the sun and the moon. You need rain. You need the atmosphere and summer and winter. You need bees and flowers. You need soil and grass and cows. The world is full of innumerable details, marvels of arrangements that cause this world to function, and you need everything – otherwise you couldn’t exist.
Not only the world but people too. Do you know how many people are employed in bringing food to your table? Farmers far away have been plowing their fields, and mills have been grinding the grain for you. The trains have been running and the trucks are carrying the produce to the markets for the purpose of supporting you with your sustenance. There are carpenters and painters and electricians and delivery men; you need the telephone operators in their headquarters. There are policemen and firemen. The entire world is busy servicing you.
Elevating the World
And if you are making yourself a better person, the entire world becomes elevated because they are now in service of an Adam Elyon, which is the purpose of the world. All of the world is now functioning for you, which means the entire world is functioning for its purpose, the service of Hashem.
Now we have to get that in our heads because we're very far from that musag – the idea, that concept, is remote in our minds. When you become a little bit better, םָּלֻּכ ֹ̇וּיƒר¿ּבַל ‡ּהו לֹו„ָּ‚ יּוּלƒע – it's a great elevation for all the creatures! Anyone who makes himself a righteous personality – it means you’re working on yourself and you’re a little bit better today than you were yesterday – then you’re not only improving yourself – you’re improving all of creation!
Oh, that’s a tremendous opportunity! You shouldn’t underestimate this way of planting in the world and making it a better place! When a man or woman, boy or girl, elevates themselves – even in the privacy of their own home; nobody knows about it but you’re perfecting your character a little bit more, you’re learning more, davening better, whatever it is – that’s the best form of planting in this world. Because as you elevate yourself in avodas Hashem you’re elevating the world along with you.
Have A Wonderful Shabbos
Let’s Get Practical
Become a Planter
In our parsha the possuk discusses the trees that would be planted by the Am Yisroel upon entering their land. Chazal learn from here that we must be planters in this world. We cannot be a weed or a thorn and leave the world worse than it was when we found it, we must plant good things in the world.
This week I will bli neder take these lessons to heart. I will be careful in my cleanliness, to leave every place as clean as I found it. I will plant smiles and happiness wherever I go, by smiling at people and complimenting them. I will also try to increase the service of Hashem by inspiring others.
This week’s booklet is based on tapes:
E-15 - Make the World a Better Place | E-187 - Tikkun Olam - Improving the World | E-254 - The Man That Changed the World | E-259 - Improving the World
