The Road of Life
So you see now that you were just born and there’s already so much to remember. You understand now what a big obligation it is because that’s only the beginning. As old as you are, if you’re twenty two or ninety two, a person is obligated to look back on the whole journey of his life.
There were all kinds of bumps, all kinds of potholes and twists in the road. You were looking for shidduchim for your children and you were pulling out your hair in worry. And now they’re married; they’re married with a house full of children. Your daughter is making her own shidduchim now!
All those things you have to look back on and not just forget about them. It’s a mitzvah – and not just any mitzvah; it’s one of the great achievements: Look back on your whole lifetime and remember the kindnesses of Hashem. Kol haderech means everything that you experienced in your lifetime you have to look back and see how Hashem, holichacha, how He led you through the wilderness of life.
Yearly Installments
Now, when can you do the whole thing? All at once, your entire life? You can’t. So you do it in installments. Let's say you're sitting in a waiting room for a dentist. Sometimes you have to wait a half hour. Why waste the time? If you have a sefer, look in the sefer. If you don't have a sefer, think “I’m going to be mekayem one installment now of the mitzvah vezacharta es kol haderech. I’m going to look back on my life, how Hashem led me all these years.”
So sometimes think, let’s say, the first year of your life. A different day, maybe you’re sitting on the city bus doing nothing, think about the second year, if you can remember. The third year, fourth year, and so on.
Now, just to say ‘a year’ that’s also too wholesale. It’s wholesale, a whole year at one time. Because a lot of things happened when you were two. Many things happened!
You know you fell out of the crib once; other things maybe. Somebody in our shul; their little baby had a cold, so they put near the crib a bowl of hot water with some menthol in it so the baby should breathe the fumes of the menthol. What did the little baby do? He stuck his foot out between the bars of the crib into the hot water. Oooh! Emergency! Ambulances! The baby stuck his foot into boiling hot water! These things happen constantly.
The Terrible Twos
Then you began crawling. You were crawling once on the floor and you found a needle or a penny and you wanted to taste it. Ay yah yay, what could have been! How many things you swallowed or almost swallowed!
And then when you started walking? Did you take the time to think about when you started toddling as a little boy. You know how many windows you could have fallen out of?
A grandchild of mine fell out of a window once. It wasn’t two stories. It was a story-and-a-half, but still there was a fall! They picked him up gently and carried him to the doctor. Baruch Hashem, nothing happened! You shouldn’t forget that. You shouldn’t forget it!
Look back on your life and think how many times, chas v’shalom, in your childhood, you could have been subjected to crippling illnesses? How many times as a child, you ran into the street without looking. You were romping around in the street – you know how many accidents could have happened?
Bullets and Boards and Knives
Let’s say when you were a little boy you once found a bullet. It's a true story - I once found a bullet when I was a little boy. I wanted to experiment so I took the bullet and stuck it between the boards of a wooden fence. Then I took a hammer and a nail, and I banged it against the back of the bullet. It exploded in my face. My face was full of blood. Full of blood! I chalilah could have lost my eyes. I have two eyes still! Two functioning eyes!
Remember when you were climbing up on boards on the side of your house and you fell down and the board had nails, rusty nails, in them. I was three years old when it happened to me. They were building something near my house and I was playing there. And I fell off a pile of wood and landed on my face and I had to have stitches. I have a scar here to this day, a scar right here. But that nail could have poked into my eyes. A rusty nail chalilah in the eye, stitches wouldn’t help. How could I ever forget such a thing?! Hashem saved me!
How many times were you a little child sitting at the table holding a knife and or a fork and you fell off the chair and nothing happened? It wasn’t only once! Little children by the way shouldn’t be allowed to hold forks, because if they fall off the chair, it could go into the eye, chalilah. You could have lost your eyes, chalilah. It has happened – and not once. But you’ve done it and you have survived; most of us still have both of our eyes, baruch Hashem.
Staying on the Derech
Various things could have happened to you. Why are you sitting here today? Why shouldn't you be someplace in the movies now? Some of you were in a very alien environment. Or even if you were born in a frum family, don’t you know how many of your cousins went lost? So many people strayed from the path. Baruch Hashem, Hashem watched your steps. He protected you.
Very strong influences could have happened; maybe they did but still you’re a frum Jew today. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is leading you in the right direction all the time.
You went through adolescence, a bachur, a girl, you became marriageable and you married. Many people fell by the wayside; even friends that you knew didn't survive. A thousand have fallen on your left side and ten thousand on your right have gone lost. But you persisted; Hakadosh Baruch Hu protected you all the time. Various people or seforim or rebbeim were sent to you to save you. Hakadosh Baruch Hu was leading you all the time. You have to think about that from time to time.
Just the fact that you’re still alive today. You're here? I remember people; when I was fourteen a friend of mine passed away. A very strong boy; he passed away. What happened to him didn't happen to me, baruch Hashem. Hashem protected me. Look back! If you’re sitting here that means you’ve survived.
Traffic Troubles
It’s a big job to remember the whole journey – all the way down till today. You remember this morning you stepped out into the street and you were distracted. Just that moment, a car came near you and he stopped suddenly because you stepped out unexpectedly. And he was cursing at you. He rolled down his window and yelled at you. I don’t blame him. Why didn’t you look where you were going? You stepped out in front of a car that was moving?! And you were saved! Oooh wah!
I was crossing once and a driver turned around the corner quickly and he missed me just by one inch! Always missing you by one inch. This is nisei nissim. Baruch Hashem. If chalilah he wouldn’t have missed you, what would have been then? A big difference.
You have to think back to all the years of your life – and every year is made up of days. How many days passed by without anything serious happening to you? Thousands and thousands of days that you didn’t have any car crashes. Thousands of days you didn’t have any serious illness. Days and days with no litigation in court.
How many days went by without a broken bone? Thousands and thousands of days! And even to the doctor you didn’t have to go too often. Even if you’re a hypochondriac who likes to give business to physicians but still, in between, there were days you didn’t go. And most of us, sometimes months or years pass without going to a physician for anything serious.
Ordinary Days
And not only that you were saved from mishaps; just the ordinary road of life. How many days you went to your job and you succeeded! You did business. You made some money; some days more, some days less but you did business. Baruch Hashem!
Not to mention all the laundry that you used up; all the days when you were able to put on fresh clothing, fresh underwear and socks. How many apples did you eat in your life? How many cherries? How many peanuts? How many herrings did you consume? How many eggs did you eat? How many tomatoes, how many chickens? Mountains of food you ate!
All of these things, these details, have to be considered in your mind. It’s a mitzvas asei min haTorah to think. I'm saying all of these examples out loud because we’re talking together but actually the kiyum hamitzvah is the thinking of it; just the thoughts.
It’s so precious this achievement, thinking such thoughts in your spare time; let’s say a time you wouldn’t be learning Torah anyhow. You’re eating or you are going to work or you are walking to the yeshivah, whatever it is, in that time you are thinking these thoughts. Many times you wake up in the middle of the night – sometimes for a few minutes you can't sleep, think about this until you fall asleep again.
It’s a remarkable opportunity to fulfill a mitzvas asei d’Oraisah and it’s so easy to do. The virtue of remembering kol haderech, your entire journey, is one of the great obligations in life and it’s accessible to all of us.
