Excerpts from the popular shiur by Harav Hatzaddik R’ Beirish Shneebalg shlit”a
Rav Tzadok Hakohen from Lublin zy”a would often describe an incident that he saw with his own eyes in his youth, and he said how he took mussar from this story and learned a great principle to apply for all the days of his life; and this was what enabled him to break down all the tremendous mechitzos the yetzer hara placed before him in all areas of his avodas Hashem, until he was zocheh to raise himself to great and lofty heights.
Once when he was walking down the street he saw a father and son, paupers who were almost dying of starvation. Suddenly the father noticed a shiny coin lying on the ground, covered with mud. He told his son to pick it up, but the son was lazy. The father bent down, picked up the coin and cleaned it, and then used it to buy thirteen fruits. The father told his son to eat some of the fruits, but the boy refused, saying that since his father had picked up the coin and then exerted himself with his last bit of his strength to clean it and buy the fruit, according to the din, the fruits should be his.
When the father saw that his son did not want to eat the fruit, he told the boy to follow him. Then, as they were walking, the father threw the fruits down to the ground, one fruit after another, until all the fruits were strewn about on the ground, covered with mud. The son found the fruits and started to eat them. He was very happy with his find, and it did not occur to him that these were his father’s fruits. He worked hard to clean the mud off the fruit until they were fit to be eaten. After he had eaten several fruits, he felt revitalized.
Reb Tzadok concluded the story and said: There is a great lesson to be learned from this story. With one bit of exertion in the beginning, one can save much exertion later on. If this son had exerted himself a bit when they found the coin, he would have saved himself all the rest of the work, but because he was lazy in the beginning, he needed a great deal of effort to regain what he had lost due to his laziness.
The way to attain a life of emunah and bitachon with Hakadosh Baruch Hu is through a bit of exertion at the beginning of the way. Afterward, one leads a happy life, a life without any pressure or worry.
There are those who want to make things easier for themselves, to refrain from making that small bit of effort. They believe they are wise, and they think they have to go through life on their own, but when all is said and done, how many great efforts do they have to make before they finally understand that only with emunah and bitachon can we overcome all the tribulations of life with peace and serenity.
