When someone wearing perfume leaves the room and you still smell the fragrance it means that there are molecules in the air that you’re breathing in. You don’t see it but it’s real – there are millions of microscopic molecules floating in the air and when you breathe in they bind to the olfactory receptors in your nose and those receptors relay the odor messages to the brain. Smell is real – if you had the right equipment you could see it with your eyes.
Now, the fragrance of a shem tov that a person leaves over in this world is the same; it’s also physical. Of course, this physical phenomenon carries with it certain ideals. Chesed, bein adam l’chaveiro, bitachon, limud Torah, tefillah, kabolas yissurin b’ahava, other things too; and the fragrance of those ideals you leave in this world continue to waft through Olam Hazeh carrying the message. It doesn’t go lost; your maasim do not leave the world. They continue to live on — and that’s the yerushah that matters most in the Next World.
Tinokos Shel Beis Rabban
I know one tzaddik — he didn’t have children – and he used to bring together boys every Chol Hamoed and talk to them. He would learn with them and tell them stories and then he would give them prizes for learning. It was a beautiful thing!
But then one day this tzaddik finally left the world and now it became quiet – it was a kol d’mamah dakah. Oy, what a pity! A tzaddik left this world; he went lost it seems.
No, he didn’t go lost! First of all, those boys are grown up now and they’re living with the ideas that he put into their heads – they’ll teach those ideas to their children and grandchildren forever!
But besides for that; the mere fact that he spoke to them means that his words are echoing and re-echoing in the atmosphere. That’s important to know. They’re not going lost! The air is more pure because of what he said! When you walk in the streets where he walked, you’re breathing in that air. You should know you’re becoming niskadesh because you’re in the place where this man purified everything by his presence.
Tikun Olam
I once heard the Lubavitcher Rebbe say that. He said, “When you go someplace and you learn mishnayos in the street, you’re changing the street.” Now, it’s not a big chiddush; it’s an important chiddush though. I’m just quoting a name of a tzaddik who said it, but you could say it yourself.
Here’s a man who is saying Mishnayos. Not in all places is it mutar to speak in divrei Torah but suppose there’s a street where everyone is dressed properly or nobody is walking except you – it’s a good kosher street and you’re saying Mishnayos. It’s not the same street anymore! The street is a different street. You’re physically changing the world. There’s no question about that.
Today the world is doing the opposite. טְ מָ א וַ תִ הָ אָ רֶ ץ – The land becomes unclean from wrong deeds. The reshaim are making the world smell bad. It actually smells bad. When you walk by a movie theater you have to hold your nose closed. It doesn’t help anymore to walk on the other side of the street because the stench is terrible – you have to actually hold your nose closed.
Eradicating Pollution
And therefore, in order to counteract that, as much as possible we have to create the good fragrance of maasim tovim, of Torah and mitzvos and good character. From good deeds the land becomes more tahor and more kadosh. Not only Eretz Yisroel. Wherever you go, you’re purifying the atmosphere; you’re improving the soil. Everything becomes better as a result of what you’re doing and what you’re saying.
It’s a big responsibility, of course, but it’s important for us to realize that it’s true. You are affecting the world by your maasim. When you walk in the street and you’re thinking about Yetzias Mitzrayim or Matan Torah or shor she’nagach es haparah. Maybe you’re making a cheshbon hanefesh – you’re thinking how much you have to respect your mother and father, how much you have to honor your wife and make her happy; you’re thinking like a Jew has to think. You have to know that you’re making that street clean; you’re making it pure! No matter what street it is! Of course the streets today are so full of tumah that they can stand a great deal of purification – you have to do a lot of thinking as you walk – but that’s what you’re accomplishing. You’re creating something new.
A Spokesman In Both Worlds
That’s what it says (Avos 4:11): הָעוֹשֶׂה מִ צִוָה אַחַ ת, קוֹנֶה לוֹ פְרַקְלִיט אֶחָד – If you do one mitzvah, you create one spokesman for you; someone who speaks up for you. Every good deed, every mitzvah, is a praklit. If you learn a mesichta, and you chazer it and acquire it, that’s your bechor, a beautiful boy. Bava Kama is a beautiful little boy to have, believe me. Even Mesichta Megilah; it’s a very little boy but an equally beautiful boy nonetheless. The more mesichtos you learn the more children you have. Besides the reward for Torah, the fact that the words continue forever in this world is the yerushah that you’re leaving over.
Girls can learn Torah too. Mesillas Yesharim is a very beautiful child. Chovos Halevavos and Shaarei Teshuva are beautiful children that will last forever. Maasim tovim are very beautiful children. There are so many things to do. People need help constantly. Women can do tremendous things. If you help other people, maasim tovim are your children; in a certain sense it’s something like your child. I’m not saying it's a child, but it’s something like it. It doesn’t go lost. When people live lives of righteousness it doesn’t go lost. It’s preserved forever in the airspace here and that’s the real yerushah a person leaves over in this world.
A Foot In Both Worlds
That’s what Dovid Hamelech asked for: רָ ה אָ ג ו עוֹ לָ מִ ים בְ אָ הָ לְ ך – I want to dwell in your tent forever; in both worlds (Tehillim 61:5). “Your tent” means the ohel Hashem where Dovid used to come with his chaveirim to sing shevachim to Hakadosh Baruch Hu and learn Torah together. Dovid said, “I want to live in that tent forever.”
So fregt the Gemara (Yevamos 96b), “Is it possible for a man live in both worlds at the same time?” What is this that he’s asking that he should remain in the tent of this world forever? He doesn’t want Olam Haba?! Dovid certainly wanted Olam Haba. And if he’s there, how can he be here? Yes, you could be in both places at once.
When a person leaves a good name, a reiach tov, in this world, so he might be in the next world enjoying his eternal reward, but he is still in this world physically in the form of his good deeds; by means of the reiach tov that he left over in this world.
Prepare Your Own Yerushah
And that lesson is intended for all of us; children or no children, yerushah or no yerushah, every neshama wants to continue living in this world forever. And therefore, as long as you’re putting in efforts to improve the world, to leave something over, so in a certain sense that fragrance you’re creating is just as valuable as leaving over children and money.
The praklitim will speak on a person’s behalf forever in both worlds and the more spokesmen he has for himself the louder the noise is; it’s making a tremendous noise all the time, long after he has already gone. And the person looks down at his children, at his property, and most important, at the reiach tov that he left in the world, and he’s happy that he continues to live forever in both worlds, accruing the merits of the shem tov that he left in Olam Hazeh. The yerushah of the shem tov that is left in this world is the yerushah that the neshama enjoys in the Next World forever and ever.
Have A Wonderful Shabbos
