But remember, we’re looking for the teshuvah that is karov eilecha, something that’s close to us, easy to do. And so, we’ll talk now about transforming our ordinary deeds; not about adding more deeds, but about taking our regular deeds and using them to fulfill this passuk of shuvu el Hashem.
What Set Them Apart
We’re going to quote the Mesillas Yesharim at the end of chapter sixteen. He talks there about the great men of our past who were chosen by Hakadosh Baruch Hu. “Now, it really is worthwhile to study the following subject,” he says, “the subject of why Hakadosh Baruch Hu favored these great personalities.”
It’s a subject we should investigate. What was the reason Hakadosh Baruch Hu loved Avraham so greatly? Why did He love Moshe Rabbeinu so greatly? We think we know. We know that Avraham had ten trials, asarah nisyonos, and he passed them all successfully, and so on. Moshe Rabbeinu was devoted to his people, and he was a servant of Hashem with all his heart; an eved ne’eman. So we think we know what made them great. But we’re making a big error. We don’t understand at all the greatness of our great men.
Now listen to what the Mesillas Yesharim says. I’ll read it in English: He says, “This, in truth, is the test that the servants of Hashem were tested with, and this is what set apart each one according to his degree of greatness. What was the test? It was a test of who was capable of purifying his heart more—he was the one who was closer to Hashem and more beloved to Him.” What does that mean? So, he explains: “When they did their ordinary deeds—not the great deeds that are written about in the Torah, the heroic deeds of self-sacrifice that we always speak about—but even their daily deeds, they were done with the intention of serving Hakadosh Baruch Hu.”
Elevated Thoughts
When Avraham Avinu was busy managing his sheep and his cattle—that was his business: raising livestock—he was thinking always about serving Hakadosh Baruch Hu. When Avraham was in his tent with Sarah, or Sarah was in the tent with Avraham, each one was thinking about how to talk in a way that would serve Hakadosh Baruch Hu. When they sat down to eat, they ate with the thought, “How can I please Hakadosh Baruch Hu with my eating?”
Now, anybody who would have been present wouldn’t have heard anything. You might have heard great things, too; no question that whatever words were exchanged were noble words, but what was doing in their minds no reporter could have noted. No tape recorder would have recorded what was doing. They were just thoughts in their minds. And the Mesillas Yesharim says that it was these thoughts that made them great. “The true nobility of these great people,” he says, “was the way they lived in their inner lives, the way they thought.” They lived l’sheim Shamayim.
Constant Service
And our Sages say that this attitude, this way of life, applies to every single one of us. The mishnah is talking to all of us when it says, םׁ≈ ̆¿ל ּ יו¿הƒי ָ ךׂ∆ ֲ̆ﬠַמ לָכ¿ו םƒיַמָׁ ̆ – All your deeds should be for the sake of Heaven (Avos 2:12).
Now, when the Rambam quotes that mishnah, he says it’s a remarkable statement. When we learn it, we don’t see anything remarkable. Certainly, everything should be done l’sheim Shamayim; why not? But the Rambam is nispa’el from this statement! He’s excited over this statement because those words are the heart of our lives. It means that we can live our lives—our ordinary lives—as ovdei Hashem. We can try as much as we can that with every physical, material act that we do, as much as possible we can do them for Hakadosh Baruch Hu.
And it’s a greatness that’s so easily available to all of us. Because people spend a lot of time and effort doing things; you spend effort on your home, on preparing meals, on cleaning the house. You spend effort on taking care of your clothing, on slaving away in the office or the factory. Who doesn’t spend hours during the week for material things in his home and his business?!
Emulating Hashem
And all those hours, all those materialistic parts of our lives, can be easily transformed by means of our thoughts. It costs no money; no physical effort is involved. Ki karov eilecha hadavar me’od, how close this thing is to you, b’ficha, just with your mouth, uvilvavcha, and with your heart, with your mind, la’asoso, to do it.
When a mother feeds her child, if she does it like the lady next door does it—Mrs. Dominick also feeds her child; Mrs. Jones also feeds her child with compassion, so if Mrs. Levine and Mrs. Cohen merely do the same, what a missed opportunity that is! But if a Jewish woman will feed her child and think that she’s an emissary of the One Who ̇∆‡ ַח≈ ֹ̇וּפ ןֹוˆָר יַח לָכ¿ל ַיﬠƒ ּ ב¿ׂ ַ̆מ ּ ו ָ ך∆„ָי – opens His hand and satiates all the living, that’s already an entirely different story. A Jewish mother is handing her little child a piece of bread and she’s thinking, “I’m opening up my hand, but I feel like my hand is the hand of Hashem, kaveyachol”. You know what that means?! She has taken a simple act that everybody does, and she has elevated it into one of the greatest forms of service of Hakadosh Baruch Hu!
Imagine a butcher standing behind the counter, serving meat to his customers. He’s wasting such an easy opportunity to acquire greatness. Instead, all he’s acquiring is money. If only he would think while he’s standing behind the counter, “Ah, let these Jews enjoy life. Let this big Jewish family enjoy a good piece of meat.” Just by means of those easy thoughts he would transform himself.
A Holy Family
Ordinary married life becomes transformed by thinking l’sheim Shamayim thoughts. When a man and woman get married, instead of merely marrying because he wants a wife and she wants a husband, if they would add the thoughts of building the Am Yisroel, you know what a big reward they would have?! Imagine! A chassan standing under the chuppah must think, “I’m marrying my kallah because I want to raise up a generation of ovdei Hashem.” Of course, he couldn’t tell that to this young girl because she’ll feel that she’s being robbed of romance, but the truth is, that’s what they both should be thinking. And it’s what they can and should always be thinking, all the time, even many years after the chasunah. It’s going to transform all the humdrum days of marriage into avodas Hashem of the highest level.
Why shouldn’t each child be the result of a noble intent? The children will come naturally—they’re Orthodox people; they’ll have a lot of children. But why should they come as accidents? Isn’t that a tragedy? We’re not talking now about the number of children. Let’s say you’ll have a lot of children anyhow, but why should they be born the same way as gentile babies? Why should they be raised and supported the same as gentile children?
After all, the gentiles are working too. All over the world people are working and living and supporting children and marrying off children. Italians also want nachas from their children. Puerto Ricans also want nachas. But when Jews want nachas from children not because of selfish motives, that’s an entirely new way of living. Now, you can’t help being selfish, but if in addition to the selfish motive, you’re able to add one more thought of “I’m doing it for Hashem,” that’s the biggest teshuvah you can do.
Eating Right
Now, this is a subject that’s so important that we should go on for hours quoting examples how this should be applied. Because everything in life becomes different; everything becomes noble. Even eating becomes teshuvah. You know, if you ate something before you came here with the intent of coming here to the lecture, so that means you ate in order to come a little closer to Hashem.
You didn’t do it? It’s okay, because you’ll be eating again, I’m sure. Tonight, when you get home, if you didn’t eat yet and you’re going to have supper, as you sit down at the table, it wouldn’t be a bad idea not to rely just on your thoughts, but say with your mouth, “I’m going to eat now in order to make my body healthy so I should be able to serve Hashem.”
Your wife shouldn’t hear you because she’ll say you’re a big hypocrite. She’ll say, “Chaim! Who are you kidding? You’re eating because you have a big appetite.” And she’s right—you are a hypocrite. But you’re training yourself, and after a while the idea will grow on you. So don’t tell anybody the secret. Between you and Hashem, say, “Hashem, I’m doing it for You. „ֹבֲﬠַל לַכ ּ ו‡∆ׁ ̆ י≈„¿ ּ כ ף ּ ו ּ ‚ַה ̇∆‡ ‡יƒר¿בַה¿ל י≈„¿ ּ כ ל≈כֹו‡ יƒנ¿נƒה ם≈ׁ ּ ַ̆ה ̇∆‡ – I’m eating it to serve Hashem, in order to have power, to have strength to serve Hashem.” If you’ll do that, you’re already a head taller than everyone else.
Isn’t it a tragedy if you go into the Yo m Hadin and you never thought once that you’re eating l’sheim Shamayim?! You never went to sleep l’sheim Shamayim? You never went into your office to work l’sheim Shamayim?
And the greater tragedy is that it costs no money; no physical effort is involved. Ki karov eilecha hadavar me’od, how close this thing is to you, b’ficha, just with your mouth, uvilvavcha, and with your heart, with your mind, la’asoso, to do it. And it’s because this road to teshuvah is so immensely easy that the responsibility for it is so immensely vast.
