Every person has three friends:
One is a well-known friend whom he remembers well. The mere fact that he knows him is a great advantage. This friend from the past has become a part of him and has an influence on every aspect of his life today.
The second friend is someone whom he hasn’t yet met. He is foreign to him, unknown and concealed.
And the third friend – That one is the best friend of all, the closest, the most available. The person is meeting him at this very moment after waiting and anticipating for so long to see him. And then, within a second...he is gone.
One of the elders of Spain brought this parable about friends to clarify the meaning of time. The first familiar friend is the past; the second, unknown friend is the future; the third – the closest and most available – is the present. The present is the only point in time when we have the choice to utilize and build. What was is over; what will be has not yet come to pass; only what is happening now is the moment that creates the tapestry of our lives.
There is good advice that will enable us to utilize the precious present in the best possible way: Being happy. Be truly happy for the zechus of being alive and doing the will of Hashem, for the zechus of being here in this world. Feel the essence of the brachah “Shehecheyanu v’kiyemanu...lazman hazeh.” The word “zeh” indicates something we can point to with our finger and say, “This is the day Hashem made!” This is the day that I am living today, the present day, in which I can utilize life and turn it into eternity.
Utilizing the present and experiencing it is work that demands investment. Only someone who has invested in the middah of bitachon can go through each moment serenely. At the end of the fifth chapter, Rabbenu Bachyai brings the words of Shlomo Hamelech, which we discussed in the previous newsletter: “Do not take pride in what will happen in the future, for you do not know what the coming day will bring” (Mishlei 27:1). Don’t assume that tomorrow it’s going to be better, such as that money will be coming to you, and don’t rejoice about something that hasn’t yet come to be. Think about the joy you already have right now; find the good that is in your life right now. Experience this passing moment that will never be again.
Rabbenu Bachyai interprets this passuk in the opposite way as well: “Don’t worry about pain that might happen tomorrow, for you do not know what the coming day will bring.” Right now, you have everything you need. It’s just that a day is coming up when a certain sum of money will have to go out of your bank account. Or you may be facing even less pleasant circumstances: You may have been summoned to court, and you are worried and afraid of what will happen.
There is no end to the fears one can have. The factory of news and thoughts creates threats and possibilities of calamity in all areas of our life: parnassah, health, matters of war and peace, and everything under the sun. But what is the purpose of succumbing to all these fears? What good does this do? Worry destroys one’s psyche. What benefit can it have?! What a pity it is to waste the present with worries about the future. Do we really have any idea about what is going to be? “Don’t be pained by the pain of the morrow, for you do not know what the coming day will bring.” The words mah yeiled yom can be punctuated differently, to be read as past tense: mah yalad yom. A Yid is sitting and bemoaning his difficult financial situation: Yes, he has food to eat, but how will he marry off his children? And he doesn’t know that what is coming has already been born – yalad! His yeshuah already exists in the world, and it is on the way to him. Hakadosh Baruch Hu has already arranged the future in such a way that he will have enough money to marry off his children and to provide their needs. While another person is crying about health matters, his medication is in the advanced stages of development. The shidduch proposal as well is already being formed. We do not need to give advice to the Ribbono shel Olam. He knows much better than we do how to run His world and how to send His yeshuah.
What is left for us to do is only to be happy and to trust. Time is the most valuable asset we have in this world. Time is life, and life is the thing for which a person would give everything. It is not recommended that one exchange the present for the future; it would be a pity to lose out on the present. This is what Shlomo Hamelech a”h taught (Koheles 8:15): “And I praised happiness.” Rashi explains “that he should be happy with his lot and occupied with the statutes of Hashem, which are straight and gladden the heart.”
This is the proper way to live in the present – to be happy with the gifts from Shamayim and to give thanks for the good, and even when we are awaiting a yeshuah, we need to remember that the current moment that the Creator has arranged for me is the best and most proper thing for me right now.
May Hashem help us all, and may we be zocheh to recognize His goodness and kindness and to be happy with our lot always; amen.
Please ask for mercy for the avreich Rav Yitzchak ben Basha (Kletzkin)
