Is it possible to love Hashem with all of one’s heart when chas veshalom he has a severe illness?
And the answer is it's not easy. But it's also not easy to love Hakadosh Baruch Hu when your pockets are full of dollar bills and you're young and you're walking down Ocean Parkway and whistling. You haven't a worry in the world. It's also not easy.
To love Hakadosh Baruch Hu is one of the sciences that require labor, so certainly when his pockets have nothing but holes in them and also his internal organs have holes in them and he's bleeding, let's say, and lying in a hospital, to start then on the derech of loving Hashem is a little bit late. It's like a parachutist who is learning how to make a parachute jump the first time when his airplane cracks up in midair. A little late to start practicing parachute jumping. He should start practicing long before.
However, it's still possible. It's still possible. If you could give this idea to somebody who is dying and tell him look, you're dying anyhow so make use of your last moments to love Hakadosh Baruch Hu and know that it's for your good even though you don't feel it. Love Him anyhow and try to love Him as much as possible and utilize the last moments of your life to accomplish this great achievement. It's something. Maybe a little bit he will.
But the time to practice is when things are going well. Right now, you're young and you're handsome and you still have all of your teeth. Life is ahead of you. You can digest a regular meal. You can walk on your own two legs. You have two eyes. You can still hear. You don't need hearing aids. You're not bent over. So, as you strut out of this place sturdy, stalwart, confident and the blood is coursing through your veins, that's the time to start working on loving Hakadosh Baruch Hu.
There's no time to lose but it's a very important and very big subject. If you postponed until now, so get busy and start studying it and practicing it.
Reprinted from the Parshas Vayechi 5785 email of Toras Avigdor, - (based on Tape #98 – November 1975)
