But the Yetzer Hara tries to confuse us and make us try and be like someone else, copy them and in the end we won’t be, not them nor ourselves.
The Gemarah finishes Maseches Taanis with the two following things. The last Mishna speaks about that on the 15th of Av and on Yom Kippur the girls of Yerushalaim would go out and dance in the vineyards in a circle. The Gemarah explains that whoever didn’t have a wife would go out there.
The Gemarah continues that our Rabbis tell us that the pretty girls would say look at our beauty, the ones that had great lineage would say look at our family background (yichus), the girls who weren’t pretty would say take your wife ‘leshem shamayim’ – for the sake of Heaven, i.e, to fulfill the Mitzva of getting married.
The next statement says that Hakadosh Baruch Hu will make a circle for all the Tzaddikim and He will be in the middle of the circle in Gan Eden. And every one will point with their finger and say the Passuk, “Ve’amar bayom hahu’ and he will say on that day, ‘hinei elokeinu ze’ this is our G-d, ‘kivinu lo ve’yoshieinu’ we waited for him that he should save us, ‘ze Hashem kivinu lo’ this is Hashem, we waited for Him, ‘nagila venismaecha bey’shuaso’ we will rejoice and be happy with His salvation.
“What is the connection between these two statements,” asked Rav Galinsky? “It can’t be just that both are talking about a circle.”
There was a religious Doctor who lived in Germany. He was particular on every Halacha in the Shulchan Aruch, he had his daily Shiurei Torah and truly made a Kiddush Hashem with his fine behavior.
One day he took off vacation and decided to visit the Yeshivos in Lithuainia. He was enthralled by what he saw. Teenagers and young men sitting all day in the Beis Hamedrash completely immersed in their studies. They were studying Masechtos he had never learned. Slabodka, Mir, Telz, Kaminetz, Grodno, Kletzk, Ponevez and Radin.
He was very disturbed and decided to go and speak to the Chafetz Chaim.
“Rebbi,” he asked, “will I merit Olam Haba?”
“Every Jew has a place in Olam Haba,” answered the Chafetz Chaim.
“But what sort of place will I have,” he asked. “Until now I was happy with my life. I was sure I had done my best. A religious Jew, a doctor, keeping Mitzvos properly, and helping people as best as I could. I attend Shiurei Torah, give time and energy for community affairs, I was sure I had a front row in Olam haba. But now when I see the world of the Yeshivos, those that have given everything they have to be able to study day and night, I’m not sure if I’ll make it to one of the back rows. I feel like a dwarf against those giants.”
The Chafetz Chaim looked at him and said, “you know, its possible you’ll be my neighbor in Gan Eden!”
Him, the neighbor of the Chafetz Chaim? But the Chafetz Chaim wasn’t a comedian; the Chafetz Chaim was a person who spoke the truth! How, the Chafetz Chaim, with his vast Torah knowledge, the Chafetz Chaim with his great charity and kindness, the Chafetz Chaim with so many Sefarim he authored. How?
“Let me explain,” said the Chafetz Chaim. “The source of what I am saying is in the Torah. The Passuk in Bereishis tells us that the Etz Hachaim the tree of life was in the center of Gan Eden. The tree of life refers to the eternal life of Olam Haba. What difference does it make if it was in the center or the side? The answer is, the center of a circle is unique, no matter which point of the circle you are, you are always exactly the same distance from the center point. Your journey to Gan Eden isn’t a longer journey then mine. I was born in Lithuainia, educated in Vilna, had the opportunity to meet Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, Hashem gave me the idea to write many Sefarim on Halacha and Mussar, He gave me the tools, the potential, the talent and the opportunities, so I grew to be the Chafetz Chaim.”
“You were born in Germany and was educated with the education of ‘Torah im Derech Eretz’ - Torah with working, and you grew to be a religious Doctor, particular to keep all Mitzvos properly, spending your time doing Chessed and attending Shiurei Torah. Everyone is expected to maximize his talents and his potentials.”
“Now we can understand the connection between the two statements in the Gemarah,” said Rav Galinsky.
The girls were in a circle dancing in the vineyards. They all borrowed their clothing in order not to embarrass the ones that couldn’t afford it. Each one announced their qualities Hashem gave them, who will take us for Hashem’s sake.
The same with every person’s Olam Haba. Hashem will make a circle, and be in the center. Each person will have his share in Olam Haba, the Chafetz Chaim with his place for maximizing his potential and the doctor with his place for maximizing his potential.
As long as we truly maximized our potential with the tools Hashem gave us we will all have our place in Gan Eden. We will all be on the circle. But the condition is, we did our best to be the best person we can be and the best person we are meant to be. If we tried to be someone else then we will never be able to reach our perfect goal.
That is the message of this week’s Parsha. If one shifts people around and gives them work that isn’t suitable for them it will make them bitter and the outcome won’t be any better. So too if we try to be somebody else other than ourselves we will also be bitter because we stand no chance in succeeding to be them; and we won’t be ourselves either, we’ll be a disaster.
This is the explanation of what Chazal tell us that in Gan Eden people who were big in this world may be small there and people who were small here will be big there. Why is this so?
Following on from our above idea we have an answer. A person who succeeded in being famous here, may not have maximized their potential, they may have just been blessed with amazing talents so even if just using half of their potential they became successful and famous. But in Olam Haba they won’t reach the top because they never used their potential to their utmost.
Whereas, someone who only had weak potential but utilized their potential the best they could, they never became famous here because they were not a genius, but in Olam Haba they will be in the front row because they did their best.
