Come to the reckoning" [21:27]. (Bless my soul).
One small sentence that comes out of the mouth of a Jew, or even a single word that is said with pleasantness and grace, and out of a desire to help others, has the power to exert great abundance, to build entire worlds, and to turn those who hear evil into good.
The following story was sent to us by a great educator from Jerusalem, who serves in one of the well-known seminaries. I had the deed, writes the Jerusalem educator, with a deceased relative, and he merited complete repentance by an amazing sequence of "let's reckon," meaning that I proved to him by simple arithmetic that there are things that he can do , and from these "simple things" he later reached the entire Torah.
That relative was an openly secular man, says the educator, for years we tried to influence him to change his way of life, but he stubbornly refused to listen, and distanced himself from everything that was holy. Even when his father died, he did only the minimal activities, sat shiva, recited Kaddish here and there, but went on with his life as usual, and he did not like to hear about the change of path. A few years later, his mother died. And behold, A few months later, we were very surprised to encounter him wearing a large kippah on his head, declaring that he prays every day, observes kashrut and Shabbat, "and I am on my way to keep all the mitzvot of G-d," he said. We didn't know what happened, and what and who influenced him to change his path. After all, we too tried and tried all these years to influence him, and we didn't succeed, so what suddenly happened... And now it became known. He, the relative, told us who had succeeded in influencing him to make such a revolutionary change in his life. And he told us as follows:
At the end of the seven days of mourning for my mother, one of my relatives, an ultra-Orthodox Jew, came up to me and said to me: 'Do you want to do something simple, easy, for the elevation of your mother's soul, peace be upon her?...?' I was "turned on" by the concept of "a simple and easy thing," and at the same time I replied: I am ready. And who would not be willing to do something easy for the elevation of his mother' s soul?When the ultra-Orthodox relative heard my answer in the affirmative, he told me that every Friday, before Shabbat began, I would turn off the menorah in the refrigerator, so that when I opened the refrigerator on Shabbat, the menorah would not be lit. And I agreed. And so I did. Every Friday, as Shabbat approached, I turned off the refrigerator lamp, and I knew I was doing it for my mother's soul. Is there anything easier than that? But it wasn't two or three weeks before I began to ask myself, if you don't turn on the refrigerator lamp, why do you light the lamp in the living room and in the other rooms of the house? I tried to dismiss this question that was bubbling in my gut, but it didn't help me at all. Since I'm a person who follows the rules of logic, I kept preaching to myself, saying, 'If you don't turn on the refrigerator lamp, Don't light the lamps in the rooms of the house either.' Until I hired an electrician to install a clock in my house, so that I could avoid turning on the light in the rooms. And then it was the turn of the radio that was in my house. If I don't turn on the lamp in the refrigerator and in the rooms, how do I allow myself to turn on that device? So I gradually stopped listening to the radio as well. And then I began to ask myself, if you don't turn on the lights in the house, and not the radio, how do you turn on the car on Shabbat? And so I began a consistent process of erasing another Shabbat desecration, another desecration, and another desecration, until I succeeded in abstaining from almost all the prohibitions of Shabbat. And then, one Friday night, I started to get bored... After all, I don't turn on the radio, I don't drive in my car, so what do I do?... At that moment, I remembered that there was a synagogue very close to my house. I got up and went there. The worshippers, and the rabbi, greeted me with open arms. They didn't know what or why I had come to pray either, but they understood that something had happened to me, and gave me a particularly pleasant welcome. After the prayer, in which I felt a special elevation, the rabbi came up to me and invited me to eat the Shabbat meal at his home. Needless to say, I had the feeling that I – a "sinner" like myself – was privileged to eat at the rabbi of the neighborhood. The meal went through elevation – my rabbi, and immediately afterwards I went out with the rabbi on my way to recite his regular shiur in the synagogue. The rabbi sat me down next to him, and the shiur also passed with a high spiritual feeling. And so,
like cold water for a weary soul, I began to accept the yoke of the mitzvot, and I became a complete repentant.
The Jerusalem educator writes to us that the ultra-Orthodox relative, who was 'responsible' for the whole story, and in one wise sentence managed to convince the man to do something easy for his mother, did not even know that his trial had worked so much... He did not know this until we found out to him, and suggested that he come and meet again with the Baal Teshuva... The meeting was very moving. The two fell on each other's arms, and cried for many minutes. We have the power of one sentence! And the power of one small lamp in the refrigerator! When a person wants to draw closer to the Creator, he really does not need to turn the heavens and the earth upside down. A small menorah, in the home refrigerator, is enough to bring a person to such a heavenly transformation, which turns him and his entire family from evil to good, and leaves him with an end and hope until the end of the generations. This should encourage anyone who wishes to draw closer to God. And at some point the road became difficult and arduous for him, and he turned back, perhaps even despairing of taking such a vital step. When he reads the aforementioned act and delves into it, he will understand that God does not ask him much. Just for him to start moving, to step forward, and to take on something small, small, like turning off the lamp in the refrigerator before Shabbat... And you will already see what results that man has achieved.
After all, it is clear that more than any other generation, the trials of our time are liable to bring the members of the generation, and especially the younger ones, to the most terrible situations. The sins committed today are the kind of sins that really stupidize the heart and soul, to the point that it is sometimes very difficult to think of terms of "complete repentance." But all these young people should know to them: if they want to come back, if that's really what they want , then even if they go right down to the pit, one small positive action is enough to obscure everything they've done so far, and bring them to the pinnacle of true happiness. There are no fantasies here. No illusions, no delusional attempts at persuasion. It's the truth. Do you find it hard to do great things? – Engage in small actions, start climbing from scratch, get closer slowly, until you reach the d-awaited peak. And you will arrive with G-long' s help.And how wise was the Charedi relative who understood the soul of his erring relative, and knew that he towould not be able to accept things that were too big for him, and he talked . And so hehis mother's sakeabout the very small things he could do for him brought him to all the good of the north for the righteous in the future.
