The Unknown Great Ones
That’s why you find that Dovid Hamelech was very busy worrying about himself. If you look in Tehillim, he’s always saying, ... – “My soul, praise Hashem.” He’s not speaking to other people. He’s speaking to himself. “You, Dovid! Make yourself great!” ... – He’s speaking to himself, “My soul, bless Hashem.”
Dovid was sitting in the fields tending the sheep and he was urging himself. When he became a king too, he was sitting on his throne and he was saying these words to himself. “Dovid make something out of yourself. Dovid, don’t fall asleep. You’re only one Dovid that I have in this world. I’ll never again appear on the stage of history. This is my one chance. So Dovid make the most out of yourself!” And that’s what he did.
Not only Dovid. Two hundred years ago, there was a Chana and there was a Gittel, there was a Zalman and a Chaim and a Moshe who served Hashem in Eastern Europe, in small towns. There was a Rachamim and a Mazal in let’s say Syria, or some other Jewish community. People who went out of their way to say more tefillos than they needed. After davening, they remained and said Tehillim too. They came before when it was still dark and they studied Torah before the prayers. People who were more careful with tikkun hamiddos, with shmiras halashon, with kibud av v’eim, with tzedakah.
The World That Matters
We don’t know about them today, but their deeds have not died out! Their deeds go with them in the World To Come and live forever! And they’re distinguished there because of the little extra they did! They’re forgotten to us today but that doesn’t matter because Hashem doesn’t forget them. Their deeds live on forever! For those little things they did more, Hakodosh Boruch Hu considers them with the greatest love. These people who you thought were long forgotten, they’re being recognized with a crown of glory that will shine forever in the World To Come!
And that’s why you should never be satisfied with what you have already accomplished. It’s of utmost necessity that you should always forge ahead more and more because you can never tell what you can make out of yourself! Once you understand the difference between being good and being better, the superlative intensity of kovod that you’ll receive from Hakodosh Boruch Hu for every bit of progress, you’ll say, “I want to be different. I wish to get better.” And then, some day you’ll come back and you’ll see the difference. And you’ll see that the little bit made all the difference in the world – it made all the difference in the world that matters most.
Have A Wonderful Shabbos
