In Maseches Shabbos (88:), the Gemarah tells us that when the Jews were at the bottom of the mountain receiving the Torah, Hashem lifted up the mountain and threatened them, "if you accept the Torah, good, and if not, your grave will be there!"
Although the Jews had already agreed to accept the Torah, received two crowns for saying the two amazing words "Na'aseh ve'nishma!" - "we will do and we will listen and learn", even so Hashem saw the need to threaten the Jews and force them to accept the Torah.
There are many questions on this Gemarah that need explanation. However, we will focus on one interesting word.
Hashem said to the Yidden, "if you don't accept the Torah, your grave will be 'Sham' - 'there'."
Your grave will be there?! Your grave will be here!!
Why does the Gemarah use the word "there"?
Rabbi Yankel Galinsky answers this with a beautiful insight and powerful message.
There is a grave that buries a person alive and it’s called "there!"
A child goes to Talmud Torah and doesn't behave. He soothes himself by saying, "it doesn't matter when I go to High school I'll change. 'There' I will be better."
When he gets to High school he gets into fights with his teachers and says to himself, "when I go to Yeshiva or Beis Medrash I will pull myself together. 'There' I will grow up!"
Things aren't going so smooth and he says to himself, "when I get married, set up a home, have kids and have a good job, then I'll be great! 'There' when everything is fine I'll be fine too."
But marriage isn't perfect, his boss isn't quite to his liking and 'there' never arrives, until he arrives at his grave!
It’s no point waiting for there to change, to be successful one must change while you're here! Instead of moving on and bringing our baggage with us we have to stop and work on ourselves, relieve our baggage where we are and change right here!
Similarly, how many times do we push things off till tomorrow. Tomorrow I'll start trying. Tomorrow will be better. Tomorrow I'll start learning. Tomorrow I'll give Tzeddaka. Does that tomorrow ever arrive?
In last weeks Parsha, Moshe told Yehoshua go and fight Amalek tomorrow! Rabbi Chaim Meir, the Vishnitzer Rebbe zt"l explained, there is an important battle that we have to fight. It’s a fight against Amalek called "Tomorrow!"
Why tomorrow? Let's start right now today!!!!!!!!!
One Purim, Rabbi Naftoli from Amsterdam became very high after drinking a lot of wine. He turned to his Rebbi and teacher, the famous Rabbi Yisrael Salanter and said
"Rebbi, if only I had the brains of the great genius Reb Arye Leib, the author of the Shagas Arye; the heart of the Tzaddik Rav Klomoys Kalman, the author of the Yesod Veshoresh Ho'avodah; and the traits of the Rebbi....."
And Rabbi Yisrael Salanter replied, "no my dear Naftoli, with your brain, with your heart and with your traits! That's what Hashem wants!"
"Here! Now! With our capabilities! Let's go!"
