B"H
Tuesday, Nissan 29, 5777 / April 25, 2017 (14th day of the Omer)
Each Shabbat, from Pesach through the summer, we study the Pirkei Avot (Chapters of our Fathers). This Shabbat being the second Shabbat after Pesach, we study the secondchapter of Pirkei Avot.
In the beginning of this chapter, Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi gives us the following advice: "Be as careful in the performance of a [seemingly] minor mitzvah as of a major one, for you do not know the reward given for the various mitzvot... Reflect upon three things and you will not come to sin: Know what is above you: An Eye that sees; an Ear that hears; and all your deeds are recorded in a Book."
"Know what is above you" - Our sages remark that the Hebrew words for this sentence are, "Da mah l'maalah mimach," can also be translated as "Know that what happens above, is from you."
Our deeds and actions affect the heavenly decisions that relate to our own success and well being in this world. It also refers to the reward one will receive in the World-to-Come.
There is a saying, "However a person prepares their bed during the day that's the level of comfort they will experience when they sleep at night." Our good deeds and accomplishments in this world determine one’s reward in the World-to-Come - "Know that what happens above, is from you!"
There is a story told of a man who was very fond of the mitzvah of Hachnasat Orchim (hospitality to guests). Although he was wealthy and had many servants, he would personally serve his guests. Once, as he was preparing a bed for a guest, the guest said to him, "Why do you insist on personally making my bed. Let me make it."
To this he answered, "You think that I'm preparing your bed? No. It is my own bed that I'm preparing! As the Mishna says, 'Know that what happens above comes from you.’ I am in reality preparing that my bed in the World-to-Come should be comfortable!"
A man once came to a town and offered to walk across the river on a tightrope, for a hundred guilden. Amongst the many people who came to watch him was also Rabbi Chaim of Krasna, a disciple of the Baal Shem Tov. Rabbi Chaim watched the man very intently as he was walking across the tightrope.
When asked why he was so interested in the man walking on the rope, Rabbi Chaim told his followers that watching this scene taught him a great lesson in the service of G-d.
"Here I saw a man putting his life at risk in order to earn 100 guilden. Yet, I realized that his entire concentration was on the task before him. Had he thought of the reward, he would have lost concentration and fallen into the river. From this I learned,” said Rabbi Chaim, “that although G-d promised us reward for the mitzvot we perform, yet, when we perform the mitzvah, our entire concentration should be to accomplish the mitzvah to the best of our ability, not about the reward."
HAVE A VERY GOOD, HAPPY, HEALTHY AND SUCCESSFUL DAY