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Home > Daily Emunah Podcast - Daily Emunah By Rabbi David Ashear > For the Sake of Heaven
Podcast: Daily Emunah Podcast - Daily Emunah By Rabbi David Ashear
Episode:

For the Sake of Heaven
Category: Religion & Spirituality
Duration: 00:00:00
Publish Date: 2021-09-13 13:00:00
Description: Imagine a man, who we’ll call Joe, who was struggling in business and asked a wealthy man for $100,000 to help him stay afloat. The next day, the wealthy man wired the money directly to Joe’s account. But Joe did not bother to pick up the phone to thank this wealthy man or even acknowledge that he received the money. A year later, Joe came back to him, without even saying hello, and asked for another $100,000. The wealthy man would think, what kind of ingrate is Joe? He’s asking for more before he even acknowledged last year’s gift? But what if Joe would have immediately thanked this man for the $100,000 and then came back a year later and said, “I can’t thank you enough for the money you gave me last year, it helped me pay my mortgage, pay my tuition, it enabled me to put food on the table for my family and did so much more. I owe you everything! Can you please help me once again this year? I would be so appreciative.” That would elicit a much better response from the wealthy man. When people appreciate, we’re much happier to give them more. At this time of year, when we are asking Hashem for so many things, it is incumbent upon us to first thank Him for everything He has already given us, to appreciate and tell Him how much we have benefited from all the blessings that He has given us. We should be specific and describe, individually, how each blessing has helped us and how much we appreciate it. The Ramban writes, recognizing what Hashem does for us and thanking Him for it is one of the purposes of the entire Creation. A woman who has been going through difficulties told me, she began thanking Hashem because she learned it was a segula to help turn things around, but her difficulties did not go away. She was feeling down and wanted to stop thanking. I told her, by thanking Hashem, you are fulfilling one of the main reasons you were put on this earth. Segulot are nice, but they are not the reasons we do mitzvot. In fact, a mitzvah that we do becomes so much more powerful when we do it l’shem Shamayim and not because of what we are going to get back for it. Hashem knows what we need and He knows how to reward us. We should accept upon ourselves to do mitzvot when things are going difficult, but we have to try as hard as we can to have the right intentions when doing those mitzvot, namely because through them we are fulfilling the will of Hashem. A man told me he has a friend whose business is laying the groundwork of large buildings when they are being built next to existing structures. He’s an expert in his field and has a great reputation as a result. This past year, he was hired for a job that he was going to profit $700,000 from. His workers worked diligently, doing all the work, and then an outside company was hired to come and inspect the work. The company reported that the groundwork would not be able to sustain a building even half the size of the building that was supposed to be built there. The man couldn’t believe the report, he was sure they had made an error. This would mean all of his work was for nothing and would have to be completely redone. The one who hired the inspection company was usually the builder and he also picked up the $100,000 fee for it. The man begged them to redo the inspection but they wouldn’t hear of it. He spent months in litigation over it, and then he decided to pay himself, out of pocket $100,000 for the company to redo it. The company told him they knew they checked it properly already, but if we wanted to pay, they would do it again. They basically told him he was wasting his money, but it was his only chance to salvage his work. In the meantime, his shul was making an extension and although he himself was going through a very rough time in business, he offered to do the work for his shul below cost. A couple of weeks ago, he poured the first batch of cement in the shul’s extension, and just a couple of hours later, he received a phone call from that company with a new report saying his work was indeed sufficient for the building and they could proceed with the plans. Furthermore, the builder offered generously to pay the extra $100,000 out of his own pocket for that extra inspection. Here, this man did a chesed for his shul for no ulterior motives, even though it was so hard for him, and immediately Hashem opened the Heavens and gave him blessing in his business. Mitzvot are wondrous, especially when they are done l’shem Shamayim .
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