Heading in the Right Direction
Rav Elchonon Wasserman once met a friend from his youth, who had since gone on to law school and a successful career practicing law. The friend looked at Rav Elchonon dressed in his rabbinical garb and commented, “You should have come with me to law school. With your brilliant mind, you could have become more accomplished and successful than I am today.”
Rav Elchonon escorted his old friend to the train station, where the other man was to catch a train back home. As his friend prepared to board the old, rickety train that was headed to his destination, Rav Elchonon pointed to a gleaming locomotive across the tracks. “Why don’t you take that train home? Surely, you’ll have a more comfortable trip.”
The friend looked at Rav Elchonon in surprise. “That train is headed in the opposite direction.”
“But isn’t it better to travel in a train that is newer and more up-to-date?” asked Rav Elchonon.
The lawyer laughed. “It doesn’t matter how comfortable you are. If you are headed in the wrong direction, you won’t reach your destination!”
Rav Elchonon smiled at his friend. “What would it help me to be rich and successful if that lifestyle takes me in the opposite direction from where I want to go? I want to get to Olam Haba! I want to take the steps that will get me to my destination; I don’t want to do things that will take me in the opposite direction.”
Develop an Olam Haba mindset. Will this action or decision bring me closer to Olam Haba or take me in the opposite direction?
Take This Home
When you say Modeh Ani think, “Let the choices I make today lead me in the right direction.”
In Short
“You don’t have a neshamah, you are a neshamah, and you have a guf, a body. We get so carried away with our world, we often forget that we really are the soul, not the body.”
Rabbi Zev Leff
(To Comfort and Be Comforted, Chevrah Lomdei Mishnah Publications, page 337.)
It Happened to Me!
My Olam Haba Moment
I had just finished eating and was in a rush to get back to work. I was about to mumble a quick berachah acharonah and be on my way, when I made a conscious decision to do it right. I pulled out my pocket siddur, found the correct page and recited the berachah while looking inside. With a moment of reflection, I worked on my connection – to Hashem and to my eternity.
R.L.
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