Don't Dull the Blade | Rabbi Yisroel Besser

There was a woman in Monsey, an אישה חשובה, Mrs. Chana Tabak, a remarkable woman. And my wife and I would go visit her when we had the opportunity, because we were close with several of her children, and we always enjoyed listening to her. A woman of such wisdom, a woman of such heart, a woman of such humor. It was just really a pleasure. After she passed away, one of her grandchildren told me about how his grandmother, about how Mrs. Tabak עליה השלום, suffered Parkinson's, she endured Parkinson's. She was in a wheelchair, רחמנא לצלן. And then after that, she also lost her eyesight. She was blind, רחמנא לצלן. And he asked her: Bubba, how do you handle this? So she said, You know, when I lost my mobility and I couldn't get around anymore, so I said: Okay, the Ribono shel Olam wants me here for a reason. And if I can't walk and I'm still here, then Me is a lot bigger than being able to walk. Whatever He wants from me doesn't involve walking, clearly. So now I know that Me also doesn't involve seeing. I thought it did, but I have a תפקיד, I'm here, so my Me is bigger than both of those things. besides from being an extraordinary perspective, But hear the positive side of it, as well. That means if you can see then the Ribono shel Olam wants you to see, then your Me involves seeing. Imagine we could train ourselves before we looked at anything to ask ourselves, Is this the reason that the Ribono shel Olam gave me the ability to see? You know, a very sharp knife that you use to slice meat, if you're going to use it to crack nuts or to open a bottle of beer, you're going to dull the blade, because that's not what it's made for. Your vision is made for something. I once heard from somebody who was a big sports fan, he was really obsessed, he was addicted to baseball. And the Yankees were in the playoff, his team, and he couldn't miss a game. And he was going to a Chasuna, but there was a playoff game that night and he was very torn about it, how was he going to go to the Chasuna, it was a close friend. And someone told him, in the hotel where the Chasuna was being held, there was like a bar in the lobby and there's a television. So in the middle of the Chasuna you’ll go, you know, you'll make your way in between innings, you'll do a little dancing and you'll make back. You won't have to miss a single pitch. Great. He enjoyed the Chasuna, he enjoyed the game, everything was wonderful. The next night there was another game, and his roommate said to him, Aren’t you going to listen to the game or to watch the game? And he said: No, I'm done. He said: You're done? So he says: I'm not a fan anymore. I'm done with baseball. So he says: What happened? So he says: I was watching the game at that Chasuna and I was enjoying it. When I went back into the lobby for the Chasuna, one of the great contemporary Roshei Yeshiva was there, R’ Elya Ber Wachtfogel shlit”a, the Rosh Yeshiva in South Fallsburg. R’ Elya Ber is a licthige Yid, he’s a radiant man, his face shines. He said: I looked at him, and when you see somebody who is עמל in Torah, a heilige Yid, a person who's been learning Torah for so many years, it has an effect on you. And it had no effect on me. I looked at R’ Elya Ber’s face and I was cold. And it made me realize, I just watched baseball for an hour and a half. I looked at R’ Elya Ber, it didn't feel the same way. I'm not using my sight the way it's meant to be. I don't want to cheapen my sight. If Mrs. Tabak taught us that a person who רחמנא לצלן can't see, it's because his תפקיד does not involve seeing, then someone who can see, those of us who are so fortunate to be able to see, the Ribono shel Olam, who is פוקח עיוורים, allows us to keep on seeing, then we're given that gift for a reason. Shouldn't we teach ourselves to really see?