The Priceless Coin | Rabbi Nosson Muller

Yerushalmi in Brachos famously tells us that HaKadosh Baruch Hu tells Klal Yisroel, Give me your eyes and give me your heart and that's how I'll know that you're mine. What do these words mean? So I once saw a beautiful Mashal. There was a king who had a hobby, like many of us do, and he loved collecting coins. And from different countries and different cities, everybody had their currency, and he really had a very impressive collection. One day, going through his whole collection, he recognized that there was one specific place, one specific country, that he just didn't have a coin. And he called together some of his servants, and he offered them the world to be able to get him that coin. They went out on their merry way, trying to look for this coin, and one of the servants, traveling miles and miles, decided to go rest in an inn. And he sees that there was a machine, where you were able to put in coins, what we would call today a vending machine, and buy a drink. And he sees the person who's standing right next to his table, about to put a coin into the machine, it’s the coin that he's been looking for, the coin that he's been searching for, that the Melech wants. And he quickly runs over to this person. He says: Do me a favor. Takes out a wad of hundreds of dollars and he says: Here. Just all I need is that coin. And the guy said: But I'm so thirsty. I'm so thirsty. I'm sorry. He says: No, you'll go buy a drink with this. It’ll take you another two minutes, but do me a favor. Just give me that coin, I need it. And the guy said: I'm so sorry. I'm just so thirsty. And he puts the coin in and he loses the chance, he loses the opportunity. We are so much the same. There are times that there's a תאוה, there's an urge, whether it’s to look at something, to say something, to listen to something, and we have that coin in our hand and we have a choice. We could put it in and say: We're giving in. I need that drink. But there's a wad of bills waiting for us, there's such Schar, there's such Tashlum from HaKadosh Baruch Hu and HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, When I see that you give up that coin for me, you cannot imagine how I recognize and how I appreciate and understand that you're mine. There were two Meshulachim, two fundraisers who were talking, and one, Reuven tells Shimon, You know, this city is unbelievable. Every house I go to, I get 20 bucks. The guy says: Really? I get a dollar or 2 dollars. How do you get $20? He says: Oh, it happened to be it was Purim. And R’ Shimon laughed at him and said: Shkoyach. Purim is not a regular day. Purim is כל הפושט יד נותנין לו, of course, of course, that's why you got $20, but that's not the conversation we're having. The Sefarim HaKedoshim tell us that this conversation we can really have with ourselves when it comes to Aseres Yemei Teshuva. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says: I'm here. I'm giving. כל הפושט יד נותנין לו just stick your hand out. These days of Aseres Yemei Teshuva, every time we do something, every time we don't do something, the pay is that much more. It's like Reuven's pay. It's not the dollars. We're getting 20s and 50s and 100s. Because when HaKadosh Baruch Hu sees on these days that we give Him ours, then He gives us what we need, as well.