Acquiring Our World to Come | Rabbi Moshe Tuvia Lieff

Chazal teach us about Elazar ben Dordaya. He was a terrible, immoral person. He crossed seven seas, according to Maharal, beyond טבע, to be with a wayward woman. After she finished, she blew out a puff of air and she said, The same way that puff of air doesn't return to its source, you will never return to your origins. You’re the most despicable, degenerate person I've met in my life. To hear this from such a woman, he was broken, completely broken. Man reaches highest when he’s lowest. He decides he has to change. He turns to the mountains and the valleys, Help me! We have our own problems. At the end of days, we're going to melt. He goes to the stars, the moon, Help me! We have our own issues. He looks at everyone and everything, begging for help, but no one can help him. It's only up to me. הניח ראשו בין ברכיו he puts his head between his knees, he starts to cry, It's all up to me! יצאה נשמתו. He dies. A בת קול comes down and says, Praiseworthy R’ Elazar ben Dordaya. You are invited to Olam Haba. Rebbe heard this story, he started crying. יש קונה עולמו בשעה אחת, ויש קונה עולמו בכמה שנים. Some people acquire the World to Come in many instances, many moments, and some in one moment. The Telzer Rav said Rebbe was crying because how many moments did he have in his life, where he could have been קונה עולמו. He becomes Rabbi Elazar ben Dordaya. He becomes a תנא. That one moment of Teshuva, of changing. My father zt”l said, שעה doesn't just mean changing. It means a turn. A Rebbe once asked his Talmidim, What is the distinction, the distance between north and south? One said: 100,000 kilometers. Another said: An infinite amount. The Rebbe said: You're wrong. One little turn. If you're facing north and you turn south, you've spanned the distance between north and south. Said my father, Hashem didn't turn to Kain. You don't even have to change monumentally, just turn in the right direction, and that’s קונה עולמו. We can acquire our world by just turning in the right direction, heading in that direction. Hashem will take us, He will save us, He will cause our success, and we’ll be zoche to wonderful Hatzlacha in all that we do, בגשם וברוח.