Amassing a Spiritual Fortune | Rabbi Avrohom Asher Makovsky

Many years ago, there was an older Yid in Eretz Yisrael laying on his deathbed. The people crowding around, looking at him. And he tells them, “I have no fear of going up to בית דין של מעלה.” The people were shocked. Everyone is scared to go stand in front of בית דין של מעלה after a 120. The Gemaras tell us in ברכות, R’ Yochanan Ben Zakai was very scared. How can this person say: I have no fear? So he says, “Let me tell you something. You don’t know my life story. I just moved to Eretz Yisrael a few years ago. I’m a Holocaust survivor, I was in the concentration camps. My parents, my brothers, my sister, everyone was killed. I came as a lone survivor to the United States of America, and I married another Holocaust survivor. My Emunah was strong, I remained steadfast, a Frum, Ehrliche Yid, and I’m going to build a Frum family. I married a lady who was also, likewise, Frum. We had two children together, and then she got lured by the temptations of the street of America. In Europe, we didn’t have such opportunities. The glitter of America overtook her, and she left the path of Yiddishkeit, two children with her, and I was left all alone. Can you imagine the pain? Can you imagine? I was like, I have no parents, no brothers, no sisters, no wife, no children! How am I going to walk in the street and survive the temptations as a man? A man of flesh and blood alone, in the country of temptations of the United States of America? So I made myself a deal. I said every time I walk in the street, and I close my eyes, and I don’t look at all the temptations that are bombarding me, it means that I earned $50. $50 in those days was a lot of money. And when I crossed a big avenue, it means I earned $250. And when I crossed a street in Manhattan, I earned $500. Every night, I would take out a pad and paper, and write down: Today I earned $750. Today I earned $1,000. And you should know, after a few years of amassing such wealth, I lost my entire Yetzer Hara for looking at forbidden sights. And you should know, I’m coming up to בית דין של מעלה a multi-millionaire. R’ Yaakov Meir Shechter shlit"a I once heard a Drasha from him. When someone comes up to שמים, and he’s careful at what he looked at, and what he thought at, all מלאכי חבלה, angels of destruction, are terrified, of a flesh and blood that comes up so holy. And they flee from him.” Today, we can all come up multi-billionaires. We’re hit by temptations on all sides, So every time a business deal comes to us, and we’re about to earn $100,000 here, let us remember that while we’re earning $100,000 for the bank account here, at the very same time, we’re going to guard our eyes, and we’re gonna send $100,000 to the bank upstairs, which will protect us.