The Value of Life - Rabbi Elchonon Zohn

[Music] I just wanted to point out that cause I'll tell us that a person needs to say that the world was created Hashem created the world where's the animals there were many animals but a person was created UPD they were created alone Hashem created a person Adam harish on by himself but the hava was originally part of Adam but he was created as one entity and the Gemara tells us that the reason for that is so that a person should say beasts really never Allah the entire world was worth it just for me to think about the Internet ostrich element of what he sense but to recognize the greatness that we have inherent within us the greatness of what a moment of life in this world is that the entire creation is worth one person's life miele Niva all of everything in this world and in all the worlds the spiritual world and the the world outside of our world of the the galaxies everything the show my emotion am i am is worth bish miele it's worth it for me but where my chrome mentioned is on our website as of art from her moshe feinstein where he writes in one of his trubiz he says life is worth it because call raiga every second of life is Conan it's Kia's buys eternity the value of life is inestimable we can't possibly figure out what the value of life is but a moment of life in this world can purchase eternal Sakuya to Eternity Olam haba it doesn't end that is the power of a moment of life and what I often point out when I speak particularly to older people and particularly when you're dealing about life that isn't so easy is that we wake up every morning and what is the first thing that a person says mode that I Milla for now how you wake up and you give thanks to the Ramona Shalom now what is the thanks of course we have so much to thank the Ramona Shalom for but what do we say we don't thank him for our well for the beautiful home we live in for our families for our for anything chef Quezada being the Schmo see I have a number one more day I am still alive that is the modani that we say in the morning and as I say it is not meant to depress us it's meant to invigorate us it's meant to give us an appreciation for life no matter what the challenges are to be able to say mode that I'm Lila phonetic should have as art of being this mossy because if you recognize that life is Conan it's Chris Baraka bias eternity it's a ticket to eternity every moment of life that is lived appropriately is a ticket to eternity and the more difficult life gets that is a greater ticket or the more powerful ticket because that's because I'll tell us tom bits are me may upon Michelle obits are well we're living life that's difficult and we accepted as this is what the rabona shall Allah wants for me today that life is so much greater than the life when everything's going great it's when things are difficult that the value of life becomes that much more valuable and this is so far from the culture in which we live where life is defined not by it's sanctity not by its value not by what we can accomplish for a different world but how enjoyable it is at the moment it's for that ticket that we talked about that was left behind that should not have been bought that's how the world defines life we define life very differently and it's interesting that yesterday we said how well and slow marmella Express mm Elif expresses himself low Uggla's kiyow kiyow vas a pair my Seiko let me not die let me live and speak of the greatness of Hashem Yas arias Radhika even if I have you serve even if life is not difficult I accept that I thank you lawyer almost Yahia because when you are living life just the fact that we are here that we are at sella Melek in that we are able to be there that is the greatest expression of MA sake of the godless of Hashem whether it's the fact that we're here because we can't walk like our by Croton pointed outward unbelievable to hear that Hashem can give us difficulties so that we can't walk but give us extended life just the fact that we are here has I'll tell us that a person who is a go says a person who is on their last breath if you close their eyes and their life ends a split-second earlier that is considered shreya cos dummy and that's Ritsuko that's murder if we take a life what is the value of this life of a go-sees that's fear has dominant life no matter what the life might be has the power of ki B'Tselem elokim are so Sodom we reflect that selam aleykum we reflect the greatness of our shell and we need to work on that to understand the value of the law of life and therefore when life becomes more difficult it becomes more powerful I'll tell over a story because it seems like stories is expected today but I will not be Myra if - this will go into the rest of our program but our assertion is a Fraggle of relative Hanif Leibowitz there was a case of a someone in our yeshiva community this goes back many years got sick and a very young age they had not yet married off any of their children they had a large mesh buffer and they fought thus Matla for a number of years but then at the very end of their life this was a person Makka Belle who accepted their lot absolutely with the greatest faith and never questioned anything but at the end of their life they were in a coma and there was a Shia in Halawa whether they should begin a new protocol of medication for a new infection that this person developed and the Russia Shiva was the Shila came to the Russia Shiva the rational would not pass Khan the shylu he sent the family to one of the gadot Lehi post him and the shock was that they do not have to begin a new protocol of medication okay and the Russia Shiva was received the shock and these were his words he said I am the cobbles of Sakha I accepted however I want you to know the person who told me the story was rabbi mordechai trapars a foreign LaRocca who was very close to her shiva he was there the russia shiva said i want you to know that i cannot identify with that suck this is absolve a bottle a door he says but who can put a value on one a moment of life under these conditions the persons in a coma but we don't know they might have yet kissed the love like we heard before who knows what they could have accomplished in their stage we don't know the consciousness and I could tell you stories upon stories of people who are paired not to be conscious but who are conscious on a rather sophisticated level the idea is that life is life and while there is within how long a time to say I don't necessarily want to have to suffer and while we dive in everyday the low now times we hae new every time we bench Lord they might house bus overdone we ask that we should never have to come on to anyone this is a feeling that we ask but when the person is in a situation where they have to be in that situation then we have to realize that that life has tremendous value I remember once from rabbi crow and he says nowadays this feel of null touch with a new low and a mountainous bus of a dumb as a whole new definition we don't want transfusions we don't why the organ transplants we don't want bus or VAD um in the very literal sense we don't want to have to come on to those type of math tunnels but the fact is that if class for show them that is our lot then we have to recognize that a wheelchair can be the biggest gift and we have to recognize that life even when it's lived at the most uncomfortable and difficult level yes or yes Ronnie kovalam of uh slowness or Nani a person has a right to say I don't want it then we're going to talk about that when we talk about filling out the halawet living will and for those out there who are going to be giving them out I think you can begin doing so but the point is that we need to recognize that life has a value just because it's life and when it's more difficult that doesn't necessarily mean that we have a right to say stock I don't want to live anymore it struck me just literally a couple of days ago that when we say in diving mode did my nephew look and we say al calle new haven't serbia defe we touch it to me we thank you revulsion for the life that is in your hands okay I'm there for you gave us so much life therefore we thank you I think part of that motive is we're saying modem I not do love we're thanking you i Shem that life is in your hands not in the hands of the people around us not in the hands of the people in our culture not in the land of those people who may not appreciate what life's value is we leave it completely in your hands and that's what we give thanks to you that ultimately you are the one that holds that might a ox that holds that key to life and death and therefore we need to take responsibility we need to take the time to fill out this living will I will tell you also that it is could died for those who are not here for you to take living wills for others or encourage them to visit our website and to download those living wills and we'll talk about them as we go through the process but understand that every moment of life has tremendous value we cannot make decisions ourselves necessarily for what is life and what is not life we need the Torah to define that it has to be a Calle nu hi mister me Adela and without further ado we're going to begin the program of filling in those living wills