Once in an 80 Year Opportunity | Rabbi Joey Haber

Have you ever been in a position where you had a strong urge to see something? To turn, maybe you were in the city and it was a unique scene, maybe there were a lot of videos around you, or maybe you were just sitting on a couch and something went on and you were away and you said, ‘I really want to see that.’ I want to tell you a story for that moment. When the Mir Yeshiva was traveling to Shanghai, on the deck of the boat was Rav Shmuel Berenbaum. And he was learning together with a Chavrusa, and while they were learning, the captain got on the loudspeaker and he said, ‘There's a once-in-80-year eclipse. ‘If you want to see the eclipse, you have to come up to the deck right now.’ So suddenly people are running all over the deck, coming from down, from up. They’re all coming to see the eclipse. So Rav Shmuel Berenbaum sees the commotion, He turns to his Chavrusa and he says to him, ‘What's going on?’ He says, ‘The captain just said ‘there's a once-in-80-year opportunity to see this incredible eclipse.’ So Rav Shmuel says, ‘Okay, so let's keep learning.’ He says, ‘I just told you once-in-80-year eclipse. ‘Why are you saying keep learning?’ He says, ‘I have a once-in-80-year opportunity ‘to show Hashem how much I love his Torah, ‘once-in-80-year chance to show how much I love my learning. ‘You think I'm going to give up the opportunity?’ What Rav Shmuel was doing is an incredible flip on the situation. I would say, ‘It's once in 80 years, I gotta see it!’ He's saying, once in 80 years, the fact that the pull is so strong, the fact that it's so unique, enables me to show how much I love what I'm doing. So if you're in that position and you're able to turn away and not see that inappropriate scene, even though it's unique, even though it's pulling you for some reason extra than normal, that's your extra than normal, unique opportunity to show Hashem the Kedusha that you want to maintain in your eyes. So when you're in that once-in-a-life, don’t say, ‘Eh, it’s just one time, I'll just see it.’ Say the opposite. It's this one time that is my opportunity to show how strong and how committed I am to not seeing it.