So Much More | Rabbi Aryeh Royde

We’re all familiar with the scale on Rosh Hashanah. We have the Mitzvos and Aveiros, and we tend to think, we hope we're at least a בינוני, half and half, and we push in another Mitzvah over עשרת ימי תשובה. But the question is, What does a בינוני mean? What does it mean ‘half and half’? We would think 700 Mitzvos, 700 Aveiros. Chazal teach us a fascinating concept. That each Mitzvah is so powerful, we get Schar for 2,000 generations, and an Aveira, sometimes it can have effect for four generations, which means it’s 500 times more. That means 499 Aveiros, one Mitzvah, you have more Mitzvos than Aveiros. It's unbelievable how many more Mitzvos we have just from each Mitzvah, how much it's worth. So we know the story of Miriam at the end of the 40 years of the Midbar. She spoke Lashon Hara with Aharon about Moshe Rabeinu, whatever that means, she got צרעת. And the entire Klal Yisroel waited for her a whole week before they traveled further. And Rashi says: As a zechus for when she waited for little Moishele, when he was in the water. Miriam waited and babysat baby brother, in that zechus, everyone waited for her. Now, the בעל הטורים points out something fascinating. That if we get Schar 500 times more than we actually did, than we actually deserve, then try to make the calculation. She got Schar, an entire week of Schar. Now if you do the math, which I couldn't, but my trusty calculator figured it out, that a 500th of a whole week is 20 minutes and 16 seconds. Just picture this, Mommy tells little kid Miri, Miriam, do you want to go babysit Moishele? So she did it with happiness, with a smile, and she went down and babysat. She sat there for 20 minutes only. She could have been thinking: Who cares? Who notices? Is it a big deal? And the Schar didn’t come right away, it was actually 120 years later. But 120 years later, the entire Klal Yisroel waited for her seven days, because she did a Mitzvah for 20 minutes. Could you imagine what it means once closing your eyes for a moment? 500 times that we get Schar. We could be sitting in an airport, and just inappropriate things are going on, we could see things. Imagine we close our eyes for 20 minutes, because we know it's not the most Kosher place. Years later, we don't know how long it may take, but somehow your business is flourishing and the entire week you're in sales, and an entire week your sales are going so good, because 20 minutes you controlled yourself. The Heilige Ishbitzer says that's why the Zohar HaKadosh is so heavy when it comes to these עניינים of Shmiras Einayim, and the tremendous punishment and עונש. He says: Why is he so heavy? Why does he speak about so many punishments? He says: Because there's no way to describe the Schar. And the only way to describe the Schar of controlling yourself, is when you say how heavy it is and how terrible it is one bad look. Just imagine once closing your eyes, 500 times more than that. More than the punishment is the Schar.