The Heavier the Box | Rabbi Moshe Malka

The Mishna in Pirkei Avot tells us, According to the pain is the gain. We all know Shemirat Einayim is difficult, a huge undertaking. However, the rewards are tremendous. Not only are you zoche to see the Shechina, as the pasuk tells us, the one who is strong with his eyes, .הוא מרומים ישכון He will see the Shechina at the end of days. Imagine being in the Mechitza of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, Rabbi Meir Ba’al HaNes. But you have benefits over here, right now. Everything becomes pleasurable. A sunset, you look at a flower, it becomes enjoyable. When you see things that cloud your eyes, it takes away all the pleasure. One of the boys in the high school said, But, Rabbi, now the summer's here. It's so hard, it's so difficult, wherever I go. The Rabbis tell us where there's pain, there's gain. We said the following Mashal. Imagine a group of boys in Yeshiva, every day by recess time, they go to the park to play their ball game. And as they're walking down, there's an old man on a rocking chair and he waves to them every day. One day he says, Guys, could you give me a hand? I got something in my house. I need some help. The boys weren't too excited. They wanted to go play ball. But the leader of the group, his name was Dave, he said, Guys, come on. It’s everything we learned about, let’s go help the man. And they go down to his basement. He says, What do you need? -Well, you see these boxes? I need them taken up to the attic. The guys are like, In the elevator? -There’s no elevator. Okay, boys, come on. As they reach for the boxes, some are very heavy, some are light. And the boys naturally went for the lighter ones. Dave said, Come on, you’re going to leave the old man with the heavy ones? Let's go. And some of them took the heavy ones and they went to the top third floor, the attic, and as each boy deposited his box, the old man stared intently at each kid. What's your name? And put his name on a label on the box. As they all finished, he tells them, Sit down, boys. I watch you guys every day and I like you. All my life I worked and I have a fortune to give, but I never had children and I decided to give it all to you. Any box that you carried up is yours. And the ones that were heavy, the boys opened up, they found gold bars. And the ones that were light had in it pillows and blankets from Bed, Bath and... Beyond. They were beyond themselves. They ripped their clothes. Ah, had we only known! When it's heavy, it's gold. That's what the Mishna is telling us. It feels difficult, it feels painful? Where there's resistance, know, you'll succeed with persistence. The more you put the effort in, the better gold you're going to have. There's a saying, If you work hard, you'll make a living. If you work hard on yourself, you'll make a fortune.