The Reward for Doing the Right Thing is Beyond Your Wildest Dreams! Rabbi Avi Hoolin

We all know the famous words of the sharim. How he starts off his first chapter the foundation of pietiness and the root of serving Hashem is to know what is my obligation in this world. And when the Miles Sharm describes our obligation in this world, he tells us why we were created. And he says to have pleasure from Hashem and to enjoy his presence his and the question that we could ponder is is that pleasure in this world or is that pleasure in the next world? There's a Gimara in that brings a story of a student of Revia that wanted to see a certain Zena harlot and he had to travel the ocean to see her. This woman took 400 gold pieces as payment. And he sends the payment. It goes to seir across the ocean. And he comes to her mansion of a house. And the guards tell her, "The student who paid to be with you is here." And they let him in. And this woman had seven beds of silver, one of gold. And she goes up. And he goes up to be with her. And suddenly his sitsus hit him in the face and he thinks about the mitzvah of titsus and the principle of the mitzvah of titsus and reminds him of Hashem. And he goes down and the woman tells him and says I will not let you leave this house until you tell me what the problem is. Am I not beautiful? And he tells her, "The beauty you definitely are, but the mitzvah of sitsus reminded me of who I am." And this woman took down his name and the name of the yeshiva that he learned in. And he she went to Rafia and she said, "I want to convert to Judaism." And she told Rafia the story and she ended up marrying this student. And the Gimar quotes the same beds that she was going to make make in a forbidden manner. Now she is making for him in a permitted manner. He paid 400 gold pieces to be with her. Now her riches became his. When we think about the reward, the Gimar tells us the reward for our mitzvah are in this world in Haba. How much more so I want to conclude with a fascinating story that I heard. There was a Yiddamki of Joseph Kamki was responsible for many many religious schools and day schools in America. And when he was nif and his children were sitting Shiva, a man walked in to the Shiva to the morning house to show respect. And he told the children, he said, "You don't know who I am, but I want to tell you a fascinating story about your father." He said, "When I was growing up, I grew up in a house that was not religious. My father traditionally wanted me to still get a religious education. So, he sent me to a religious day school." And growing up in that day school, I was learning a different and one morning I'm waking up. trying to go to school and there's the halak of how you're supposed to tie your shoes that you're supposed to first tie the left and then the right and I realized I tied my shoe the wrong way that I was taught in day school. So I had to retie my shoes in the interm. My dad is waiting for me. He's like, "Sam, where are you?" And I said, "I'm coming. I'm coming." And finally, I walked down the steps and his father says, "What took you so long this morning?" So I told him, I said, "You know, I learned in day school you got to tie your shoes a certain way and I tied it the wrong way, so I wanted to ret it." So my dad looked at me and he was furious and he said, "This is what you're learning in day school, how to tie shoes. That's what I'm paying tuition for." So he said, "I'm done. Enough of this. You're going back back to public school." As the story goes, as I fell further and further away from religion, it comes the day of my wedding that I fell so much that I'm ready to marry a non-Jewish girl. And the day of the wedding comes and I'm getting ready for the wedding and I tie my shoe in the morning and a thought suddenly hits me and I realize all these years there is one haka one law that I've been keeping tying my shoes correctly. If I have held on to this one, how am I ready to break away from everything tonight? And I was pacing back and forth and finally I made the decision I can't. I just can't. And I called her and I said, "I can't I don't know how to tell you this, but I'm calling off the wedding." And obviously she devastated and she tried to talk to me and I said, "It's not about you. It's I'm a Jewish boy and a Jewish boy. I cannot go through with this." After breaking off the wedding, I realized that I must learn more about religion. And I went to study in Akira Yeshiva. And I started to learn and learn. And eventually after a couple years, my came over to me and he said, "You know what? it's really time for you to get married. And not only that, there was this girl I met recently and I would like to set you up on a date with her. And I said, "Okay." But he said, "I want to mention she happens to be a guora. She's a convert. Is that something that would bother you?" So I said, "No, I'm fine with that. That's okay." So, I go on this date and I'm waiting for the girl and I wouldn't believe my eyes that the girl who walks in is the girl that I was going to marry a few years before. And I ask her and I tell her, "Tell me the story. What happened with you?" And she tells me, she said, "When we were dating a few years back and somebody for the person he cares about and wants to marry is ready to give that up for his religion, I felt I need to be part of that." And to bring that back to the lesson that we have, yes, we do not give up anything for keeping. Hashem will reward us in this world, but in the next world, how much more so?