A Jarful of Fireflies | Rabbi Avi Slansky

Summer nights have a very unique, pleasant, crisp feel to them, especially upstate, walking, it's dark, and then you'll see a little light for a moment. You'll almost question yourself if you saw anything. And you'll keep on walking and then you'll see it again. And then, as you become attune to it, you'll realize... fireflies. The smallest, tiniest little light. Beautiful, magnificent, but fleeting. They're there for a second or less. Back in the days of old, people would take a glass jar and try to catch one of those fireflies. And you'd catch it, and what would it give you? It would give you a dot of light for a dot of a second, and then nothing else. But what would happen if you catch a second and a third? 50, 60, 100 of these teeniest little lights? Together, they'd be flashing at different moments, and then you'd have something that could light up a dark way. We often are plagued and wonder, Does it really make a difference if I don't look at that sight for a second? Who really cares? I already succumbed, so I should stop now? Is it really consequential, that split second of looking away? And the answer is, each of these teeniest little actions, as we're walking down the street and we become a drop stronger and we don't look there. And then maybe we do, but the next time we say: Okay, I'm going to stop. And we're about to click and we hold ourselves. Each of those moments is a grand act, it's a beautiful light. But, you know, when they add and they add and they add, then they truly create this most magnificent light. So, yes, to ourselves, they might look so small, but in reality, firstly, in the eyes of God, they're magnificent. But we can even realize and touch their greatness when they add and they grow, then they truly create something, a beautiful light that will light up our own lives, each and every day.