How Valuable You Are | Rabbi Reuven Schmeltzer

R’ Chaim Epstein related that there was someone who was suffering many difficulties in his life, and he approached the Alter Skver Rebbe in Williamsburg, and he told him: I'm so depressed. I'm so despondent. Things are so difficult. And the Skver Rebbe looked at him and he said, How can a person feel that way, if every single morning, he makes the Bracha, Which means that we're more beloved to the Aibishter than the Queen of England. If the Aibisther is מחשיב you more than the Queen of England, how is it possible to be depressed? The שערי עבודה, Rabbeinu Yona writes in his Sefer, that the first step of Avodas Hashem is to realize ערך עצמו, to know your own value. When a person knows his own value, then he could go and begin to serve Hashem. When one is loved by Hashem and loved by someone, it shows that he’s special. And that's because we're so valuable to Him. The Aibishter needs us in order to fulfill his grand plan in the world. R’ Yossi Freedland just related to me a story that he had heard from the legendary Rabbi Hochberg. Rabbi Hochberg once told him that when I was a Rebbe in RJJ, over 60 years ago, there was a boy in my class who was so, so not only not motivated in Yiddishkeit, but he was on his way to become one of the worst criminals. Everyone knew then about the notorious criminal, Louis Lepke. He was, nebech, a Yid and he was one of those Mafia members. And people said that he's on his way, nebech, to become a Louis Lepke. And it's takeh what happened. He left Yeshiva, he was gone, and he was holding people up and he was really a criminal. Rabbi Hochberg tried to keep tabs on him to see what's going on with him. After a while, he didn't hear anything about him for a while, and he figured he's either eliminated by his rivals or he's in jail. Around 35 years ago, many decades later, Rabbi Hochberg found himself by the כותל המערבי in Eretz Yisroel and at the Kosel, he noticed in the distance, not too far, was a man, a Yid, a frumer Yid standing there with a wife and children. The man walked over to Rabbi Hochberg and he said, Shalom Aleichem, Rebbe. And he introduced himself as that boy from RJJ. Rabbi Hochberg stood there in shock, he couldn't believe it. And the man said, I understand your shock and I understand your astonishment, but let me tell you the story. In America, they were hot on my trail. I had to get away. I traveled to Israel and over there I continued what I had done best at that time. I was holding up people and I was living on drugs, and I was a druggie and I was just living that kind of life of a criminal. I was a felon. One day, I woke up from one of my stupors. I'm laying in a gutter. I was confused and dazed, and I'm thinking to myself, Why am I here? What am I doing with my life? There's no purpose to continue living. I took out my revolver and I pointed it to my head and I'm ready to take my life. And suddenly, it flashed in my mind the vision of Rabbi Hochberg and I saw you saying these words, No matter how far a Yid will stray, the Ribono shel Olam will always take him back. And all I can tell you is that here I am today, a frumer Yid with a Yiddishe family. The Aibishter has such a love to Yidden, no matter how far they stray, no matter what they’ll do wrong, because the Aibishter needs every single Yid. And it's more valuable and more precious than what's called in those days the Queen of England. How important it is that we are revealing Kvod Shomayim from everything that we do, every little act, every Nisayon that we’re עומד in. When we’re עומד בניסיון and we have trials, all of those trials are necessary for us to bring out all of the Kvod Shomayim that we are supposed to bring out. Not one of them could be missing. All of it has to be either accomplished by overpowering the Yetzer Hara or by, Chas v’Shalom, after a failure, to be Chozer b’Teshuva and that also does it. And we have these opportunities all the time and every minute the Aibishter loves us more than the Queen of England, because He needs it for us to be Mekayem his Ratzon. When we think about our huge value and the love of Hashem for us, it'll help us take the steps forward, no matter how difficult things really are.