Saving a Life | Rabbi Shlomo Landau

This Bein HaZmanim, two yungerleit from Toldos Aharon decided they just need to rejuvenate, they need to refresh themselves. It was a long Zman, they were with the Mishpacha, and they wanted to take just a few hours to kind of relax, to decompress. They decided in order to do that, they have to go on a boat. And they researched a little bit and they heard that on the Kineret, there is a boat-rental place. They give you a skipper, it's a motorboat, they take you out. A Mechayeh. Then one says to the other: Yeah, but... but what’s with Shmiras HaEinayim? It's water, it's boats, it's people, it's the summer. He says: Taka, you have a point. Finally, one of them had a great idea. The boat-rental place closes at 8 p.m. If we show up at 7:55, probably no one's going to be there anymore. Everyone already gave back their boats. Who's by the beach at 7:55? If we have to, we’ll pay a little bit more, but at least we'll be able to avoid the issue, the problem with Shmiras HaEinayim. And they thought it was a great idea. They travel up north, they come there at 7:55, and they say: Can we rent a boat? The place laughed at them. We close in five minutes. They said: We'll pay extra. Is anyone here willing to do it? And one guy says: Eh, for some extra money, I'll do it. Which boat? And he takes a really nice boat, nice luxurious motorboat and they go out into the lake. And it's Taka a mechayeh, the breeze, it's cool, the water, the mist. Ahhhh... They're about a half hour in, they cut the engine just for a few minutes to take it all in, and all of a sudden, they hear piercing cries. הצילו! Save! Help! Somebody! They quickly take the boat, and they head to that spot and they see there's another boat that's stuck, the motor is not working, and the people on it are pointing frantically to the water. It seems like their father, when things hadn't been working out, tried to lean over to see if he could tinker with the engine, and he fell into the water and he was not a good swimmer. And the skipper, the captain jumped in to save him, but he couldn't save him either. And it seems like the father had sunk under the water. Without even thinking, these two Toldos Aharon fellows, who were good swimmers, jumped into the water. They circled the boat, they found the father, they schlepped him onto their boat and the skipper began to administer CPR and he saved his life. Mind-boggling. They decided to upgrade the level of Kedushah in their life, and the Ribono shel Olam gave them the opportunity to save the life of a father, a husband, a child, a special, precious Yiddishe Neshama. You know, Chazal teach us that כל המציל נפש אחת מישראל, if you save one Yiddishe Neshama, it's like you saved an entire world. And true, we may not necessarily all merit to save an entire world. We may not necessarily all have the zchus of saving a life. But we, definitely, by upgrading our Shmirah, our Kedushah, are saving our own lives, and we're upgrading our own lives. And that itself is the most incredible thing.