The Biggest Payment Possible | Rabbi Aryeh Leiser

This past winter, it was a freezing cold night, and when I say freezing, I mean freezing. I'm coming back from Lakewood and I'm giving some Bochurim a ride back to Monsey. I was getting off the Garden State Parkway, Exit 172, which is in Chestnut Ridge, and the Bochurim needed to go to Wesley Hills. Where should we stop? We’re going back and forth. Finally, we decided by the Newday store, that plaza over there. I called a car service to meet us there. I helped put the luggage from the Bochurim into the car service, and I'm in my shirt and all of a sudden, open up your hearts, in the corner in the dark, there's three Chasidishe yungerleit. And one of them says: I can't believe it. It's you. I need to speak to you. And I'm shivering. I said: Can we do this over the phone? He goes: No! I need to show you something. And he shows me on his phone my face on the screensaver from the Vayimaen of Yossele, the Repairman. He says he's 29 years old. He has a bunch of children. He's making, let's say, a number of $150,000. He's paying his bills. And his friend approaches him that he wants to help him start a new business, but his friend's only offering him $100,000. He doesn't know what to do. He goes to his boss. His boss says: I'll give you a $20,000 raise to stay with me. Wow. He says: Aibishter, I'm going into Mincha now. Tell me what to do. I walk out of Mincha and my friend approaches me and he says: You know, did you see the Vayimaen? Yossele, the Repairman. I watch and I started shaking. I said: Aibishter, thank you. My decision’s made. In the other office, it was a kosher environment, my first job, the ladies sat by themselves, but at the end of the day, it was not an only men's office, there was a lot of things going on, and in my new business, there's no such situation. I said: Aibishter, I’m taking the new job. And I took it. So I'm sitting here in the freezing cold. At this point, I'm not even cold, anymore. And I'm waiting to hear, And I made the deal and I made up the money. So I say: So? He says: No, I'm missing the money. Every day, I feel like, you know, how I wish I could have had that money. But you're glowing, I told him. I've never seen such a happy Jew. He said: Of course I'm happy. I'm with the Aibishter. He taught me an amazing lesson. We think, guarding our eyes, Hashem’s going to pay me back with the next stock change, with the next business deal, it's going to happen tomorrow. It's true. Hashem does pay us back right away. But do you know what He pays us back with? For me, closeness to God is the greatest good. There's nothing in the world like the feeling of being free from sin and having a closeness to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. This guy sitting there, face aglow, he's missing $70,000, but he's the happiest man I ever met. The main thing is closeness to God, coming closer to our Creator. That's the biggest payment that's possible.