The Sapphire Brick | Rabbi Yaakov Bender

Klal Yisroel is getting ready for Kabbolas HaTorah. The real Kabbolas HaTorah takes place at the end of Parshas Mishpatim. And the pasuk tells us that the Zkenim, they looked the wrong way. They weren't allowed to look at HaKadosh Baruch Hu, but they did. The Torah tells us a magnificent thing that they saw. Under the feet, whatever that means, of HaKadosh Baruch Hu, there's a brick, a sapphire brick. Rashi says: Why was the brick there? Rashi says, Why bricks, because in Parshas Shemos it says they had to work, to build Pisom and Ra’amses, these heavy big stones. And bricks was their Avoda. And it got very hard for them, to the point that when Moshe Rabeinu came the first time, they said: No more straw. Make your own straw and make your bricks, the same amount, the same סכום. Gotta do it. HaKadosh Baruch Hu needs a brick? HaKadosh Baruch Hu needs to look at His brick to remember? HaKadosh Baruch Hu wants us to understand what the job of an ehrlicher Yid is. To see the צער of somebody else. HaKadosh Baruch Hu puts under His feet, whatever that means, כמעשה a brick, a beautiful, beautiful sapphire brick, to look at it and say: Wow, there are people in a צרה out there. We've got to help them. Attune your eyes. Attune your eyes to look around. How did Hatzalah begin? A little man, R’ Hershel Weber, he should live and be well. Not a short man. A man collapses, רחמנא לצלן, in front of the Pailishe shtiebel in Williamsburg, one day in the 1960s. It's already over 60 years ago. And he collapses, and they wait, and they wait for an ambulance, and it doesn't come. And the man passed away, רחמנא לצלן. A lot of people were out there. They all should have seen, they saw the man falling, but you know what? נתן עיניו ולבו it says by Moshe Rabeinu. That's what Hershel Weber saw. And the next day, Hatzalah was founded. And a bunch of Chasidishe yungerleit, who knew about medicine nothing, they learned it quick, and today it’s the largest volunteer ambulance society in the entire world. Because Hershel Weber נתן עיניו ולבו, put his eyes and his heart to work. Your eyes could guide you different ways. They could guide you to the wrong things, which will hurt you terribly, or they’ll guide you to wonderful things, and forever and ever and ever, R’ Hershel Weber is the founder of the greatest volunteer ambulance society in the entire world. להיות מיצר HaKadosh Baruch Hu put under his feet כמעשה לבנת הספיר, a brick to remember the צרה. He doesn't need it. Of course not. But so to speak, לשבר את our ears to understand it, that's what HaKadosh Baruch Hu did. Until today, the people that see are the people that take care of us. We have the choice. Look the wrong way, Uh-oh, over and out. Look the right way, Oh, wow. Oh, wow. Oh, wow. What you could be the rest of your life.