We’re Still in The Game | Rabbi Yisroel Besser

The great Tzaddik of Yerushalayim, R’ Aryeh Levine, had the opportunity to go address the children in a certain Chiloni School, a secular school in Israel. Now, it wasn't a school that was pro-religion. It was a school, in fact, in which the parents and the administration were anti-religion. But once a year, one of the assistant principals felt that we have to have some sort of Jewish figure. After all, we’re in the Jewish state, in a Jewish country, and the children are Jewish. So bringing in Rabbi Levine, he has a long white beard, he looks holy, he's non-threatening. What could he say already? It’ll be a nice cultural experience. And R’ Aryeh Levine came and all the children in the school were there. They were all children of about 10, 11, 12 years old, and the whole auditorium was filled. And R’ Aryeh Levine spoke, and he said a very, very short story. He said that, as is well known, Rabbi Levine, he was Rabbi of all the prisoners. So the British, when they were ruling under the mandate, any rebels who were fighting for what was then yet not a country, but who were fighting for the Israeli military forces, whichever forces they were, were imprisoned. And Rabbi Levine was allowed to go in, like all prisoners are allowed to have visits from a chaplain or a Rabbi, and he would talk to them. He said, one night he was called in. There were two people about to be hung. Two Yidden, רחמנא לצלן. They had been rebels. They had been indicted by the British government and sentenced to death for their actions. And Rabbi Levine was in for their last moments in this world. Their names were Meir Feinstein and Moshe Barazani. Rabbi Levine said, What do you think these people asked, they had 5 minutes left to live? They were in a room, those two and me, and they were about to be hung. What did they ask me for? So one boy said a delicious meal. Another person said they wanted to see a picture of their families. Everybody had different ideas of what it might be. Rabbi Levine said, I'm going to tell you what they asked me. They asked me if I had with me a pair of Tefillin, which I did. And they each asked me for the opportunity to put the Tefillin on and to say the words of Shema Yisroel. And Rabbi Levine said, they cried like babies. So many tears, as if every tear that had ever been invented from the day that they were born until that moment came out of them in one shot. Just a faucet of tears, of pain, of longing, of yearning. Then he stopped, R’ Aryeh Levine, and he looked at these boys and he said, Let your first time putting on Tefillin be like their last time. And what R’ Aryeh Levine was telling them was that these two people, who just had minutes left to live, רחמנא לצלן understood that there's only so long that a person gets to be in the game. There's only so long, a blip in time, that a person is relevant to all of creation. Our Neshama sits before, our Neshama sits after, but while it’s in this world, while it’s in the game, it's a very, very limited amount of time. They had minutes left and they started to cry and they said, We have one more chance to put on Tefillin, one more chance to connect. R’ Aryeh Levine was telling the boys, You're starting Tefillin now. You're alive, Baruch Hashem. Live it, savor it, cherish it, because you're only in the game for so long. The game is a Yid walking in the streets of this world. It's just the opportunity to do things that could shake the heavens. And after he's not here, he won't have the opportunity, and before he was here, he didn't have the opportunity. It's only here, when he's in this world, surrounded by the realities of this world, that he has the opportunities to go so high and to do such a big thing. And guess what? To connect with Shomayim, you don't need straps on your hand or on your head. You just need to remember the למען תזכור. You stand in the street, a Yid stands in the street, and he makes a decision to raise himself a little bit above his surroundings. For that moment, he just connected heaven and earth, and he made his entire existence, his entire being in this world worthwhile. Let our first time be like their last time. Let's live with an understanding that every action, every motion, every decision and every choice can reverberate.