Garments for Eternity
A wealthy young man hired a tailor to sew him a custom suit for his wedding. The young man gave the tailor precise instructions: he wanted a navy suit sewn from the finest wool fabric in a very specific style. He even described what kind of buttons to use and the print for the lining; and of course, he gave the tailor the necessary measurements. He left a generous deposit with which the tailor could purchase the required materials and jotted down the date by which the job was to be completed.
When the chassan returned several weeks later, he was in for an unpleasant surprise. The tailor had sewn him a suit using a cheap wool blend, in dark gray, with nondescript buttons. Worst of all, the sleeves were too short! Terribly disappointed with the final product, the young man angrily berated the tailor.
“This is not at all suitable! There’s no way I can appear at my wedding wearing this suit!” he cried.
The tailor didn’t seem to understand why the customer was making such a fuss.
“It’s good enough,” he told the chassan. “It’s more or less wearable, and even the issue with the sleeves isn’t a big deal. You can just pull them down while you are under the chuppah. After all, it’s only for one night!”
The Brisker Rav used this mashal to explain that Hashem gave us exact instructions for earning and receiving sechar in Olam Haba, and we need to follow those instructions to the best of our ability. After all, the mitzvos we do in this world will be our clothing forever in Olam Haba.
Good enough is not good enough when it comes to the garments we will wear for eternity.
Take This Home
We need to have both the will and the knowledge to do mitzvos properly. How about trying this? Choose one mitzvah to focus on. Find a sefer, a friend or another medium through which you can learn the halachos related to your mitzvah, and try to learn one or two halachos at a specific time of day. Likely, you will find that when you undertake to do this, you won’t want to cut corners, because you will want to do “your” mitzvah in the best way possible.
In Short
The Imrei Emes of Ger said:
The sefarim tell us that every Jew should grab onto at least one mitzvas asei and one mitzvas lo sasei that he accepts to fulfill completely, in every situation, even if they need to be done with mesiras nefesh.
It Happened to Me!
My Olam Haba Moment
Preparing for Shabbos really takes me the whole week. I do a big shopping at the beginning of the week, keeping in mind what I want to make for the coming Shabbos. I bake and cook different items throughout the week and then shop again at the end of the week for fresh produce, deli and some treats. And that’s not to mention the scrubbing and cleaning. Our oneg Shabbos is the culmination of all those efforts. I was thinking that if Shabbos is just me’ein Olam Haba, a taste of Olam Haba, imagine how much we need to prepare for Olam Haba itself!
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