Be A Genius And Learn From Zalman The Fool (4 Minutes)

0:11One time, there was a story that became famous in Israel about a fool called Zalman or Zalmaleh. For 20 years, Zalmaleh was directing traffic. Where was this taking place? At the entrance of Jerusalem. At the entrance of Jerusalem, many cars pass. 20 years he's been there, directing traffic: "Go right," "Go left," "Do this," "Do that." He wasn't exactly the brightest there was, and his wife was the same; she also wasn't very bright. But for 20 years, he's been directing traffic: "Go right," "Go left," "Stop," "Go," "Yes." One day, he calls his friend early in the morning and says, "Listen, I can't do it today." Can't do it today. It's been 20 years. I'm going to work. I can't do it today. I'm sick. I've got a cold, I can't get out of bed. You have to go for me, or else there will be accidents. There's no one to replace me. For 20 years, I've been going, and they don't even have a replacement for me. His friend says, "Okay, fine. I'll go. Where do I need to go?" "Let's go to the entrance of Jerusalem."

1:29Directing traffic over there, his friend was a little brighter than him, but he wasn't exactly one of those people who travel. Some people live in Jerusalem and they never leave; he just lived there and enjoyed it. So he goes to the entrance of Jerusalem and he sees there are traffic lights. Traffic stops, traffic goes, traffic stops, traffic goes; everything is managed perfectly fine with traffic lights, and... So he looks for a place where there are no traffic lights. He can't find it. So he goes to the next payphone, calls the city, and says, "Listen, listen, it's getting late. Zalman told me that I have to be here at this time. Where is there no traffic light?" And he starts hearing people laughing on the phone as if he said the funniest joke ever. He asks, "Why, what's wrong with you? Why are you laughing?" They respond, "Oh, that Zalman, yeah, he's been there for 20 years." He goes, "Yeah, he works here." He goes, "No, he doesn't work here. He just decided to direct the traffic." He goes, "Okay, so where does he direct it?" He says, "He doesn't really direct it. He pretends like he's directing it, but there are traffic lights. For 30 years already, there have been traffic lights. But he makes believe as if the whole traffic is depending on him. 20 years he's working for nothing."

3:0020 years this fool is working for nothing. He doesn't even get a penny from the government or any employer, nor is he helping anyone. There are traffic lights. The Ba'al Mussar says this is us. This is some of us. We're gonna work 60, 70, 80 years in this world collecting money, collecting 401k accounts, collecting IRA accounts, collecting savings accounts, collecting houses, collecting cars, collecting watches, collecting jewelry—collecting, collecting, collecting. We go up to Shamayim, and they tell us, "You're like Zalman. You worked for nothing. You lived for 70 years. You have no mitzvot." Why? Because everything I gave you, you left it in the safe. Everything I gave you, it's in a 401k account that half of it the government is going to take anyway. Instead of using what I gave you to amass mitzvot, you left it in a fund for a rainy day that never came. We're not wiser than Reb Zalman.