HaShem Is Ready Today! Are You?? (8 Minutes)

0:31Maybe at another time, there was a true story that happened, unfortunately, to a guy in New York. Rabbi Mizrachi told this story. He says there was a young man who had a lot of drug problems, and Rabbi Mizrachi was constantly trying to bring him to seminars. He made many efforts to bring him to the seminars, and the first time he tried to bring him, the young man never showed up. Everything was paid for, you know. Next time, I'm going to come. Okay. You know, it's not a seminar every week. It takes months. So, a few months pass. He asks, "Are you going to come to this seminar?" He responds, "This one I'm definitely coming to. Definitely coming." The same thing happens; he doesn't show up. After the weekend, Rav Mizrahi calls him again. "Nu, what happened this time?" He says, "I'm sorry. This thing happened, and that thing happened." A whole bunch of different excuses for why he didn't come.

1:53So the third time, Rav Mizrahi said, "This time I'm going to pick you up. I'm going to pick you up, and then you're going to come." The young man responded, "You don't have to pick me up. My suitcase is already ready. You don't have to pick me up. I'm going to be there. Don't worry. This time I'm not going to fool around. I'm coming this time." As Shabbat is about to begin, Rav Mizrahi and all the other guests are at the hotel. He's looking at the clock, and the young man's still not there. Shabbat's in, so maybe, whatever, he's secular, maybe he's going to drive on Shabbat and just come here anyway. Nothing. Friday passes, Shabbat passes, the kid's not there. Motzei Shabbat, he calls him, no answer. Eventually, on Sunday night after the seminar is over, he calls a mutual friend. This kid knew, did you hear from him? It's like, "Ah, you don't want to know." Why? You don't want to know. They found his body on his couch after an overdose. He had a suitcase right next to him, ready for the seminar. Right next to the couch, he was ready for the seminar, but he took some drugs before so...

3:17What's the... this is obviously a real story, it's a shocking story. But the reality of the story is that it also puts this Mishnah in perspective. There's a few different things, there are a few different Mishnayot that it connects to. Number one, there's one Mishnah where it says, you know, don't say that you're going to make a sin today and then you're going to do teshuva. You're going to make a sin today, and then you do teshuva. Because then, in Shamayim, they get very angry about that and they won't let you do teshuva. says, "I'm gonna come, I'm gonna come, and I come to teshuva," and you waste everybody's time. You're not gonna do teshuva. It's a very, very serious sin in Shamayim. That's number one. Number two, don't assume that you have tomorrow. "Oh no, tomorrow I'm gonna study. Next week I'm gonna study. Tomorrow I'm gonna do this. Next week I'm gonna do this." Hashem is ready today. Why aren't you? If you had a meeting with, I don't know, the president of your company, or the president of the country you live in, and he says, "Listen, I want to meet you tomorrow at 8 o'clock in the morning." Would you tell him, "Listen, you know what? It's a little too early for me. Can we meet at 11? How about this? I'm actually kind of busy for you, Mr. President. Can we meet next week?"

4:32You're not going to tell him that. Why? Because it's the president, because it's your boss, because it's somebody important. But the King of Kings, we treat Him like He's one of our buddies. So, Hillel is telling us here that we can't treat Hashem like He's one of our buddies, but he also put it in a similar order. Why did he put the studying part last? Because in the beginning, he told you, first of all, you have to make sure that you're part of a community. A community can strengthen you. If you have a quality community, it can strengthen you. If it's a weak community, then you have to leave and get a better one. But if you have a good quality community, it can strengthen you. But after you get strong, don't get overconfident. Don't get overconfident. Because if you're overconfident, you'll end up judging people. You're going to be very judgmental of other people when, in reality, you've never had their test. You've never had their test. It's like people who don't understand sick individuals. Because one thing that you can't see about sick people is that you can't see pain. You can't see pain. So, I remember when I was sick.

5:43I looked 100% normal. My face was normal. My arms were still in place. My legs were still in place. Everything was 100% normal. It's not like when you have pain, there's blood gushing everywhere like in the movies. And people would look at it like, "What's wrong?" like they wouldn't understand. "Why can't he walk? Why can't he do this? Why can't he do that? Why does he scream every few minutes?" People don't get it. People don't understand that part. And they think, like in the beginning, like, "Oh, how come this guy didn't come to work for the last week? What do you mean he's in pain? He's just making it up." Because people like to judge, they like to assume, but until you've actually experienced something that somebody else has, don't judge them. Because 99% of the time you're going to be wrong.