Rav Yonathan Eybeschutz: SHARING A MITZVAH (A BeEzrat HaShem Film)

0:24To understand the issue of sharing a mitzvah, there's a phenomenal story about Rabbi Yonatan Eybeschutz. Rabbi Yonatan Eybeschutz had a friend who was a kanai, a zealous tzadik. And every day, they would study together in chavruta, and to their dismay, Every day when the sun went up or went down, the shadow of the cross that's on the church across the street would show up in the Beit Knesset. Through the window, it would show up in the Beit Knesset. Like the shadow of it would be on the Beit Knesset floor. It would drive him crazy. What are you going to do? The Notzrim, the Christians, they're powerful. What are you going to do? You can't do anything about it. Can you please move it? What are you going to tell them? They're going to kill you. But his zealous friend couldn't take it one day. He says, that's it. I have a plan. What are you going to do? I'm going to destroy it. They're going to kill you. Let them kill me. Sacrifice his life for the sanctification of Hashem's name. So he goes, destroys the cross, and as he comes down from destroying the cross, what do they do? They catch him. They catch him, they throw him in their jail, and they decide, okay, we have to kill him.

1:52after their fake court hearing, they say, okay, we're going to kill him. So now, the rest of the kehilla have to find a way to save him. What's the best way to get people to do what you want? Especially if they care about money. So they find somebody that works for the church and The guard of the church, they find out that he likes money. Big surprise. So they tell him, "Listen, how much money to free our friend?" "Ah, your friend's expensive." "Okay, okay, how much, how much?" "Listen, if they catch me..." "It's okay, okay, how much, how much?" He tells them a huge amount. "No problem, we'll get it to you." "Listen, you don't have that much time." "We'll get it to you." He says, I don't know if they're going to get it. They're not going to get it. It's going to take some time. I have the amount. He has the amount because his father-in-law gave them a big present when they got married. He's rich. He gave a big present to his daughter to make sure that she's okay. Here, he takes everything the father-in-law gave them, their entire life savings, from the safe without telling his wife and goes and gives it to the Christian. He says, here, free my friend.

3:17The rest of the Kehillah comes to the goy and says, okay, we got part of the money. He goes, ah, don't worry. Don't worry. Your friend, Rabbi Yonatan, Rabbi Yonatan Eybeschutz, he already paid me the full amount. Your friend is already free. So the Kehillah comes to Rabbi Yonatan Eybeschutz. We want a piece of the mitzvah. We got half the money. He goes, "Wow, hey, you want me to share a piece? You want me to share the mitzvah? I don't know. I already did it. I already did it. I already did the mitzvah. I can't sell you a mitzvah. I already did it." So they got all the money, but now the mitzvah, it's already too late. But now Rabbi Yonatan has to deal with the consequences. What are the consequences? It's to tell his wife that they're poor now. He's scared to tell his wife, so what does he do? He says, okay, I'll be back. He goes to the car and hides there for a week. He hides in the car for a week. After a week passes, he has to go home. During that week, the gentile comes to his house.

4:35And he's under pressure. He's like, listen, here. And he gives her three buckets full of diamonds, gold, and money. He goes, here, give this to your husband. She asks, what is this for? He explains, listen, they caught me at the church. I've been taking money from them for years. And they saw that something was fishy with this prisoner who ran away, and it's under my control, and they want to kill me. So I have to run away. I can't take all this money. So if I survive, I know that your husband is so honest that he's going to give me the money back. And if I don't survive, I want him to have it. She asks, why do you want him to have it? Why do you like my husband so much? You're a Christian. It's because your husband is a real Jew. He was willing to sacrifice everything he has just to save another Jew. Just to save everything you had, he gave me. He told me he gave everything you have. She doesn't even know yet. She doesn't even know. She's finding out from HaShem. He gave me everything you have to save his friend. To save another Jew. So he deserves it.

5:43If I survive, I know he's honest enough that he's going to give it back to me. If I don't survive, I want him to have it. So he gives her these three buckets full of diamonds and gold and everything. Gabriel Nathan Ivessitz comes home later that day. He doesn't know what to do. He doesn't know what happened. He's coming home. "I'm going to tell her. I'm going to tell her. No, no, I'm not going to tell her. I'm going to tell her. I'm not going to tell her. I'm going to tell her. I'm not going to tell her. What am I going to do?" He comes into the house. His wife is happy and cheering and singing, "Look what your God did for you. Look what your God did for you." Look what your lover did for you. Look what your lover did for you. Who loves me? Who? Hashem. Why? Why do you think Hashem loves me? Look what He did for you. Look. You gave a little bit of your money, what you had, a little bit that you have. Look how much reward He gave you. Three buckets full of gold. A thousand times more. What do you do now? Honestly, what do you do at this moment? What do you do?

6:47What does he do? He starts hysterical crying. Rabbi Yaron Adonai B'Shitzalav, alav hashalom, starts hysterically crying because he knows the truth. He says, "Oy vey vey, oy vey vey li, Hashem paid me reward in this world. Oy vey vey, Hashem paid me reward in this world; that means He doesn't like my mitzvah. He doesn't like my mitzvah. And I know why He doesn't like my mitzvah. Because I didn't share the chesed. I didn't share, I took it all for myself." He says, "Oh, you took it all for yourself? I'll give you the reward here then." You want all the mitzvah to yourself? Fine. I'll give you the reward to yourself too. Oy vey, what will I do with my connection to Hashem? Oy vey, look what I'm doing. What am I going to do with all this money, all this garbage? What am I going to do with this garbage? My connection with Hashem is hurt.

7:56That's a lover of Hashem. Do you understand? People say, no, no, I love Hashem, I love Hashem. What do you love, Hashem? Do you love the money He gave you? The wife He gave you? The husband? The kids He blessed you with? What do you love, Hashem? Loving Hashem, Rabotai, is like what Iyov (Job) exemplified. Iyov says, even if You were to destroy me, I would still serve Him. The Baal Shem Tov, zt"l (ziyhono li'vracha, of blessed memory), explains: What does this mean? It means that if Hashem says... From now on, every mitzvah you do, you're going to go to Gehenom for, and every aveirah, you go to Gan Eden. What do you do? Can anyone honestly say they would even fulfill one mitzvah for the rest of their life? Or are they all going to commit aveirot? I'm not going to embarrass you, but I'll be the first one to say it. Why? Because we're selfish. We're selfish people. We're selfish people. We want to go to Gan Eden. We care less about Ratzon Hashem because we don't love Him; we love ourselves. What does the Baal Shem Tov say? Even if Hashem tells me that every mitzvah leads me to Gehenom, I'm still doing the mitzvah because I know that's His will.

9:15And even when I go up to Shamayim, the Baal Shem Tov says, I go up to Shamayim. They tell me, listen, you have to go to Kaf HaKela. Oh, great, Hashem said it. Fight. He runs to Kaf HaKela. Oh, Hashem says again, nope. I'm going again, nope. What do you mean? You're going to suffer. Yeah, but if that's what Hashem wants, let it be suffering. That's loving Hashem. Meaning we're dreaming when we say, I love Hashem. Why do I love Hashem? You love yourself. Rabbi Yonatan Eibschutz understood, Rabotai, the essentials (Ikarim). He understood what it means to connect to Hashem and what's at risk when we're disconnected. He says, I did a mitzvah! I gave everything I had! But it was an incomplete mitzvah. Why? It's selfish. Selfish! You have to share the mitzvah. Share the mitzvah. And that's why, for us, to do a mitzvah, it's not just about doing something. It's about doing it completely. The connection with Hashem is all about shlemut.

10:15Shleimut meaning complete. Your mitzvah is to achieve completeness. Shleimut means completeness, and your mitzvah is to achieve it.