Rabbi Shimon Becker - Push Your Buttons & Fulfill Your Potential!

before we start i just want to say i'm humbled by the crowd here the rare opportunity i have to speak in front of so many people and uh especially with the video camera there and i was thinking about it and i realized you know the truth is we're always standing in front of a video camera god in chameleon god in heaven is always always having the video camera it's always there it's a little metaphor that as we stand in front of the video camera or whatever it is and we realize hey we're being watched guess what we're always being watched but um actually rabbi uh uh guttmacher was speaking before and i did not speak to him before we i came here tonight but the beginning of his speech was something that i prepared very similar to it uh so i might repeat it a little bit but uh i'll share one other idea also uh a great torah stage by the name of reb aaron cutler who's the was the roshiva of lakewood yeshiva asked the question as we've heard many many many times probably during this period between pesach and chavuz we've heard that the students that would be akiva passed away and what does the gemara say why did they pass away so they passed away because they didn't show respect to one another gentlemen i challenge any one of you gentlemen and ladies i challenge any one of you here to look through the whole torah from beginning to end and find anywhere where there's a warning or an indication of if god forbid someone doesn't show proper respect to his neighbor to his friend where does it say that god forbid he deserves to die never you'll never find it i challenge you if you find it please let me know but he asked that question and i think his answer is so powerful and i think it's so apropos and very very applicable to us here in emmett and as we go from a 10 week session we've heard so much torah so much capability to grow and we implement it into our own lives the answer that he gives is that these students were supposed to be the emissaries the people to put the torah to the next generation as what macho said and the challenge that they had was to be great azerbaijan said however us understanding that the challenge that we have has to be through perfection and to be a one who transmits the torah from one generation to the next generation has to be perfect these 24 000 students they did not show respect one to another and their sole purpose in life was one purpose they were to be to transmitters to the torah to the next generation and that purpose they were not able to do because they lacked that one concept of showing respect to one another and therefore god said you cannot fulfill your purpose there is no need for you to be in this world anymore and therefore that is the reason why how god had them pass now the question is asked if that's the reason why they died why are we mourning all right they didn't fulfill the potential but that's the reason why you mourn i'll tell you honestly it is pretty bad if a person doesn't try to fulfill the potential that's one of the things that emit here we have the 10 weeks try to utilize those 10 weeks after our 10 weeks to try to push ourselves to be able to great to be greater and ever higher but the rabbis tell us the reason is said there were 24 000 students who were supposed to be passing the torah from one generation to the next generation the level of torah knowledge that would be passed on pales in comparison to the amount of torah that would have been passed on if the i'm sorry if the five students pales in comparison to the 24 000. so these 24 000 died and did not allow the torah to be perpetuated to the next generation 24 000 as opposed to five that is why we mourn the level of torah knowledge that we would have had today would have been that much greater so gentlemen i just wanted to say that and gentlemen ladies there are two things that i wanted to tell you from this and clear and obvious how great it is that each and every one of us have a potential each and every one of us have a purpose in life our job is to try and push our own buttons inside and try to find what that potential is i'd like to share with you something that i read that i always share as many as often as i can i think it just brings home to like this idea of vallby who's no longer with us a great scholar he set a line and i think it's a beautiful thing to take with us after these ten weeks there's never been anyone exactly like you there will never be another you until the end of time every person respite member i have a distinct individual i am this individual with a precise combination of talents i was born to these parents at the interval in history and in this particular place obviously those two things we didn't decide certainly god has signed a specific task to me i have a special portion in the torah the entire world is waiting for me no other person in the world can accomplish my mission in life i think that's exactly the message that we have to take from the students of ribby akiva as the way aaron cutler said that this is exactly the reason why god took them god said your mission was to pass torah on to the next generation you cannot do it if you have those uh lacks in your proper character trait from one to another and because of that you're no longer able to pass on everyone here in emmett has an opportunity we're all older already now we're not little kids anymore and we should try to realize what our mission in life is as we grow our future generations grow with us we're about victor miller or of gifter i think the story was said about both of them it was a snowy day and he gave a class he comes to the class guess how many students there were in the class that they only won and the rabbi spoke as if there were thousands and thousands of students there and the student asked the rabbi rabbi you know you could lower the voice a little bit it's only me and what did the rabbi say back to him he says you don't understand says i'm not talking to you i'm talking to you your children your grandchildren your great-grandchildren and all the doroths all the generations until the coming of meshiach we as we are in this stage of our lives soon within a year two years however long it is till eventually hopefully everyone here will get involved to become married and have families and hopefully perpetuate torah to the next generation that is our charge and that is our mission but the truth of the matter is if we don't take stock now and realize that that is our mission today we can't be that much better of parents than we would have been if we realized today our mission and our charge in life so i just say all to everyone here as we approach shavuous which was the acceptance of the torah it's an interesting thing if you think about it the milestones that people accomplish in a secular world if you think about it what happens the milestone occurs and as time goes on since that milestone the feeling towards that milestone slowly but surely eeks away they don't feel that same excitement but god told us that every single year we have a holiday that's to renew to feel the love and the greatness that we have that we were chosen nation that god gave us the torah and considering that to be the case we have a charge in our life to re-establish that connection re-realize what our potential is and what our mission is in life to grow to be able to pass that on to the next generation thank you very much for listening