Cherish the Gift | Rabbi Yisroel Besser

Years ago, a friend of mine told me how he worked for Torah Umesorah and he had to show a certain video to a bunch of Rashei Yeshiva. Video technology, VCRs, were then fairly new. And one of those Rashei Yeshiva was R’ Elya Svei. And he had to show this video, it was a classroom program, something about teaching children a certain way, and the Rashei Yeshiva had to gather into a room in a library in Philadelphia. R’ Elya Svei came in to watch this video and he popped the VHS, if you remember that, into the VCR and he pressed Play for R’ Elya to see it. And R’ Elya took his chair and he sat like 15 feet away from the monitor. So he said: Maybe the Rosh Yeshiva should sit a little closer. So R’ Elya said: I have to look at the video, but I don't have to sit any closer than necessary. And like, I never really understood the story, to be honest, because you're watching it, anyhow. The Rosh Yeshiva made a Cheshbon that that's the right thing for him to do, as a Manhig, as a leader in Chinuch, he felt like he had to watch that video and answer whatever the questions were. If you sit closer, if you sit further, it makes a difference? Another story. A yungerman in Eretz Yisroel told me that there was a Bris in his family, and it was just after COVID, and the parents and the grandparents couldn't come in from America, and they very much wanted to see it. So they zoomed the Bris, they livestreamed the Bris for the family. The Sandak was R’ Asher Arieli shlit”a. R’ Asher was Sandak and this yungerman, who was a Talmid of R’ Asher, was standing with an iPad about two feet away from R’ Asher, videoing the Bris, doing a zoom stream for the family back home, so they could see it. A day or two days after the Bris, he went over to his Rebbi, to R’ Asher, and he apologized. He said: I'm so sorry. I know that the Rebbi is probably not comfortable with the whole idea of technology, with a device like that, and the Rebbi is being Sandak, he's sitting over here, it’s such a gehoybener, such a lofty moment, and I'm standing with an iPad two feet away from Rebbi’s head. So R’ Asher said: I’m not sure what you’re talking about. He said: By the Bris. So he says: Yeah. He says: By the Bris, I was standing next to Rebbi and I was holding a big white tablet. He says, I didn't notice. He says: Rebbi didn't notice? So he says: I'll tell you the truth. I worked very, very hard not to see negative things in other Jews. I work to have an Ayin Tova, to see good in other Yidden. So you work hard enough, R’ Asher said, so the Ribono shel Olam allows you not to see things that you really don't want to see. Now R’ Asher Arieli, R’ Elya Svei zt”l, these are people who did a lot of things. R’ Asher’s the biggest Maggid Shiur in the world, he’s saying Shiur to thousands of Talmidim that has been. R’ Elya Svei was from the Manhigei America, the biggest Rashei Yeshiva in America, leading a Yeshiva for 50 years with so many Talmidim, so much Achrayus for the Tzibbur. But they were working on their eyes. Why? I had to go to New York once. A friend of mine was making a Chasunah. He asked me to take a large amount of cash to New York for him. I wasn't so comfortable with it, but he needed it, it was a big favor and I did it for him. And I was holding an envelope in my pocket with like $20,000 in cash. It was very uncomfortable for me and I... tap, tap, you know? The whole time, in the plane, airport, customs, I kept feeling it, I kept... So somebody else told me, he says: You're basically wearing a sign around your neck that says, I'm carrying a lot of money on me. You need to stop tapping. You're basically advertising to the whole airport that you have something valuable here. But I couldn't help it, because when you are aware that you're carrying something valuable, so you're not Mesiach Daas, you don't think about anything else. Your mind keeps going there and you want to make sure it’s there. Great people understood that there's a gift called Vision. R’ Elya Svei zt”l, Yibadel Lechaim, R’ Asher Arieli, they understand they have to constantly be working. Tap, tap, tap. Is it here? Am I using it right? Am I losing it? Am I not? Am I cherishing it? So R’ Elya Svei said: I have to watch. My vision has to be used that I have to go see that video. But I don't have to see it any more than necessary. I still have some vision that I don't have to give it. That's what it means to appreciate, to cherish the gift that you have. If we appreciate this gift, if we appreciate our vision a little more, how many more wonders could we see.