What can I do Today? | Rabbi Moshe Weinberger

The great Chabad spiritual mentor, R’ Mendel Futerfas, was in forced labor camp, slave labor camp, for many, many years in Russia. He told how the people that were there were mostly not Jewish. Many of them were former generals, former officials of the government, who Stalin had sent away. And almost every night, they would have this circle of memories and misery, where a former general would get up and the general would say: I used to have 50,000 troops under me, and the next one was a big banker and... all, you know, successful people who had been demoted and were now slaves and living miserable lives. And each one would get up and tell what he used to be and how horrible life is now, and they would commiserate. The only one that didn’t join this circle was R’ Mendel Futerfas. One day, one of the generals came over to him and said, Mendel, I know why you’re not part of our group. Because you were never anything, and you’re not anything now, and you’re not feeling the pain that we’re feeling. And R’ Mendel said: No, you have it all wrong. I have a beautiful family. I was a father, a husband. I had many people working for me. I had a successful business. I was a teacher. And I have none of that now, absolutely none of that. But I’ll tell you the difference. When I wake up in the morning, I say these words, I thank You, living and eternal King, who returned my soul to me with mercy, great is Your faithfulness. That means that God, You gave me back my soul, and God believes in me and trusts me to accomplish what He wants me to accomplish this day in my life. So even Stalin can’t take that away from me. I’m still in business. You’re all out of business, but I’m still working. Because every single day of my life when I wake up, I ask God, Master of the World, what can I do this day that will make You proud of me? What can I do in this place that I’m in right now? What can I do to add light to Your world? You’re a former general. You’re no longer anything. You’re a slave. I was a Jew and I was a Chasid, and I’m still a Jew and I’m still a Chasid, and no one can ever, ever take this away from me. Baruch Hashem, we’re not in any forced labor camp. Life is in many ways easier and better than it’s ever been. But sometimes you have this feeling of what could have been, what should have been, what I maybe used to be and I no longer am. To see yourself in such a way as a former general, somebody that once was and is no longer. But if you wake up in the morning and you think about the words that you’re saying, Great is Your faithfulness. Hashem, You trust, You have placed Your faith in me to be Your messenger in this world, to do something, doesn’t have to be spectacular. Just like R’ Mendel was saying, I was once a father to my children, I was a husband, I had a successful business. Right now, this is what God wants me to do, this is what Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants me to do. Think about what I can do this day as a servant of Hashem.