Rabbi David Ashear
Every moment of life is precious. With a moment of life, a person can perform a mitzvah, offer a prayer to Hashem, learn a word of Torah, or give a dollar to tzedakah. We have no idea how valuable our deeds are, and how far-reaching.
The pasuk says (Yeshayah 49:21), “You will say in your heart, ‘Who bore these to me?’” The Kedushat Levi explains that sometimes we do mitzvot that come so easily and naturally to us that we don’t even consider them to be mitzvot. But in the future, Hashem is going to show every one of us how great our deeds were and how much they accomplished. We will be so overwhelmed that we will exclaim, I can’t believe I did all this!”
In 1938, a man named Sir Nicholas Winton single-handedly rescued 669 Jewish children from perishing in the Holocaust. He successfully brought them from Czechoslovakia to Great Britain and helped find homes for all how much they of them; most of their parents perished in Auschwitz. Winton never mentioned this heroic feat to anyone.
Fifty years later, his wife found a notebook in their attic, containing the names and pictures of all the children he saved. She gave it to a journalist. When word of his heroism was heard, people wanted to honor him.
Without being apprised of the purpose of the event, Sir Nicholas was invited to a large banquet hall. When he entered, the entire crowd rose to their feet and began applauding. He was told that the attendees in the ballroom were those whose lives he had saved five decades earlier. Now adults, they had all come to thank him personally.
The honoree became very emotional at the awesome sight of what he had accomplished. Had he been familiar with the pasuk in Yeshayah, he could have cried, “Who bore these to me”? I can’t believe what I have done?”
One of the chasidei umot haolam – a righteous non-Jew – Sir Nicholas died in 2015, at the ripe old age of 106. May his memory be blessed.
We can never really know what we accomplish with every mitzvah we do. Hashem keeps track of our every deed and thought. In the future, a person will be shown the effect each of his prayers had. He might discover that he saved lives, gave someone a livelihood, preserved marriages, and much more. If a person brought someone close to religion, in the future he will see how his efforts bore fruit. Generations of Jews will go in the ways of Hashem because of a few words he once said. If one gave chizuk to others, thereby enabling them to go on with their lives happily and to serve Hashem, he will see the extraordinary impact of his words. He will then exclaim, “ I can’t believe what I did!”
Every mitzvah we do brings benefit to the world and blessings to Am Yisrael, and provides protection from harm. We have no idea of the extent of even one mitzvah. Therefore, we need to appreciate the opportunity Hashem gives us and take advantage of every moment to accomplish all we can.