The Impact and Reward of Influence

And Avraham was old, advanced in days, and the Lord had blessed Avraham with everything. (Bereishit 24:1) 
 

Know Your Influence 

There was a great Torah scholar and teacher whose life was filled with bitter hardships. He suffered through numerous illnesses. In search of answers, he visited the Chafetz Chaim and asked: “I have dedicated my entire life to teaching Torah. Why am I being afflicted with such terrible hardships?” 
 

The Chafetz Chaim responded: “You are responsible for the oppression that millions of Jews – spiritually and physically – are experiencing under the Communist’s rule. And, further, you are liable for all the evil and suffering that that regime imposes onto this world.” 
 

As the teacher heard these words leave the Chafetz Chaim’s mouth, he began to tremble and said: “Why is the Rebbe speaking so harshly to me!? I never helped the communists! In fact, I agonize, and I cry over the atrocities that they have committed!” 
 

The Chafetz Chaim asked: “Did you ever have a student by the name of Leibel Bronstein?” 
 

“I did,” answered the teacher, “but he was not in the yeshiva for very long. His mother was a widow and was unable to pay the tuition. After missing three payments, I told her she had to find another yeshiva for her son. So, the student left.” 
 

“Do you know what happened to this student that you sent away?” 
 

“I do not,” answered the teacher. 
 

The Chafetz Chaim said: “Let me tell you what happened to that student after you turned him away from your yeshiva. His mother desperately tried to find her son another teacher. However, she was unable to find anyone else to teach him. As the boy grew older, he abandoned the Torah completely. Young and impressionable, he began getting active with a different emerging community, a small group of people who were clinging to the ideas of Communism. He became a passionate advocate for these newly found beliefs. He rose through the ranks and became the head of the Party.” 
 

“He was a gifted orator. He would travel to every village, town, and city preaching the philosophy of Communism. Thousands would come to hear his fervent speeches. His crowds quickly became staunch supporters and his following kept growing and growing. Through his efforts, the Communists were able to eventually take control of Russia. The boy had changed his name to Leon Trotsky.” 
 

The Chafetz Chaim concluded, “You need to make a chesbon hanefesh, an accounting of your soul. You need to hold yourself accountable. Maybe you could have allowed the boy to remain in your yeshiva for two more years at half the cost of tuition? Or you could have found a benefactor to sponsor his tuition? At the very least, you could have taken the responsibility to find him another teacher who would help guide this boy so that his talents would be utilized for the good.” 
 

“He could have been an incredible maggid who would have used his oratory skills to bring thousands of Jews back to Torah and Hashem. But now, because you didn’t bother to make that effort, to try your very best to help this child, how many yeshivas and shuls have been shuttered by the Communist Party? How many scholars, rabbis, and heads of yeshivas are sitting in prisons? How many mivakot have been closed? How many thousands of Jews have abandoned Yiddishkeit and joined the Communist Party? How many millions are suffering under their brutal regime? All because you turned away this boy from your yeshiva.”   
 

Your Influence Lives On

This story highlights a critical lesson. Influence is a powerful tool, and its impact is everlasting. The Heavens hold you accountable and punish you for the actions of others that you have influenced. If someone behaves poorly, if they abandon Torah and mitzvot because of your influence on them, you are responsible for every wrong action that that person might do. 
 

On the other hand, when you help guide someone to Torah and mitzvot, influencing them to draw closer to Hashem, then their mitzvot and good deeds stand as your merits. 
 

For example, if you donate funds to help public school students attend a Jewish school where they can learn Torah, you receive an incredible reward. All the mitzvot that they perform and all the Torah knowledge they acquire – along with all of their descendants that follow for all of time – will be in your merit. 
 

This reward is eternal and everlasting and extends beyond the life of the person who was the source of that influence. His influence created a chain reaction that reverberates throughout the generations, long after he has left the world. That influence has carried forward throughout the generations. All these mitzvot, all of that goodness, are considered as if he himself was doing them. The reward for that influence, therefore, is immense.  
 

Avraham Raised Countless People

We see this was true of Avraham Avinu. The pasuk says (Bereishit 18:19), “For I have known him because he commands his sons and his household after him, that they should keep the way of the Lord to perform righteousness and justice, in order that the Lord bring upon Avraham that which He spoke concerning him” Rashi explains It does not say “upon the house of Avraham” but “upon Avraham.” We learn from this that whoever raises a righteous son is considered as though he does not die. 
 

Avraham Avinu had many children who were tzaddikim. 
 

The Torah tells us (Bereishit 12:5), “And the souls they had acquired in Haran”. Rashi explains that these were the people whom Avraham had brought under the wings of the Shechinah. Avraham would convert the men, and Sarah would convert the women, and Scripture ascribes to them [a merit] as if they had made them. And Chazal taught (Sotah 10b) that this teaches that Avraham our forefather caused the name of the Holy One, Blessed be He, to be called out in the mouth of all passersby. How so? After the guests of Avraham ate and drank, they arose to bless him. He said to them, “But did you eat from what is mine? Rather, you ate from the food of the God of the world. Therefore, you should thank and praise and bless the One Who spoke and the world was created.” 
 

These individuals that Avraham brought closer to Hashem were considered like his children literally. As the Gemara says (Sanhedrin 19b) whoever teaches their friend’s child Torah, it is as if they gave birth to him.  
 

His Days Continue

This is possibly what we can learn from our pasuk: “And Avraham was old, advanced in days” – His “days” continue to advance until this very day. Because, “the Lord had blessed Avraham with everything” – The word בכל is numerically equivalent to the Hebrew word בן-son, as Rashi explains. He was blessed with sons and students who influenced the world, who brought the world closer to Hashem. Therefore, he still “lives” today through their mitzvot and Torah study.  

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The Kalever Rebbe is the seventh Rebbe of the Kaalov Chasidic dynasty, begun by his ancestor who was born to his previously childless parents after receiving a blessing from the Baal Shem Tov zy”a, and later learned under the Maggid of Mezeritch zt”l. The Rebbe has been involved in outreach for more than 30 years, and writes weekly emails on understanding current issues through the Torah. You can sign up at www.kaalov.org.