Billions of Gems

This world is a most incredible creation. It is a treasure house of spectacular eternal wealth. Before we can begin to make use of this world, we must cure ourselves with a medicine which is an understanding of the value of life and the truth of reality. This understanding must be infused into our mind and our eyes, in order to free our internal and external vision from the illusion of modern ideology and the mask of physicality. By doing so, we will uncover massive opportunity and thereby enable ourselves and others to acquire the intrinsic treasures that exist within our temporary physical existence here on planet earth.

Torah and Mitzvot are these intrinsic treasures. They are the only permanent assets that we have the ability to acquire for ourselves in this world. Unlike material wealth, they are a wealth that will remain with us forever. One is able to acquire this eternal currency through the three main human facets that are action, speech and thought process.

Rabbi Simcha Zissel Broida osb"m, head of the Hevron Yeshiva in Jerusalem during the previous generation, brought to light a deeper understanding of the value of certain speech related Mitzvot. He explains that it would be worth it to suffer 120 years of aggravations for the reward that one obtains by saying baruch hu ubaruch shemo once, and that the value of the amen said after one hears a bracha is 1000 times as much. He further explains that the value of uttering one amen yehey shemay raba during Kaddish surpasses the value of one amen by 1000 times again. Ending off, he explains that speaking one word of Torah study is 1000 times as valuable as one amen yehey shemay raba. To clarify clearly how powerful and valuable the Mitzva of Torah study is, allow me to explain as follows. The reward of one word of Torah study is equivalent to the reward that a person would be willing to suffer for 120 years in order to receive, multiplied by one billion. A person has the ability to say roughly 100 words a minute. That's billions of potential spiritual dollars in our permanent bank account, per minute.

Examples of mitzvot that are available to us through our thought process are as follows. To believe and know that there is a God, to not believe in any other gods, to know God is one, to love God, and to fear God. These are treasures that are acquired per second as one thinks these thoughts.

Thousands of words of Torah are immediately available to us; thousands of steps that we walk wearing tzitzit every minute of the day; hundreds of brachot and amens, thousands of seconds of meritorious thought process.

This is a mere fraction of what is immediately available to us daily. The opportunity to deepen the relationship and connection we will have with God eternally that will determine the extent of how pleasurable our eternal existence will be, lies within every single second of our lives. Our job is to simply open our eyes and get busy. A person must carefully invest in what is most valuable in this world with the precious time that is generously given to him or her by God, in order to generate an eternal bank account that is as large as possible, according to the individual's ability and potential to do so.

The greatest kindness that one could ever do for another Jew is to give over a mitzvah. The mitzvah of tzedaka is limited to the materially poor, but the mitzvah of kindness is unlimited as every single Jew no matter their financial status could use another mitzvah. Saying a bracha out loud so another Jew can say amen, bringing others to learn Torah, encouraging one to start wearing tzitzit or tefillin more frequently, encouraging more frequent attendance of prayer in a minyan that generates heaps of amens that have a massive and eternal imprint on the soul are all examples of what we have to offer our spiritual brothers and sisters. We’ve got to be creative. When we give another Jew a mitzva we literally change what their eternity will look like. It’s giving a Jew riches that will last forever and it doesn’t cost us anything. On the contrary it is a merit that we will benefit from forever.

We must ensure that time is being invested in this world to plant the seeds of our own eternity. In the generation that we find ourselves living in it is even more urgent to ensure that we hand over the Torah knowledge and understanding that we have been privileged to acquire to as many Jewish souls as we have the ability to influence. We must always remember the value of one moment of life so as to bring our own selves closer to our individual destiny and the Jewish people as a whole closer to its destiny of Moshiach, Bet Hamikdash and the world of truth and perfection that is Olam Habah, the World to Come.