Welcome to Emotional Wellness Daily, a SIMHA Project.
In his sefer on Elul and Rosh Hashana, Rav Yerucham Levovitz quotes the Gaon Vilna in a last will and testament of sorts, that a person should have the following three things in mind, in order to be successful in life.
1-That he is the only man in the world,
2- That he only has one day, and that's today,
3- That he only has to focus on the one page of Gemara that he’s dealing with right now,
Step one, to focus on yourself, means imagining that you are the only person in the world. If I don't go to shul today, the shul will be empty. If I don’t reach out and help the poor man in need, there will be no one else to help him. If I don't attend the shiur, there will be no one else to attend it.
It's all about me.
Step number two focuses upon the endeavor or mizvah at hand. Imagine that it’s the only instance in which the Mizvah of Sedaka will be available. It’s the only opportunity to pray; the only chance to visit the sick person.
Step three calls attention to the idea that today is the only day that I'm around. There's no tomorrow. This is it.
This week, we’ll focus on the concept that there's only today.
Rav Shalom Schwadron gives the following analogy: Imagine if Eliyahu HaNavi approached someone and said, “I've been sent here to deliver some bad news. It has been decreed that today is to be your last day among the living. Tomorrow you'll be gone.”
That would be nice to know. It’s not good news, but at least you get the warning. What would your reaction be? Would you run to the bank to withdraw your assets? Would you order a large, fancy meal with all the trimmings?
A man would probably, hopefully, run to the Bet Midrash and learn like he never did before. A lady would do acts of kindness and help out her family. That's pretty much what we would do to take advantage of that last day.
It’s important to realize that every day is a day that have to use and appreciate for what it's worth. Forget about tomorrow.
People are sometimes overwhelmed.
They think, “How in the world am I going to stick to this for so long?” Or, “How am I going to stand up to this challenge for so long?”
But it's only today. One day at a time. That's why God broke the world into daily units. That way, you can focus on today. It makes life easier. You go to sleep at night and then it's a new day. God renews the world. Today is today and tomorrow is tomorrow.
There was a rabbi named Rav Don Ber, from the town of Rodschitz. When waking everyone in the mornings, he’d say, “Wake up! A guest has arrived, that you'll never see again. And who is that? That guest is today!” Today is here only once. It will never come again. What has to be done today cannot be done any other day. Each day has its own special work. And, like we said, each day has its challenges, but it's one day at a time.
And not just one day at a time, it's one moment at a time. There's a famous story about when Steipler was stuck in the Russian army in Siberia. He once had watch-duty on a Friday night. The system was that the man from the previous watch would leave his coat on some spot, and the next watchman would take that coat, because they didn't have enough coats for everybody for the whole night watch. So the Steipler was going to be up that night, but the previous man had left the coat on a tree.
If I remember correctly, he had two challenges. One was getting the coat off the tree on Shabbat, and the second was that he was concerned about whether the the coat was Shatnez. Of course, it was pretty cold and there was definitely room for leniency.
But the Steipler figured that he had been outside for five minutes and was doing okay. So, he reasoned that he’d just wait another five minutes. And then he added another five minutes and another five minutes, and so on, until the night was over.
It’s the same with life's challenges.
I saw a story in the weekly Peninim a few years ago that I’d like to share:
There was a teenage boy named Shlomo, who suffered immensely during World War II. He was beaten and hounded, and witnessed the murder of his entire family. He ended up in a dreaded Nazi death camp.
Shlomo might have suffered, but his commitment to Hashem did not wane one iota. One day the Nazi guard caught Shlomo wearing his tefilin, which he had been able to smuggle in. With a loud animalistic cry demonstrating the intense hatred this Nazi harbored for the Jews, he grabbed Shlomo, hurled him to the ground, and proceeded to strike him on his head, on the place where he had placed his Tefilin. He struck him long and hard until all signs of life disappeared. Leaving his body on the frigid ground, the Nazi left, but Hashem was not yet prepared for this saintly, young soul to leave the world. A few hours later, Shlomo came to, and his companions carried him to the bunker. After being nursed back to health, he survived the war.
He eventually married and merited raising a wonderful family, a virtual spiritual empire. One day his son asked him, “Father, what inspired you to choose life, to fight, to live in a deadly purgatory that was your lot?”
Shlomo took his son in his hands and said, “Every morning when I woke up from the few hours of painful rest, after sleeping on the cold floor, I looked up to the heaven and pleaded with Hashem. ‘Hashem, please give me just one day. Allow me to live through today.’ I did not ask more than one day at a time. This continued for five years until the liberation.”
That's a tremendous fundamental in dealing with life's challenges and life's opportunities. One day at a time, Have a great one day.