Is that Hashem? Jack, you picked a beautiful one. You know, the Rabbi is right. The Chafetz Chaim says that when a person has a mitzvah (commandment), he gives life to that particular body part that he uses and utilizes in order to fulfill that mitzvah. Right? He puts a certain or (light). There’s a certain or that he inundates himself with in order to liven that evar (body part).
Now, I don’t know if anybody here works out, but I’m sure you do. Okay? You’re not as fit as I am, but that’s okay. So many of you, especially my students, talk to me and tell me, “Rabbi, it is leg day, it is arm day, it is back day,” right? A person works out different body parts every single day.
Now, the interesting thing is that when a person does not use his muscle regularly and doesn’t use it for a long time, he experiences something called atrophy. Atrophy means that it weakens the muscle to the point where he can’t really use it much. We see many times that people who are bedridden aren’t able to use certain muscles adequately.
So a person has to understand that the Chafetz Chaim writes that when a person commits a sin, an infraction, a violation, he takes away light from that body part as well. He weakens that evar. He weakens that evar. Therefore, just as a person has a regimen when it comes to working out physically, a person should have a regimen of doing mitzvot with every body part that he can.
Therefore, a person has his arms, and every day you have your arms. Why did God grace you with arms? Why did Borei Olam create you? It says in Mishnah Pe'ah, so a person could come and honor to do mitzvot in order for a person to come and enliven himself. Therefore, every day, a person should try to use every body part he can to fulfill some sort of mitzvah.
So, when it comes to your arms, you do it every day, right? You do it both ways. Why? Because you’re maniach (puts on) tefillin (phylacteries) with your right arm, and you do it on your left arm. Your left arm is a mesaye'a. You’re not doing a mitzvah with your left arm. That’s just what’s helping you do with the right arm. It’s like a husband and a wife. A wife does not have a mitzvah to get married, but she gets a mitzvah. Why? Because she’s helping the husband fulfill his obligation.
So I do mitzvot with my two arms, and with my legs when I walk to shul (synagogue), when I walk to a mitzvah, and when I go to a shiur (lesson). I’m using my legs. You know, people drive; you’re supposed to use one leg when you drive, yes, for the brakes, otherwise it becomes confusing. I know people who drive with two legs. Vico, do you do that? I’m going to make sure to stay away from you on the road.
But a person has to understand: again, you use your legs when you’re driving. Do mitzvot; those mitzvot enliven your legs and your mouth—the words that I say in life. So a person has to try, with every effort, every being, to use every body part that God graced him with to fulfill God’s word. Why? Working out—working out my spiritual body parts that way, but it all goes together.
A person goes to Shamayim (Heaven). It says that when a person goes to Shamayim, just the view of the person makes a person embarrassed. Why? A guy goes up to Shamayim, and he’s going to be embarrassed. “But you didn’t say anything. What are you embarrassed about?” Because when they see a person alone without an arm, because he hurt his arm in this world by committing certain infractions, it’s embarrassing when you go to Shamayim. Embarrassing—the guy doesn’t have an arm.
The person who comes in totally radiant, with total light of the Kedushah (holiness), B'ezrat Hashem (with God's help), can go up to Shamayim without embarrassment. That’s why he’s a Ben Olam Haba (son of the World to Come). Ben Olam Haba, because there’s a dress code in Shamayim. The dress code, right? When you want to go to a class A restaurant, you have to be dressed up. No one dresses up anymore to go to a restaurant. You used to go to a restaurant, and if you didn’t have a tie, they kicked you out: “Where’s your tie? At least have a tie.” It’s ugly. The ties are in a basement somewhere. I’ll just give you a tie. Nowadays they don’t do that. But in Shamayim they do. Shamayim, there’s a dress code. Therefore, in order to go to a certain yeshiva, you have to have an arm. In a certain yeshiva, you have to have a leg. In a certain yeshiva, you have to have certain knowledge.
Therefore, let’s start working out our spiritual limbs today, so that God will give us and grace us every day of our life.