Tasting Olam Haba in This World

From “Torah Wellsprings, Parshas Yisro

By Rav Elimelech Biderman, shlita 

 

     When our inspiration flags, we must remember that our connection to Torah and mitzvos will always return. 

     For instance, many people who had COVID temporarily lost their senses of smell and taste, but they forced themselves to eat because they knew that they needed to eat in order to live.

     Reb Gamliel Rabinowitz zt”l explained that from this mashal we learn that those who lose their taste and enjoyment in Torah and tefillah should continue to perform good deeds because, eventually, their “sense of taste” for them will return. While temporary interruptions and lapses in kavanna and energy are normal, all Yidden will once again experience the pleasures of Torah and mitzvos. 

      To stay motivated, we must remember that although the rewards for the mitzvos are so vast and limitless that the physical world cannot contain them, we don’t only have to think about doing Avodas Hashem as a good investment for a better future.            

      By learning Torah and doing mitzvos, we are also investing our time and energy to enjoy a better present.

      The Gemara (Brachos 17.) tells us that before returning home after learning together for a long time, when yeshiva students were saying goodbye to one another, they gave one another the blessing, "May you see your world in your lifetime," which Rashi translated as, "May you have all your needs met."

      The Baal Shem Tov explained that what the yeshiva students were wishing each other was, “May you see your future world of Olam Ha Ba in your lifetime.” The Baal Shem Tov was saying that it is possible to experience a taste of the future world in one’s avodas Hashem.

      The Meor Einayim (Yisro, ד״ה בשעה שהקדימו) writes that Olam Haba comes to this world when we perform Torah and mitzvos. The next world doesn’t come immediately. One must invest some amount of toil. But when we do, we experience the Olam HaBa that is within our good deeds.

      “The future world is called ‘the world that comes’ because it comes when a person serves Hashem,” says the Meor Einayim.

      When B’nai Yisroel said, נעשה ונשמע, what they meant was, “We will do Hashem's service, we will toil, and then we will come to the world of pleasure.” 

      When one speaks Torah and performs mitzvos with hislahavus, joy, love, and fear, the pleasure will come. Jews who toil in their avodas Hashem, will experience a taste of Olam HaBa. 

      Within Torah and mitzvos, we can experience the joy of Gan Eden and the pleasures of the world to come. 

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