Contrary to
popular belief, the main avenue of obtaining schar (reward) in Olam Haba is not
by way of our actions in our term limited engagement in this world.
Rabbi Daniel
Glatstein informs us that in Shomayim the focus is on what we desired to
do as opposed to what we actually did.
It’s about recognizing that our horizons are not circumscribed by
our inherent limitations because we can desire our way past them as we
noted in EmunahSpeak:
Beyond the Horizon:
When anchored
in hashkafic bedrock, our emunah and bitochon pokes a hole through our personal
horizon, and beckons our imagination to walk through to the other side to a
world in which everything is possible.
And we learn
from Rabbeinu Yona that for his whole life a person should constantly desire
higher goals. One shouldn’t say, “I’m
giving it my best,” because as laudable as it might sound on the surface, in
reality it’s nothing more than a declaration of surrender to one’s present
circumstances, as we further pointed out in EmunahSpeak:
Beyond the Horizon:
You have a
problem and you don’t see a solution, so that’s it as far as you’re
concerned. It’s time to turn out the lights and call it a day because
your whole world is subsumed within the parameters of your imagination, and
what you can’t see simply doesn’t exist for you.
But it’s more
than simply pushing the envelope on what hopefully is a goal oriented
life. Rabbeinu Yona takes it a step
further by telling us that one should desire and yearn to attain UNREACHABLE
levels.
And how does one
reach what Rabbeinu Yona defines as unreachable?
For Rav Shimshon
Pincus, zt”l it was no problem, for as we said in EmunahSpeak:
Within our Reach, he (Rav
Pincus zt”l) informs us that Hashem goes above the rules for a person who
has a desire for spiritual greatness and whose emunah is so strong that he
believes that Hashem has both the ability and the will to transcend the normal
order of things in our day. Such a person does not question Hashem’s
ways just as the Avos did not question Hashem’s ways and he does not feel
thwarted by the fact Hashem created him with great limitations. He also
realizes the limited natural capabilities that he was endowed with cannot stop
Hashem from bestowing spiritual greatness upon him.
And this
greatness is not bestowed for giving one’s best but rather for desiring
to give even better.
