Beit Shemesh: Rav Ovadia Yosef's Blessing Few Know About

but of course in order for us to value our time when a person is Jewish and knows that his Torah is priceless hearing it sounds good knowing it is much better so for that I'll tell you a couple of stories heard the story from his dear father this Shabbat and says he spoke to the man spoke to the person behind it he says years ago maybe 30 years ago there was an that uh tragedy Came Upon him and his house burned down his apartment burned down everything destroyed and he was actually neighbors with now this came to after he got the worst news aside from the burning house which is that to fix it it's going to cost 200,000 shekels what is he making a few hundred shekels a month what is he making 200,000 shkel you might as well tell him million he's just as far from that as he is from the 200,000 so he came to radya he told R the story and rad told him listen I'll write you a letter and you could take this letter and go try collect the money and says please what am I going to get from people 10,000 15,000 I'm going to get from them I need 200,000 where am I going to get such money plus going to be such a waste of time effort so says okay let me think about it let's pray now and let me think about it they went and prayed in and after the prayer a rich Jew was visiting and came Toya and asked radya if he would please honor them by coming to the Brit of the firstborn grandson that this rich man has they're having it in a very fancy place and they want the honor to have the r be as the Sak of was a Sak on many many breits but in his later years he said no more being a Sak anywhere else other than his own sh in order not to waste time traveling going back and forth anyone that wants to be S bring the baby to his they do the prayer finish two minutes literally they're finished with the but this rich man did not want that he wanted Rya to come to the place and everybody says no I'm sorry can't cannot do it too much time it's going to take an hour of my time I can't Tora wasting time and the man begged him said please Rabbi please I'll do anything anything the Rabbi says I'll do I have I promise my son this is the first grandson the family has I promise my son that I'm going to have come be the Sak for this baby says anything okay go help that Jew you see that over there sitting go help him you help him I'll come of course the rich man runs over to this that he never saw heard before says sure listen me here to help you what do you need whatever you need I'm here he says no no listen I'm okay no no what do you need what do you need come on tell me I need I need something I need 200,000 shekels you got it no problem here takes out a checkbook on the spot writes 200,000 shekels as if it's writing $2 gives it to him in his hand runs back to wait hold on a second what what is this for no it's for the rabbi to come be the Sak and immediately the runs back after the guy goes in front of goes no no no no no no no no absolutely not absolutely not and he gives back the guy the check cuz why not he goes you think that I will take upon myself to waste an hour of R's Torah time absolutely not no way let the house be burned and we'll just live in a burnt house rather than waste an hour of's time when Rya heard this of respect for his time for his Torah immediately got up and he told this listen to me go and sell your house as it is sell your house without changing anything take that money from the house there's a place called bet shees that the country the state is trying to build there's almost nothing there go and buy two houses over there one big house to live in and one small house the small house you turn into a little synagogue you go do that I promise you're going to succeed for the Merit of how much you valued my hour of to you gave me an hour of Tor you're going to see success listened to this's advice listen to the's advice without second guessing anything today even if you tell people the AL on something they second guess you but maybe there's a different opinion immediately he took the's advice to practice sold this house burned as it is sold it got some money but the houses in betes at the time were so cheap there was virtually nobody there you could buy things for pennies he was able to buy two houses with that money got a big house for himself got a small house AET but now there's a problem what's the problem there's no Manan and he's there doing whatever he can came to ra for a blessing because I promise you you're going to succeed don't worry you value Tora you're going to succeed and is in his Sho one day Ines and a person com a businessman comes in said listen we are looking for somebody to be the head of all of the institutions we have that we're building here Yesa Yesa synagogue you know Seminary for girls everything and I want you to be the head since I see you're the only one that has come here and is trying I want you to be the head what do you say says i' be happy to but I don't have any money I'm sorry he goes no no don't worry about it you don't need any money the the state already gave us land as part of this whole thing that they're trying to push for people to come here and build and for the building I already have a donor all you got to say is yes and of course he said yes and the blessings Came Upon him and until this day until this day his institutions are some of the biggest in bemes and of course bmes has prospered tremendously over the last 20 or so years but we see here what this man got just for valuing one hour of TOA one hour of toah when a person understands the value of Torah in the next World the story you just heard means nothing in comparison to it because as much glory and Glamour and and and and profit that a person can get in this world it's literally worthless in comparison to what a person gets for that single hour in the next World so why waste the time why waste an hour of your life talking about mundane nonsense that cannot help you nor the other person we are meant to be a light unto the Nations not to follow their misguided practices remember every Jew has to remember that he's a Jew and she's a Jew we don't celebrate non-jew Jewish holidays even if they seem harmless it's a z disrespect to the Torah and could lead to Chul Hashem desecration of God's name stick to our holy Torah and our own holidays that's the path of a true Jew