Rav Elyashiv tells a Mashal
about a Rov of a small town who was not very good at giving Drashos.
It would take take him four to five months just to prepare his Shabbos
HaGadol and Shabbos Shuva drashos. He realized that this is okay for
these kinds of drashos where he has plenty of time to prepare, but what
will he do when one of the distinguished member of the Kehila die and
he is left to prepare a drasha on short notice?
He decided to
start writing hespeidim for the living member of his community, so that
after they reach 120 he will be prepared to give his drasha. One day a
fire broke out in town. As chaos reigned and the Rov was hurrying to
save his belongings, someone saw spread out all over the street,
hespeidim on Reb Chaim... Reb Getzel..., and so on. The furious
townspeople called a meeting and the Rov was fired.
Fools! The
Rov did nothing wrong. A person's whole life, he is writing his own
hesped. A hesped is nothing but the sum total of your life. What they
did with their actions the Rov noted with his pen. The big pen in
Shamayim is constantly taking notes. As we act, the scribes are are
writing away. They are writing our hesped. With every action you
take, think about how it will sound to the crowd of sad onlookers
listening to the completed story.
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