When good enough isn't good enough
The ArtScroll biography of Rabbi Meir Zlotowitz records an anecdote about the famed Kopyczynitzer Rebbe, Rav Avraham Yehoshua Heschel ztz”l. The Rebbe had finished making his Pesach matzos and gave a generous tip to a worker at the bakery. When the Rebbe returned to the bakery a few days later to bake his special Erev Pesach matzos, he gave the same worker another tip and said, “This is l’kavod Yom Tov.”
The worker protested, “The Rebbe was already yotzei.”
The Rebbe looked at him and said, “‘Ich bin nisht gekimen ohf der velt yotzei tzi zein [I didn’t come down to this world just to be yotzei].”
How do we determine if we are “just yotzei” Yidden or not? What yardstick should we use to make that measurement? Stories abound about our gedolim, past and present, who did much more than was required of them. Should they be our yardstick? Or do we put them on a spiritual pedestal that elevates them out of our reach?
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