Vayeishev

Yaakov sends Yosef to visit his brothers who are tending the family flocks. Convinced that he wanted to sow dissension thus undermining the family's spiritual destiny, the brothers felt that he warranted the death penalty. As they saw him approaching, they plotted to kill him and say that he was devoured by a wild animal. Reuvain heard what was being discussed and said, “let's not kill him, rather let's put him in a pit so that we don't lay a hand on him.” Then the posuk reveals his intent: למען הציל אתו מידם להשיבו אל אביו, in order to save him from their hands and to return him home to his father. His intentions were to put him in the pit just until the other brothers calm down; then he would take him out and bring him back home.

The אור החיים הקדוש, says that the Torah specifies that Reuvain was saving him מידם, from their hands, but not from the snakes and scorpions that were in the pit. The אור החיים explains that a person who has free will is able to kill another person even if he wasn't supposed to die yet. Conversely, animals can only kill a person if that person has a decree of death on him anyway. Therefore, since Yosef was a tzaddik, Reuvain knew that there was no heavenly judgment against Yosef, so that, even if the pit was full of animals, they wouldn't be able to hurt him.

The midrash writes that, had Reuvain known that the Torah would write, ויצלהו מידם, he saved him from their hand, he would have carried Yosef on his shoulders back to his father. The Otzer Hatorah is astounded by this midrash. Do the sages view Reuvain as one who would only do the right thing if it was going to be recorded? Was he looking for honor?

The Sfas Emes explains, when an incident is written in the Torah, it assumes the dimension of eternity. The Torah is not a history book. We see certain stories that appear in great detail, while there are eras that are ignored completely; we know nothing about Avraham until he was seventy or Moshe from when he was thirteen until eighty. We know nothing of those years and countless other eras that the Torah doesn't tell us about because it's not relevant to us everlastingly. It only records things that we can learn from eternally. Reuvain, who was thinking that his good deed was just the act of a private individual with no historic meaning, did not take it as seriously as he should have. Had he realized the Torah would record his efforts to save his brother, thus making it part of our national heritage, he would have done even more and carried Yosef back to Yaakov on his shoulders.

Only Hashem can differentiate between a passing incident and one with eternal ramifications. Man, on the other hand, often views insignificant events as meaningful while he misses the true significance of actions that he views as inessential. Therefore, says Reb Eliyahu Meir Bloch, one must pour all his energy into each good thing that one does since he never knows how it will affect him, his children, his environment and his community. One never knows which of his actions will be witnessed by others or what small act of kindness can make the difference in another person's life

One may think he is building a sand castle when in truth he's building entire worlds. Let's take this lesson to heart and make sure when we do good thing, we do it right and make it count. We need to be more aware of our actions and remember that we never know who is watching us and what our eternal status will be!