GYE Boosts (Transcribed)

TITLE:  #6 THE FIRE GOES BOTH WAYS, Rav Ephraim Wachsman

TRANSCRIBED FOR:  Guard Your Eyes

Rav Ephraim Wachsman:  Sometimes we become very discouraged when we look at our yetzer haras.  We think, what kind of a person am I?  Listen to the words of the heilige Be'er Mayim Chaim in Parshas Emor.  We're going to read through his lashon and translate.

"ותדעו אחיי ורעיי," my brothers and friends, "הנה אלה הרשעים ושלוי עולם," resha'im and those who wallow in the pleasures of the world, "הבוערים בלבבם לכל מיני התאוות ועבירות רעות," whose hearts are burning with all sorts of ta'avos for sin, "בחמדה עזה וחזקה," with a powerful chimud, with a powerful coveting.

"אילו היו רוצים להכנס לקדושה," if they wanted to enter the world of holiness, "היו יכולין להכנס ממש כמו כן," they would be able to enter on the very same level, "שיחשק ויתלהב ויתאוה," they would become inflamed with a desire, "ויחפוץ בלהבי יקודי אש," like flames of fire "לאהבת השם ותורתו ומצוותיו."

Why?  "כי את זה לעומת זה עשה האלקים," because everything that there is in tumah, there's the equal and opposite in kedushah. "וכפי אשר נראה כוחו בקליפה," if he sees that he has such a strong power in tumah, "מהתאוה המופלגה," from extraordinary desire, "והחמדה עזה," and powerful, powerful, chemdos, "כן היה כוחו בקדושה לאהבת השם," so would his power be to have love for HaKadosh Baruch Hu.

"מה שאדם אחר שלא נברא בכח הזה," a person who doesn't have this power, who doesn't have such ta'avos ra'os, would not be able to accomplish, "להיות אהבה עזה תקוע בלבבו לדבר מן הדברים לא היה יכול להגיע כלל למדריגה עליונה כזו."

These are devarim nifla'im. The other person, who is naturally above such ta'avos, would never be able to reach the level of kedushah as the one who is the ba'al "חמדה עזה." If he would try and push himself into the kedushah, he would be able to become a kadosh elyon on the same level that he has, rachmana litzlan, b'klipah. This is the concept of bechirah, of "כל הגדול מחברו יצרו גדול הימנו."

TITLE:  #21 Unhealthy Guilt, Rav Yisroel Reisman

TRANSCRIBED FOR:  Guard Your Eyes

Number of Inaudibles: 1

Rav Yisroel Reisman: The yetzer hara loves to make people feel guilty.  However, to what point do you feel guilty about an aveirah you did? How guilty do you feel?  I'll tell you a secret.  You only feel as guilty as you think your friends around you are better than you. To the extent that you might fail in avodas Hashem and you see that your chaveirim have the same weakness, there is no guilt, there is no pain, there is no tza'ar.

The best mashal to this is not having kavanah in davening.  I could show you Chazals that say, if you don't have kavanah in davening, it's a terrible aveirah. At least the first brachah of davening is a brachah levatalah, and maybe even the whole Shemonah Esrei are brachos levatalos. If you don't have kavanah, it's a terrible aveirah. Yet, I've had people who are depressed over many aveiros, but I've never really had people who feel so guilty about not having kavanah.  I was wondering why.  I realized that guilt really is related to how much you think you should be perfect. If you think you should be perfect, you feel terribly guilty.  If you realize you don't have to be, you don't feel as guilty.

Therefore, guilt that prevents people from serving Hashem is most pronounced in private types of aveiros, personal types of aveiros, personal chata'im, aveiros that are usually not spoken about much, aveiros of being pogim b'os bris kodesh, aveiros that are very personal and private.  When people are involved in these types of aveiros, they think that they're the only ones and they feel guilty.  It drives people l'tima'ein.

I once heard an experienced mechanach say that he's choshesh, in his experience with young adolescents, that the thing that first drives them away are guilt feelings over these types of personal aveiros that nobody else knows about.  They are just personal, between the person and his (inaudible 00:02:43).

TITLE:  #41 Who the Coach Challenges Most, Rabbi Avi Wiesenfeld

Number of Inaudibles: 0

Rabbi Avi Wiesenfeld: Imagine a person on a basketball team, or a baseball team, or a football team.  The coach is always looking for ways to improve his players. He throws them this challenge, he makes them do that.  He finds ways to keep them up, keep them going, keep them fit.  If you were on that team and the coach ignores you, he doesn't really throw you any difficult challenges and everything is pretty simple, you kind of get the idea that he's not really interested in you. He doesn't think you have great potential.  He doesn't see where you could get to in life, so he's not really interested in working with you.  But he takes the guys that he feels have the biggest potential and the biggest result.

We have a Coach with a big C.  We have to realize that sometimes, yes, life is full of challenges.  Sometimes things are a little bit difficult.  Nobody has it easy.  But the big Coach with the big C is throwing us challenges.  The bigger the challenge that He throws us means the bigger potential He sees within us.  It makes us a better person.

There are two ways you can deal with it.  You can take it head on and rise up to the challenge, or you can take the easy way out and just give in and just look at that which you shouldn't be looking at.  So let's think, next time we get a nisayon, next time we get a test, that this is unbelievable.  The coach with a big C is throwing us a challenge.  Let's rise up to the challenge and let's become the person that we really can be.

TITLE:  #46 THE LAST BATTLE, Rabbi Yosef Elefant

Number of Inaudibles: 1

Rabbi Yosef Elefant: We find in the battle between Yaakov Avinu and the Sa'ar Shel Eisav, they battled the whole night, "עד עלות השחר." In the end, the Sa'ar Shel Eisav gave Yaakov Avinu a punch.  He gave him a klap.

You know, when two people have an argument, they're having an ideological argument, a hashkafah argument, between emes and sheker, how do you know who won the battle?  How do you know who won the argument?  If at the end of the argument, one guy gives a slap to the other guy, you know he lost.  He had nothing to say.  (Inaudible 00:00:38) was having a tifeh machlokes and so he goes and punches the other guy.  I can't take it anymore.

Yaakov Avinu and the Sa'ar Shel Eisav had to battle over the entire bri'ah, emes versus sheker.  Eisav is the sheker of the bri'ah; Yaakov Avinu is emes.  They fought back and forth the whole night.  It wasn't a wrestling match.  It was a hashkafah battle between emes and sheker.  In the end, what happened?  Eisav had nothing to do so he smacked him, "כף ירך יעקב," he hit him in the place of kedushah.  He ran out of what to say.

"עד עלות השחר," right before alos hashachar, say all the sefarim, is referring to right before the ge'ulah. Right before. We're in galus a long time. We're in galus a long time. We, our parents, our grandparents, our bubbes and zeides, have faced a lot of tests.  Everyone who is sitting here, their bubbes and zeides came to America, some before the war, some after the war.  Shmiras Shabbos was a mesiras nefesh.  But there was an ideology over there, which was, make a living.  I do want to make a living; I don't want to make a living.

The dor before that faced the battle of ideologies; communism, socialism, Zionism, Haskalah. Those are all ideas, those are all hashkafos, those are all ideologies.  You can argue, you can fight back and forth.  We survived all that.  We survived all the isms.  We're here in Beis Yisrael, tonight, in Yerushalayim Ir HaKodesh, after we survived all the ideologies, all the hashkafos.

Right before alos hashachar, before the ge'ulah, the yetzer hara came and he ran out of what to say.  He doesn't have what to say anymore.  What's he supposed to say?  He tried this, he tried that.  The olam mutchered, the olam was moser nefesh. They ran away, they were moser nefesh, they starved, they went to the mikveh in Russia in the ice. It didn't go.

Came along the yetzer hara and gave a slap.  Internet.  He slapped us.  We have nothing against him.  What, you're going to go and argue with a computer?  Is there an ideology over here, is there a hashkafah?  Is somebody going to go and say, this is the way to fix the world, that everybody is equal?  Is somebody going to say, you've got to make a living, Shabbos is not kedai?

It's before alos hashachar and the yetzer hara gave a slap. He didn't come with hashkafah, he didn't come with an idea, he didn't come with a tifer zach. He came and punched.  He ran out of what to say.  It's right before the ge'ulah, right before alos hashachar, before the sun comes up.

TITLE:  #125 Like Electricity, Rabbi Avi Wiesenfeld

Rabbi Avi Wiesenfeld: People often say, with the whole inyan of shmiras einayim, watching our eyes, you know, I've got to be on a pretty bad level.  I have this all the time.  People come to me, people send me e-mails, people call me up.  You know, I've given shiurim on these things; on Torah Anytime, to people here.  People say, you know, I've got to be on a pretty low level to be always looking at the wrong things and always pressing the wrong buttons on my phone, on the computer, on whatever it is, that gets me to the wrong places.  What's the matter with me?  Why am I so bad?  What's the problem?

I always tell them, no, no.  You're not bad.  The Ribbono shel olam, HaKadosh Baruch Hu, put into creation this attraction that a man has for a woman.  In fact, obviously, as Chazal tell us, it's for the right reasons.

It's like the ko'ach of electricity, I always say.  With electricity, the more powerful the current, the more damage it can do.  Imagine you take New York City.  New York City electricity, I don't know what it is, but it's a lot, because it has to light up New York City.  On the other hand, if, chas v'shalom, a person electrocutes himself, it's also a terrible thing.  Because the more power something has, the more damage it can do.  The less power the electric current has, the less good it can do and obviously the less bad it can do.

The attraction that HaKadosh Baruch Hu put in the world, that a man looks at a woman and wants to see, is something that needs to be there for the continuation of the world.  So powerful is this attraction, that obviously if it's used in the correct way, it can have amazing results.  Families, children, the continuation of the world comes from that. However powerful it is, it has the opposite affect also.  The ko'ach of electricity, the strength of electricity when it's powerful can also do tremendous damage.

You're not alone.  You're not the only one.  There are many people out there who have nisyonos. The Ribbono shel olam put them in us, put them into the world.  You're not low.  Aderabah, HaKadosh Baruch Hu did it to raise you up.

TITLE:  #177 But I Caused This Mess, Rabbi Ben Tzion Shafier

Rabbi Ben Tzion Shafier: Every once in a while, you may say to yourself, how can I possibly face Hashem when I've created such a deep pit?  Even more than that, how can you possibly tell me that I'm given reward for controlling myself when I created this desire?  When I was younger, I didn't have it.  If I didn't read those things, if I didn't go to those sites, if I didn't look at those pictures, I wouldn't have had this situation.  I made it, I created it, it's my fault.  How can I face Hashem, and, surely, how can I expect to get reward for winning this fight?

I'd like to share with you that those words are not said by your yetzer tov.  Rather, they're not said by anyone other than the Satan. Number one, you didn't choose to be born into this generation.  I guarantee that had you been born in Europe 100 years ago or 200 years ago, and the only woman you ever saw was your cousin one time, you would not be in the situation you're in.

The generation that we were born into is very, very difficult.  I no longer say it, but I used to say to my kids all the time, baruch Hashem that I was not born in your generation, because people born now face such a bitter, bitter battle.  You didn't choose the battle and you didn't choose to be born into this generation.

But even more than that, did you choose desire? Did you wake up in the morning and say, Hashem, I wish I had this lust, this all-encompassing hunger and drive, that constantly gnaws at me and bothers me and doesn't let me a moment of rest? I doubt you chose that.

As you didn't choose the generation, you also didn't choose desire.  If you were the biggest tzaddik in the world, if you were Shimshon HaGibor, is it true that you would have been different?  Maybe yes, maybe no.  But one thing I do know; you didn't choose it.  You didn't choose this generation and you didn't choose desire.

So even if we say that you created this trap, the bottom line is that you're given tremendous reward for every moment that you resist.   Even if you blame yourself and even if you think you created it and you made it, you're given tremendous reward.  Every minute that you resist, you're given reward. Even if you think you made yourself into this, A, you didn't do it. You didn't choose the generation, you didn't chose desire.  B, even if you did, you're given tremendous reward for every moment that you battle the fight, for every moment that you put in real effort.

TITLE:  #197 FOR THIS YOU WERE CREATED, Rav Ephraim Wachsman

Rav Ephraim Wachsman: There's a very important yesod that Rabbi Tzadok and other sefarim hakedoshim bring.  A person should not let himself be swayed by a certain yetzer hara.  There's a very powerful yetzer hara, the Satan, bifrat bizmaneinu, which tells a person, it's too late.  It doesn't make a difference anymore.  You were already nifgam, you were already nichshal, you already saw, you already thought, you already did.  Whatever it is, machshavah, dibur, or ma'aseh.  What difference does it make?  What are you going to fix, what are you going to be mesakein? That is the language of the Satan itself.  That is the worst thing a person can say to himself.

Punkt farkert.  Se iz mevo'ar b'kamah v'kamah mekomos. Every single milchamah, every time, every new battle, every time a person overcomes his yetzer hara in this struggle, he's bokei'a reki'im, and he's nichnas l'geder tzaddik, and he can be zocheh to the title of tzaddik yesod olam.  Even if he falls other times, but each time that he's zocheh to be misgaber is a new zechus.

It says in the sefarim hakedoshim that at that moment he has a ko'ach hatefillah. He can ask HaKadosh Baruch Hu for anything he wants.  It says in the sefarim, we have to realize that we have no idea, nobody knows how great his neshamah is.  The Ari HaKadosh says a person can be an adam pashut and he can have a neshamah that's so high and so exalted that it encompasses many of the neshamos in his dor.  One small netiyah l'tov, one small hisgabrus, can have such an affect on all the olamos, and on the world, and on himself.  It can bring so much kedushah.

The Ba'al HaTanya, in Perek Chaf-Zayin, writes devarim nifla'im.  He says, sometimes a person looks at tzaddikim and he says, a tzaddik is so great that he never has such nisyonos, he never has a machshavah that's improper.  Here, why am I lured, why am I nimshach after things that seem so beneath me? Why is it?  A person is worried.

Zukt the heilige Ba'al HaTanya, there are two types of avodah. There is such a thing as a tzaddik who has an especially oisge'eidelte neshamah and he doesn't have these nisyonos. But there's another type of tzaddik who also sings a shirah to the Ribbono shel olam. There is a person who is sent on this world just to be a loichim, just to do battle.  It's impossible that he'll never overcome his yetzer hara. He'll never get over it.  He'll always be in a battle, he'll always be in a milchamah.  Yet, each time he fights, "בכל דחיה ודחיה שמדחהו ממחשבתו אתכפיא סטרא אחרא לתתא," and he pulls down the Sitra Achra, he overcomes it, we cannot imagine, "בגודל נחת רוח לפניו יתברך ... ולכן אל יפל לב אדם עליו," the great nachas he gives Hashem. Therefore, he shouldn't despair in himself, "ולא ירע לבבו מאד גם אם יהיה כן כל ימיו במלחמה זו," because it could be "לכך נברא וזאת עבודתו," the Ribbono shel olam wants the avodah of those who are doing battles.

It's a moredige arichus here.  Devarim nifla'im.  Not to take lightly the effects of fighting the yetzer hara one time. "שבע יפול צדיק וקם."

TITLE:  #216 TWO TYPES OF TZADIKIM, Rav Ephraim Wachsman

Rav Ephraim Wachsman: The Ba'al HaTanya, in Perek Chaf-Zayin, writes devarim nifla'im. He says, sometimes a person looks at tzaddikim and he says, a tzaddik is so great that he never has such nisyonos, he never has a machshavah that's improper.  Here, why am I lured, why am I nimshach after things that seem so beneath me?  Why is it? A person is worried.

Zukt the heilige Ba'al HaTanya, there are two types of avodah. There is such a thing as a tzaddik who has an especially oisge'eidelte neshamah and he doesn't have these nisyonos. But there's another type of tzaddik who also sings a shirah to the Ribbono shel olam. There is a person who is sent on this world just to be a loichim, just to do battle.  It's impossible that he'll never overcome his yetzer hara. He'll never get over it.  He'll always be in a battle, he'll always be in a milchamah.  Yet, each time he fights, "בכל דחיה ודחיה שמדחהו ממחשבתו אתכפיא סטרא אחרא לתתא," and he pulls down the Sitra Achra, he overcomes it, we cannot imagine, "בגודל נחת רוח לפניו יתברך ... ולכן אל יפל לב אדם עליו," the great nachas he gives Hashem.  Therefore, he shouldn't despair in himself, "ולא ירע לבבו מאד גם אם יהיה כן כל ימיו במלחמה זו," because it could be "לכך נברא וזאת עבודתו," the Ribbono shel olam wants the avodah of those who are doing battles.

It's a moredige arichus here.  Devarim nifla'im.  Not to take lightly the effects of fighting the yetzer hara one time. "שבע יפול צדיק וקם."  With one aliyah, with one nitzachin on the yetzer hara, a person can be mesakein so many nefilos. He can turn them all into mitzvos.

TITLE:  #216 TWO TYPES OF TZADIKIM, Rav Ephraim Wachsman

Rav Ephraim Wachsman: The Ba'al HaTanya, in Perek Chaf-Zayin, writes devarim nifla'im. He says, sometimes a person looks at tzaddikim and he says, a tzaddik is so great that he never has such nisyonos, he never has a machshavah that's improper.  Here, why am I lured, why am I nimshach after things that seem so beneath me?  Why is it? A person is worried.

Zukt the heilige Ba'al HaTanya, there are two types of avodah. There is such a thing as a tzaddik who has an especially oisge'eidelte neshamah and he doesn't have these nisyonos. But there's another type of tzaddik who also sings a shirah to the Ribbono shel olam. There is a person who is sent on this world just to be a loichim, just to do battle.  It's impossible that he'll never overcome his yetzer hara. He'll never get over it.  He'll always be in a battle, he'll always be in a milchamah.  Yet, each time he fights, "בכל דחיה ודחיה שמדחהו ממחשבתו אתכפיא סטרא אחרא לתתא," and he pulls down the Sitra Achra, he overcomes it, we cannot imagine, "בגודל נחת רוח לפניו יתברך ... ולכן אל יפל לב אדם עליו," the great nachas he gives Hashem.  Therefore, he shouldn't despair in himself, "ולא ירע לבבו מאד גם אם יהיה כן כל ימיו במלחמה זו," because it could be "לכך נברא וזאת עבודתו," the Ribbono shel olam wants the avodah of those who are doing battles.

It's a moredige arichus here.  Devarim nifla'im.  Not to take lightly the effects of fighting the yetzer hara one time. "שבע יפול צדיק וקם."  With one aliyah, with one nitzachin on the yetzer hara, a person can be mesakein so many nefilos. He can turn them all into mitzvos.

TITLE:  #344 EMBRACING CHALLENGES, Rabbi Yosef Palacci

Number of Inaudibles: 1

Rabbi Yosef Palacci: Rabbotai, every person in life has different challenges.  No matter who you are, you're going to have a challenge in your life.  No matter who you are. That's part of life, to know that Hashem tests us.  He wants to make us great.  Nisayon comes from the word neis. A Neis is a banner.  Hashem lifts you up when you pass that test.

Now, we don't ask for the test.  Like we say, "אל תביאני לידי ניסיון."  But when a challenge in life comes to you, you have to understand that you have to embrace it, you have to leap over it, you have to be happy.  Ah, I have a challenge in my life; now, I will overcome it.

Everybody has different challenges.  I'll never forget.  There's a famous story where a boy came over to Rabbi Aharon Kotler and told Rabbi Aharon, Rabbi, I have no cheishek to learn, I have no desire to learn.  I don't know what to do.  I don't know.  Rabbi Aharon said, I'm jealous of you.  He asks, why?  He said, because I always have a desire to learn, but imagine your challenge that you have, that you have no desire to learn, and you can overcome the challenge and learn anyway.

How many times is it hard and a person is not in the mood to learn (inaudible 00:01:33) and you overcome the challenge?  You know, we have to be happy with that to overcome it. Do you know why?  Because once 120 comes, once a person dies from this world, he's called what?  Niftar.  What does the word niftar come from?  Patur. Do you know what patur comes from?  He's exempt.  He's exempt from all the mitzvos.  Ai, it's a shame.  But when you still have a breath in your neshamah and a challenge comes to you, you say to yourself, ah, thank You Borei Olam for this challenge that You gave me, that I can have the opportunity and the ability to overcome it and to leap over it.

Sometimes a person has a test in his life, a challenge in his life, and he says, oh, Hashem, why did You put me through this?  What are you doing?  G-d gave you the best possible challenge that you can overcome, so that He can pull you up as a banner, so your schar in Shamayim, your reward in Shamayim could be much, much greater.  He's pulling you up to give you more reward.  So what are you complaining about?  Ai, it's hard for me?  I'm happy it's hard for me.  I can overcome it, Hashem.  With Your help, I'm going to overcome it.  I'm going to do my part.

TITLE:  #485 IT'S JUST TOO HARD, Rabbi Shraga Kallus

TRANSCRIBED FOR:  Guard Your Eyes

Number of Inaudibles: 3

Rabbi Shraga Kallus: The Midrash says that by cheit ha'eigel, the Satan -- you know, sometimes, you give the guy a job. You give him a lot of means to implement his job.  The Satan is given all the means.  The Satan came to Klal Yisrael.  You know the Midrash?  It's famous. He comes to Klal Yisrael.  He shows them, there's Moshe, dead.  He shows them a picture of Moshe.  He photoshopped Moshe.  There's Moshe dead with all the candles around. There he is.  He showed them malachim crying in Shamayim.

It's very scary.  Rabbosai, they're in a midbar. They're in the midbar, they're in the desert.  You guys.  (Inaudible 00:00:51).  You turn off the lights and all of a sudden you hear one new bachur go, mummy.

What are you talking about?  They're in the midbar.  Rabbosai.  So what's the ta'aneh on Klal Yisrael?  They had an incredible yetzer hara over here.  it was the yetzer hara himself, the Satan himself.  So what do you want from Klal Yisrael?

Why did HaKadosh Baruch Hu give them such an incredible yetzer hara?  It means that there was a ta'aneh on Klal Yisrael.  It means that they were able to overcome it.  They should have been able to overcome this.  How can they have possibly overcome this?  The yetzer was too much, it was too strong.  It's too strong, no?  You hear the ta'aneh?

Do you know what it reminds me of?  It reminds me of the people who have problems with shmiras einayim.  A lot of us feel like that.  This is just pashut not shayach.  I can't not look.  It's not shayach. The Eibishter put it there.  Farkert. It's a chiyuv. It's a mitzvah.  It's there. It's there.  What do you want from me?  It's too much.  The yetzer is just incredible.  For those who have the issue, d'hainu, everyone, so then the yetzer is just incredible.  It's just too much.  Why does he put them everywhere?  Put them on Venus or something.  But he puts them everywhere.  What do you want from me?  It's just too much.  It's crazy. The yetzer is too strong.

Do you know what the answer is?  Veist zich ois, the answer is like this. It's the guys who are good, the guys who are strong, the guys that it bothers.  So HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, "כל הגדול מחברו יצרו גדול הימנו," when you're such a big person, you have a bigger yetzer. Klal Yisrael were on that level. They were on such a madreigah, an incredible madreigah. HaKadosh Baruch Hu took them out of Mitzrayim, split the Yam Suf, showed them Matan Torah, they saw gilu'i of Shechinah, they saw the Eibishter. There was emunah berurah. Clear.  Clarity.  Kluerkeit. Nothing to discuss.

On their incredible madreigah, it was expected that even with the yetzer hara, they would overcome it. That means you look at it and say it's not shayach. They saw the levayah of Moshe Rabbeinu.  The levayah, whoa, not shayach. But then it doesn't matter.  "כל הגדול מחברו," you're so big, your yetzer is bigger.

Sometimes, you have a kushya. You wonder, like, it seems to be that the chevrah that look, it doesn't seem to be that they're as I am.  Do you know what I'm talking about?  There are people who don't care about these things and shmiras einayim.  It doesn't seem to be as much of a problem.  They don't think about it as much. It's because they talk to girls so, whatever.  Me, us, what would happen right now if a girl would talk to us? The yetzer would be norah, because we're so conscious of it.

But then, they don't all of a sudden explode.  What's the teretz?  Somebody who learns Torah, someone who is shomer mitzvos, and someone who follows and tries to be shomer his einayim, he tries. Such a person, you have a kushya, that the sensitivity level is so extreme on such a person?  So also on such a person, HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, you're so big, you get a bigger yetzer. You say, thank You, I (inaudible 00:03:55).  But that's how it goes.

Avadah, then afterwards, there are hasagos in the madreigos that you're able to reach.  But you shouldn't get miyu'eish from it. You should be, like, look, He must really hold of me.  If HaKadosh Baruch Hu holds of Klal Yisrael so much that He's giving them a nisayon which we look at as impossible, that means He holds of you.  If He holds of you, that's already worth something.  A person should realize that HaKadosh Baurch Hu holds of me that much that He gives me that nisayon.  And not everybody has the same nisayon of yetzer hara that you have when you raise your eyes.  Do you know that other people don't have as big a nisayon? Do you know what that means?  It doesn't mean that that person is bigger than you.  It means that person is smaller than you.  Pashut.  There's no she'eilah (inaudible 00:04:38).

TITLE:  #583 SWEETEST TO THE SOUL, Rabbi Yisroel Yaakov Berman  

Number of Inaudibles: 0

Rabbi Yisroel Yaakov Berman: I saw an amazing couple of ideas.  The Shevet HaLevi, Rav Wosner, says the following.  He says, "ואשר כתב בענין מלחמת היצר," in regards to the milchamah of the yetzer hara, "כך הוא דרך חיי העולם הזה," this is the way of the world.  This is what it is.  What's the way?  "נסיונות," you have challenges, "נצחונות," you win, "וקשלונות," and sometimes you lose.

The kishlonos, the times that you fall, you know, you have a yeridah, "הם סיבת העליה," those nefilos are the way you have an aliyah.

Says the Steipler, "ובאמת עצם ההשתדלות עצמו היא עבודה קדושה."  Just the hishtadlus, just the act of those nefilos and yeridos and the aliyos, ups and downs, are itself avodah kedushah.  "וחשובה לפני המקום ברוך הוא," it's so chashuv to HaKadosh Baruch Hu "שהרי הוא עוסק בעבודתו יתברך שמו," because we're doing Hashem's work "ואפילו אילו יהא מצבו כך כל ימי חייו," even if you're in the situation for your whole entire life.  You're having a yeridah, and an aliyah, and you're struggling, and it's ups and downs, and you were good last week, and then you mamash fell one Saturday night, and then you had a good week, and then again.  Back and forth.  Even if you have this your whole entire life, "זהו הוא תכליתו בעולמו," this is your tachlis in the world.

The Nesivos Shalom brings down in Ki Seitzei, from the Noam Elimelech in the Tzetel Katan, that the tachlis of olam hazeh is to break your ta'avos. Breaking your ta'avos means I have a struggle. It's not going to be easy.

"וכל שכן באמת לא לעולם יהיה במצב," the truth is that you're really not going to be stuck in this matzav your whole entire life, because you're going to get siyata d'Shmaya, but even if you were stuck in this your whole entire life, that avodah of nefilos and yeridos and struggling back and forth is itself avodah kedushah.  That's an amazing thing.  That's chashuv to HaKadosh Baruch Hu.

It's such an important yesod, that all the times you feel like, it's so frustrating and I was so good last week, or whatever it is, that itself is avodah kedushah.

We have a Gra in Mishlei. The pasuk says, "תאוה נהיה תערב לנפש," ta'avah is sweet to the soul.  What does it mean, ta'avah is sweet to the soul? That goes against everything we're saying.  Says the Gra that nihiyeh comes from the lashon of nishbar, to break. "כלומר התאוה כאשר היא נשברת," when you break a ta'avah, "אחר כך היא תערב לנפש," that's the sweetest things to your soul.

This is a very important yesod also. "אף שבשעה שהיה תאותו מתגבר עליו והוא שובר אותה הוא מצטער," even though you're in pain when you're going through that struggle.  You're in pain about it, like, ah, I really want to look, I really want to, and it's hurtful.  It hurts. It's a painful thing to say I'm not going to do it.  You're thinking about it, should I do it, should I not?  Even though you're mitzta'er at that point, "מכל מקום אחר כך," after you are misgaber, and again, misgaber doesn't mean to always fully come out it, but it means whatever it is, every second, "היא הערב לנפש ונהנה מזה מאות," it sweetens the soul and you have so much benefit from that.

You should be mechazeik yourself, to understand that the struggle in our lives is itself the avodah kedoshah and to not feel like it's something that's not avodas Hashem. That's the highest form of avodas Hashem. To struggle is such a high form of avodas Hashem.  To be sweet and everything working out great for you and to be living in shalvah, Rav Hutner says that that's not the meaning of life.  Davka when I have a fight, when there's a struggle, that's avodas Hashem.

Finally, when we break our ta'avos, that brings sweetness to our soul.  Even though we're mitzta'er, even though we're in pain over it, it brings sweetness afterwards.