And May We Not Stumble | Rabbi Daniel Coren

I want to give an Eitza, a little bit of advice, when it comes to this incredible struggle. We know Klal Yisroel have the greatest gift. In Yeshaya Hanavi it says, Don't fear, the worm of Yaakov. So Chazal say, מה כוחה של תולעת אינו אלא בפה that means the power of a worm eating away is through its mouth, כך אין כוחן של ישראל אלא בפה we have the most explosive weapons that no one else has, and that is our mouth. The power of prayer. It's something that, especially when it comes to a Nisayon, that's so powerful. The first thing that we have to always remember, Daven to Hashem. It can be one quick prayer, Hashem, please help me. I made an actual poem. Anytime that I feel that there's going to be a Nisayon, there's going to be a test, I say: Hakadosh Baruch Hu, Hashem, in the merit that I'm not looking, I should merit to affect salvation to Klal Yisroel. And that means, on a public level and on a personal level. And when I say that, it reminds me there's no reason for me to fall into this trap. It's so much more worthwhile to overcome. And this power of prayer, I want to share with you with an incredible story. It's one of my favorite stories. R’ Zilberstein wrote this many, many years ago. There was an Avrech, a young man, he was learning in Kollel, and he was stuck in a certain passage and he needed a Sefer, a book, that's hard to find in the library. He ended up being referred to a non-religious library in Eretz Yisroel. And before he went, he knew that he's going to be in a place where you don't have kosher food, so he brought his sandwich. Anyway, at some point, he got hungry. He went to wash his hands and he made Hamotzi and he ate and he started to bentsh. And he's bentshing every single word out loud, very clearly. After he finished bentshing, there's a librarian there that's clearly not religious. She comes over and she says, You know, you said שלא נבוש ולא ניכלם ולא ניכשל לעולם ועד. I happen to be from a religious family. I’m not religious anymore. There's no such גרסא, there's no such version as לא ניכשל לעולם ועד. It’s לא נבוש ולא ניכלם. There's no ניכשל. Where did you get that from? He says to her: I’m telling you, for sure, if I say it, it must be I have a Siddur that has a version like that. She says: Well, show me. So he took down her number and he said: I'm going to get back to you. It took a few weeks. He finally found a Siddur that has the version שלא נבוש ולא ניכלם ולא ניכשל. And he quickly made a copy, he made a picture of it, and he put arrows on the picture, all pointing to the word לא ניכשל. He couldn't find the number, anymore, of this lady. He sent it to the address of this university. A few months later, probably almost a year, he gets an invitation and he tells his wife, I can't recognize who this person is. So his wife said: I don't know. We’ll just go. Anyway, they walk into this wedding. They don't recognize anyone. They're trying to figure out what are they doing there. They're about to leave. Suddenly someone runs over and says: Wait, wait, wait. The bride wants to say hello to you. The bride comes. She says: You don't recognize me? You remember the words לא ניכשל? Let me tell you what happened. I was about to marry a non-Jew. I was going to marry an Arab. And right before this Arab gave me an ultimatum, Are you going to marry me or not? I suddenly received your letter in the mail. She says: I'm looking at the words לא ניכשל, and I say: It can't be that I'm about to do something like this. And from that moment on, I accepted, That's it, I'm returning to Hashem. And now I’m marrying someone that's sitting in Kollel and it’s all because of you. Look how powerful two words לא ניכשל can be. Every time we're about to stumble, to be נכשל, just turn to Hashem and say: לא ניכשל. Please help me, Ribono shel Olam. You'll see incredible miracles.