Be Like Mario | Rabbi David Haber

I have a simple question. Why? If you are a part of the Vayimaen family, if you listen to this audio or watch these videos, it means that you're trying. It means that you're trying to be מחזק yourself in the area of Shemirat HaEinayim. And yet, if you are like me, it's not easy. You go down the street, there are sights that you don't want to see. We go through a store, there are images there that we desperately don't want to see. We fly on a plane, we drive in a car, wherever we go, there are sights, there are scenes, there are things, there are events or episodes in which we wish so dearly that we didn't have to see. So the simple question is this, Why does Hashem make it this difficult? I think this may be the answer. When I was younger, there was a very, very famous and popular game that was played by millions of children across the world. That game was Super Mario Bros. The objective of the game was simple. There was a little man, a caricature, and he would walk across your screen and he would move at fast pace as you push the buttons. And the goal was for him to get to his final destination, without ever getting damaged, or without ever getting hurt. And essentially, what he'd have to do was he'd have to avoid all sorts of obstacles along the way. His job was to jump over the obstacle to the other side, thus avoiding the hazard that was in his way. But very often, very interestingly, as he would jump, there would be a gold coin hovering overhead, and through the jump, he would grab a coin on his way down. And so with every obstacle, he’d grab a coin, one after the other, after the other, as he would slowly earn points, one after the other, after the other, making his way to winning the game. In this game of life, it's very similar. Chazal tell us, Hashem wanted to give the Jewish people merits. Therefore, Hashem gave us Torah and He gave us the Mitzvot, in order to give us merits. On face value, this seems very obvious. He wants us to earn points. He gave us Torah to learn and Mitzvot to do. But the Alter from Kelm says something different. He says something a little deeper. He says: You know what it means לזכות את ישראל? It doesn't just mean that Hashem wanted to give us merits, it means לזכות, you take the זי”ן and the כ”ף and you bring it together, Hashem wanted to purify us as a Jewish people. לפיכך, therefore, He gave us the Torah and the Mitzvot. If the objective of this game of life is to purify us, then Hashem gave us different things, to do just that. Some of those things are obstacles. There are obstacles along this game of life, hazards and difficulty, things that can throw us off course, and it can make us lose the game. But when we jump, hovering right above that obstacle is a gold coin. The next time you see an obstacle, the next time there's a hazard, the next time there's a challenge that's presented that's so difficult for you, I have one small piece of advice. Be like Mario. Jump.