Coming Before the King | Rabbi Meir Simcha Sperling

Shalom u’Bracha to the entire Vayimaen family. With Hashem’s help, I want to share with you one of the most powerful parables I have ever heard. And if we can take this lesson to heart, I believe it can completely transform our battle with the Yetzer Hara, especially regarding guarding one’s eyes. There was once a powerful king, and in his kingdom there was a law, if a person would break it, they were killed. Nothing to talk about. There was one man, who thought he was smarter than everybody else, and he broke the law. And, of course, he got caught. Now, he was sentenced to death with one week to take care of everything he needed to take care of. That entire week, he was seized with fear that words cannot describe, and when the final day came, he was too terrified to walk into the palace alone. So he ran to his best friend and he said: Please, I'm begging you. Just stand next to me when I face the king. And his friend said: I am so sorry, but there is no way I am coming. He might think I'm guilty, too, and I can't risk that. So he went to his neighbors and some people he was friendly with, and he said: Please, can you guys come with me? And they said: We'll come with you, but we're only going to walk you to the palace gates. We cannot come inside. It's too dangerous. He was heartbroken, but the time had come. Now, on the way, he decided he's going to stop off in a shul and pray one last prayer. He gets in there and he prays with such a fire. He's crying, he's praying, he's swaying, he's shaking. Now the rabbi, who was very old, was there and he was watching him pray. After he was done, he went over and he said: Are you okay? He looked at the rabbi and he said: You're probably not going to understand, but basically, I'm being killed today and I'm on the way to the palace right now. The rabbi then looked at him and said something he never expected. I'm going to come with you. I know the king personally. Moments later, they're standing before the king, whose face was burning in anger. When the king lifted his eyes and he saw the rabbi, his entire expression changed. He said: You? What are you doing here? And the rabbi stepped forward and said quietly, I'm here by this man's side. And the king looked at the rabbi and said: If you're here for him, then this man is free to go. Rabosai, what's the lesson? One day, God willing, after 120 years, every single one of us is going to get a call, a summons, to the King of all Kings, Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And who are we going to turn to to accompany us? We might run to our best friend, whether it's money or whether it's our phones, and we're going to say: Come with me, come with me. And they're going to respond, This is not our world. We can't come with you. And you're going to say: What does that mean? I spent my whole life on you. Every worry I ever had was about money, was about my phone, this, that. To no avail. They will not come. So we're going to turn to our next best friends. Maybe our homes, maybe our cars, our status. And they're going to say: Okay, we'll take you to the cemetery, we'll take you to the funeral, but we can't go past that gate. And then we're going to start going up alone. All alone. When suddenly, we're going to see an old ancient angel, like an ancient rabbi, very old, appear before us, and we're going to say: Who are you? And he's going to say: Me? I'm that page of Gemara that you learned, remember? On that cold winter night. And another one's going to come, and he's going to say, I'm the Mitzvah of modesty. Remember when it was so hard? And then more angels and more angels and Rabosai, there's going to be one huge, powerful angel, towering over many others, and he's going to look at you and he's going to say, I am Guarding the Eyes. Every time you clicked your clicker, every time you watched a Vayimaen clip, every time you looked down, when it was so hard, when the Yetzer Hara was burning and you overcame, that's who I am. And all of us, we know the king. We're going to come with you all the way and we're going to protect you. Rabosai, every Mitzvah we do, we create a relationship with Hashem Yisborach, but we also create a protector. And the more difficult the Yetzer Hara is, the more powerful the protector. So let's all overcome the massive challenge, together as a nation. We can all do this, one click at a time. Let's build an army of protectors. Rabosai, Good luck out there.