Last Moment Rescue | Rabbi Zev Smith

Someone cried his heart out to me. He has an exceptionally difficult Nisayon, a Yetzer Hara, a תאווה, and he's grappling with it. And someone told him, Learn the Gemara in Yuma Daf 35, where the Gemara says that Yosef HaTzaddik, his Nisayon was unbearable and he succeeded. And the Gemara says: Yosef is מחייב the רשעים, those that have a Yetzer Hara. So you have to learn from Yosef. And this person said, Isn't that unfair? Isn't it insensitive? I'm not a Yosef HaTzaddik, I'm a Joe. How am I expected to follow the lead of Yosef HaTzaddik? I told him: You know, your question is much greater than you think it is. You learned the Gemara. Think about those words. רשעים is someone that has an uncontrollable Yetzer Hara. That means, the Gemara is telling us, there never was and never will be a person that has a bigger Yetzer Hara and a bigger תאווה than Yosef HaTzaddik. And you know something? Initially, on that day, on that fateful day, he failed. He went to do an Aveira. In fact, the Gemara in Sota in detail explains that the Aveira started already, and the only way he survived was דמות דיוקנו של אביו, an image of his father. So the question is, but we don’t have a דמות דיוקנו של אביו. How are we expected to be like Yosef? Yosef had a last-minute Hatzolah and we don't have that. It's impossible for us to imagine the Nisayon that Yosef faced at that moment. It was him alone with Eishes Potiphar. No one was around. And after every single day she tried, it seems that he just collapsed and he gave in. At that moment, the Ribono shel Olam saw that Yosef wasn't able to do it. And as we once spoke, a person is never given a challenge that he can't succeed. And it's like, you know, they make different electricity, and they’re concerned about an overload of electricity, which might cause a fire. So it just shuts off. A person’s Nisayon goes on until he comes to a point that he cannot succeed, and the Nisayon stops. I told him: The Chizuk of Yosef is talking to us. It's reminding us we never, ever have a Nisayon that we can't succeed. If it ever happens, we're going to have a last-moment Hatzolah. And that's the Yosef that's מחייב us, or maybe מחייה us. Believe in yourself. Believe in the Ribono shel Olam. You never have a Nisayon that's impossible. And I believe in our times, we see a new version of דמות דיוקנו של אביו. Did you ever think about this? Why just in our דור אחרון do we have this incredible powerhouse of Chizuk that's called Vayimaen, the global Vayimaen movement? My heart tells me because the Ribono shel Olam is watching carefully us in Galus, and shepping so much Nachas. But we live in a world that has reached new levels of depravity, a world that’s gone insane. And it’s coming to a point that maybe we can't do it. And the Ribono shel Olam says: I'm never going to leave you alone. I'm there watching you, being Mechazek you, and will send you what you need to be victorious. But maybe more than the Vayimaen is the Vayimaen family. People, ‘simple’ people, on a daily basis, day in, day out, Vayimaen, Vayimaen, Vayimaen and another Vayimaen. And maybe even more than that. Those גיבורי כוח, those warriors that sometimes fail, but they learn the lesson of Yosef. From the greatest תאווה becomes the greatest Tzidkus, the greatest Kedushah. This new דמות דיוקנו של אביו is there to teach us, the Ribono shel Olam believes in us and we have to believe in ourselves. And the Ribono shel Olam is lovingly looking down and saying, You can do it and you will do it.