Making Waves | Rabbi Fischel Schachter

So the man goes, “Go check out your aunt’s apartment. You know, your great aunt, she died.” He says, “There’s nothing in her apartment, it’s somewhere in a dangerous neighborhood. You never know what you’re going to find there.” So he goes and you know the story. He finds a suitcase, and inside there’s a painting and there’s a violin. And there’s a note: Be careful, this is a Picasso and a Stradivarius. And he runs to this antique dealer, a person who is a master of fine arts, and he says: “Am I rich? Is it a real Picasso? A real Stradivarius?” He says: "Yes! There's only one problem." “What?” Picasso made the violin, and Stradivarius did the painting, and none of them were very good at it, so you can just take it home. The greatest Bracha in our lives, is for us to stand up to our own Nisyonos. Who we are is the most beautiful thing in the world. When you’re Davening Shemoneh Esrei, and a whopper of a thought goes into your mind. You’re coming to a Shiur, and this terrible Machshava comes into your mind. Says the Baal Shem Tov: Your attitude may be, so apparently Hashem doesn’t want my Torah. No, just the opposite. I remember once the dentist said, if you don’t start brushing your teeth, I’m telling you right now, I’m not going to have anything to do for you anymore, because you won’t have any teeth. And I came back to him afterwards, and I said, I’m having terrible canker sores. He says because you’re digging up so much dirt, He says because you’re digging up so much dirt, but once you start brushing, you’ll ride through it, and then when you get to the next phase you’ll be okay. When we start davening and learning, and your Torah and learning is effective, that says the Baal Shem Tov, is when you’re going to have difficult Machshavos. Because suddenly it’s surfacing. Suddenly the Yetzer Hara says: Wait, what’s this guy doing? Don’t stop! That’s the Siman to move on. The Lashon of the Zohar Hakadosh is: When a snake attacks you in the middle of Davening, that means that the Bas Melech, the princess, is behind it. The greatest moment in your life, the greatest key to Bracha is, when you’re trying to Daven, and you’re trying to learn, and you feel like you’re getting whacked on your head. And the Yetzer Hara wants to tell you: Hashem doesn’t want you. And I say, it must mean that I am making waves. I am moving on.