My Best Friend, The Satan | Rabbi Bentzion Shafier

The Gemara in Sukka tells us באחרית הימים, when Mashiach comes, there'll be a terrible, terrible funeral, crying bitter, bitter tears over the Satan, because when Mashiach comes, like the sun in midday, every human being recognizes the purpose of life, and the Satan is out of a job. And the Gemara says: Why should we be crying? We should be laughing, dancing a jig. The Gemara says: Because the Taddikim see the Yetzer Hara and the Resha’im see him. The Tzaddikim see him as a powerful, powerful mountain, And they say the words: How could we have conquered this mountain? The Resha’im see him as a thin thread. How could we have failed for this? Each one cries. The Tzaddikim cry, the Resha’im cry. And I'd like to ask the obvious question on this Gemara: Why the Resha’im cry, I get it. Imagine in that one moment of clarity, you get it. I blew it. I wasted my life. I could have been great, I could have been tremendous, and I blew it. I’m nobody, I'm nothing. I fell for the oldest trick in the book. But why do the Tzaddikim cry? They won the war. Why do they cry? And the מהרש”א on that Gemara explains, And I'd like to give you a Mashal to understand what the מהרש”א is saying. Many years ago, I was a high school Rebbe, and I pulled out a muscle in my back and a friend of mine took me to the gym and I met Art DiAntonio. Art DiAntonio was a weight training coach. During this course, at a certain point, there was a fellow in the Kollel who saw that three times a week I would go to the gym and he asked if he could join me. This was a very Yeshivish fellow. I don't think he owned a pair of running shoes or gym shoes, but Art was a gentleman and he worked very carefully with this fellow, and eventually the fellow learned the technique and eventually was getting stronger and improving his general health. At a certain point, this Kollel fellow turns to me and says: That coach, I don't know what's with that guy. Every time I get the motion right, he puts more weight on the bar. What's wrong with him? And I wanted to yell at this fellow: Nar du bist, do you understand? Progressive weight training is about increasing the load on the body. It's not about going through the motions, it's about increasing the weight so your body is forced to respond. And that's how the מהרש”א explains this Gemara. Hashem created a Satan whose job it is to test us. Literally, like a personal coach, he knows our strengths, knows our weaknesses, and he's only allowed to test us exactly to the limit of our capacity. But he's on the job 24/7, 364, all day, every day. Waiting, there. And when the Tzaddikim, in that moment of clarity, understand who they became, they only became because of their personal coach, their best friend, the Satan, who was there every day coaxing them, demanding of them, not allowing them to be complacent, constantly testing them, constantly giving them his Nisyonos. And it's only because of him that they became who they were. Says the מהרש”א: They cry because their best friend was just shechted. And this understanding that Hashem knows what he's doing, and Hashem gave us Nisyonos for one reason, for us to grow and accomplish. And there'll be many times when you’ll say: Can I make it? Can I do it? And the answer is: Yes. Because Hashem doesn't allow him to test us more than our ability. When you understand this, you understand life, you understand the strangeness of the generation we live in, and you understand one of the major factors of a person's growth and eventually his great success.