Never in Vain | Rabbi Daniel Coren

Shmiras Einayim is one of the incredible challenges of this generation. And so many times, people come to me and tell me, I can't do it. It's just not worthwhile. I'm going to fail. Even if I pass one test, three minutes later, I'm falling again and again and again. So I want to share with you a story that actually took place probably over 20 years ago. I was Zoche to run what's called Project Inspire. I was myself just learning and trying to learn the skills in order to be able to bring someone closer to Judaism, and I found myself on a plane, flying to Eretz Yisroel. It was one of those great flights where you wake up one or two hours into the flight and you're ready already to daven, and I decided: Okay, great. I'm going to take my Tefillin, I’m going to walk to the back, and I'm going to find a little spot where I'll be able to daven. As I'm walking and I'm holding my Tefillin, I see what looked to me like an Israeli. Here's a Kiruv opportunity. I'm giving all these classes already about how to reach out and inspire people. This is the opportunity. So as I'm walking by, I said to him, Do you want to put on Tefillin? He looked at me and he said, No, thank you. Okay. Rejection. And I... So I said: Okay. This, too, is for the best. I went and I davened. So as I'm walking back, I'm passing by this Israeli that I reached out, and I see the guy sitting right next to him, with a yarmulke, is putting on Tefillin, on this Israeli. So first I was like: What? Why is he successful? Then I said: What are you talking about? It's great. Baruch Hashem, he’s wearing Tefillin. And I was thinking to myself the whole time, Maybe I shouldn't be the one that’s teaching. Maybe he should be the one that's actually teaching how to do Kiruv. Anyway, long story short, we finally get to Eretz Yisroel, and as I'm going through the passport control, I see this Israeli guy. And for some reason, I said to myself, I just got to ask him, What did I do wrong? So I went over to him. I said: You know, I asked you, Do you want to put on Tefillin? You said no. And then suddenly a few minutes, maybe a half an hour afterwards, you were wearing Tefillin with this guy. So this Israeli told me the following. When you asked me, I said: No, I don't want to wear Tefillin. But then, about half an hour later, the guy sitting next to me said: Do you want to put on Tefillin? And I said to myself: This must be a sign, must be a sign that this is what Hashem wants me to do, and maybe I should start wearing Tefillin. And when I heard that story, it made such an incredible impression on me, because I thought to myself: Look, Daniel, If you didn't ask this question, you would have gone throughout your life thinking you’re a failure, you weren't successful. And little did you know that your intervention, your effort, made the difference for the second guy to be able to get Tefillin onto this Yid. And so many times in life, we give up, we try, we put some effort in, and we think that effort is meaningless. It's not doing anything. But we never know how powerful, one step, another step, and altogether, because of that effort, results are the most incredible results. And sometimes Hashem gives us privy to be able to see it. Sometimes we won't even see it. We have to trust Hashem. If He says: Do it. Try it. you're going to be successful, even if you don't see the success.