No Pain, No Gain! | Rabbi Eytan Feiner

The moral and ethical compass of every honest Jew's life is, of course, Pirkei Avos, the Ethics of our Fathers. Pirkei Avos, so fundamental, so יסודי to everybody's life. We have six Prakim, but Perek number 6, also branded the appellation, פרק קניין תורה, was a subsequent compilation of various different Braisas, but the original Pirkei Avos consisted of five Prakim, of five chapters. Now the Gemara tells us in Brachos 12a, Everything comes down to the חתימה. We know אחרון אחרון חביב, if you look at the end, there's something big about the end. So if you were writing, you’re אנשי כנסת הגדולה, and you're all the subsequent generations of our illustrious תנאים, and you're penning the analogies, the credos by which an honest, ehrlich, beautiful Jew should live his or her life, then we know we're going to look at Pirkei Avos. And when we turn in Pirkei Avos, we know we got to fast-forward, we got to go to the final departing message of those original five Prakim of Pirkei Avos. And what's the final message? The last line, the departing phrase of the five original Prakim of Pirkei Avos, is none other than that statement from Ben Hei Hei. Keeping in mind he's a גר, he's a convert, we know he's going to pack a mighty powerful punch, and you bet he does. What's the last line of all Pirkei Avos, those five Prakim? And the Meforshim, the commentaries explain, It's written specifically in Aramaic because that was the Shprach, that was the language. Every single human being, they knew it, they meant it, they understood, לפום צערא אגרא in accordance with the pain, with the צער, the agony, the anguish, the struggle, the battle, that's the אגרא, that's going to be the שכר. Explains the מדרש שמואל, and I got to share this מדרש שמואל with you today, because what a powerful Vort! Explains the מדרש שמואל, and the idea is that this final phrase of the original compilation of Pirkei Avos doesn't just sum up all Pirkei Avos. It actually encapsulates and sums up all of life. No pain, no gain. You want to lose weight? You got to make sacrifices in life. You want to go to the gym and build muscle? Then you got to push yourself to the limits. You got to go beyond what feels comfortable. You have to leave that comfort zone. So a person's walking down the street and you wonder: HaKadosh Baruch Hu, how much and every day! בכל יום ויום, יצרו של אדם מתגבר עליו. Explains Rabbi Yitzchak in the Gemara in Sukka, Every day the Yetzer Hara is attacking. Yetzer Hara, let me go already. Hashem, what do you want from me? It's such a struggle. Shemiras Einayim, how am I going to do it? How am I going to vanquish that Yetzer Hara? How am I going to control those temptations? The answer is, מוריי ורבותיי, לפום צערא אגרא No pain, no gain. That's increasing your שכר. Hashem says: You're right. Not everybody today is the Chafetz Chaim, is the Vilna Gaon, is Rabbi Akiva Eiger. But you know what? In רוחניות, you can all become equally as great, in the sense of what? We have our battles, our struggles in our own day and age. And every time you walk down that street, and you're thinking: לפום צערא אגרא, HaKadosh Baruch Hu, it hurts! איזהו גיבור? הכובש את יצרו but I'm going to do it. And just know, that's going to be the measure of your compensation, that's going to be the שכר that you're all going to get, Control those Einayim and the amazing שכר that awaits you is way beyond your wildest imagination.