Our True Strength | Rabbi Elazar Meisels

Let me share with you the story of how I ran into a truck. A truck named Steve. Many years ago, I was part of a Kiruv program, where we took college students to a nice resort, and there we introduced them to the rudiments of Yiddishkeit, while playing ball with them, swimming, singing, eating, davening, learning. It was a good time had by all. Coming from New York, basketball was my sport. I took no prisoners on the court. One day, we were playing a five-on-five. A teammate of mine grabbed the rebound and I headed downcourt, full speed ahead, ready for an easy layup. Except that Steve was between me and the basket, and I ran into Steve and crumbled to the floor. When I woke up and I realized that it's not צאת הכוכבים, but 2 p.m. in the afternoon, I felt for my hands, my legs, counted my fingers, and gingerly peeled myself off the floor. Steve, in the meantime, just stood there, as if a fly had landed on his shoulder. I later discovered that Steve was the captain of his wrestling team in college. He lifted weights every single day. Steve was so powerful and we were all so jealous. Oh, to be so mighty. But then I realized that while it's true that Steve could lift a house with his bare hands, he couldn't close his eyelids with all of his accumulated might. Compared to us, Yeshiva guys, he was a piker. We pride ourselves on the fact that we can lift two volumes of our father's Choson Shas with one hand, but that's not where the true strength of a yeshivaman lives. That's not who we are. The true strength that we have is in our ability to close our eyes and to turn our heads to the right and to the left. Steve was physically a mountain. Morally, he was a molehill. Dovid HaMelech says, Who are the true גיבורי כח? Who are the true strong men? Not the ones in the circus. The true strong men are the ones who are לשמוע בקול דברו, the עושי דברו, the ones who do the Ratzon Hashem. So no, I wouldn't take Steve in a one-on-one on a wrestling mat, but I'll take him in the streets of New York every single day.