Sparks of Holiness | Rabbi Ephraim Wachsman

Now there's a מעשה, R’ Hershel’e Zidichover had a brother named R’ Moshal’e MiSambor. R’ Moshal’e MiSambor once had to go daven in Shul, and he had to pass through a very low part of town, a מקום טמא in the city. And he came to his brother after he davened and he said: You know, today when I davened after walking through that part of town, I felt such a Kedusha, I felt such a התרוממות, I felt so uplifted. What could it be? And he said: Simple. A מקום טמא, a מקום of Nisyonos, is a place that's full of ניצוצות of Kedusha, sparks of Kedusha that have fallen from people who were נכשל. And they're all there, captured by the קליפות. When somebody walks through such an area and he watches his eyes, he goes through with יראת שמיים, all of those ניצוצות of Kedusha become his. The way you walked through that area, since you went through בקדושה, all of that Kedusha that was lost there became yours. By the time you got to Shul, you were a new person. You were never at such a level. Somebody told me that he was in Yerushalayim, and he was going back to America, so he went with his son to say goodbye to the great Tzaddik in Yerushalayim, R’ Yaakov Meir Shechter, zol zei gezunt un shtark. They told him: We're going to America. He said: Ah, ah, ir geyt keyn Amerike. He says: You should know, He says: The airport is a place where there are millions upon millions of ניצוצות of Kedusha that are lost there. The whole place is designed to be מכשיל people in ראיות אסורות. If you can travel from here to America and go through such a מקום בקדושה, that means all the Kedusha that was lost there could become yours. And you could reach a level that is higher than all of that טומאה. The שם משמואל who explains pshat in the Zohar HaKadosh, who says that a person could become a צדיק גמור, בשעה חדא וברגעא חדא in one second you can become a צדיק גמור. How does one become a צדיק גמור in one second? So he explains there are two ways for a person to become a Tzaddik. There's the long way, years and years of work and Avoda. And then there's the quick way. If one lives in a time or in a מקום that there's a tremendous excess of טומאה, and he turns himself away from that טומאה, at that moment, equal to all of that טומאה, he gets it בקדושה. So he could become בשעה חדא a צדיק גמור.